Environmental impacts of transport
Our researchers' experience, especially in the use of new technologies in environmental modelling and impacts is widely sought after. Studies have been performed for numerous organisations including the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Commonwealth Department of Transport and Regional Services and Transport SA. A new connected hierarchy of environmental vehicle emission models has been developed that allow for the assessment of a wide variety of transport planning scenarios. These models include link based emissions models, and emissions models that are based on the vehicle's operating mode. These types of models have the ability to assess the environmental impacts, across a network, for different levels of congestion, and different traffic control strategies and traffic management schemes. The models have the ability to use real world data from the area's instrumented vehicle, or accept outputs from microsimulation models that allow the assessment of various 'what if' scenarios.
Our research capabilities include:
- fuel consumption and emissions modelling of road traffic streams
- development of a greenhouse gas model for mobile sources in metropolitan areas
- development of instantaneous emissions models for fleets of vehicles
- traffic noise monitoring, modelling and the assessment of noise-related problems
- Knowledge-Based Systems for the appraisal of traffic-related environmental problems (SIMESEPT)
- advanced computing techniques for dense network modelling, traffic simulation, and emissions modelling, including the TrafikPlan, Cabal and NetNoise packages
- automatic vehicle location (AVL) using satellite-based (GPS) and land-based systems
- realtime congestion measurement and monitoring
- the use of GIS as a tool for visualisation and analysis of urban transport operations, system performance, and pollution dispersion
- the use of microsimulation modelling for assessing environmental impacts of transport policy initiatives and intelligent transport systems (ITS) technology
To learn about our testing capabilities and facilities, please click here
For further information, please contact Michael Taylor
Key projects
Key Barbara Hardy Institute projects within this research capability include: