Using GIS tools to estimate CO2 emissions related to the accessibility of large retail stores in the Oulu region, Finland

Heidi Määttä-Juntunen, Harri Antikainen, Ossi Kotavaara and Jarmo Rusanen

Journal of Transport Geography, 2011, vol. 19, issue 2, 346-354

Abstract: Everyday traffic accounts for a significant share of overall greenhouse gas emissions, in particular carbon dioxide (CO2). While several solutions have been proposed for decreasing the emissions, a new kind of land use planning is required in order to achieve long-term effects. This study focuses on the effect of large retail store locations in the urban structure on overall CO2 emissions, by using the Oulu region, Finland, as a case study. The aim was to utilize GIS tools to assess store locations in terms of CO2 emissions from private cars used for consumer traffic. In this case, not only are the locations of the existing and planned retail units investigated with respect to population distribution and car ownership, but the analysis is also carried out by regarding any location within the study area as a hypothetical site for a large retail unit. According to the applied method, CO2 values are lowest near the centre of the studied region, the region with the highest population density, although the city centre itself did not turn out to be the most optimal location for a retail store in terms of CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, by generally reducing trip length, a compact urban structure is an important way of achieving long-term cuts in CO2 emissions.

Keywords: Sustainability; Carbon dioxide emissions; Geographic information system (GIS); Large retail units; Finland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692310000335

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:19:y:2011:i:2:p:346-354

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2010.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().