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UNCHAIN at EURO 2025: Presenting PLIAS, a Decision-Making Tool for Evaluating Urban Access Regulations

The UNCHAIN project was featured at the 34th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2025), held from 22 to 25 June 2025 and organised by the University of Leeds. As one of the leading international conferences in the field of Operational Research, EURO 2025 brought together experts from academia, industry, and public authorities to share innovative research and tools that support better decision-making in complex systems.

UNCHAIN contributed to the Decision Support Systems stream with a presentation titled:
🎤 “PLIAS: A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Tool for Assessing the Performance of Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVARs)”

About the PLIAS tool

Developed by Prof. Konstantinos G. Zografos and Theodoti Kerama, PLIAS (Policy-Level Impact Assessment System) is a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool designed to assist cities and policy-makers in evaluating the impact of Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVARs) on urban logistics and mobility systems.

PLIAS supports three key types of UVAR evaluation:

  1. Ex-Ante Assessment – Analysis of alternative UVAR scenarios before implementation to guide strategic decision-making.
  2. Ex-Post Assessment – Evaluation of the actual impact of implemented UVARs on urban logistics and mobility performance.
  3. Sensitivity Analysis – Exploration of how variations in assumptions or system conditions affect UVAR performance outcomes.

By incorporating a range of performance criteria such as environmental impact, traffic efficiency, and logistics operations, PLIAS offers a robust framework for holistic UVAR evaluation.

The presentation drew the attention of 15–20 participants within the Decision Support Systems stream and sparked valuable discussions about how decision-making tools like PLIAS can improve the formulation and implementation of sustainable urban mobility policies.