Optimization of housing allocation and transport emissions using continuum modeling approach

Abstract

The impact of vehicle emissions on the global climate has drawn increasing concern in the past few decades. Patterns of housing development determine travel behaviors, thus affecting transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. Here, a bi-level model is established to describe the relationships among housing allocation, traffic volume, and CO2 emissions using a continuum modeling approach. The user-equilibrium condition is achieved in the lower-level, and the minimum CO2 emissions are obtained by optimization the housing allocation in the upper-level. A hypothetical city is considered with one central business district (CBD) and a road network that is densely distributed outside of the CBD. Several commuter classes with different values of time are considered. The finite element method, the Newton-Raphson algorithm, and the convex combination approach are applied to solve the constrained optimization problem established in the bi-level model. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.