HEAVEN - Healthier Environment through Abatement of Vehicle Emission and Noise
Overview
Background & policy context:
Air pollution and noise are major problems, especially in Europe’s cities. A considerable part of this pollution is due to traffic; therefore a better knowledge of the impact of traffic on pollution is crucial. Today cities use traffic demand management strategies without having a precise view of the impact of these different strategies on the environment.
IST’s HEAVEN project aimed to develop a generic architecture for a decision support system to combine near-real time traffic information and environmental monitoring based on (often proprietary) systems already installed.
Objectives:
The project’s high-level goal was to develop and to demonstrate a decision support system (DSS) which can evaluate the environmental effects (air quality and noise quality - both emissions and dispersion forecasting) of Transportation Demand Management Strategies (TDMS) in large urban areas.
This demonstration in large urban areas provides a concrete sustainable development perspective and will improve the quality of life in European cities by reducing transport-related noise and air pollutant emissions through the innovative combination of efficient TDMS and integrated environmental Information Society Technologies (IST).
This high-level goal has been translated into a concise set of high-level project objectives:
- improve the basis for decision-making through integrated and real time information on key pollution factors;
- inform key actors (including the public) on the state of air and noise pollution levels and their effects on health;
- investigate the data needs of health experts and the implementation of a valid data exchange platform with health authorities;
- identify the concrete benefits of these measures for sustainable urban development and the quality of life in cities;
- generate commercial value out of the project;
- draw conclusions for the implementation of local noise and air quality action plans.
Methodology:
The HEAVEN consortium selected an approach for the development and demonstration of the DSS which took account of the complexity of the project.
Starting point was the development of an overall system concept. HEAVEN DSS combines near real-time traffic flow information into emission and dispersion models so as to determine the contribution of mobile sources to air quality and noise. In order to estimate emissions based on current traffic levels and on planned demand management scenarios, the system can operate on-line, based on current traffic and environmental information, and off-line, based on planned traffic and environmental conditions and pre-defined TDMS.
This stage was followed by an extensive user need analysis which provided substantial input to the system development. Already at the early stage of the project the user groups have been approached to analyse the user requirements relating to the use of systems, data needs, requirements for technical system performance, user friendliness, possible soft- and hardware restrictions and legal issues. The main tool for performing the user needs analysis was a three-part questionnaire.
The subsequent system verification proved that the system worked as designed. HEAVEN verification was based on a common verification concept necessitating that indicators are measured in the same way, or at least yield comparable results across the sites. A list of common verification indicators, which took account of the main processes, data flows and data stores of the DSS have been defined. The indicators were grouped into the three main themes of verification:
- testing physical functioning of the system;
- preliminary user acceptance;
- accuracy of roadside modelling and monitoring.
A large scale demonstration of the HEAVEN DSS in the six project sites (Berlin, Rome, Paris, Prague, Rotterdam and Leicester) took place in the last year of project lifetime and was concluded by a overall evaluation. The large-scale demonstration had the overall objectives to:
- test the HEAVEN DSS under real-life conditions;
- provide the basis for evaluating the benefits all stakeholders can gain;
- use the system to assess the environmental impacts of Traffic Demand Management Strategies by means of the HEAVEN DSS.
The HEAVEN application sites were central to the success of the project since they demon
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