Urban Logistics Transformation

Melkonyan-Gottschalk is Professor for Sustainability and Socio-Technical Transformation at Clausthal University of Technology with focus areas in Environmental Economics, Circular Economy, Sustainable Supply Chains and Logistics/Mobility, as well as in Transformation of Urban Regions. Before she took on this professorship, she was Scientific Director of the Center for Logistics and Traffic at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and international consulting expert in the NASA-funded Project on Land-use and Land Cover Changes in South Caucasus, in frames of which she acted at visiting Professor at Oklahoma University. Within the frames of the projects ILoNa "Innovative Logistics for Sustainable Lifestyles", CONUS- "Competence Network of Industrial and Rural Interlinkages", PRIMA-funded ImPULSe "Innovative Citrus By-Products Supply Chain in Mediterranean Area" she and her team carried out sustainability assessments throughout the entire value chain of the modern services for stationary and online commerce, while at the same time considering new business models, like sharing and circular economy, drafting transformation pathways along the entire supply chains. Through the projects on "Economic Assessment of Environmental Impact", funded by NASA; "Climate Mitigation and adaptation strategies" for the cities of Duisburg and Essen, "Essen - Green Capital City of Europe, 2017" as well as Mercator Foundation funded project "NEMO - New Emscher Mobility", Prof. Melkonyan-Gottschalk is working with local governmental authorities, as well as industrial partners to develop collaborative decision support systems for sustainability transition strategies.Prof. Melkonyan-Gottschalk has completed her habilitation (Venia Legendi) on Climate Change Influences on Economy.  She received her PhD at the University of Duisburg-Essen, on the topic "Statistical Analysis of Long-Term Air Pollution in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany". Her Master Thesis was related to mathematical modeling in Macroeconomy, completed at the Yerevan State University, Armenia. Prof. Dr. Melkonyan-Gottschalk has published more than thirty scientific publications and five monographs.Dr. Yanying Li received her Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering from the University of Southampton and her Master’s in Geodesy and Survey Engineering from Tsinghua University. She began her career in the design and application of in-vehicle navigation systems, laying the technical foundation for her later work in sustainable mobility. She is recognized for her expertise in innovation, policy, and governance of sustainable urban mobility and city climate action. Her career includes roles as Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, Senior Manager at ERTICO – ITS Europe, Liaison Officer at the Global Covenant of Mayors, and Head of Programme at the Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ALICE). She led the Urban Logistics Subgroup of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Urban Mobility and was appointed as evaluator for the EU’s 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission. Since 2008, Dr. Li has driven sustainable urban mobility research and innovation through EU programmes including FP6, FP7, Horizon 2020, and Horizon Europe. Her work has addressed active and multimodal transport, traffic safety, zero-emission vehicle deployment, and integrated passenger–freight systems. More recently, she has focused on decarbonising urban logistics in response to the rapid growth of e-commerce and home delivery, shaping solutions that reduce emissions while enabling efficient and sustainable last-mile transport.

• Chapter 1. Introduction to urban logis-tics, e-commerce and circular transformation.- Chapter 2. Blockchain and Smart Con-tracts: Enabling Trust in Col-laborative Logistics.- Chapter 3. Last Mile Digital Control Tower.- Chapter 4. Deep Learning Demand Prediction for Sustainable Logistics as a Service (LaaS).- Chapter 5. The Future of Urban Deliveries? Perceptions and Intentions about Delivery Robots and Drones in Europe.- Chapter 6. Digital Twins for City Logistics: towards a roadmap.- Chapter 7. Sustainability score of last-mile delivery strategies: conceptual approach and application in European cities.- Chapter 8. Flanders’ E-commerce Living Lab.- Chapter 9. Development and assessment of communications to increase consumer choice of sustainable delivery.- Chapter 10. Rethinking the E-commerce Ecosystem: Returns, Packaging, and Circularity in Sweden.- Chapter 11. Mapping E-Commerce Consumer Personas: Behavioral Insights and Incentives for Sustainable Last-Mile Deliveries and Returns.- Chapter 12. Sustainable urban logistics and the suitability of freight demand: a comprehensive analysis in Paris region, France.- Chapter 13. Mixed use of urban space for city logistics.- Chapter 14. Finding the right space for urban logistics – an accessibility analysis for walking and cycling to parcel lockers.- Chapter 15. Developing and enhancing out-of-home delivery systems to address the challenges of the rapid growth of e-commerce - outlook and strategies from French local authorities: the case of Va-lence Romans Mobilités.- Chapter 16. Urban collection points for people-friendly, environmen-tally responsible, and circular logistics.- Chapter 17. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Urban Logistics: Enabling Circular Economy through Efficient Waste Take-Back Schemes.- Chapter 18. From Circular Economy to Circular Society: The role of Logistics.- Chapter 19. The role of Public Authorities in fostering the transition towards sustainable urban logistics – Chapter 20. Mainstreaming the Twin Transition in urban logistics and planning for Climate Neutral Cities.- Chapter 21. Collaborative urban logistics: The transformative potential of AI, data spaces, and living lab ecosystems towards zero emis-sion urban logistics.