Proposal of a policy for reducing CO2 emissions by employing the landuse-transport-environment model in an urban area

In 1997, at COP3 held in Kyoto, Japan, many countries in the world committed themselves to reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the necessity for the reduction of greenhouse gases, the Japanese government has requested that concrete action plans be carried-out by local governments in Japan. However strategic objectives, along with schemes and action plans, have not yet been proposed by Japanese local governments. In this study, a comprehensive system of Landuse-Transport-Environment is proposed in order to estimate CO2 emissions of present and future situations using the landuse model and transport network analysis. By employing this system, the CO2 emissions of present and future situations can be estimated. In this way, several urban policies can be simulated and evaluated in order to achieve levels set at COP3. As one of the case studies, a comprehensive CO 2 estimation system is carried out in the urban area of Tokushima-city, Japan, which has a population of a quarter of a million. As a result of the simulation of a "do nothing" policy to reduce CO 2 emissions, the rate of increase of CO2 emissions in sector of motor vehicles of Tokushima-city's urban area from 1990 to 2010 would be about 59%. We also found that with policies which were combined following such actions as road improvement, Transport Demand Management and improvement of fuel efficiency are necessary to achieve the target level of CO2 emissions proposed at COP3. Sponsors: Wessex Institute of Technology, UK