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Environmentally Conscious Transportation by Myer Kutz Hard Cover 2008 350 Pages
The Last Days of Steam in Berkshire by Kevin Robertson Hard Cover 2008 350 Pages
Many readers will approach the volumes in the Wiley Series in Environmentally Conscious Engineering with some degree of familiarity with, knowledge about, or even expertise in, one or more of a range of environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution, and waste. Such capabilities may be useful for readers of this series, but they aren't strictly necessary, for the purpose of this series is not to help engineering practitioners and managers deal with the effects of man-induced environmental change. Nor is it to argue about whether such effects degrade the environment only marginally or to such an extent that civilization as we know it is in peril, or that any effects are nothing more than a scientific-establishment-and-media-driven hoax and can be safely ignored. (Authors of a plethora of books, even including fiction, and an endless list of articles in scientific and technical journals, have weighed in on these matters, of course.) On the other hand, this series of engineering books does take as a given that the overwhelming majority in the scientific community is correct, and that the future of civilization depends on minimizing environmental damage from industrial, as well as personal, activities. At the same time, the series does not advocate solutions that emphasize only curtailing or cutting back on these activities. Instead, its purpose is to exhort and enable engineering practitioners and managers to reduce environmental impacts-to engage, in other words, in environmentally conscious engineering, a catalog of practical technologies and techniques that can improve or modify just about anything engineers do, whether they are involved in designing something, making something, obtaining or manufacturing materials and chemicals with which to make something, generating power, or transporting people and freight.
Increasingly, engineering practitioners and managers need to know how to respond to challenges of integrating environmentally conscious technologies, techniques, strategies, and objectives into their daily work, and, thereby, find opportunities to lower costs and increase profits while managing to limit environmental impacts. Engineering practitioners and managers also increasingly face challenges in complying with changing environmental laws. So companies seeking a competitive advantage and better bottom lines are employing environmentally responsible practices to meet the demands of their stakeholders, who now include not only owners and stockholders, but also customers, regulators, employees, and the larger, even worldwide community.
Engineering professionals need references that go far beyond traditional primers that cover only regulatory compliance. They need integrated approaches centered on innovative methods and trends in design, manufacturing, power generation, transportation, and materials handling that help them focus on using environmentally friendly processes. They need resources that help them participate in strategies for designing environmentally responsible products, methods, and processes-resources that provide a foundation for understanding and implementing principles of environmentally conscious engineering.
To help engineering practitioners and managers meet these needs, I envisioned a flexibly connected series of edited books, each devoted to a broad topic under the umbrella of environmentally conscious engineering. The series started with three volumes that are closely linked-environmentally conscious mechanical design, environmentally conscious manufacturing, and environmentally conscious materials and chemicals processing. The series has continued with another set of linked volumes-a volume on environmentally conscious alternative energy production and this volume on environmentally conscious transportation. Two other volumes in this second linked set are in the works-environmentally conscious materials handling and environmentally conscious conventional energy production.
The intended audience for the series is practicing engineers and upper-level students in a number of areas-mechanical, chemical, industrial, manufacturing, plant, environmental, civil, and transportation-as well as engineering managers. This audience is broad and multidisciplinary. Some of the practitioners who make up this audience are concerned with design, some with manufacturing and processing, some with the everyday aspects of energy production and moving people and goods, and others with economics and setting and implementing corporate and public policies. These practitioners work in a wide variety of organizations, including institutions of higher learning, design, manufacturing, and consulting firms, as well as federal, state and local government agencies. So what made sense in my mind was a series of relatively short books, rather than a single, enormous book, even though the topics in each of the smaller volumes have linkages and some of the topics might be suitably contained in more than one freestanding volume. In this way, each volume is targeted at a particular segment of the broader audience. At the same time, a linked series is appropriate because every practitioner, researcher, and bureaucrat can't be an expert on every topic, especially in so broad and multidisciplinary a field, and may need to read an authoritative summary on a professional level of a subject that he or she is not intimately familiar with but may need to know about for a number of different reasons.
The Wiley Series in Environmentally Conscious Engineering is composed of practical references for engineers who are seeking to answer a question, solve a problem, reduce a cost, or improve a system or facility. These books are not research monographs. The purpose is to show readers what options are available in a particular situation and which option they might choose to solve problems at hand. I want these books to serve as a source of practical advice to readers.
I would like them to be the first information resource a practicing engineer reaches for when faced with a new problem or opportunity-a place to turn to even before turning to other print sources, even any officially sanctioned ones, or to sites on the Internet. So the books have to be more than references or collections of background readings. In each chapter, readers should feel that they are in the hands of an experienced consultant who is providing sensible advice that can lead to beneficial action and results.
The fifth volume in the series, Environmentally Conscious Transportation, is an important reference for environmental, civil, transportation, mechanical, and industrial engineers, as well as public policy planners and officials. This book examines the societal costs of transportation in their broadest sense, both environmental and economic. The book's contributors discuss a wide range of transportation modes, from private automobiles, with a separate chapter on biofuels, to heavy trucks and buses, to rail and public transportation systems, to aircraft. This book also focuses on pollution from both ground vehicles and aircraft, traffic congestion management, and transportation infrastructure management, with special attention paid to life-cycle assessment (LCA).
