Where does the development of road transport emission macro modelling lead?

Abstract

In recent years, road transport models have developed for better estimation of road traffic emissions with higher and higher temporal and spatial resolution, to be used as a tool in air quality management for the better living. Road transport related emission models are becoming more and more complex. In this paper, the key research question is how the improvement in modelling influences the results? The authors compared three different macro emission modelling system with the dataset of Hungary for 2010. One must notice that more precise model has larger data requirement. Firstly, the consumption-based model was run with 31 needed input data secondly, EURO standard based model was run with 261 needed data and finally, speed dependent model was run with 1060 needed input data. According to the results, it can be stated that a more complex model could cause significant differences in emission compared to simpler one. The differences can be caused by old Hungarian vehicle fleet or differences in estimation error.