Studying the impact of urban sustainable transportation on Lisbon air quality

摘要

Transport is one of the major issues in urban environment due to its impact on the welfare of citizens. Traffic causes noise and emits several pollutants that decrease air quality in the urban air shed, being a source of stress and accidents affecting people in physical, psychological and social aspects. The main objective of this study is to analyse the impact of different scenarios of transportation development on the urban air quality of Lisbon. The paper explores the possible penetration of new energy depending technologies in a context of sustainable urban transportation. The analysis is performed through four specific scenarios having a time horizon of 45 years and using an integrated energy model, the MARKAL-Lite model. In this scope, the evolution of traffic in the city, its transportation system and its trends concerning the use of energy, as well as resulting impacts on the air quality are described. Additionally, atmospheric emissions and air quality monitoring data are analysed. The application of MARKAL-Lite considering the different urban transportation scenarios allowed verifying the possibility to considerably reduce air pollutants emissions, and therefore increase the quality of the urban area namely in what concerns ozone levels, with acceptable costs in comparison with the costs without any emission reduction constraint.