2. Executive Summary

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Bridges is a software technology for experts to develop open multi-software support systems, particularly in the field of strategic transport planning. As a "technology", Bridges includes a number of tools (a "toolbox" so to speak), methods and procedures for using them, and the overall scientific know-how and vision behind them. Resulting from the use of such a technology, several support systems have already being developed and are operational in hands of transport planners and decision-makers at European and local level (e.g. ICONgis for the European Investment Bank, BRAX, SIMU and SIET for different local planning administrations). Even if none of these applications cover the whole range of Bridges capabilities, in total, they demonstrate the usefulness of Bridges research outputs. Bridges was developed within the Strategic Transport element of the 4th Framework Programme, between 1997-1999. Bridges software tools are research outputs, 100% owned by the European Commission.

Bridges research was defined in the context of the ideal user requirements for a European Transport policy Information System (ETIS) and the problems and opportunities presented by already existing or expected software applications, data formats and transport strategic models needed to fulfil the user requirements of an ideal ETIS. The ETIS concept, and its various components, is also being developed as an element of the strategic tasks of the EC's Transport research programme.

In broad terms, user requirements for advanced systems such as ETIS can be summarised as "maximum capabilities with minimum complexity". Since there is no relevant experience of transport software support systems as demanding as ETIS, the starting point for Bridges research was the assumption that the best system architecture to meet the ETIS requirement was a multi-software architecture open to the integration of external advanced support tools ("maximum capabilities") and to be driven from fully personalised and user friendly interfaces ("minimum complexity"). Moreover, this kind of modular architecture is required because there is enough empirical evidence to show that the rapid evolution of Information and Communication Technologies means that only highly decentralised and strongly interconnected systems are flexible enough to be continuously adapted and improved. In the particular case of ETIS, this open system architecture becomes indispensable: new databases and more advanced models are expected to emerge in the next few years, mainly from the European research programmes, for the assessment of current and new policy questions using both main-stream and innovative scientific theories. ETIS users are likely to become more demanding as they gain experience. ETIS development will therefore be an endless "process" rather than a fixed "product", so that the software architecture supporting it must be flexible enough not to act as a block.

Needless to say, in this inclusive and dynamic system vision, the "bridges" making efficient connections among all system components and, subsequently, between these components and the different users, become crucial elements in making the ensemble behave as an integrated system under user control. Bridges is about designing, developing and testing efficient software solutions to build such software "bridges".

There are no commercial software tools supplying all the "bridges" needed for efficient transport-oriented open multi-software systems like those envisaged, and even the available Windows-compatible tools to link independent applications are sub optimal for many ETIS-related specific purposes. Therefore, Bridges research has developed an entirely new set of tools to fill the most important gaps.

Bridges technology has largely been programmed for a Windows NT environment in Borland C++ 5.02 but with some complementary Visual Basic 5.0 routines. Other programming languages are also used, such as Amzi Prolog (e.g. the Expert System), or component software such as MapObjects (e.g. the GIS_GTF translator, the Expert System) or Microsoft Graph (e.g. to carry on some graphic displays within NISystem).
The main Bridges technology components (the "bridges") are:

  • Digital Data Guide (DDG): A directory of available information sources relevant for ETIS
  • Generalised Transport Format (GTF): A proposed standard data format for transport database exchange, aimed at the transport forecast and evaluation models area.
  • GTF/Arcinfo Translator (GTF/GIS): An application for transferring data from Arcinfo GIS formats to a GIS version of GTF.
  • Expert System/Decision Support System (ES/DSS): An application to define rules and criteria to simplify the interface between end users and complex transport models.
  • NISystem (NIS): A set of routines able to handle advanced transport topologies and carry on graphs analysis.
  • Communication System (CS): A technology to manage the transmission of commands between independent applications integrated into an open system by the use of multiple customised user interfaces (user work spaces) in an Intranet environment.

Many of these tools have already been successfully tested by developing operational systems, currently in use in a number of transport planning administrations at both local and European levels.

 

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