A software tool for accurate assessment of costs and CO2 emissions in wood transport using OpenStreetMap©

Abstract

Costs and environmental impacts are key elements in forest logistics and they must part of decision-making. The evaluation of transportation fuel costs and carbon emissions depend on spatial and non-spatial data but in many cases the first type of data are difficult to obtain. On the other hand, the availability of software tools to evaluate with rigor transportation fuel quantities and costs and emissions of carbon dioxide is limited. We present a software tool that combines two empirical validated models of truck transportation using DEM and an open spatial data tool, specifically OpenStreetMap^©. The tool provides outputs such as maps with distribution of transport performance (relation between beeline and real road distances), cost and CO₂ emissions for four types of truck. These outputs can be successfully included in forest decision-making support systems. Finally, in this work we applied the tool in a particular case of forest logistics in northeaster Portugal.