Air pollution prevention applications from transport sector by integration of transport and vehicle emission model in urban area: case study Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Air emissions from transportation are a major contributor for greenhouse gases and are directly linked to fuel consumption. Poorly maintained vehicles lead to reduced fuel efficiency than those well maintained counterparts. This inefficient use of fuel can result in unnecessary air emissions. The main objective of this study is to propose air pollution prevention applications for the transport sector in an urban area in order to minimize the pollution and to meet ambient air quality standards by using transport and vehicle emissions models, which take into account air emission changes resulting from prevention strategies. This study combines pollution prevention, transport, vehicle emissions and geographic information system (GIS) techniques to deal with air pollution prevention in an urban conglomeration. Anthropogenic activities in transport sector are significant and wide-range at generating high levels of emissions. The trends of air emissions from transportation continue to rise in large scale along with the increase in travel patterns. These are the reasons for the need for reducing levels of air emissions from transportation sector. The study aims to probe the major root cause for the raise in air pollutants in the transport sector in Bangkok. The results of the study propose feasible ideas to reduce and control levels of air emissions from transportation sector. The driving force of this research is to use source reduction for reducing air emissions from transportation sector. Finally, the paper proposes possible solutions such as 4 high potential solutions viz., promoting use of NGV buses and rerouting existing services as the most effective countermeasure to minimize air emissions, and potentially least expensive, when compared with other solutions for prevention of pollutants from transportation sector in Thailand. The current study can be used in formulating policies related to air pollution at a macro level, as the study was focussed on that level.