I asked the contributors, located in the United States and the United Kingdom, to provide short statements about the contents of their chapters and why the chapters are important. Here are their responses:
Lester B. Lave (Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), who, together with Michael Griffin, contributed Chapter 1, The Economic and Environmental Footprints of Transportation, writes, "This chapter explores the marvelous achievement of modern passenger and freight transport systems. We are reliably transported halfway around the world in less than a day for hundreds of dollars and enjoy fresh fruit delivered from half a world away for a few cents. Technology advances and market competition have produced a $500 billion per year industry (5% of GDP) that employs three million workers. The market competition does not deal with the externalities of these systems, such as the social costs of imported oil for fuel, associated carbon dioxide emissions, air and water pollution, and injuries and deaths. Transportation consumes 7 percent of the 100 quadrillion Btus used by the U.S. economy, consuming a much larger proportion of total petroleum. We quantify the direct resource use and effects, as well as the full life cycle (extraction to disposal) of the transport systems. The total externalities of the sector were $118 billion in 2000, 23 percent of the total revenue of the sector. On a life-cycle basis, externalities are only 13 percent of total revenue, since transportation has larger externalities than the systems that support it."
Michael D. Meyer (Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta), who contributed Chapter 2, Public Transportation and the Environment, writes, "Public transit systems are often viewed as one of the most important strategies for minimizing environmental impacts from transportation systems. By providing an alternative to the use of the automobile, transit services can reduce the overall level of vehicle-related emissions in a metropolitan area. Over the long term, effective transit services can also influence where businesses and households locate in a metropolitan area. Thus, it is not surprising that in many developed countries, land-use policies go hand-in-hand with transit investment. At the individual station level, incentives to encourage transit-oriented development have become a prerequisite to successful land developments.
"This chapter examines the linkage between public transportation systems and environmental impacts. This relationship relates not only to the potential substitution of transit mobility for that based on private auto use, but also to the environmental impacts that occur when transit infrastructure is built. In addition, transit operations can create environmental impacts as well, such as, noise, air emissions, water quality impacts, and vibrations. Mitigating the impacts of guideway or station construction and transit operations is necessary, but not the sole component of a true environmentally conscious transit program. As described in this chapter, environmentally conscious transit should be linked strongly to urban design, community development, and management of the daily operations of the transit agency. By so doing, public transit can become a major contributor to the much broader goal of developing sustainable communities."
Mohan M. Venigalla (George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia), who contributed Chapter 3, Transportation and Air Quality, writes, "Transportation sources contribute heavily to the poor quality of ambient air. Presented in this chapter are discussions on National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), air quality designations and the basis for those designations. This chapter also presents an overview of the air quality management, with specific emphasis on managing the contribution from the transportation sources. Strategies outlined include emission control at the source (vehicle), fuel and transportation planning levels."
Mark A. Delucchi (University of California, Davis), who contributed Chapter 4, The Social Cost of Motor Vehicle Use in the United States, writes, "The social cost of motor vehicle use includes all of the public, private, environmental, and energy costs of using motor vehicles. Analyses of the social cost of motor vehicle use usually excite considerable interest, if only because nearly all of us use motor vehicles. Researchers have performed social-cost analyses for a variety reasons, and have used them in a variety of ways, to support a wide range of policy positions. Some researchers have used social-cost analyses to argue that motor vehicles and gasoline are terrifically underpriced, while others have used them to downplay the need for drastic policy intervention in the transportation sector.
"My colleagues at the University of California and I have done a detailed analysis of some of the costs of motor vehicle use in the United States. We explain the purpose of estimating the total social cost of motor vehicle use, briefly review some of the pertinent research, explain the conceptual framework and cost classification, and present and discuss their cost estimates. We emphasize that while social-cost analysis can help analyze the costs and benefits of transportation projects, set efficient prices for fuels and vehicles, or prioritize research funding, it cannot tell us precisely what should be done to improve transportation systems."
Nagui M. Rouphail (North Carolina State University in Raleigh), who contributed Chapter 5, Traffic Congestion Management, writes, "This chapter presents fundamental information on measuring vehicle activity and emissions, highlights the effects of traffic congestion on emissions and air quality, discusses transportation demand and supply-oriented methods that can be implemented to mitigate those effects, and finally discusses methods for assessing the effect of the mitigation measures. With surface transportation directly accounting for 40 percent of nitrogen oxides, 56 percent of carbon monoxide and 28 percent of volatile organic compounds in the national emission inventory, issues of traffic congestion and mitigation should be high on the list of priorities for scientists, engineers, and policy makers who promulgate the need for an environmentally friendly transportation system."
