Integrated Transportation-Health Modeling Platform for Decision-Support

The “transportation emissions to health” modeling chain is traditionally resource-intensive and computationally complex. This project aims to create a modeling platform that balances analytic rigor with practical feasibility, resulting in a tool that is of practical applicability to transportation stakeholders. Transportation and health are essential elements in any human society, and collectively these activities represent more than a third of the economic output of the nation, as well as being major contributors to the quality of life experienced by its population. Effective decision-making, especially regarding public investments and policies, requires an understanding of the complex interactions that occur along the “transportation to health” modeling chain. The steps of modeling travel demand—assessing the resulting emissions, how these emissions are chemically changed and dispersed into the environment, assessing how both sensitive populations and the public are exposed to these pollutants, and assessing both the short- and long-term impacts of these exposures on health and health outcomes—is a daunting task. However, at each step of the way, we have sophisticated models currently available, or under development, that can use finer spatial- and temporal-scale data to produce more refined and accurate assessments of the linkage between transportation decisions and health outcomes. This modeling platform will focus on integrating existing models that will allow for spatial assessment of possible traffic emissions–related health impacts to use for environmental justice (EJ) analyses and decision-support for a wide range of activities by transportation agencies and other stakeholders. The use of existing models offers the potential for rapid commercialization or other technology transfer applications once the integrated modeling platform has been developed and tested. The primary first year objectives of the first year efforts will be to update the existing MOVES-Matrix modeling tool to incorporate the upcoming EPA MOVES update and to integrate this updated emissions model to a selection of pollutant dispersion models.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $130000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348329

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute
  College Station, TX  United States  77843
• Project Managers:

  Ocon, Monica

• Performing Organizations:

  Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

  790 Atlantic Drive
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30332-0355
• Principal Investigators:

  Rodgers, Michael

• Start Date: 20231101
• Expected Completion Date: 20241031
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
• Source Data: 01-02-GT

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Decision support systems; Environmental justice; Health; Pollutants; Spatial analysis; Transportation planning
• Identifier Terms: Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01907167
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348329
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Feb 6 2024 5:04PM