An approach for modelling CO2 emissions from road traffic in urban areas

An approach that incorporates three modelling components has been developed to estimate road traffic CO2 emissions for an urban area with street level resolution. The first component enables the determination of the road traffic characteristics using the SATURN (Simulation and Assignment of Traffic in Urban Road Networks) model. The output from this component is then analysed using MATrix LABoratory (MATLAB) programming to provide estimates of CO2 emissions for the urban area. Finally, ArcGIS is used to illustrate the model output. The three components are integrated using a Loose-Coupling approach in which the individual components each load the necessary data to give an independent output. The model structure is discussed in the current paper and the modelling results for a small city (Norwich, UK) are presented.