Mobility and evaluation of intercity freight CO2 emissions in an urban agglomeration

Freight transportation contributes to increasing carbon emissions in the transportation sector. The CO2 emissions inherently caused by the intercity freight transportation between cities should be emphasized. This study first introduces the concepts of CO2 emission intensity (EI) based on the extraction of freight transportation information in the form of GPS trajectory data. A gravity theory-based intercity CO2 EI model is proposed, so that the driving forces of emission generation can be revealed. Then, we analyze the CO2 EI in terms of mobility characteristics, spatial auto-correlation, and influencing factors. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a typical case study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration for evaluation of an emission control policy. The findings provide a theoretical reference for analyzing the intercity connections within a regional urban agglomeration in terms of emissions, and support the implementation of feasible emission reduction strategies.