3D-mapping optimization of embodied energy of transportation
Introduction
Over 80% of our global energy needs are met by the combustion of fossil fuels (Ristinen and Kraushaar, 1999) and by far the most important type of energy source for the functioning of our global economy is petroleum (Yergin, 1992). During the past 40 years, the number of newly found oil reserves has been slowly diminishing (Bentley, 2002). Some energy analysts warn that globally, society is approaching “peak oil”, where the maximum long-term rate of extraction and depletion of conventional petroleum is reached (although the exact time of peak oil is hotly debated). There are still billions of barrels of oil left underground, and as the price of oil climbs, when supply cannot meet demand, other vast sources of petroleum will become economically exploitable (e.g. Alberta has about 178 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in oil sands (National Energy Board, 2005)). Unfortunately, this does not present a solution, because the emissions from burning these fuels would represent an unacceptable risk to the vitality of the earth because of global climate destabilization and thermal forcing (Hansen et al., 2000, Hoffert et al., 2002, Rose, 1979, Thomas et al., 2004). It is now clear that there needs to be more attention paid to how the fossil fuels are being used, particularly for transportation and more rapid adoption of methods to reduce fossil fuel combustion.
The recent development of Google Earth, a geographical information service that provides satellite imagery and three-dimensional (3D) data depicting the entire planet, creates an opportunity to reduce energy consumption for transportation. This paper will explore the viability of this novel and free geographic mapping service to reduce embodied energy of transportation. The embodied energy of transportation refers to the transportation component of the embodied energy, where embodied energy is the quantity of energy required to manufacture and supply to the point of use of a product, material or service. At the consumer level, Google Earth could be used to map the automobile route that uses the least fuel between two locations. It can also be used to optimize fleet vehicle routes in terms of energy and emissions for vehicles such as mail carriers, garbage or recycling collection trucks. This information for transportation energy optimization will help not only conserve fuel, but also can incorporate ecological education features geared toward changing behaviors in vehicle users. Additionally, overlays in Google Earth could be developed first nationally and then on a planet-wide basis of: (i) raw material and product availability as a function of location and (ii) modes of transportation as a function of emissions. These overlays would enable manufacturers to minimize the life cycle energy costs of their finished products by access to an easily navigable method to determine embodied energy of transportation for a given product or raw material. This same information could be utilized to develop symbiosis in industrial ecologies. Finally, this information would also be useful for architects trying to reduce the embodied energy in their designs of green buildings.
Section snippets
Background
Physical energy use and resultant emissions from combustion of fossil fuels is steadily becoming of greater importance to decision makers at both macro and micro levels. This is largely driven by the consensus among the 2004 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 1993 World Energy Council's Global Energy Scenarios to 2050, that if current trends continue in climate destabilization, our Earth will reach a point of no return (Hoffert et al., 2002). Global climate destabilization
Material studied: Google Earth as an embodied energy of transportation tool
Google Earth utilizes Keyhole Markup Language (KML), an Extensible Markup Language (XML) grammar and file format for modeling and storing geographic features, such as points, lines, images and polygons for display in the Google Earth Client. XML is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) initiative that allows information and services to be encoded with meaningful structure and semantics that both humans and computers can comprehend. Google Earth contains satellite images of the entire planet as well
Technique 1: route optimization
Currently the use of internet mapping software is growing in popularity. Sites such as http://www.maps.google.com/, http://www.maps.yahoo.com/dd, http://www.mapquest.com/, etc. offer driving directions free of charge for individuals planning trips in the U.S. and abroad. Users type in their current location and destination addresses and a map is formulated with a route and directions for travel. This information is also available for travel software packages and global positioning systems (GPS)
Route and vehicle velocity optimization
In addition to determining the optimal route, using the Google Earth program in vehicles in real time would enable drivers to chart a course that maintains their vehicle at its individual maximum fuel efficiency speed. The operating efficiency of modern automobiles is complex. For a standard automobile powered with an internal combustion engine, the efficiency of the engine improves as it accelerates from rest (0 km/h), because it uses a fixed amount of fuel to power itself and the accessories,
Technique 2: minimization of the embodied energy of transportation of products
To determine a product's environmental impact, it is necessary to perform a comprehensive life cycle analysis (LCA). LCA quantifies how much energy and raw materials are used and how much (solid, liquid, and gaseous) waste is generated at each stage of a product's life (Ayres, 1995, Pearce and Lau, 2002). Ideally, an LCA would include quantification of material and energy needed for: raw material extraction, manufacturing of all components, use requirements, generation (if any), disposal or
Specific example: shipment of pineapples from Hawaii to Clarion, Pennsylvania
To illustrate how this system would function, the transportation of 1 tonnes of pineapples was simulated from Hawaii, where almost all commercially grown pineapples that appear in the U.S. originate (USDA, 2003). The most and least energy efficient direct routes and modes of transportation were found using Google Earth and can be seen in Fig. 4. Fuel consumption and emissions varies by transportation mode. No consistent fuel efficiency standards could be found because of the wide variation in
Discussion
All of the above suggestions for functionality of the Google Earth Transportation Optimization Tool would reduce energy use. The quantitative savings for each of the suggestions is challenging to predict because the methods are based on compliance of decision makers to utilize specific routes, products, or modes of transportation with reduced embodied energy. Some more environmentally conscious drivers might alter their driving habits to closely maintain their vehicles optimal velocity, while
Conclusions
This paper completed an analysis of Google Earth, an information service that provides imagery and 3D data depicting the entire Earth, as a novel method of navigating information to conserve travel-related fuels. First, this paper showed that at the individual driver level, Google Earth could be used to map the route that uses the least fuel between two locations and enable drivers to chart a course that maintains their vehicle at its individual maximum fuel efficiency velocity. This
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank our anonymous reviewers who have provided helpful comments on the refinement of this paper.
