Development of a methodology for improving emission estimates of road transport in Guadalajara Mexico

Air pollution is an important problem in urban areas because of the impacts on human health and its potential contribution to climate change. The transport sector is a major contributor of emissions, especially in urban areas. Given its size and economic activities, the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (GMA) is an example of an urban area worth analyzing in terms of on road vehicle emissions. In the development of strategies to combat the negative effects of transport on the environment, authorities in GMA have relied on emission inventories to identify and quantify emission sources. However, until today the spatial disaggregation of vehicle emissions in local inventories is not considered to be enough for the design of effective technical solutions nor policy making. In this sense, a methodology for link-based emission estimation in GMA was developed in order to produce results with a better spatial resolution. The developed methodology allows for the estimation of vehicle emissions at the street level and for smaller analysis zones. This makes it possible to identify hot spots and streets with high emission levels. Although the accuracy has not proven to be very high, the overall results appear to be reasonable when compared to other inventories. Moreover, the analysis of network characteristics shows a logical distribution of emissions according to vehicle activity by road type and vehicle groups. The methodology is relatively easy to reproduce and can be improved upon if more detailed data is available. The accuracy of final results can also be enhanced with a series of recommendations as provided at the end of this work.     «

Air pollution is an important problem in urban areas because of the impacts on human health and its potential contribution to climate change. The transport sector is a major contributor of emissions, especially in urban areas. Given its size and economic activities, the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (GMA) is an example of an urban area worth analyzing in terms of on road vehicle emissions. In the development of strategies to combat the negative effects of transport on the environment, authoriti...     »