Using a Disaggregate Link-Based Approach in a GIS Environment to Improve the Accuracy and Spatial Detail of Mobile Emissions

Traditional air quality planning and conformity analysis consider only the total mobile emissions for a region, perhaps supplemented by the study of a few specific hot-spots. A new GIS-based tool, AQ+, was developed to implement instead a link-based approach, which allows planners to exploit GIS to examine and compare mobile emissions at the corridor level. AQ+ has been applied successfully in several cities, including Knoxville, Tennessee, Lexington, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana. The new tool eliminates significant aggregation bias in the traditional approach, resulting in more accurate emissions forecasts, and offers clear advantages for planning, enabling planners to prioritize air quality needs within a region and better allocate CMAQ and other air quality funds among competing projects. The paper presents the motivation for and implementation of this alternative approach. It explores challenges, advantages and limitations of an automated application of the MOBILE6 emissions model to the link-level output of a travel demand model, rather than its aggregate output and the way in which the GIS environment can facilitate the analysis, interpretation and presentation of the results.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Bernardin Jr, Vincent Louis
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 87th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2008-1-13 to 2008-1-17
• Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 11p
• Monograph Title: TRB 87th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air quality management; Environmental quality; Exhaust gases; Geographic information systems; Information systems; Pollutants; Pollution control; Traffic distribution; Travel surveys
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Highways; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01099562
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 08-2165
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 21 2008 7:08AM