The role of ‘indirect’ greenhouse gas emissions in tourism: Assessing the hidden carbon impacts from a holiday package tour

Tourism is a noticeable contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Existing estimates of tourism’s carbon footprint are however incomplete as they fail to holistically assess the additional, ‘indirect’ carbon requirements. These arise from the non-use phases of a tourism product or service life cycle and can be further magnified by supply chain industries. Under-development of methods for carbon impact assessment in tourism is the primary reason for the omission of ‘indirect’ GHG emissions. This study develops a new approach for comprehensive appraisal of GHG emissions which incorporates and advances the methodological advantages of existing assessment techniques. It tests the applicability of this approach in tourism by conducting a holistic analysis of a standard holiday package to Portugal, based on the British tourism market. The new approach demonstrates the significance of the ‘indirect’ GHG emissions in the total carbon footprint from the holiday package, thus emphasising the necessity for more comprehensive future assessments.     

Environmental assessment of electrification of road transport in Norway: Scenarios and impacts

The study develops scenarios regarding the introduction of electric vehicles to the passenger vehicle fleet of Norway to reach the 2020 Norwegian greenhouse gas reduction target and a more extreme target to limit global temperature increase to two degrees. A process-based life cycle assessment approach is integrated with a temporally variable inventory model to evaluate the environmental impacts of these scenarios. We find that greenhouse gases in the reference scenario increase by 10% in 2020 in comparison to 2012; while for the more intensive improvements in conventional vehicles, this increase is reduced to 2%. For electric vehicles deployment scenarios, although the fleet share will reduce the tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions by 8–26%, with the upper end representing the two-degree reduction target, emissions reductions over the entire life cycle are only 3–15%. Electric vehicles also reduce emissions of NO_x, SO₂ and particulates reducing acidification, smog formation and particulate formation impacts, however, with addition of large numbers of electric vehicles significant trade-offs in toxicity impacts are found.     

Time-based life-cycle assessment for environmental policymaking: Greenhouse gas reduction goals and public transit

As decision-makers increasingly embrace life-cycle assessment (LCA) and target transportation services for regional environmental goals, it becomes imperative that outcomes from changes to transportation infrastructure systems are accurately estimated. Greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies have created interest in better understanding how public transit systems reduce emissions. Yet the use of average emission factors (e.g., grams CO₂e per distance traveled) persists as the state-of-the-art masking the variations in emissions across time, and confounding the ability to accurately estimate the environmental effects from changes to transit infrastructure and travel behavior. An LCA is developed of the Expo light rail line and a competing car trip (in Los Angeles, California) that includes vehicle, infrastructure, and energy production processes, in addition to propulsion. When results are normalized per passenger kilometer traveled (PKT), life-cycle processes increase energy use and GHG emissions up to 83%, and up to 690% for smog and respiratory impact potentials. However, the use of a time-independent PKT normalization obfuscates a decision-maker’s ability to understand whether the deployment of a transit system reduces emissions below a future year policy target (e.g., 80% of 1990 emissions by 2050). The year-by-year marginal effects of the decision to deploy the Expo line are developed including reductions in automobile travel. The time-based marginal results provide clearer explanations for how environmental effects in a region change and the critical life-cycle processes that should be targeted to achieve policy targets. It shows when environmental impacts payback and how much reduction is achieved by a policy-specified future year.     

长三角一体化框架下新建苏州机场的战略价值

本文从坚持以人民为中心的发展立场、解决不平衡不充分发展问题、融入国内国际双循环、构建更高水平一体化的城市—区域、综合交通体系建设以及机场布局规划制度创新等多个维度,阐述了长三角一体化背景下规划新建苏州机场的战略价值和社会实践意义。     

整体式桥台-H形钢桩基-土相互作用水平变形机理研究

整体桥因整体性、抗震性、行车舒适性而被广泛应用。为了能吸纳整体桥在温度、地震作用下的水平往复变形,实际工程中其桩基主要采用H形钢桩。为深入研究整体桥H形钢桩基水平变形机理,以某整体桥为背景,开展了传统平衡土压力状态下H形钢桩-土、台后不平衡土压力下的H形钢桩-土以及整体式桥台-H形钢桩-土相互作用拟静力试验研究,分析对比了H形钢桩桩身水平变形规律,滞回、耗能和骨架曲线。试验研究表明,不平衡土压力对桩身水平变形影响较大。正负向加载时,HP模型桩身水平变形较为对称,变形规律为沿埋深方向逐渐减小,接着反向增大后减小至桩底为0。对于UHP模型,正负向加载时的桩身变形不对称,其中正向加载时的变形规律为沿埋深方向逐渐减小至0,接着反向增大至最大后减小;负向加载时的变形规律则与HP模型基本相似。AHP模型桩身水平变形规律则较为复杂,其变形介于HP模型和UHP模型之间。研究还表明：HP模型的滞回曲线较为饱满和对称,而AHP模型的滞回曲线存在显著的非对称;AHP模型的承载力和耗能能力最高,但延性最低。     

