ASIA PACIFIC SYMPOSIUM ON TRANSPORTATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT (APTE)
International Committee on APTE
《 APTE Conference International Steering Committee 》
About APTE & APTE Conferences
The International Committee on APTE is a committee within the Pavement Engineering Society (Singapore) (PES in short, website: https://pavement. org.sg).
PES is a non-profit organization registered with the Registry of Society, Singapore in 1994. The International Committee on APTE is commissioned by the Council of PES. The committee effectively serves as the APTE Conference International Steering Committee to administer and manage the operations of the APTE conference series “Asia Pacific Symposium on Transportation and the Environment”.
The original idea of launching a conference to address transportation related environmental issues was first conceived in 1995 during an Expert Group Meeting organized by the UNESCAP in Bangkok. Transport related developments in many countries of the Asia Pacific region have led to a number of environmental impacts and concerns over the likely consequences of these impacts. The national and regional transportation infrastructure development and traffic operations in urban centers in particular, require careful planning so as to mitigate the negative environmental impacts.
At the Expert Group Meeting, the then Director of the Transport, Communications and Tourism Division of UNESCAP suggested that a conference on the topic of Transportation and the Environment could be an effective forum to raise awareness of transportation researchers and professionals in the Asia Pacific region on the need to mitigate adverse environmental impacts of transportation development and operations. As a transportation expert invited to the Expert Group Meeting, Professor T. F. Fwa responded to the call and proposed that the Center for Transportation Research at the National University of Singapore would be able to take up the challenge of initiating the conference series.
Background
The objective of the APTE conference series is to promote the use of environment-enhancing transportation infrastructure development strategies, operations control technologies and management techniques, with special focus on potential applications in the Asia Pacific region. The Conference scope covers various modes of transportation (air, land and sea) and intermodal operations. It addresses the social and environmental related issues of all aspects of transportation operations and infrastructure development, encompassing activities of different phases such as Planning, Design, Construction, Maintenance, Rehabilitation, Management, Research and Training.
Objectives
The First APTE Conference was successfully held in Singapore in 1998. The Singapore Minister for National Development was the Guest-of-Honor of the Opening Ceremony. Dr. M. Rahmatullah, the then Director of the Transport, Communications and Tourism Division of UNESCAP was one of the keynote speakers. Under the suggestion of Dr. Rahmatullah, Professor Fwa established the APTE Permanent Secretariat at the Center for Transportation Research in the National University of Singapore, and entered an agreement with the China Academy of Transportation Sciences to hold the conference alternately with Singapore over a 10-year period (1999-2009) in three different Chinese cities.
In year 2010, APTE conference series will enter a new era by moving to a third country for the first time. At the 6th APTE Conference in Shanghai, China, the APTE International Steering Committee awarded Semarang, Indonesia as the host of the 7th APTE in 2010, followed by Bangkok, Thailand as the host of the 8th APTE in 2012. In 2017, following a change of conference financing policy by the National University of Singapore, the ICPT committee was transferred to PES to become a part of PES.
The following are the years and venues of the APTE conferences held so far:
- 1st APTE 1998, Singapore;
- 2nd APTE 2000, Beijing, China
- 3rd APTE 2004, Singapore;
- 4th APTE 2005, Xi’an China
- 5th APTE 2007, Singapore;
- 6th APTE 2009, Shanghai, China；
- 7th APTE 2010, Semarang, Indonesia；
- 8th APTE 2012, Songkhla, Thailand；
- 9th APTE 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka；
- 10th APTE 2016, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia；
- 11th APTE 2018, Malang, Indonesia；
- 12th APTE 2022, Xi’an, China.
