scholarly journals Direct and Indirect Environmental Aspects of an Electric Bus Fleet Under Service

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan Ovidiu Varga ◽  
Florin Mariasiu ◽  
Cristian Daniel Miclea ◽  
Ioan Szabo ◽  
Anamaria Andreea Sirca ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electric Propulsion ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Electric Bus ◽  
High Pollution ◽  
Diesel Buses ◽  
The City ◽  
Harmful Effects

The reduction of pollutant emissions in the field of transportation can be achieved by developing and implementing electric propulsion technologies across a wider range of transportation types. This solution is seen as the only one that can offer, in areas of urban agglomeration, a reduction of the emissions caused by the urban transport to zero, as well as an increase in the degree of the health of the citizens. This paper presents an analysis of the direct and indirect environmental aspects of a fleet of real electric buses under service in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The solution of using 41 electric buses to replace Euro-3 diesel buses (with high pollution levels) in the city’s transport system eliminates a local amount of 668.45 tons of CO2 and 6.41 tons of NOx—pollutant emissions directly associated with harmful effects on human health—annually.

scholarly journals Environmental Strategies for Selecting Eco-Routing in a Small City

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Francisco Coloma ◽  
Marta García ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Andrés Monzón
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Consumption ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Small City ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Balanced Distribution ◽  
Reduce Emissions ◽  
Fuel Consumption And Emissions ◽  
The City

This research aims to find the most ecological itineraries for urban mobility in a small city (eco-routes), where distances are rather short, but car dependence is really high. A real life citywide survey was carried out in the city of Caceres (Spain) with almost 100,000 inhabitants. Research was done on alternating routes, traffic, times of day, and weather conditions. The output of the study was to assess fuel consumption, CO2, and regulated pollutant emissions for different type of vehicles, routes, and drivers. The results show that in the case studied, urban roads had fewer emissions (CO2 and pollutants) but there was an increase in the population affected by pollutants. On the contrary, bypasses reduced travel time and congestion but increased fuel consumption and emissions. Traffic conditions had a greater influence on fuel consumption in petrol vehicles than diesel ones. Therefore, there must be a balanced distribution of traffic in order to minimize congestion, and at the same time to reduce emissions and the number of people affected by harmful pollution levels. There should be a combination of regulatory measures in traffic policies in order to achieve that balance by controlling access to city centres, limiting parking spaces, pedestrianization, and lowering traffic speeds in sensitive areas.

scholarly journals Exploring Low-Carbon Bus Options for Urban BRT Systems: The Case of Amman

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Imam ◽  
Seong-Cheol Kang ◽  
Diana Quezada
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Capital Costs ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Electric Bus ◽  
Diesel Buses

Being able to provide high-quality, metro-like transit service at a fraction of the cost of other options, bus rapid transit (BRT) has been viewed as one of the most cost-effective public mass transport systems suitable for urban areas. Considering significant amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions are attributed to the transport sector, deploying low carbon buses for BRT systems should be of high priority. With a view to promoting low carbon buses instead of diesel buses for a BRT system currently being planned in Amman, Jordan, this paper evaluates several low carbon bus options – hybrid, plug-in hybrid, opportunity charging, trolleybus, and battery electric bus options – against the baseline case of diesel buses. While low carbon buses reduce GHG and air pollutant emissions often considerably, they usually require higher upfront capital costs and additional infrastructure investments. On the other hand, they tend to incur lower energy and maintenance costs and have a longer lifetime particularly for battery electric buses. All these advantages and disadvantages are included in the assessment of low carbon bus options relative to diesel buses. For the trunk routes of the Amman BRT, the analysis shows that the opportunity charging bus can be the most appealing option having a positive internal rate of return (IRR) for the incremental investment costs. For the feeder routes, both low carbon bus options considered, hybrid and battery electric, do not result in a positive IRR. Nevertheless, the battery electric bus is found to be a comparatively better option than the hybrid bus. In consideration of variability in several parameters used in the analysis such as capital expenditures, electricity price, and diesel price, a sensitivity analysis is conducted for both trunk and feeder routes. The results show that IRR could increase favorably under certain conditions.

scholarly journals Development of lake conservation

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Renny Varghese
Keyword(s):  
Riparian Vegetation ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Garden City ◽  
Buffer Zones ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
High Pollution ◽  
The City ◽  
Minor Irrigation

