الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
A smooth and efficient transportation system is essential for the economy and quality of life within urban regions. Therefore, it is very important to enhance road network efficiency to mitigate congestion and reduce delays. The evaluation process tends to focus on network-wide performance for large-extent studies or, on the contrary, focus on the local network performance for limitedextent ones. The first would neglect strong impact within a limited extent and the latter would overlook the spatial extent the impact -regardless of its strength -would reach. This thesis aims to present a framework for a comprehensive GIS-based tool for the analysis and evaluation of the effects of road network changes on the overall network performance which includes both the network-wide and local network performances at the macroscopic-level in the absence of commercial software packages. The proposed procedure is based on the deterministic user equilibrium assignment model. The model implementation is carried out by a computer program developed on the PYTHON program platform. The network performance is measured mathematically, for average speed and congestion, and visually by delineating the extent of the service coverage within a certain travel time corresponding to the studied network change. The preparation for this study included a huge effort in building a classified road network. Also, innovative approaches for estimating the practical link capacities, strongly needed for the volume delay function (VDF) and initial and empirically sound values of its parameters were proposed. The model was well calibrated by altering the parameters of the volume delay function (VDF) with an overall %RMSE of about 24%. Several applications and scenarios of the proposed program have been performed. The first application of evaluating the network performance before and after the Mahmoudia Corridor Redevelopment (MCR) project was carried out. A considerable impact was found for the Mahmoudia corridor development project on the overall network performance in terms of reducing travel time and, thus, increasing speed on the network. Despite the less-thangreat overall network improvement due to Mahmoudia upgrading, the major impact on the local network especially along the corridor centerline is evident. Moreover, the proposed model sensitivity was tested through a partial closure of one of the main arterials of the city (El Geish Road) which resulted in a significant negative impact on the local and overall network performance. In addition, several expected scenarios were proposed to evaluate the performance of the road network for the city of Alexandria in the future (2030). The results of these scenarios indicated that the road network for the city of Alexandria will suffer from traffic congestion and large delays as a result of the increase in traffic volumes that result from the population increase. The results show that developing and improving the performance of the public transportation network reduces the congestion on the road network. Many conclusions were drawn from this research work among which were the importance and flexibility of the proposed model and the effectiveness of the visual evaluation of the impact on the local network in terms of allowing for coordination and prioritization of projects selection process. Furthermore, the significant effect of a major project such as MCR making the road network more resilient and the amplifying effect of coupling public transportation upgrading with such a major development were concluded. Finally, the danger of high population growth in a city of vulnerable network structure with limited capacity and insufficient grid action (no traversal major arterial) was also emphasized.