OSCAR

Coordinator: Professor Ranjeet S Sokhi, University of Hertfordshire, UK

Title: Optimised Expert System for Conducting Environmental Assessment of Urban Road Traffic.

Aim: The overall aim of OSCAR is to deliver an optimised modelling system to assess the environmental impact of road traffic in terms of traffic flows, emissions and air pollution integrated with the capability of identifying suitable impact reduction options for the End User.

www: http://www.eu-oscar.org

Project summary

1. Problems to be solved

This proposal addresses the major problem of road traffic congestion and the resulting air pollution in urban areas. The quality of life of the Citizen is expected to diminish in several ways as a result of the growth in urban traffic including increased journey times, deterioration in air quality and health of vulnerable groups and increased inefficiencies and economic costs affecting industry and business. In terms of air quality it is recognised that limit values for NO2 and PM10 will be difficult to meet in European urban areas. Current environmental assessment models, however, cannot adequately address complex traffic flows and micro-scale dispersion patterns observed in urban streets. This severely limits the ability of End Users to identify cost-effective and environmentally sustainable options for impact reduction in order to meet EU Air Quality Directives and the associated Daughter Directives. The overall aim of OSCAR will be to develop and deliver an optimised Expert System to assess the environmental impact of road traffic in terms of traffic flows, emissions and air pollution integrated with the capability of identifying suitable impact reduction options.

2. Scientific objectives and approach

In order to meet the overall aim of OSCAR, gaps in NOx, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations and emissions datasets will be identified. Methods for improving modelling approaches for the Expert System will be examined. In addition to measuring vehicle emissions, ambient concentration datasets will be collected at roadside and background sites at Athens, Helsinki, London and Madrid. The consortium will work closely with end users to identify their requirements in relation to the Expert System and its applications. The new datasets will be integrated into next generation models developed specifically for urban road traffic conditions. An optimised user-orientated Expert System will be developed in a modularised architecture. Once evaluated, the system will be demonstrated to end users such as city authorities. A particular feature of the OSCAR system will be its ability to identify impact reduction options for the user. Through the modular architecture other environmental models, such as for noise and vibration, resulting from EU funded projects will be integrated into the system. The consortium will work with end users to widely disseminate the outcomes of the project on a European wide basis.

3. Expected impacts

A key deliverable will be the OSCAR Expert System for end users. Through the work programme the Consortium will also deliver new datasets of ambient concentrations of NOx, PM10 and PM2.5, exhaust emission factors, traffic characteristics and meteorological parameters measured at roadside and background sites in four European cities. Development of next generation models for predicting hourly levels of street level concentrations will help to advance the state of the art. Through OSCAR, best practices and harmonised methodologies for measuring air pollutants, emission factors and traffic characteristics in free flowing and congested urban situations will also result.