Quan (Jack) Yuan, PhD candidate in Urban Planning and Development at the University of Southern California (USC), has recently been awarded a Study Visit Grant from the Volvo Research & Educational Foundations (VREF). Jack is currently involved with the MetroFreight Center of Excellence that is funded by VREF, working under the direction of Professor Genevieve Giuliano on urban freight research. Specifically, his recent research focuses on the environmental impacts of warehouses and distribution centers on local communities in Southern California.

For this prestigious VREF study grant, Jack will visit Gothenburg Urban Freight Platform in Gothenburg, Sweden between May 2 and June 2, 2016. He will work with Michael Browne, Professor of logistics and urban freight transport, and other colleagues on urban freight research, especially on the spatial location of warehouses and distribution centers. Jack plans to visit European cities including Gothenburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Paris to study how researchers and planners help plan, regulate and coordinate the spatial distribution of logistics facilities. He will attend the Innovative Urban Freight Management Systems event in Paris on May 26 and meet with Professor Laetitia Dablanc at IFSTTAR French Institute for Transport Research. He also intends to learn how urban freight practices in Europe, such as the development of urban consolidation centers and green logistics schemes, can contribute to mitigating environmental externalities of urban freight activities.

Highlights of Jack’s planned efforts include a literature review, field trip reports and interviews with relevant stakeholders to understand how local government and/or communities deal with warehousing development and potential environmental impacts of freight activities. A formal report will be produced at the end of the study visit on the spatial patterns and regulations of warehousing location. According to Jack, "The VREF Study Visit Grant offers me a great opportunity to work with other researchers in different countries and cultures, to develop an effective network of sharing new ideas and research progress, and to observe how our research efforts could possibly make the world better. It would be a wonderful experience for every freight researcher."