Environment

An Improvement on the End-of-Life of High-Speed Rail Rolling Stocks Considering CFRP Composite Material Replacement

Rungskunroch, Panrawee
Kaewunreuen, Sakdirat
Shen, Zuo-Jun
2019

It is undeniably true that transportation systems positively impact human life but, the use of transportation systems also emits green house gasses in the environment which leads to global warming. In this day and age, various technologies are being combined with transportation systems, aimed at reducing the global impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The high-speed rail (HSR), which is well-known for low CO2emissions, has continually been improved, especially its model. In this study, the material replacement method is taken to account for a feasibility study on the next model of the HSR....

Joint PEV Charging Network and Distributed PV Generation Planning Based on Accelerated Generalized Benders Decomposition

Zhang, Hongcai
Moura, Scott J.
Hu, Zechun
Qi, Wei
Song, Yonghua
2018

Integration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) with distributed renewable power sources will reduce PEVs' well-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions, promote renewable power adoption, and defer power system investments. This paper proposes a multidisciplinary approach to jointly plan PEV charging stations and distributed photovoltaic (PV) power plants on a coupled transportation and power network. We formulate a two-stage stochastic programming model to determine the sites and sizes of: 1) PEV charging stations and 2) PV power plants. This proposed method incorporates comprehensive models of...

Optimizing Dynamics of Integrated Food–Energy–Water Systems Under the Risk of Climate Change

Memarzadeh, Milad
Moura, Scott
Horvath, Arpad
2019

Integrated management of food–energy–water systems (FEWS) requires a unified, flexible and reproducible approach to incorporate the interdependence between sectors, and include the risk of non-stationary environmental variations due to climate change. Most of the recently developed methods in the literature fall short of one or more aspects in such integration. In this article, we propose a novel approach based upon fundamentals of decision theory and reinforcement learning that (1) quantifies and propagates uncertainty, (2) incorporates resource interdependence, (3) includes the impact of...

Short-Term Planning and Policy Interventions to Promote Cycling in Urban Centers: Findings from a Commute Mode Choice Analysis in Barcelona, Spain

Braun, L
Rodriguez, D
Cole-Hunter, T
Ambros, A
Donaire-Gonzalez, D
Jerrett, M
Mendez, M
Nieuwenhuijsen, MJ
Nazelle, A De
2016
Cycling for transportation has become an increasingly important component of strategies to address public health, climate change, and air quality concerns in urban centers. Within this context, planners and policy makers would benefit from an improved understanding of available interventions and their relative effectiveness for cycling promotion. We examined predictors of bicycle commuting that are relevant to planning and policy intervention, particularly those amenable to short- and medium-term action. We estimated a travel mode choice model using data from a...

Real-Time Estimation of Pollution Emissions and Dispersion from Highway Traffic

Samaranayake, Samitha
Glaser, Steven D.
Holstius, David
Monteil, Julien
Tracton, Ken
Bayen, Alexandre
2014

Traffic-related air pollution is a serious problem with significant health impacts in both urban and suburban environments. Despite an increased realization of the negative impacts of air pollution, assessing individuals' exposure to traffic-related air pollution remains a challenge. Obtaining high-resolution estimates are difficult due to the spatial and temporal variability of emissions, the dependence on local atmospheric conditions, and the lack of monitoring infrastructure. This presents a significant hurdle to identifying pollution concentration hot spots and understanding the...

Occupancy Detection via Environmental Sensing

Jin, Ming
Bekiaris-Liberis, Nikolaos
Weekly, Kevin
Spanos, Costas
Bayen, Alexandre M.
2018

Sensing by proxy (SbP) is proposed in this paper as a sensing paradigm for occupancy detection, where the inference is based on “proxy” measurements such as temperature and CO2 concentrations. The effects of occupants on indoor environments are captured by constitutive models comprising a coupled partial differential equation–ordinary differential equation system that exploits the spatial and physical features. Sensor fusion of multiple environmental parameters is enabled in the proposed framework. We report on experiments conducted under simulated conditions and real-life circumstances,...

Daily Data Assimilation of a Hydrologic Model Using the Ensemble Kalman Filter

Malek, Sami A.
Bayen, Alexandre M.
Glaser, Steven D.
2019

Accurate runoff forecasting is crucial for reservoir operators as it allows optimized water management, flood control and hydropower generation. Land surface models in mountainous regions depend on climatic inputs such as precipitation, temperature and solar radiation to model the water and energy dynamics and produce runoff as output. With the rapid development of cheap electronics applied in various systems, such as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), satellite and airborne technologies, the prospect of practically measuring spatial Snow Water Equivalent in a dense temporal scale is...

Using Automated Vehicle (AV) Technology to Smooth Traffic Flow and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Almatrudi, Sulaiman
Parvate, Kanaad
Rothchild, Daniel
Vijay, Upadhi
2022

Passenger and heavy-duty vehicles make up 36% of California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing emissions from vehicular travel is therefore paramount for any path towards carbon neutrality. Efforts to reduce GHGs by encouraging mode shift or increasing vehicle efficiency are, and will continue to be, a critical part of decarbonizing the transportation sector. Emerging technologies are creating an opportunity to reduce GHGs. Human driving behaviors in congested traffic have been shown to create stop-and-go waves. When waves form, cars periodically slow down (sometimes to a stop) and...

Connected and Automated Vehicle Technology is Not Enough; it Must also be Collaborative

Patire, Anthony D.
Dion, Francois
Bayen, Alexandre M.
2023

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) will revolutionize the way we travel; however, what impact this revolution will have on advancing broader societal goals is uncertain. To date, the private sector technology rollout has emphasized the automation side of CAVs and neglected the potentially transformative possibilities brought by a more collaborative notion of connectivity. This may have significant downsides from a broader societal perspective. For example, CAVs (including those on the road today) collect a vast amount of data gathered through onboard systems (e.g., radar, lidar,...

Modifying Adaptive Cruise Control Systems for String Stable Stop-and -Go Wave Control

Wu, Fangyu
Carpio, Joy
Bunting, Matthew
Nice, Matthew
Work, Daniel
Sprinkle, Jonathan M.
Lee, Jonathan
Hornstein, Sharon
Bayen, Alexandre M.
2024

This letter addresses the important issue of energy inefficiency and air pollution resulting from stop-and-go waves on highways by introducing a novel controller called the Attenuative Kerner's Model (AKM). The objective of AKM is to enhance an existing Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system to improve vehicle following in stop-and-go waves. It is designed as a hybrid controller that is compatible with a wide range of commercial vehicles equipped with ACC. The article demonstrates the local string stability of the controller. Next, it presents a comparative analysis of AKM against two...