Modeling Emission Footprints of Sustainable Land Use Policies at Local Jurisdictional Level

• Main Author: Dixit, Shweta
• Language: EN
• Published: George Mason University 2017
• Subjects: Sustainability|Transportation
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10616646

<p> Sustainable land use practices are redefining the urban form, mobility and therefore the transportation planning processes. Regional travel demand models are not sensitive to variables associated with land use practices at neighborhood level, such as transit-oriented developments (TOD). The first objective of this research is to quantify and compare land-use specific emission footprints at the household level (grams/household) for TOD and Non-TOD areas. Household travel survey data is used to stratify households into various TOD and Non-TOD zones. A comparison of means for emission footprints between Non-TOD and TOD land uses indicated that Non-TOD emission footprints are much higher than the TOD footprints and the differences are statistically significant. On the other hand, the differences amongst pairs of TODs and pairs of Non-TODs showed no statistical significance. </p><p> As its second major objective, the research proposes a disaggregate methodology (the Methodology) that is sensitive enough to sustainable land use policies and allows planners to quantify emission impacts of the policies at sub-regional level. At the center of the Methodology is a sub-regional travel demand model with finer TAZ resolution than what is represented in the regional model for the same sub-region. Different land use scenarios, including TODs, and transit patronages are represented in the experimental implementation of the Methodology for Loudoun County, VA, which is a rapidly growing suburban county in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area. Loudoun County&rsquo;s brisk growth, its emphasis on sustainable land use and transportation planning, and recent expansion of Metro rail service in to the County presented a unique opportunity to develop and experiment with TOD scenarios in the end-to-end (from planning to modeling) implementation of the Methodology. The effectiveness of the Methodology is demonstrated by the results, which show that emission reductions can be achieved by sustainable land use policy implementation at sub regional level. Furthermore, unlike the regional models, the Methodology is found to adequately model sensitivity of emissions to land use, area type and facility type as established by statistical validation using analysis of variance technique.</p><p>