Road Transportation Carbon Emissions and Decarbonization Pathways

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Climatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (8 December 2023) | Viewed by 4601

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Interests: transportation planing; transportation sustainability; low carbon transportation infrastructure design; life-cycle assessment on transportation; transportation policy

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Guest Editor
Institute of Transportation Engineering, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710064, China
Interests: urban sustainability; urban and regional planning; GHG emission in the road traffic; green transport; transportation modelling; intelligent transportation

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Guest Editor
Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, China
Interests: urban sustainability; low-carbon transportation; transportation policy; intelligent transportation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In pursuing climate goals, transportation has been regarded as one of the primary responsible sectors for carbon emissions mitigation due to its reliance on fossil fuels. Road transport, mainly highway transportation and urban transport, constitutes a major carbon emission source related to vehicle operation during the usage phase and consumption of higher carbon-intensity materials, diesel-powered machinery during infrastructure initial construction, and the maintenance and rehabilitation phase. Given the significant growth of the automobile population and road mileage in the future, up-to-date abatements for decarbonization have been proposed, including hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, photovoltaic highway, green road infrastructure, eco-driving, and Maas travel services. In addition, for urban low-carbon transportation systems, there are complex inter-relationships between internal factors, such as population, economy, transportation, and environment. For road infrastructure, complicated processes and large sources are notable factors due to the diversity of topography, layout and other factors. Recently, advanced simulation methods of complex systems have been shown to be an effective method of managing such interactions and exploring the key feedback mechanisms in complex systems, such as agent-based models (ABM), system dynamics (SD) model, and building information modeling (BIM). For these advanced technologies and methods, their effect on the reduction in road transport emissions still needs to be further clarified. It is critical to understand the level of carbon emissions, clarify emission sources, and map emission mitigation pathways for road transportation carbon emission mitigation. This Special Issue aims to capture the latest research in the fields of road transportation carbon emissions with advanced low-carbon technologies coexisting. Topics of interest for the Special Issue include but are not limited to:

  • Calculation and simulation methods for carbon emissions analysis;
  • Life cycle assessment on highway or urban road infrastructure;
  • Green travel behavior or goods transportation;
  • Public transportation emissions;
  • Comparison analysis of multi-modal transportation;
  • Performance analysis of traffic emission reduction policy;
  • Integrated simulation of environment economic policy for urban transport carbon emission reduction;
  • Zero carbon technology and carbon negative technology in road transportation;
  • Advanced technologies experimental, numerical, or analytical studies.

Dr. Yuanyuan Liu
Dr. Yuanqing Wang
Dr. Huihui Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • road transport
  • advanced vehicle technologies
  • life cycle assessment
  • infrastructure
  • highway
  • urban transport
  • mitigation pathways
  • public transport
  • climate change and low carbon transportation
  • mitigation policy simulation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1843 KiB  
Article
The Influencing Mechanism of Urban Travel Carbon Emissions from the Perspective of Built Environment: The Case of Guangzhou, China
by Jianfeng Lu
Atmosphere 2023, 14(3), 547; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14030547 - 13 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1577
Abstract
Urban travel is a major component of urban transport, and the total carbon emissions of urban transport can be effectively reduced if the carbon emissions of residents’ travel can be reasonably controlled. Based on the questionnaire data of many different types of residential [...] Read more.
Urban travel is a major component of urban transport, and the total carbon emissions of urban transport can be effectively reduced if the carbon emissions of residents’ travel can be reasonably controlled. Based on the questionnaire data of many different types of residential areas in Guangzhou, the daily travel behaviour of residents was analysed and their travel carbon emissions were calculated. The differences in travel characteristics and travel carbon emissions of residents in different types of residential areas were compared. The influencing factors of residents’ travel carbon emissions were divided into three categories: individual socio-economic factors, built environment, and residents’ travel behaviour. On this basis, a structural equation model is established to study the impact mechanism of residents’ travel carbon emissions. The path relationship between endogenous variables and endogenous variables, as well as the path relationship between exogenous variables and endogenous variables were investigated. The interactions between various influencing factors of residents’ travel carbon emissions were examined. The results show that: (1) there are significant differences in residents’ travel carbon emissions in different types of municipalities. Residents’ travel carbon emissions in Guangzhou are closer to the 60/20 distribution; (2) compared with individual socio-economic factors, the impact of the built environment on travel carbon emissions is more obvious; (3) travel distance and travel mode are the factors that directly affect residents’ travel carbon emissions. Proposals have been made to reduce the carbon emissions of residents travelling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Transportation Carbon Emissions and Decarbonization Pathways)
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22 pages, 3899 KiB  
Article
Research on Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Carbon Emissions from Urban Buses Based on Big Data Analysis
by Yan Long, Changzheng Zhu, Cong Zhang and Renjie Pan
Atmosphere 2023, 14(2), 411; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14020411 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1943
Abstract
In recent years, global warming has become increasingly severe, and the ecological and environmental problems facing mankind have become increasingly serious. As the main areas of transportation activities, cities are also the main places of carbon emissions. As a necessary condition for human’s [...] Read more.
In recent years, global warming has become increasingly severe, and the ecological and environmental problems facing mankind have become increasingly serious. As the main areas of transportation activities, cities are also the main places of carbon emissions. As a necessary condition for human’s daily-life travel, it is particularly important to calculate the carbon emissions from urban transportation. Due to the different characteristics of economy and population in different regions of a city, the carbon emissions of urban buses show different characteristics in terms of temporal and spatial distribution. The developments of science and technology promote the application of big data analysis to specific practical life, enabling people to research and solve problems from a new perspective. This paper uses the GPS data of urban buses in Sanya City, China, to identify operation conditions from urban buses, and calculates the distance and time under different conditions. Based on the measured data of carbon emissions, this paper visualizes the distribution characteristics of carbon emissions by density analysis; explains the time distribution characteristics by the visual analysis of carbon emissions in different time periods, working days and rest days, and different energy types; and illustrates the spatial distribution characteristics by the spatial distributions of carbon emissions from Sanya’s buses on working days and rest days, as well as in different routes, providing reference for a low-carbon development of urban green transport. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Transportation Carbon Emissions and Decarbonization Pathways)
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