Research projects

Assesses the climate vulnerabilities of ports in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia and identifies adaptation measures, including a strategic investment framework and GIS, climate and port models.

Finds decarbonisation strategies for Karachi Port and its feeder routes, weighing technical feasibility, cost, operations and infrastructure limits.

[Summary to add – the flyer currently repeats the text of TRiP 4]

Measures how reliable journey times are on key trade routes, building a Journey Time Reliability Index for the Northern and Central Corridors.

Supports the expansion and modernisation of Philippine railways through better operations and maintenance (O&M) concession arrangements across existing and future lines.

Builds an integrated geospatial database linking rail alignment, land use, ridership and transit-oriented development (TOD) along Hanoi’s metro corridors.

Improves rail interoperability in Southern Africa through a clearer hierarchy of interoperability, a joint operational planning centre and a digital coordination tool.

Designs benchmark frameworks to compare and improve performance across the Philippines’ multi-operator railway concessions, with a focus on Manila.

Designs a research and innovation framework so Vietnam’s research, training and innovation landscape can keep pace with its new railway projects.

Uses technical strategies to set a long-term vision for Brazil’s railways as a system and unlock efficiencies held back by regulatory bottlenecks.

[Summary to add – the flyer currently repeats the text of TRiP 4]

Develops a method for quantifying residents’ exposure to extreme heat as they move through their daily routines, to plan climate-resilient urban…

Builds a machine-learning Climate Resilience Risk Assessment Tool (CRRAT) using ESA Earth Observation data to score the vulnerability of Nepal’s…

Strengthens know-how on climate-resilient, rut-resistant asphalt through new training for the fifth edition of Road Note 31.

Updates the International Road Maintenance Handbook Volume IV, focusing on why adaptations and new standards are not being applied in maintenance…

Studies how changes in fuel composition could reduce the climate impact of contrails for flights over Tanzania and Indonesia.

Compares contrail models to pin down the main sources of uncertainty in predicting contrail formation and climate impact in developing-country…

Maps contrail coverage over Africa and South Asia and assesses whether navigational contrail avoidance is feasible for policy.

Researches gender-based violence in Addis Ababa’s public transport, assessing how safe the system is for women and promoting the SheCan tool to…

Analyses the electrification of Nairobi’s informal public transport, assessing travel behaviour and service quality to improve the matatu and boda…

Explores whether community-based demand responsive transport can improve access to jobs, schools and health care for underserved communities in and…

Looks at labour-based technology – using trained local workers instead of heavy machinery – as a way to fight poverty and youth unemployment…

Defines what drives mode choice in what are predicted to be the world’s two biggest cities, with surveys, visualisations and a toolkit to share the…

A research platform that collects transport data, builds data ecosystems and runs Community of Practice working groups on logistics, urban…

Moves cities from fragmented, project-by-project approaches to a systems view of mobility, using data and analytics to bring stakeholders together…

Turns lessons from earlier UN Decades – especially the Decade of Action for Road Safety – into a practical framework and guided country action plans.

Synthesises best practice, the data landscape and available data resources needed to model transport decarbonisation with digital twins.

Builds a digital transport systems database for planning, resilience, investment, mobility and efficiency of rail and shipping infrastructure in…

Maps private financing for sustainable infrastructure in lower-income countries and the advantages public financial institutions have in mobilising private capital.

Measures what drives the cost of capital for infrastructure, why risk is mispriced, and how DFIs price different financing instruments.

Identifies trends in public and private investment in sustainable transport and builds models of demand-led transport finance.

Reviews the global landscape for investment in climate-resilient infrastructure, using Kenya and Zambia as case studies to analyse finance mechanisms.

Examines how MDB climate finance methods address road adaptation, and whether they match the climate risks and economic realities of borrowing…

Develops a master plan for mobilising domestic and private finance – land value capture, municipal and green bonds, blended finance, PPPs – for…