Vehicle Emission Simulation Model for a Sustainable 'Greener' Transport System

Abstract

"The paper focuses on transport as one of the most valuable urban commons in the emerging Megacity of Hyderabad in India. The author reflects on the preliminary concepts for the ongoing research project ‘Sustainable Traffic Solutions on the basis of Vehicle Emission Simulation Model for Hyderabad’. A key objective of the research is to create a vehicle emission simulation model to quantify the air-pollution related with different transport policies or strategies (e.g. promotion of public transport, coordination of traffic signals, effective land use and traffic planning regulations). Hence the model would serve as a major tool to evaluate the impacts and the mitigation potential of different transport strategies on pollution related issues such as air quality, health, global warming and to identify the least polluting/most environmental friendly solution. Though the technical approaches and strategies are a prerequisite to ease the Hyderabad traffic problems in Hyderabad, they are not self-sufficient. To effectively implement the identified – most suitable - mitigation strategy an Institutional Analysis through Institutions of Sustainability (IoS) framework is also essential. The framework- based methodology begins with the identi?cation and de?nition of the potential transactions at regional (Hyderabad) level through the analysis of existing travel demand model. A transaction here is de?ned as the dynamics of the traf?c ?ow that occurs due to the interaction between social entities (pedestrians, drivers etc.) and physical entities (vehicle, transport and road infrastructures etc.). A vehicle emission model is required and needs to be developed, primarily to relate the impacts of these transactions for the cause of pollution. Such a resulting model would be helpful not only to understand the existing transactions, their properties, but also, to relate, analyze and provide suggestions for remedial measures based on the existing Institutional setup, their rules and policies for implementation of emission based reduction strategies. The value of analyzing and developing this model based on the IoS framework is to make it dynamic and reflective to the changes and hence to provide a truly ‘Greener’ option to sustainably manage transport as urban common in the megacity of Hyderabad."