David Wyatt

Graduated with an interdisciplinary MSc/PhD in the Doctoral Training Centre for Low Carbon Technologies

Project Title: Coupled Traffic Micro-Simulation and Instantaneous Emissions Model – CO2 Emission Scenarios for UK Road Vehicle Transport Strategies

Traffic micro-simulation models coupled with instantaneous emission models have the potential to provide improved assessments of the environmental impact of traffic networks, management strategies and technology implementations. Predictions of vehicle emissions (CO2, NOx, CO etc.) using current ‘average-speed’ tools do not adequately consider: local speed profiles / driver behaviour or the benefits of smoothing traffic flow by environmental traffic management strategies.

Emerging instantaneous emission models are able to consider for any given speed profile, the influence of road gradient, vehicle loading, engine speed and gear selection on fuel consumption and emissions for Heavy and Light-duty vehicles. These instantaneous emission models require speed trajectories (or profiles) as input, which can either be obtained from tracking systems or are an output from traffic micro-simulation models.

The aim of my PhD is to further the development, calibration and validation of a coupled traffic micro-simulator and instantaneous emission model (developed by the ITS and Technical University of Graz in Austria), focusing on vehicle CO2 emission, in order to address recognised deficiencies in available traffic-emission modelling methods. This coupled model will then be utilised to provide improved assessments of the environmental impact of traffic networks, management strategies and vehicle technology developments.

In conjunction with this work in ITS, the PhD will include a multidisciplinary element based in the Leeds Institute of Communications studies. This portion of the project will seek to understand the mechanisms by which transport research / policy is being translated and disseminated to the public.

My background includes a BSc in Business Mathematics and Statistics from the London School of Economics, graduating in 2004.  I then spent several years working for Deutsche Bank’s Commodities Operations Group before undertaking an MSc in Climate Change with the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit which I completed in August 2008.