基于机器学习的柴油机碳烟颗粒质量排放预测模型

基于SC7H涡轮增压柴油机试验台架,开展了非道路瞬态试验循环下的柴油机排放试验,研究了瞬态循环的工况对碳烟颗粒质量浓度的影响。收集与碳烟颗粒质量浓度相关的各类传感器数据,构建一个大型的柴油机碳烟排放数据集。构建LGB梯度树模型和循环神经网络模型,采用数据集对它们进行训练,然后采用自学习算法对两种模型进行融合,获得一个更高准确度的预测碳烟质量排放融合模型。预测与实测结果的比较表明,构建的融合模型能较为准确地预测柴油机排放的即DPF入口的碳烟质量浓度实时变化,为柴油机后处理过程中碳载量的准确计算以及控制策略的开发提供参考。     

干湿循环作用下砂岩力学特性及能量损伤演化

内陆港口砂岩地基在水的循环作用下,岩石力学性能劣化,威胁港口地基的长期稳定性。为探究砂岩在干湿循环作用下的力学特性及能量损伤,开展不同干湿循环次数下的三轴压缩试验。结果表明:随着干湿循环作用的增强,砂岩力学性能指标逐渐衰减,当循环次数达到15次时,衰减幅度基本收敛;砂岩峰值强度、残余强度、弹性模量和变形模量的劣化度累积具有相似规律,干湿循环0~8次时累积速率较快,循环次数达到15次时累积速率放缓;在应力作用下,岩石吸收总能量随着应变增长而逐渐递增,耗散能累积主要集中在岩石破坏阶段。能量耗散导致损伤发展,损伤变量与耗散能走势较为一致。     

盐冻融条件下热再生混合料水稳定性及细观特性研究

对热再生混合料进行不同浓度盐溶液10次冻融循环试验,并采用4%盐溶液进行重复冻融循环试验,分析溶液浓度及冻融次数对热再生混合料空隙率和TSR(冻融劈裂强度比)的影响;同时,采用CT扫描手段分析冻融循环作用对混合料内部孔隙分布的影响。结果表明:经过10次盐冻融循环后,0、2%、4%及6%浓度盐溶液条件下空隙率增加程度分别为2.9%、7.5%、13.0%和12.6%;冻融7次以后空隙率增大幅度明显变大,其TSR不断下降,这说明随着冻融循环次数的继续增加混合料内部沥青与集料的黏结作用受到破坏;固液交替产生的膨胀应力、温度应力及盐溶液对集料-沥青界面的共同破坏作用导致混合料内部孔隙发生变化,体积在0~20mm3范围内孔隙数目明显减少,而体积在20~40mm^3范围内的空隙明显增加。     

基于西安市工况的纯电动汽车仿真分析

文章基于聚类分析结果,使用比功率分布方法构建出西安市2路公交线路拥堵、比较通畅、通畅三类工况和综合行驶工况。基于Cruise搭建纯电动汽车整车模型,并基于所建综合行驶工况对纯电动汽车进行仿真分析。     

Cost-benefit analysis of alternative vehicles in the Philippines using immediate and distant future scenarios

Alternative vehicle technologies promise a sustainable future by reducing carbon emissions and pollution. However, their widespread adoption tends to be slow due to high costs and uncertainties in benefits. Using a life cycle-based approach, this study calculates ownership savings and societal benefits for various alternative vehicle technologies against their baseline vehicle technology (e.g. gasoline or diesel). The assessment is performed from a developing country context – in the Philippines. Furthermore, immediate and distant future scenarios are modeled. The immediate future scenario assesses costs and benefits if the shift is to happen now, while the distant future scenario considers the effect of widespread autonomous driving and ridesharing. The results of the study echo the significant societal benefits from electric- and fuel cell-powered vehicles found in literature, but they are hindered by high ownership costs. In the immediate future, the diesel hybrid electric vehicle can potentially have both positive societal and operational costs for public transportation. For a gasoline-powered private passenger car, a simple shift to diesel, 20% biodiesel or 85% methanol can be beneficial. In the distant future, it is expected that autonomous, rideshared vehicles can potentially lure people away from driving their own vehicles, because of lower costs per passenger-kilometer while sustaining the privacy and comfort of a private car.