Andrew Burke (University of California, Davis), who contributed Chapter 6, Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Design and Performance, writes, "Electric and hybrid vehicles, including fuel cell vehicles, are expected to be key new technologies for the design and commercialization of ultra-clean and energy efficient vehicles in the future. Whether these new technologies are successfully commercialized and when that commercialization is likely to occur depends both on technical progress and the resultant vehicle performance and on the cost of the various advanced vehicles compared to conventional ICE vehicles. In this chapter, both performance and cost of the various technologies are assessed and cost estimates are given from which the relative attractiveness of vehicles using the various technologies can be judged. Relationships are presented from which the greenhouse gas emissions of the advanced vehicles using petroleum, electricity, hydrogen, and biomass-based fuels can be calculated."
Walter W. Olson (The University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio), who contributed Chapter 7, Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles, together with Amin Mohaghegh Motlagh, Mohammad Abuhaiba, and Mohammad H. Elahinia, writes, "A major contributor to today's environmental footprint of transportation is heavy vehicles including trucks and buses. The needs of mass transportation of people and goods require the use of large vehicles with high power densities. To achieve these power densities, these vehicles are almost uniformly powered by large diesel engines. While much work has been performed on reducing emissions and improving fuel economy of the diesel engines through better control of the combustion process, further achievements will be made through hybridization of the powertrain. But today's research in the electric hybridization of light vehicles, mainly passenger cars, cannot be directly applied to heavy vehicles because of the large differences in power density needed. This requires an alternative path to heavy vehicle hybridization, a path provided by the use of hydraulics and fluid power.
"With the exception of engineers directly in the design and maintenance areas of work vehicles and agriculture, this technology is little understood by transportation and environmental engineers in general. This chapter provides access to the concepts and devices of fluid power to transportation and environmental engineers. In addition, this chapter allows practitioners and problem solvers in environmentally conscious transportation to see how to make choices to improve the environment while considering large vehicle needs."
Aaron Smith (Texas A&M University in College Station), who contributed Chapter 8, Biofuels for Transportation, together with Cesar Granda and Mark Holtzapple, writes, "The dominate biofuels known today (ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen), as well as other less well-known biofuels, are reviewed objectively with regard to key topics such as biomass source, manufacturing methods, quality standards, vehicle use, performance, emissions, distribution, safety, subsidy, and fuel availability. The focus of the chapter is to present the "big picture" surrounding each biofuel with quantitative and qualitative data presented to compare biofuels to petroleum. An environmentally conscious future will need biofuels to become independent from fossil fuels, address global warming, improve emissions, and help rural economies."
Gerardo W. Flintsch (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg), who contributed Chapter 9, Life-Cycle Assessment of Transportation Infrastructure, writes, "This chapter discusses the use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool for sustainable transportation infrastructure management. The strategic, network, and project-level decisions supported by transportation infrastructure asset management have many technical, economic, social, and environmental impacts over the life-cycle of the transportation infrastructure.
"The assessment of these impacts over the whole life of infrastructure systems is necessary for making informed decisions on how to define policies, allocate resources, select projects, and/or design and construct these projects in a sustainable manner. Therefore, to support sustainable development, transportation asset management decisions should be constructed over three pillars: economic development, ecological sustainability, and social desirability. Current practice typically includes the consideration of technical and economic issues through life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA).
"Environmental aspects are increasingly being considered though LCA, and although the inclusion of social aspects is in its infancy, they should not be neglected. The consideration of environmental and social goals in conjunction with economic considerations promises to enhance transportation infrastructure asset management while promoting sustainable transportation infrastructure systems."
Sue McNeil (University of Delaware in Newark), who contributed Chapter 10, Pavement and Bridge Management and Maintenance, writes, "This chapter introduces the concept of asset management and then reviews opportunities for integrating environmental issues into the asset management framework. The chapter concludes with a brief case study based in New Zealand. The relationship between asset management and the environment is particularly important in the context of sustainable practices and the full life-cycle cost of various strategies."
Victoria Williams (Imperial College in London, United Kingdom), who contributed Chapter 11, Impacts of the Aviation Sector on the Environment, writes, "Air transport has transformed the way the world interacts, but not without environmental consequences. Chapter 11 discusses these impacts, focusing on aviation's share in climate change, noise nuisance, and poor air quality. For each of these, the decisions and practices that contribute to the impact and to its mitigation are explored. Other environmental issues relating to aircraft and airport systems are also discussed. The chapter highlights the challenge of comparing and prioritizing the environmental impacts of aviation and the difficult balance between social benefits and environmental costs for this rapidly growing industry."
That ends the contributors' comments. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of them for having taken the opportunity to work on this book. Their lives are terribly busy, and it is wonderful that they found the time to write thoughtful and complex chapters. I developed the book because I believed it could have a meaningful impact on the way many engineers approach their daily work, and I am gratified that the contributors thought enough of the idea that they were willing to participate in the project. Thanks also to my editor, Bob Argentieri, for his faith in the project from the outset. And a special note of thanks to my wife, Arlene, whose constant support keeps me going.
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