EMIT 2

Comprehensive emissions inventory toolkit

What is EMIT?

EMIT is an Emissions Inventory Tool. EMIT can be used to store, manipulate and assess emissions data from a variety of sources.

Emissions data held in EMIT can be used for:

• local air pollution studies of toxic pollutants;
• greenhouse gas emissions inventories;
• estimating emissions for use in IPPC applications; and
• road traffic noise mapping studies.

The data used in all these environmental assessments must be consistent and traceable—EMIT can help to do this.

EMIT is particularly useful for emission-reduction scenario testing, for example to investigate the effect of Low Emission Zones and Home Zones in urban areas, and ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a step towards meeting Agenda 21 or Kyoto targets.

Who uses EMIT?

All users of ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Airport are highly recommended to use EMIT to manipulate the typically large quantities of data involved in these types of modelling. ADMS-Roads users will also find that EMIT speeds up the input and manipulation of emissions data for dispersion modelling. Current users of EMIT include government bodies and local authorities across the United Kingdom and elsewhere, as well as commercial organisations and research institutions.

Why use EMIT?

Setting up an emissions inventory

It is straightforward to set up an emissions inventory in EMIT, for example for a Base Case year.

Plan your inventory

The tree-like structure of the database makes it easy to plan what sources are going to be included in your inventory, and what associated data are available.

Emissions calculations

Detailed, up-to-date emission factors allow the calculation of emissions from all source types of interest.

Validate the source data

The EMIT Mapper (or ArcView) can be used to view and assess the emissions calculated by EMIT to highlight data errors—either numerical, or geographical.

Emissions totals

Emission totals are calculated, viewed and exported to other packages for use in various environmental assessments.

Scenario testing

Once a base case emissions inventory has been set up in EMIT, it is straightforward to investigate various scenarios, for example:

Traffic management

When local authorities develop air quality action plans, an important aspect is estimating the emissions consequences of traffic management schemes. EMIT has been specifically designed to help with this task. The figure below is a schematic diagram showing an approach for investigating the effectiveness of traffic management schemes. You may want to consider the effect on emissions of:

• proposed traffic management schemes;
• the introduction of cleaner technology with time (emission factors are included for fleets up to 2025); and
• both of these together.

Greenhouse gas emission reduction scenarios

As a step towards meeting Agenda 21 or Kyoto targets, it is increasingly important to assess greenhouse gas emissions and to consider ways of reducing them. EMIT can be used to:

• calculate current greenhouse gas emissions from all source types including traffic, industry, the domestic sector and public services, using either bottom-up or top-down approaches;
• consider any changes in emissions for future years (for example CO₂ emissions from end-use electricity vary, as power is generated from different sources over time); and
• evaluate any proposed emission reduction scenarios.

Emissions from the domestic sector are of particular interest with regard to greenhouse gases. EMIT includes a module to estimate CO₂ emissions from domestic dwellings based on the Government's Standard Assessment Procedure for Energy Rating of Dwellings. This allows users to estimate CO₂ emissions by specifying five housing parameters:

• fuel type,
• space and water heating efficiency,
• house type,
• insulation (walls and roof),
• insulation (doors and windows).