Brazilian vehicular emission inventory software – BRAVES

Abstract

• We present the BRAzilian Vehicular Emissions inventory Software – BRAVES. • The new method combines a top-down approach with county vehicular information. • The model calculates emissions by fleet category and emission process at county scale. • Local emissions patterns are captured by our new model. • Our model is easily adapted to other developing countries and data scarce regions. In this work, we present the BRAzilian Vehicular Emissions inventory Software - BRAVES which combines a bottom-up method with fleet information of each county. The new model uses a probabilistic approach that accounts for the fleet characteristics, fuel consumption, vehicle deterioration, and intensity of use, to calculate the vehicular emissions from the exhaust, tires, roads, brakes wear, soil resuspension, refueling, and evaporative emissions. Brazil is the fourth largest vehicle producer in the world. However, there is a lack of detailed information on vehicular emissions, especially in middle and small counties. BRAVES can estimate emissions of a larger variety of pollutants at the county scale and segregate the emissions by formation process and fleet category, a major advantage over national and state inventories. BRAVES is a compromise of more sophisticated models that provide detailed information in data-scarce areas, like small counties and could be easily adapted to other developing countries.