A high-resolution spatial and temporal on-road vehicle emission inventory in an Iranian metropolitan area, Isfahan, based on detailed hourly traffic data

The present study is primarily aimed to establish a detailed exhaustive emission inventory of urban motor vehicles in a medium-sized city, i.e. Isfahan. The International Vehicle Emission (IVE) model was utilized to estimate the motor vehicle Emission Factors (EFs) in different areas of Isfahan. IVE was adjusted using the results obtained by on-board real-world EF measurements. A high resolution 1 km × 1 km vehicle emission inventory for the year 2018 was then developed in a bottom-up approach. The method was employed based on the influencing factors such as the collected hourly-data on road network, traffic flow, vehicle driving cycles, and the vehicle population in Isfahan. Moreover, the variations of EFs with vehicle speed were investigated for different vehicle categories to assess the emission rates through Isfahan transportation fleet. The results showed that EFs of all pollutants emitted from vehicle exhausts usually decrease with vehicle speed. Also, gasoline vehicles have larger CO and VOCs EFs than the others, whereas vehicles fueled by diesel have the largest NO_x, SO_x, and PM₁₀ EFs. The established emission inventory revealed that the annual amount of CO, VOCs, NO_x, SO_x, and PM₁₀ emitted from Isfahan on-road mobile sources in 2018 are 267.6, 12.6, 20.3, 0.3, and 2.3 kt, respectively. The gasoline vehicles including cars and motorcycles were the main sources of CO, VOCs, and SO_x, whereas the heavy-duty vehicles and buses equipped with diesel engines were the main sources of NO_x and PM₁₀. The hourly variations of EFs ensure an acceptable consistency with the hourly variation of the traffic flow at different areas. Moreover, the high-resolution spatial distribution of vehicle emission inventory represented that emissions were concentrated on the downtown, esp. on underdeveloped historical area of the city, where the most of the governmental and administrative departments are concentrated.