The city of Bengaluru, once known as the Garden City of India and the City of Lakes, has now transformed into the Silicon Valley of India. This transformation has happened over the last few decades and has caused major changes to the City’s landscape. One if the important issues the city faces today is the scarcity of water. Researchers owe this issue to the depletion of lakes due to high pollution levels, encroachment and dumping of solid waste in the lakes. The neighborhood Bannerghutta is located in the Southern part of Bangalore Metropolitan Region, which is in developing stages and handful of lakes are found and comes under Minor Irrigation Department. The project focusses on Safeguarding the lake and transforming buffers into public recreational areas with functional strips of riparian vegetation. Safeguarding of lake ensures the habited of that area is preserved and protected. The transformation of lake buffer zones into public recreational spaces ensures the area to be free of any buildings that might otherwise be built on this land. Also, bringing in the public into the space would allow increased public involvement in the lakes campaign and would ensure better maintenance of the functional parts of the lake. A recreational space is perceived as a destination and would add value to the place. Keywords: Safeguarding the lake, developing stages and handful of lakes

scholarly journals Benefit-cost analysis of accelerated replacement of Hong Kong’s pre-Euro IV buses

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-360
Author(s):  
Weiwen Leung
Keyword(s):  
Discount Rate ◽  
Excess Mortality ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Net Benefit ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
High Pollution ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
The City

Hong Kong’s franchised buses contribute significantly to its high pollution levels, which in turn result in excess mortality and hospitalizations. I show that replacing all of Hong Kong’s pre-Euro IV buses with cleaner Euro V buses would save 1260 statistical lives, among other benefits. The expected net benefit of such a project is HK$26.4 billion under a discount rate of 3.5%. This result is robust to a discount rate of 10% and a mortality decrease of half of what is expected. This is one of the first studies to estimate the public health impact of air pollution from franchised buses in Hong Kong. The city can therefore consider conducting accelerated replacement of its franchised bus fleet. Given the strongly positive result, other Asian cities with ageing bus fleets could also conduct similar benefit-cost analyses.

scholarly journals ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY FOR APPLICATION OF THE MODULAR PRINCIPLE OF USING ELECTROBUSES IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT OF MEGAPOLISES

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-141
Author(s):  
Porfirenko V ◽  
◽  
Polosukhin D ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Stationary Flow ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Network ◽  
Passenger Transportation ◽  
Electric Bus ◽  
The City

The article analyzes congestion of the urban transport network in Kyiv and its impact on air pollution in the city and suggests ways to solve problems that occur because of it. The object of the study is public transport, specifically electric buses. The purpose of the work is to propose an innovative approach to the use of electric buses using analysis of air pollution indicators, the traffic index of urban congestion and the non-stationarity of the passenger flow. Research methods are generally scientific. The city of Kyiv ranks number 7 in the world in terms of traffic congestion and the amount of added time that people spend due to congestion. The transport network overload leads not only to congestion, but also to air pollution in the city. The authors of the article analyze the air pollution and the state of congestion on the roads of Kyiv. In order to improve the current situation in the city, the concept of modular use of electric buses is proposed, which envisions production of electric trucks and electric trailers for passenger transportation (modules) to it. The use of electric buses reduces environmental pollution, but does not solve the problem of congestion in megapolises. The solution to the problem must use comprehensive approach. The authors came to conclusion that it is not possible to significantly influence the non-stationary flow of passengers, but it is possible to release a fleet with different passenger capacity at different times of the day. During rush hours the proposal is to limit the total number of cars and release an electric bus with the module of the largest capacity, in the late evening and at night release fleet with modules designed for a small number of passengers, in other hours release electric buses with a medium capacity module. The modular principle of formation of electric bus routes will optimize the general expenses for transportation and will take into consideration seasonal, weekly and daily non-stationary flow of passengers. Development of this modular electric vehicles will be the task for automotive industry. KEY WORDS: ELECTRIC BUS, MEGAPOLIS, ECOLOGY, PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION, BUS TRANSPORTATION, MODULAR PRINCIPLE, MANAGEMENT.

scholarly journals Design and Implementation of an Electric Skibus Line in North Italy

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 7925
Author(s):  
Carola Leone ◽  
Laura Sturaro ◽  
Giacomo Geroli ◽  
Michela Longo ◽  
Wahiba Yaici
Keyword(s):  
Public Transport ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Italian Region ◽  
Cold Temperatures ◽  
Charging Infrastructure ◽  
City Environment ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Electric Bus ◽  
Fuel Costs ◽  
The City

