Air Quality and Environment Division

Environmental Modeling Program

We at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI) Environmental Modeling Program are experts in data analysis, emissions inventory development, and air quality modeling. The program has been at the forefront of developing procedures and tools to estimate detailed emissions inventories for transportation conformity, state implementation plans (SIPs), and other regulatory planning or policy purposes. We have been providing technical support on conformity to the Texas mobile source working group, which includes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), State agencies, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and other stakeholders, for decades.

Whether a project involves developing a customized emissions modeling tool, conducting data analysis, building a statistical model for forecasting, or air quality modeling, the researchers in our program have a proven track record of generating quality-assured solutions to real-world problems and meeting our sponsors’ requirements.

Program Expertise and Capabilities

Emissions Modeling and Tool Development

We develop emission and energy estimates, and estimation procedures and tools used in Texas SIP development and transportation conformity demonstration.

Air Quality Modeling

We have years of experience working on EPA or EPA-approved emissions and dispersion models, such as MOVES, NONROAD, AEDT, AERMOD, CAL3QHC, CALINE, and CAMx

Data Analysis and Statistical Modeling

We build visualization tools and statistical models to evaluate factors impacting emissions, analyze historical air pollution trends, and forecast future air pollution levels.

A Snippet of Project Experience

Aside from providing technical assistance in demonstrating transportation conformity, aiding in the development of SIP, periodic, and trend emission inventories for on-road, rail, and airport sectors, our program also has experience in numerous supporting studies, including but not limited to:

  • Developing automated tools/procedures to evaluate, estimate, and improve emissions inventories for the on-road, rail, and airport sectors.
  • Building tools to process micro and mesoscale simulation outputs and assess emissions and energy impact of alternative transportation scenarios.
  • Developing a framework for assessing the impacts of the electric vehicle implementation scenarios on energy demand and emissions for criteria air pollutants and greenhouse gases.
  • Conducting mobile source air toxics, project-level screening, and hot-spot analyses.
  • Developing programmatic agreements, backed by extensive air quality technical studies, to minimize the sponsor burden on the implementation of transportation projects.
  • Conducting data analysis on various air quality and telematics/probe data sets in improving transportation and air quality analysis and inventories.
  • Developing guidance and resources for transportation air quality practitioners to understand and evaluate mobile source emissions reduction strategies.
  • Building custom output-based and sketch planning tools for streamlining the emissions inventory process and meeting congestion mitigation and air quality (CMAQ) reporting requirements.
  • Conducting dispersion modeling studies for CO screening, PM hot-spot analyses, exposure, and health impact assessments.