Neighborhood-scale urban form, travel behavior, and CO2 emissions in Beijing: implications for low-carbon urban planning

Communities are increasingly looking to land use planning strategies based on a less auto-dependent urban form to reduce the need for travel, especially drive-alone travel. In recent years, several studies have attempted to test the impact urban form has on travel behavior to determine if such designs are warranted. The results of these studies are mixed because of several shortcomings. Some shortcomings can be attributed to data availability; others are a product of the techniques used to characterize urban form or travel. Still other shortcomings are embedded in the strategies employed, using cross-sectional travel data and correlating travel outcomes with urban form. The line of research is being extended, aimed at isolating the influence of urban form on travel behavior; a new research strategy is presented using longitudinal travel data in concert with detailed measures of travel behavior and urban form. Data sources from the Puget Sound are described and a research strategy is presented that permits a pretest-posttest analysis of households’ travel behavior before and after they changed residential location. Early results show few changes in household travel behavior after a move, suggesting that attitudes toward travel are firmly entrenched and postmove travel provides little insight into how changes in urban form affect travel. Although a pretest-posttest makes valiant strides in shedding new light on the matter, the complex phenomenon being addressed requires myriad approaches. More comprehensive research techniques and even research approaches based on different different traditions are much needed to better understand how urban form and travel interact.

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Future energy use and CO2 emissions of urban passenger transport in China: A travel behavior and urban form based approach

Applied Energy ◽

10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.11.022 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 211 ◽

pp. 820-842 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Peilin Li ◽

Pengjun Zhao ◽

Christian Brand

Keyword(s):

Co2 Emissions ◽

Travel Behavior ◽

Urban Form ◽

Energy Use ◽

Passenger Transport

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Shifting perspectives: A comparison of travel-time-based and carbon-based accessibility landscapes

Journal of Transport and Land Use ◽

10.5198/jtlu.2021.1741 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 345-365

Author(s):

Julia Kinigadner ◽

David Vale ◽

Benjamin Büttner ◽

Gebhard Wulfhorst

Keyword(s):

Travel Time ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Travel Behavior ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Transport Systems ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Accessibility Analysis ◽

User Costs ◽

Travel Decisions ◽

Carbon Based

Undoubtedly, climate change and its mitigation have emerged as main topics in public discourse. While accessibility planning is recognized for supporting sustainable urban and transport development in general, the specific challenge of reducing transport-related greenhouse gas emissions has rarely been directly addressed. Traditionally, accessibility is operationalized in line with the user perception of the transport system. Travel-time-based measures are considered to be closely linked with travel behavior theory, whereas CO2 emissions are not necessarily a major determinant of travel decisions. Given the changed prioritization of objectives, additional emphasis should be placed on the environmental costs of travel rather than solely the user costs. Accessibility analysis could account for this shift in perspectives by using CO2 emissions instead of travel time in the underlying cost function. While losing predictive power in terms of travel behavior compared to other implementations of accessibility, carbon-based accessibility analysis enables a normative understanding of travel behavior as it ought to be. An application in the Munich region visualizes the differences between travel-time-based and carbon-based accessibility by location, transport mode, and specification of the accessibility measure. The emerging accessibility landscapes illustrate the ability of carbon-based accessibility analysis to provide new insights into land use and transport systems from a different perspective. Based on this exercise, several use cases in the context of low-carbon mobility planning are discussed and pathways to further develop and test the method in cooperation with decision-makers are outlined.

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A spatial database of CO2 emissions, urban form fragmentation and city-scale effect related impact factors for the low carbon urban system in Jinjiang city, China

Data in Brief ◽

10.1016/j.dib.2020.105274 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 ◽

pp. 105274 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Shaoqing Dai ◽

Shudi Zuo ◽

Yin Ren

Keyword(s):

Co2 Emissions ◽

Scale Effect ◽

Urban Form ◽

Spatial Database ◽

Urban System ◽

Impact Factors ◽

Low Carbon

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Assessing CO2 Emissions from Passenger Transport with the Mixed-Use Development Model in Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City

Land ◽

10.3390/land10020137 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 137

Author(s):

Xianchun Tan ◽

Tangqi Tu ◽

Baihe Gu ◽

Yuan Zeng ◽

Tianhang Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Development Model ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Passenger Transport ◽

