Local environmental impact assessment as decision support for the introduction of electromobility in urban public transport systems

Abstract The urban transport sector offers a noteworthy potential for the reduction of national greenhouse gas emissions as well as local pollutant emissions such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter if electric drive systems are increasingly used. Owing to the fact that electric busses are still in the development phase, higher investment costs have evolved for public transport providers. Hence, decision making about where to introduce electric bus lines is mainly characterized by economic as well as technological considerations. The integration of local or regional ecological aspects is often neglected. An interdisciplinary approach was applied to the bus network of an urban public transport provider. By combining spatial-analytical techniques and statistical methods, the local environmental relief potential of electric busses has been evaluated. The results show that due to their specific line characteristics and the frequency of service, two bus lines out of 28 are particularly suitable for the introduction of electromobility in Dresden, Germany. The presented scientific work contributes to the extension of environmental assessments and decision making tools by including the spatial dimension of environmental impacts. It increases the practical relevance, especially for management decisions of political and entrepreneurial stakeholders by providing a sensible decision basis for local or regional infrastructure projects.