To enhance the current Public Transport (PT) service in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, this work tries to plan fully a new electric Skibus line connecting the cities of Santa Caterina and Livigno. As a first try outside the city environment, the electrification study is set on a limited mountain zone hence featured by steep grades and cold temperatures. In the first part of the paper, the energy consumed by an electric bus working in such a context is assessed, and from the learned outcomes, proper charging infrastructure is proposed. From the found results, the introduction of a new electric bus line in the chosen region seems feasible. Finally, in the last part of the work the performances of an electric bus fleet are compared with that of a diesel one, in terms of fuel costs and Well-to-Wheel (WTW) emissions. The results prove that an electric fleet would be more convenient for both the economic and the environmental aspects.

scholarly journals Modeling heavy metal release in the epiphytic lichen Evernia prunastri

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Vannini ◽  
Luca Paoli ◽  
Riccardo Fedeli ◽  
Sharon Kwambai Kangogo ◽  
Massimo Guarnieri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Remote Area ◽  
Metal Release ◽  
Evernia Prunastri ◽  
Epiphytic Lichen ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Short Period ◽  
High Pollution ◽  
Heavy Metal Release ◽  
Very High

AbstractIn this study, the release of Cu2+ and Zn2+ was investigated and modeled in the epiphytic lichen Evernia prunastri. Samples were incubated with solutions containing these metals at ecologically relevant concentrations (10 and 100 μM) and then transplanted to a remote area and retrieved after 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 18 months. The results showed that, after 12 months, all samples faced similar metal reductions of ca. 80–85%, but after this period, all the involved processes seem to be no longer capable of generating further reductions. These results suggest that the lichen E. prunastri can provide information about environmental improvements after exposure to high or very high pollution levels in a relatively short period of time.

scholarly journals Projection of material flows and stocks in the urban transport sector until 2050 – A scenario-based analysis for the city of Vienna

2021 ◽  
pp. 127591
Author(s):  
Andreas Gassner ◽  
Jakob Lederer ◽  
Gerald Kovacic ◽  
Ursula Mollay ◽  
Christof Schremmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Material Flows ◽  
The City

scholarly journals Framing Electric Mobility for Urban Sustainability in a Circular Economy Context: An Overview of the Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7786
Author(s):  
Walter Leal Filho ◽  
Ismaila Rimi Abubakar ◽  
Richard Kotter ◽  
Thomas Skou Grindsted ◽  
Abdul-Lateef Balogun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Urban Quality Of Life ◽  
Electro Mobility

The development of electro-mobility is one of the centerpieces of European country attempts to reduce carbon emissions and increase the quality of life in cities. The goals of reducing emissions from the transport sector and phasing out fossil-fueled vehicles in (urban) transport by 2050 present unrivaled opportunities to foster electro-mobility. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature and provides a detailed analysis of the current development of electro-mobility in Europe, assessing social, economic, and environmental aspects under a circular economy (CE) context. It also examines the existing challenges and suggests ways of addressing them towards improving the environmental performance of electro-mobility and the urban quality of life. The paper argues that a narrow technology-only agenda in electro-mobility will be less successful without the imperative of the CE, including not just materials and resources but also energy, to unlock the medium-term co-benefits of de-carbonization of both the transport as well as the building and energy sectors. The paper critically reviews some of the anticipated future developments that may guide the growth of this rapidly growing field into a CE.

scholarly journals Semen quality as a potential susceptibility indicator to SARS-CoV-2 insults in polluted areas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Montano ◽  
Francesco Donato ◽  
Pietro Massimiliano Bianco ◽  
Gennaro Lettieri ◽  
Antonino Guglielmino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Semen Quality ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
The Body ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Potential Indicator ◽  
Harmful Effects

AbstractThe epidemic of the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has impacted worldwide with its infectious spread and mortality rate. Thousands of articles have been published to tackle this crisis and many of these have indicated that high air pollution levels may be a contributing factor to high outbreak rates of COVID-19. Atmospheric pollutants, indeed, producing oxidative stress, inflammation, immuno-unbalance, and systemic coagulation, may be a possible significant co-factor of further damage, rendering the body prone to infections by a variety of pathogens, including viruses. Spermatozoa are extremely responsive to prooxidative effects produced by environmental pollutants and may serve as a powerful alert that signals the extent that environmental pressure, in a specific area, is doing damage to humans. In order to improve our current knowledge on this topic, this review article summarizes the relevant current observations emphasizing the weight that environmental pollution has on the sensitivity of a given population to several diseases and how semen quality, may be a potential indicator of sensitivity for virus insults (including SARS-CoV-2) in high polluted areas, and help to predict the risk for harmful effects of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. In addition, this review focused on the potential routes of virus transmission that may represent a population health risk and also identified the areas of critical importance that require urgent research to assess and manage the COVID-19 outbreak.

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