DEVELOPMENT OF TRAFFIC MICROSIMULATION AND EMISSION MODELLING SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING MAJOR TRANSPORTATION PLANNING DECISIONS

Abstract

The first objective of this thesis is to develop an emission modelling framework to estimate vehicular emissions of a major truck route in the downtown Halifax and examine alternative policy scenarios for emission reduction. The key findings from the first objective suggest that traffic microsimulation model is required to generate vehicle trajectory for a better temporal and spatial resolution of emission estimation. Therefore, the second objective is to develop a sequential microscopic traffic simulation and emission modelling framework to estimate vehicular emissions. The study evaluates the impacts of a major infrastructure renewal plan focusing on re-building a part of the expressway in the Halifax Downtown Core. The study also assesses the sensitivity of different traffic attributes along with their isolated and combined effects on emission variation. Finally, a land use regression model is developed to examine the potential effect of land use and built environment attributes on emissions.