A comprehensive tool for estimating Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption of the traffic flows in highways
TRANSyT –the Transport Research Centre of UPM- has developed HERA, a software tool to estimate the annual energy and carbon footprints of traffic flows for a specific stretch of highway or an entire network.
It also allows calculating energy savings associated to new measures and comparison of scenarios, looking for energy efficiency strategies.
HERA has multiple applications such as environmental impact assessment of road projects: to include GHG emissions impacts and analysis of alternatives from the footprint efficiency point of view; carbon-efficient design of roads for their operational phase: to optimize the footprint of traffic based on the design phase, i.e. alignment, gradient; road operation: to design traffic management strategies which minimize GHG emissions and energy consumption generated by traffic: speed, HDV control, etc.
HERA is software dedicated to assess the energy consumption and GHG emissions of roads traffic.
It incorporates two models for different conditions: free flow conditions and toll plazas. In contrast to other modeling approaches, HERA is valid for every country or region and for every road segment or network. It has the possibility of comparing several scenarios or road alternatives. The input data and results could be import or export from geo-references databases.
HERA is of particular interest for assessing alternatives and strategies focused on alignment design, speed adjustment, traffic flow management or fleet composition.
“HERA supports planning and decision-making strategies towards energy efficiency and low-carbon road traffic”
Transport
“Improving the alignment of a hilly road could result in 13.7% of annual carbon footprint savings; Speed reduction of light vehicles by 10km/h could save 4.5% of annual carbon footprint of traffic”
Transport
“Speed reduction of light vehicles by 10km/h could save 4.5% of annual carbon footprint of traffic”
HERA contact
Andres Monzón; Natalia Sobrino; Sara Hernández
TRANSyT –Transport Research Center - UPM
e: transyt@upm.es
w: www. transyt.upm.es
UPM contact
Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Area
Centre of Support for Technological Innovation – UPM
e: innovacion.tecnologica@upm.es