Transport Accessibility ◽

Mixed Use ◽

Mixed Land Use ◽

Low Carbon City

Assessing transport CO2 emissions is important in the development of low-carbon strategies, but studies based on mixed land use are rare. This study assessed CO2 emissions from passenger transport in traffic analysis zones (TAZs) at the community level, based on a combination of the mixed-use development model and the vehicle emission calculation model. Based on mixed land use and transport accessibility, the mixed-use development model was adopted to estimate travel demand, including travel modes and distances. As a leading low-carbon city project of international cooperation in China, Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City Core Area was chosen as a case study. The results clearly illustrate travel demand and CO2 emissions of different travel modes between communities and show that car trips account for the vast majority of emissions in all types of travel modes in each community. Spatial emission differences are prominently associated with inadequately mixed land use layouts and unbalanced transport accessibility. The findings demonstrate the significance of the mixed land use and associated job-housing balance in reducing passenger CO2 emissions from passenger transport, especially in per capita emissions. Policy implications are given based on the results to facilitate sophisticated transport emission control at a finer spatial scale. This new framework can be used for assessing the impacts of urban planning on transport emissions to promote sustainable urbanization in developing countries.

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Pulp and Paper Industry: Decarbonisation Technology Assessment to Reach CO2 Neutral Emissions—An Austrian Case Study

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14041161 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 1161

Author(s):

Maedeh Rahnama Mobarakeh ◽

Miguel Santos Silva ◽

Thomas Kienberger

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Emission Reduction ◽

Co2 Emission ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Paper Industry ◽

Heat Pumps ◽

Pulp And Paper ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Co2 Emission Reduction

The pulp and paper (P&P) sector is a dynamic manufacturing industry and plays an essential role in the Austrian economy. However, the sector, which consumes about 20 TWh of final energy, is responsible for 7% of Austria’s industrial CO2 emissions. This study, intending to assess the potential for improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions in the Austrian context in the P&P sector, uses a bottom-up approach model. The model is applied to analyze the energy consumption (heat and electricity) and CO2 emissions in the main processes, related to the P&P production from virgin or recycled fibers. Afterward, technological options to reduce energy consumption and fossil CO2 emissions for P&P production are investigated, and various low-carbon technologies are applied to the model. For each of the selected technologies, the potential of emission reduction and energy savings up to 2050 is estimated. Finally, a series of low-carbon technology-based scenarios are developed and evaluated. These scenarios’ content is based on the improvement potential associated with the various processes of different paper grades. The results reveal that the investigated technologies applied in the production process (chemical pulping and paper drying) have a minor impact on CO2 emission reduction (maximum 10% due to applying an impulse dryer). In contrast, steam supply electrification, by replacing fossil fuel boilers with direct heat supply (such as commercial electric boilers or heat pumps), enables reducing emissions by up to 75%. This means that the goal of 100% CO2 emission reduction by 2050 cannot be reached with one method alone. Consequently, a combination of technologies, particularly with the electrification of the steam supply, along with the use of carbon-free electricity generated by renewable energy, appears to be essential.

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Measuring Energy Performance for Regional Sustainable Development in China: A New Framework based on a Dynamic Two-Stage SBM Approach

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12072851 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (7) ◽

pp. 2851 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sheng-Hsiung Chiu ◽

Tzu-Yu Lin ◽

Hai-Lan Yang

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Portfolio Performance ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Two Stage ◽

Regional Economic ◽

Regional Sustainable Development ◽

Carry Over

Sustainable development has always been an important issue for all policy makers, even more so now, as global warming has seriously threatened the whole world. To understand the efficacy of regional sustainable policies, we proposed a dynamic, two-stage, slacks-based measure (SBM) model with carry-over and intermediate variables, highlighting the importance of an electricity portfolio, to measure overall energy performance for the purpose of regional sustainable development. In this unified linear programming framework with intertemporal evaluation, we estimated the effects of a clean electricity supply by the abatement of CO2 emissions and the gain of economic growth. The results can be used as a reference for decision makers to shape regional sustainable development policies. Using data of 30 provincial administration regions in China for the period of 2012–2017, we postulate that the lower energy performance of the Chinese regional economic system for sustainable development may be attributed to a lower electricity portfolio performance. We then postulate that investment in low-carbon energy infrastructure can combat CO2 emissions, and is also a major driving force in the regional economic growth.

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Frontiers in Land Use and Travel Research

The Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195374995.013.0031 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 633-664

Author(s):

Marlon G. Boarnet

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Urban Planning ◽

Built Environment ◽

Travel Behavior ◽

Standard Approach ◽

Hypothesis Tests ◽

Key Issues

This article examines research concerning land use and travel behavior in relation to urban planning. It summarizes the standard approach to studying land use and travel behavior, and identifies the key issues that should be the focus of planning research going forward. The analysis reveals that the literature on land use and travel behavior has so far focused almost exclusively on hypothesis tests regarding the association between the built environment and travel, and on the magnitude of the associations.

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