References (63)
Life cycle analysis: A critique.
Resour Conserv Recycl
(1995)Global oil and gas depletion: an overview
Energy Policy
(2002)- et al.
A multi-objective optimization approach to urban school bus routing: formulation and solution method
Transport Res Part A: Pol Pract
(1995) - et al.
A fuzzy logic approach for the impact assessment in LCA
Resour Conserv Recycl
(2002) Cycling residues. Potential for increased transportation demands due to recycling of materials in Sweden
Resour Conserv Recycl
(1995)Photovoltaics—a path to sustainable futures
Futures
(2002)- et al.
Energy conservation from systematic tire pressure regulation
Energy Policy
(2007) - et al.
A GIS analysis of suitability for construction aggregate recycling sites using regional transportation network and population density features
Resour Conserv Recycl
(2004) - et al.
Recycling of construction debris as aggregate in the Mid-Atlantic Region, USA
Resour Conserv Recycl
(2004) - et al.
An LCA of alternative wastewater sludge treatment scenarios
Resour Conserv Recycl
(2002)
A mixed-integer linear model for optimal processing and transport of secondary materials
Resour Conserv Recycl
The application of a vehicle routing model to a waste-collection problem: two case studies
J Operat Res Soc
A continued comparison of several popular algorithms for vehicle routing and scheduling
J Business Logist
Will google help save the planet?
New Scientist
Web GIS in practice III: creating a simple interactive map of England's strategic health authorities using Google Maps API, Google Earth KML, and MSN virtual earth map control
Int J Health Geogr
The nation's freight
Enthusiast uses Google to reveal Roman ruins
Oceanography: anthropogenic carbon and ocean pH
Nature
Energy use in freight transportation
Industrial symbiosis: literature and taxonomy
Annu Rev Energy Environ
Sustainable transport planning: estimating the ecological footprint of vehicle travel in future years
J Urban Plann Dev
Industrial ecology in practice: the evolution of interdependence at Kalundborg
J Industr Ecol
Fuel and energy source codes and emission coefficients
Transportation energy consumption surveys energy used by vehicles
Vehicle-miles traveled
Threatened lose of the greenland ice-sheet
Nature
Global warming in the twenty-first century: An alternative scenario
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
Light-duty automotive technology and fuel economy trends: 1975 through 2006
Advanced technology paths to global climate stability: energy for a greenhouse planet
Science
Cited by (28)
Life cycle recurrent embodied energy calculation of buildings: A review
2019, Journal of Cleaner ProductionCitation Excerpt :While designating local materials, defining a distance from a construction site is also important. According to Pearce et al. (2007), Bilec (2007), and Morton (Morton, 1516), any material harvested, refined, and manufactured within a 500-mile radius is considered locally-sourced. However, studies such as Morton (Morton, 1516) questioned whether the distance should be fixed or perhaps even reduced from 500 miles to 250 miles.
Comparative environmental profile assessments of commercial and novel material structures for solid oxide fuel cells
2019, Applied EnergyCitation Excerpt :Four phases are required to complete a robust LCA: definition of the goal and scope, an inventory analysis, an impact assessment and finally interpretation of the results [22–25]. The two leading techniques are process based LCA and environmental input-output (EIO) LCA [13,26–34]. The Supply Chain Environmental Assessment Tool- intelligence (SCEnATi), developed by Koh et al. [35], integrates these two methodologies using a five step framework: supply chain mapping, carbon calculations, low carbon intervention, supply chain performance evaluation and informed decision making.
Application of mixed-mode research paradigms to the building sector: A review and case study towards decarbonising the built and natural environment
2017, Sustainable Cities and SocietyCitation Excerpt :On the other hand, authors such as Shafiee and Topal (2009) and a number of reports by Oil Company (British Petroleum, 2012) and international institutional agencies (EIA, 2013) submitted that global oil and gas reserves did not decline over the last few decades and that the reliability of predictions that oil and gas are diminishing are questionable. Pearce et al. (2007) reported that although billions of barrels of oil are unexploited in some regions, it is expected that, as the price of oil rises and demand outstrips supply, these huge sources of fossil fuel will become economically exploitable. For example, the US alone has a total of about 166.7 billion barrels of proved and undiscovered oil reserves (EIA, 2013; Whitney, 2010), while Alberta, Canada still boasts of roughly 178 billion barrels of established oil reserves in oil sands (Whitney, 2010).
Environmental and economic assessment of a greenhouse waste heat exchange
2011, Journal of Cleaner ProductionAn agenda for 'Green' information technology and systems research
2011, Information and OrganizationCitation Excerpt :Although all of these examples are related to IT manufacturing and have a direct positive impact on the environment, it is possible that Green IT/S applications could involve other products' design, manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life stages, as well as the entire supply chain. This would reduce other negative environmental impacts and, thus, provide an indirect positive impact (Allenby et al., 2001; Pearce, Johnson, & Grant, 2007). Examples include: an IS to help reuse and recycle material from building deconstruction (Jain et al., 2008); an IS to capture environmental data during product distribution, use and maintenance for product design improvements (Yang et al., 2007); and integrating Google Earth for fleet route optimization or shipping mode optimization (Pearce et al., 2007).