Principal Investigator: Dr. Jennifer Jenkins (Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources)
Funding Agency: US DOT
The objective project is to develop the "Vermont Integrated Land Use and Transportation Carbon Estimator". The estimator will be used by regional transportation planners and will advance the current state of the practice by considering directly the greenhouse gas (GHG) implications of alternative land use strategies. Currently, only GHGs from tailpipe emissions are estimated using existing transportation demand forecasting models. While land use arrangement indirectly affects the amount of travel and thus GHG emissions, land use also has a direct impact as well (forest versus parking lot for example).
For input, the team will be guided by the typical and readily available datasets used by regional planners. The calculator or estimator will be deployed on the web with expert guidance from RSG Inc.
Project Overview (PDF, March 2010)