Multi-criteria decision-making in decarbonizing urban transportation systems: A case study from Tabriz-Iran

• Published in: Transportation research. Part D, Transport and environment Transport and environment, 2023-09, Vol.122, p.103854, Article 103854
• Main Authors: Ouria, Mahmoud, Delgado, Joaquim, Moura, Pedro, de Almeida, Aníbal T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decarbonization; Electrification; Multi-criteria decision making; Sustainable cities; Sustainable development; Transportation
• ISSN: 1361-9209; 1879-2340
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2023.103854

•Application of solar energy according to land use/land cover map.•Electrification of transportation sectors based on local renewable energies.•Comparison of conversion and storage efficiencies of different energy forms in transportation.•Reducing transportation and urban environmental impacts.•Multi-criteria decision-making of sustainable transportation based on sustainable development pillars. The main aim of this paper is the decarbonization of the transportation sector in Tabriz City regarding sustainable development aims and beyond-2-degrees-scenario by focusing on electric vehicles, as well as on appropriate infrastructures. Quantitative and simulation research methods are used to analysis of total energy, exergy, and losses analysis according to different resources and vehicles. Next, the solar potential of the city is simulated using the Grasshopper plug-in-Rhino simulator and PVsyst software. A LULC analysis has been done using ArcMap 10.8. With renewable electrification, energy consumption will plunge from 15.5 TWh input-energy content of different carbon-based resources to 3.7 TWh with 0.17 MtonCO2/year instead of 2.13 MtonCO2/year emissions. In this paper, the overall system efficiency of electric vehicles is around 55% which is significantly higher than internal combustion engines. Fully electrification of the transportation systems based on renewable resources mitigates CO2 emissions of internal combustion engines 15 times, besides reducing the emissionsa variety of harmful pollutants. In terms of multi-criteria decision-making, the technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution was used to rank 50 popular vehicles according to interconnected sustainable development criteria. This paper highlights that conventional internal combustion engines can be replaced by electric vehicles by applying combination of appropriate taxes, tariffs, and incentives.