An Integrated Modelling Approach for Climate Impact Assessments in the Future Air Transportation System – Findings from the WeCare Project

Abstract

In order to assess the climate impact of technological and operational measures which are introduced to the future air transportation system, the future evolution of the air transportation system must be modelled and analyzed. Within the DLR-project WeCare a modular assessment framework is implemented, which accompanies a 4-layer philosophy for a generic build-up of the passenger air traffic system of the future (Part 1). The four layers consist of the origin-destination passenger demand network, the passenger routes network, the aircraft movements network, and the trajectories network. Due to the global network layer modelling architecture on city pair level, information like how many passengers will travel between certain city-pairs, the (future) routes chosen by the passengers as well as how many aircraft and which size of aircraft will be operated on each route can be provided. Finally, information about the amount, locus and time of emissions can be computed and transferred to climate models for calculating the climate impact. In WeCare, also mitigation strategies by optimizing trajectories are designed and evaluated (Part 2). Mitigation potentials of these less climate-harming trajectories need to be applied on Air Transportation System (ATS) quantity structures and timing to assess cumulative climate impact savable over time.