Overview
There is a need for implementation of local and regional approaches for assessment of the transport impacts on health and the environment, which will be applicable not only for monitoring at the national level, but also for application of concrete measures aimed at the most burdened localities and regions.
The objective is to quantify the present environmental burden from transport in the Czech Republic on the basis of systematic and complex research and to propose methodical tools for gradual reduction or elimination of this burden.
Specific objectives are as follows:
- To determine and economically analyse suitable reduction measures including a financial expression of the state and tendency in the environmental burden by particular transport modes;
- Refinement of development of criteria and limits of pollution from transport in the Czech Republic and the level of their harmonisation with the European Union;
- Specification of the optimal model for determination of maximum traffic intensity with reference to emission limits;
- To give precision to the resulted values of monitored pollutants production and to widen the spectrum of monitored ones emitted by transport including toxic and genotoxic analyses;
- Determination and improvement of the quality of prognosis of the environmental burden from transport for the period until year 2020 and bringing it into harmony with assumed European scenarios of sustainable mobility;
- Realisation of the emissive inventory according to CORINAIR methodology in the field of transport;
- Refining and updating methodical procedures for assessment of the noise burden from transport in connection with analysis and evaluation of regional studies and elaboration of methodical instruction for assessment of the noise burden;
- Assessment of benefits and risks of application of available alternative fuels and further alternative energy sources for transport systems, analysis of their energy demand and environmental burden.
The project is divided in 13 separated partial projects, that deal with current problems in the field of the effect of transport on the environment and human health, such as:
- determination of conditions and measures for reduction of this burden,
- analysis of their impacts in the field of economic effects (costs) and benefits for improving the quality of the environment,
- verification of emission factors of particular vehicle groups,
- analysis of relations between emission production from transport and emission concentration of pollutants in the air,
- assessment of the noise burden of the population from transport at the national level,
- etc.
Funding
Results
The research results for selected areas of the assessment of the transport impact on the environment may be summarized as follows:
- The resulting set of measures forms the basis for the policy focused on the reduction of the impact of traffic on the environment;
- The new Czech legislation fully reflects the requirements of the implementation of the directives and decrees complying with the European Community legal system with the exception of the Directive 2002/49/ES on the assessment and management of environmental noise, the implementation of which is still in progress;
- The outcome of the database of the emission factors may be used to calculate emissions from traffic based on fuel consumption;
- The METKOM and ŽELMET methodologies may be used as a basis for selecting the road and rail sections which are the most likely to cause danger for water and mineral quality;
- The guidelines to determine noise effects on inhabitants include procedures which allow noise data to be obtained from traffic in a road environment; the guidelines may especially be used to determine the number of inhabitants exposed to noise from road traffic;
- The “Recommendations following verification of the amendment of the methodology on the calculation of road traffic noise for multi-lane roads” are a tool and a basis for a unified approach to deal with protection from traffic noise, especially when processing and assessing land use, preparatory and project documentation of all categories and levels, for state administration bodies, local authorities, design and other organisations;
- The methodological principles of time restrictions in transport based on the method for the determination of traffic volumes may be used to control air quality by using measures which lead to certain thresholds of pollutants not being exceeded;
- The barrier effect of roads is especially obvious at older roads, where it was not taken into account at the time construction, and where it has to be considered at their reconstruction;
- A set of biotests at three trophic levels was designed to monitor the impact of traffic on the environment;
- The METRO database was developed (Results of research on the environMEntal impact from TRanspOrt), which integrates research results from different areas of the environment into a single structured database;
- A set of indicators to assess transport in relation to sustainable development was designed;
- The forecast
Policy implications
Recommendations have been conceived for a unified approach to deal with the environmental impact of traffic on all levels. The above-mentioned results may be used within the whole transport sector, from national through regional to local levels; as well as for developing a basis for international activities within the EU and OECD.