Developments in road traffic emission and fuel consumption modelling: some recent experiences from Europe.

Growing concern about health and climate impacts and future tightening of air quality standards will make accurate impact assessment of (new) road infrastructure and policy development increasingly important. As a consequence, there is a need for more accurate (complex) emission models at the local scale. In the development of complex emission models it is important, however, to strike a balance between the level of modelling detail and prediction accuracy and to validate emission modelling results. This paper discusses a number of existing and emerging road traffic emission models in Europe. Particular focus is on a new modeling approach employing statistical techniques and based on a large emissions and fuel consumption tests database. It appears valuable and feasible to develop an Australian and New Zealand version of this model. This would add to the diversity of current emission modelling in Australia and New Zealand. As a next step, an optimum and agreed-upon modelling framework should be established, based on additional research, model comparison and validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]