Environmental aspects and transport project assessment: framework, models and computer program

The community's increasing concern for environmental quality has led to frequent objections to transport projects, especially road building. Legislation on environmental protection requires environmental factors to be taken into account in the development of transport projects. To trade off the environmental impacts of transport projects, the impacts need firstly to be quantified, and then to be measured by a proper measure so as to be built into project evaluation. The conflict in assessment procedure is the incomparability of engineering benefit/costs, which are measured by dollar values, with environmental improvement/degradation. The quantification of some transport-oriented environmental impacts has succeeded. The effort to measure environmental costs in monetary value is still being undertaken, and difficulty still exists because there are extremely complicated factors which can affect the valuation of non-marketable goods. There is no comprehensive evaluation procedure available to assess environmental impacts of transport projects. This thesis suggests ways to incorporate environmental aspects into transport project assessment. The object of the study is to develop a framework for environmental impact assessment of transport project/programs. The environmental problems of road transport are reviewed in the thesis, which also reveals the historical development of transport-oriented legislation. The literature review on environmental modelling provides an outlook of the existing air pollution and traffic noise models and the current status of valuation of environmental factors in monetary terms. A framework for assessment of environmental impacts of transport projects is developed, in line with the objectives defined. A computer program, ENVATRAN, for the calculation of pollutant emissions and traffic noise factors, is developed using a spreadsheet program, Lotus 123. The procedure, along with the computer program, is tested against a specific case of public transport priority along an urban road corridor in Sydney.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • M.E. thesis submitted to the University of New South Wales School of Civil Engineering.
• Authors:
  • Zhang Y
• Publication Date: 1992

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 275p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Benefit cost analysis; Computer programs; Economic analysis; Environment; Evaluation; Exhaust gases; Mathematical models; Project management; Public transit; Traffic noise; Transportation corridors; Transportation planning; Urban areas
• ATRI Terms: Computer program; Cost benefit analysis; Economic analysis; Environment; Modelling; Project evaluation; Public transport; Traffic noise; Transport corridor; Transport planning; Urban area; Vehicle emissions
• Subject Areas: Economics; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01434473
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 24 2012 6:20PM