System Dynamics Model of Interaction Between Transportation Sector and Air Pollution for an Urban Region

Urban regions are the developed areas having high density of human settlement. These regions are considered as the drivers of country’s progress. The economic activities in these regions boost development but at the same time give rise to numerous problems. Among them, controlling air pollution is one of the major challenges faced by many urban centres. The diverse economic sectors operating in these urban regions contributing different air pollutants to the environment include, Transportation sector, Industrial sector, Power plants, Domestic sector, Construction sector and other Miscellaneous activities. To understand the complex dynamics of air pollution, it is needed to study the relationship between these individual sectors and the environment. Each of these sectors has different variables which are interdependent, and their cyclic behaviour determines the dynamics of the system. In this regard, the paper focuses on studying the interaction between vehicular emission and air pollution for an urban region using (SD) system dynamics approach. This research is based on identifying the variables which constitute the system, forming a causal relationship between these variables and studying the impact of change in these relationships over time on the whole system. In addition to this, the paper also highlights the effects of different policies applied to transportation sector particularly vehicular emission to curb air pollution.