DESTIN is a research project of the Community Fifth Framework Programme that aims at developing and applying sustainable and operational models, methods and criteria for identifying and evaluating the development needs ofa multimodal transport infrastructure network in the Western Mediterranean, with special emphasis on the infrastructure network in the Maghreb countries and its links with the Trans- European Transport Network. DESTIN started in February 2003 and concluded in December 2005. Some of the main results of the project are the following: DESTIN was able to develop and ran a multimodal model for international freight traffic in the Western Mediterranean that: (i) integrates the maritime mode in the modelling, with limited experiences in Europe until now; (ii) is adapted to the scarcity and availability of data, mainly (but not only) in the Maghreb countries; and (iii) can be regularly used and improved. The results of such model, together with other information, were used to define the so-called strategic transport infrastructure network of common interest for both the Maghreb countries and the EU. DESTIN also defined and applied a number of methodologies to identify the main future infrastructure capacity bottlenecks of such strategic network in the Maghreb countries. The results were used to validate the need and justify the priority of a number of projects planned by the Maghreb transport ministries, under a Euro-Mediterranean perspective. Additionally, from an institutional point of view: For the first time within the Community R&D Framework Programme, a consortium made up of several European and Maghreb partners was in charge of a transport project and financed it, jointly with the European Union. Till now, DESTIN has only been publicly presented once (in the framework of the 10th World Conference on Transport Research, Istambul, 4-8 July 2004), by Mr. Alberto Compte, the DESTIN project coordinator. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135582.
Samenvatting