Towards a specification of a framework for sustainable transportation analysis Rosaldo J. F. Rossetti 1 , Eugénio C. Oliveira 1 , Ana L. C. Bazzan 2 1 Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Lab. Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n – 4200-465, Porto, Portugal 2 Instituto de Informática – UFRGS C. P. 15064 CEP 91.501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil {rossetti, eco}@fe.up.pt, bazzan@ufrgs.br Abstract. This paper reports on the first stages of our work to build an integrated decision-support tool to analyse sustainable transportation systems. A preliminary description of the application domain is presented and some modelling issues are discussed. An artificial transportation framework is conceptualized on the basis of three important subsystems, namely the real world, the virtual domain and the control strategies inductor. Initial efforts are focused on a hierarchical structure for urban traffic control and management, even though the framework is certainly suitable to support the analysis of transportation systems from different perspectives in an integrated fashion. Artificial complex systems are an emergent concept that allows complex domains to be studied in a controlled environment. Keywords: multi-agent systems, artificial societies, intelligent transportation systems, artificial transportation systems, traffic control and management. 1 Introduction Transportation issues, in all levels, have challenged both scientific communities and society alike, especially due to the great relevance and imperative role these systems play in today’s global economy. Assessing its efficiency and evaluating its performance is of paramount importance to the deployment of effective transportation solutions. Current discussions on future urban transport (FUT) systems bring the user to a central spot and strive to address many issues concerning mobility and the quality of life in highly populated areas. These issues are rather related to the qualitative assessment by users with different perceptual abilities. Thus, technology alone cannot be considered a lasting solution, but its development should account for issues such as sustainability, privacy, equity, safety, accessibility, preservation of the environment, comfort, and so on. This suggests a number of new performance measures that need to be accounted for and assessed through powerful and expressive tools. In this way, much work has been carried out either to adapt traditional approaches or to develop new-generation traffic network models to meet FUT requirements, in which an explicit representation of interactions between demand and supply should be supported [11]. According to Papageorgiou et al. [17], a crucial issue needing further development is how to effectively assess the influence of control measures on individual s’ behaviour, which is an important aim in most intelligent transportation solutions as they are often proposed.