The TEMIS approach as an integral component of the environmental assessment of alternative transport policies

Abstract

This paper reports on research in progress to develop the TEMIS methodology for evaluating the environmental effects of energy use and apply it to study the environmental consequences of typical transport policy options. Following a brief review of existing approaches to measuring pollution in the transport sector where the emphasis has traditionally been on the treatment of end-use vehicle emissions, the TEMIS approach to modelling complete energy systems is introduced. The TEMIS database offers standard energy systems or processes which may be linked together for calculations which include not only emissions by end-users (such as cars and other vehicles), but also takes into account intermediate activities and their emissions (i.e. the whole fuel cycle). The main body of the paper focuses on enhancements to the TEMIS approach to modelling transport energy systems. It is proposed to move away from standard vehicle types, to consider traffic as a process and to model standard links, whose emissions would depend on flow, speed, queues, vehicle mix, etc. all of which can be predicted by a general-purpose traffic simulation model (such as CONTRAM). Other new processes may also be defined (e.g., road repair) and inserted into an appropriate point of the tree of the overall fuel cycle.