Topic: Green Logistics and Electric Freight Transportation for Low-Carbon Cities

The growth of urban freight demand and last-mile delivery has increased energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, making freight decarbonization a key challenge for low-carbon cities. Beyond vehicle electrification, reducing freight emissions requires improvements in logistics network design, delivery efficiency, charging infrastructure, and multimodal coordination. Assessing the carbon footprints and environmental impacts of these interconnected systems is essential for identifying effective decarbonization strategies.

This Special Topic explores green logistics and electric freight transportation for low-carbon cities, focusing on carbon footprint assessment, freight system optimization, emerging digital technologies, and sustainable transport solutions. It welcomes interdisciplinary research that quantifies emission reduction potential, evaluates environmental and operational trade-offs, and advances practical pathways toward low-carbon and net-zero urban freight systems.

Proposed topics include, but are not limited to:

● Carbon footprint and life cycle assessment (LCA) of electric freight vehicles, batteries, charging infrastructure, and urban logistics systems;

● Urban freight decarbonization, including fleet electrification, energy efficiency, and low-carbon last-mile delivery;

● Logistics network design, vehicle routing, scheduling, freight consolidation, and urban distribution optimization;

● Multimodal freight transport, synchromodality, and Physical Internet-enabled logistics;

● AI-driven optimization, digital twins, and data-driven decision support for green logistics;

● Carbon accounting, emission reduction assessment, and environmental–economic trade-offs in freight systems;

● Policies, business models, and infrastructure planning for sustainable urban freight;

● Scenario analysis and integrated pathways toward low-carbon and net-zero urban freight transportation.