Population Distribution And Transportation Energy Consumption And The Related Carbon Emissions Research

Energy consumption of traffic, along with the carbon dioxide emitted mutually interacts with population distribution. Based on characteristics of population distribution, well-planned transportation facilities are to help reduce both energy consumption and carbon emissions. Therefore, it can be of far-reaching significance to explore the relationship between population distribution and energy consumption of traffic.There are two expressions of population distribution, namely static and dynamic distribution. Static population distribution has resulted in uneven traffic density, which is closely linked with driving distance whilst dynamic distribution of population has led to fluctuations in traffic volume. Driving distance and the volume of traffic are the two major reasons leading to the growth of energy consumption of traffic. This article, evolving from the two logical clues mentioned above is meant to quantify the interaction between population distribution and energy consumption of traffic on land as well as the carbon emissions produced by both.The theoretical significance of this study is:the author extends the theory and methods of demographic analysis to exploring the impact of the energy consumption of traffic and variation mechanism. The study covers a range from static population to traffic density, from dynamic population to traffic, and at last to the effect of transportation energy consumption and carbon emissions, taking both population and energy into consideration.The main achievements includeFollowing two threads of static and dynamic population distribution, this study is to quantify the relationship between population distribution and energy consumption of traffic;According to the degree of coordination between transportation development and population distribution, the32provincial administrative regions are divided into six regions, and in turn the traffic characteristics of various regions are to be discussed resprectively;Distribution laws are summarized by comparing the2862county-level cities’transportation accessibility indes with distribution of population;By adjusting and verifying accounting methods of transportation energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions related, the study presents a preliminary estimation of the national road and rail transport energy consumption that in2008, about217.51million tons of standard coal are consumed, about421.01million tons of carbon dioxide are emitted.In this study, energy consumption of traffic produced by transportation between Shanghai and the various provinces are calculated for the first time. Taking Shanghai as the receive end, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, the two major coal-producing provinces rank high on the list (19.2thousand and16.4thousand tons of standard coal respectively). When Shanghai is viewed as the starting point of transportation, traffic from Xinjiang and Sichuan provinces, which are far away, claim the greatest energy consumption with21.3thousand and18.7thousand tons of standard coal.