Development of an emission inventory system from transport in Greece

In Greece, to date, a detailed emission inventory database from transport is not available. The Greek Ministry for the Environmental Physical Planning and Public Works has financed an “Emission Inventory System from Transport” (EIST). The EIST aims to be the first detailed and well-structured national emission database from transport (road, rail, air and sea transport and also off-road activities), focusing on the best-input datasets available, the most advanced pollutant emission algorithms and the highest spatial and temporal resolutions. The EIST can also be used as a decision support system (DSS) for environmental planning and development, as it is possible to examine the environmental effects of various “emission scenarios” which result from the application of different environmental measures and policies. The EIST was developed in distributed software fashion technology for “Windows 2000”. Its architecture involves an integrated framework of GIS and RDBMS technology systems equipped with interactive communication capabilities between peripheral software tools. In the present paper, the structure of the system is presented with emphasis on the emission calculation methodology applied. In order to illustrate the functionalities of the system, emission results, primarily derived from the geographical information system, are presented and some initial conclusions regarding the emissions from the transport sector in Greece are drawn.