Land-use planning for freight

Urban freight activities need land for warehouses, distribution centres, and multi-modal nodes. These facilities tend to be in areas that reduce overall logistics costs, with little consideration of freight transport’s negative impacts on surrounding communities and the broader metropolitan region. In many urban areas, the unplanned growth of freight activities has led to warehousing sprawl that results in inefficient and longer freight trips (Kang, S., 2020). In Cali, Colombia, the scattered development of industrial and logistics facilities north of the city and urban expansion to the south have led to increased congestion from freight and commuter traffic (Holguin-Veras et al., 2021). Regional or metropolitan-wide co-ordination of logistics-related land use development can reduce the distance of freight transport and moderate congestion, emissions, noise, and conflicts between freight vehicles and other road users (Dablanc, L. et al., 2018).

Public authorities can promote Freight Efficient Land Uses (FELUs) to encourage the development of freight activity and related logistics facilities in specific parts of a metropolitan region (Holguin-Veras et al., 2021). Another strategy is to develop Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans (SULPs) as part of broader Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). SULPs set a vision and implementation plan for more sustainable and less space-consuming freight transport in an urban region. Based on the SULP’s alignment with other city-wide plans, future urban freight transport targets can be established alongside actions and measures to evaluate progress (Aifandopoulou, G. and Xenou, E., 2019).

Efforts to plan logistics-related land uses should minimise private and external costs from the entire supply chain while encouraging the development of more compact supply chains. Policies put in place to incentivise the location of freight-related land uses in desired areas include measures to regulate land prices and rents and incentives to limit the cost of renting or owning warehouses. Such measures aim to guide large freight traffic generators to locate (or relocate) in specific areas of the region. Land use planning around logistics facilities can help integrate them into surrounding communities and the local economy.

Impact on CO2 emissions

Co-ordinating the development of freight-related land uses to specific areas within a metropolitan region can reverse “logistics sprawl”, reducing the distances travelled for freight transport and resulting CO2 emissions. One study in Paris estimated that between 1974 and 2008, the dispersion of warehousing facilities by an average of 10 km from the city centre resulted in an additional 15 000 tonnes of CO2 emitted annually (Dablanc, L. and Rakotonarivo, D., 2011). A co-ordinated strategy to guide the location of warehousing facilities can help reduce distances travelled and resulting emissions over the entire supply chain.

Costs

Land-use planning for freight at the metropolitan level requires a regional governance structure, technical expertise, and stakeholder collaboration. The costs are primarily attributed to staff time for planning, data collection and analysis.

Co-benefits

Shorter freight trips result in less air pollution, noise and risk of traffic conflicts generated by freight vehicles (Dablanc, L. et al., 2018). By fostering the concentrated development of logistics facilities, the negative impacts of freight transport on surrounding neighbourhoods can be easier to manage.

Concentrating logistics facilities near each other can facilitate the sharing of freight infrastructure, contributing to more efficient supply chains.

Other considerations

Public efforts to guide the location or relocation of logistics facilities in specific areas may have unintended impacts on the distance of freight trips over the entire supply chain. Officials must consider the distance between each node in a supply chain within the metropolitan and global context to design optimal land use plans.

Areas around supply chain nodes and large freight traffic generators typically experience the most harmful impacts of freight activities. Mitigating or eliminating these negative impacts is important to gain community support for planning efforts (Holguin-Veras et al., 2021). Engaging stakeholders in the planning and policymaking process is critical to address these challenges.

Cite this measure as

ITF (2022) Transport Climate Action Directory – Land use planning for freight, [https://www.itf-oecd.org/policy/land-use-planning-freight](https://www.itf-oecd.org/policy/land-use-planning-freight).

Sources

Aifandopoulou, G. and Xenou, E. (2019) Sustainable Urban Logistics Planning. Brussels.

Dablanc, L. and Rakotonarivo, D. (2010) ‘The impacts of logistics sprawl: How does the location of parcel transport terminals affect the energy efficiency of goods’ movements in Paris and what can we do about it?’, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(3), pp. 6087–6096. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.04.021.

Dablanc, L. et al. (2018) CITILAB - Deliverable 2.1 CITYLAB Observatory of Strategic Developments Impacting Urban Logistics (2018 version).

Dablanc, L. and Heitz, A. (2019) ‘Freight in urban planning and local policies: results from a new survey in twenty French cities’, City Logistics Conference.

Holguin-Veras, J. et al. (2021) ‘Freight-Efficient Land Uses: Methodology, Strategies, and Tools’, Sustainability 2021, Vol. 13, Page 3059. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 13(6), p. 3059. doi: 10.3390/SU13063059.

Kang, S. (2020) ‘Relative logistics sprawl: Measuring changes in the relative distribution from warehouses to logistics businesses and the general population’, Journal of Transport Geography.