Using MOVES for Estimating State and
Local Inventories of Onroad Greenhouse
Gas Emissions and Energy Consumption
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
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Using MOVES for Estimating State and
Local Inventories of Onroad Greenhouse
Gas Emissions and Energy Consumption
Transportation and Climate Division
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA-420-B-16-059
June 2016
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SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION 5
1,1 PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDANCE 5
1.2 INTRODUCTION TO MOVES 6
1.3 LATEST VERSION OF MOVES 7
1.4 TYPES OF GHG AND ENERGY ANALYSES IN MOVES 7
1.5 NEW MOVES USERS 8
1.6 OTHER MOVES RESOURCES 8
1.7 CONTACT INFORMATION 9
1.8 DOES THIS DOCUMENT CREATE ANY NEW REQUIREMENTS? 10
SECTION 2: MODELING APPROACHES 11
2.1 INTRODUCTION 11
2.2 CALCULATION TYPE OPTIONS 11
2.3 DOMAIN/SCALE 12
2.3.1 County Scale 12
2.3.2 National Scale 16
2.4 TIME SPANS 17
SECTION 3: CREATING A RUN SPECIFICATION (RUNSPEC) FILE 20
3.1 CREATING A RUN SPECIFICATION (RUNSPEC) FILE 20
3.1.1 Description 20
3.2 SELECTING SCALE AND CALCULATION TYPE 21
3.2.1 Model 21
3.2.2 Domain/Scale 21
3.2.3 Calculation Type 22
3.3 TIME SPANS 23
3.3.1 Time Aggregation Level 23
3.3.2 Calendar Year of Evaluation 24
3.3.3 Month of Evaluation 24
3.3.4 Type of Day of Evaluation 24
3.3.5 Hour of Evaluation 25
3.3.6 Time Span Panel Sections: Emission Rates Mode 25
3.4 GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDS 26
3.4.1 National Scale 26
3.4.2 County Scale 26
3.4.3 Domain Input Database 28
3,5 VEHICLES/EQUIPMENT: ONROAD VEHICLE EQUIPMENT 28
3.6 ROAD TYPE 29
3.7 POLLUTANTS AND PROCESSES 30
3.7.1 Pollutants 31
3.7.2 Energy Consumption 32
3.7.3 Pollutants and Processes in Emission Rates Mode 32
3.8 MANAGE INPUT DATA SETS 33
3.9 STRATEGIES 33
3.10 OUTPUT 33
3.10.1 General Output Panel: Output Database 34
3.10.2 General Output Panel: Units 34
3.10.3 General Output Panel: Activity 34
3.10.4 Output Emission Detail Panel 35
3.11 ADVANCED PERFORMANCE FEATURES 36
SECTION 4: CREATING THE INPUT DATABASE 37
4.1 DATA IMPORTER AND COUNTY DATA MANAGER TABS 37
4.2 IMPORTING LOCAL DATA WHEN USING THE COUNTY SCALE 38
4.3 IMPORTING LOCAL DATA WHEN USING THE NATIONAL SCALE 38
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4.4 METEOROLOGY DATA 39
4.4.1 Meteorology Data in Emission Rate Calculations 40
4.5 SOURCE TYPE POPULATION 40
4.6 SOURCE TYPE POPULATION IN EMISSION RATE CALCULATIONS 42
4.7 AGE DISTRIBUTION 42
4.8 VEHICLE TYPE VMT 44
4.8.1 Vehicle Type VMT in Emission Rate Calculations 45
4.9 AVERAGE SPEED DISTRIBUTION 46
4.9.1 Additional Guidance for Speeds on Local Roadways 48
4.9.2 Average Speed Distributions in Emission Rates Calculations 48
4.9.3 Average Speed Distributions for Highways and Ramps 48
4.10 ROAD TYPE DISTRIBUTION 49
4.10.1 Road Type Distributions in Emission Rate Calculations 49
4.11 RAMP FRACTION 50
4.12 FUEL (SUPPLY, FORMULATION, USAGE FRACTION, AND AVFT) 50
4.12.1 Fuel Formulation and Fuel Supply Guidance 53
4.12.2 Fuel Usage Fraction 54
4.12.3 AVFT 55
4.13 INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS 56
4.14 ZONE (CUSTOM DOMAIN ONLY) 56
4.15 STARTS 58
4.16 HOTELLING 60
4.17 RETROFIT DATA 60
4.18 GENERIC 60
APPENDIX A: INCLUDING LOCAL VMT INFORMATION USING THE NATIONAL SCALE 62
A.I INTRODUCTION 62
A.2 RUNSPEC SETTINGS 62
A.2.1. Scale Panel 63
A.2.2. Time Spans Panel 64
A.2.3. Geographic Bounds Panel 65
A.2.4 Output Panel 66
A.3 EXECUTE THE RUN AND POST-PROCESS RESULTS 68
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Section 1: Introduction
If Purpose of this Guidance
Transportation sources emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) that contribute to climate change. The
transportation sector is one of the largest sources of U.S. GHG emissions. In 2014,
transportation represented approximately 26 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions. Between 1990
and 2014, GHG emissions in the transportation sector increased more in absolute terms than any
other sector (i.e. electricity generation, industry, agriculture, residential, or commercial).l GHGs
include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. In addition to GHGs, black carbon, a
component of particulate matter and also emitted by transportation sources, has been linked to a
range of climate impacts, including increased temperatures and accelerated snow melt.2
The onroad transportation sector's contribution to all of these pollutants can be modeled with the
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) MOtor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES)
model. This document provides guidance on how to use MOVES to estimate GHG emissions
from onroad vehicles to create state or local inventories, or to estimate total energy consumption
from onroad vehicles. EPA has updated the previous November 2012 guidance3 to reflect the
latest MOVES model, and today's guidance replaces and supersedes the previous guidance.
Note, this guidance does not create a federal GHG analysis requirement but provides
recommendations for using MOVES to conduct such an analysis, either voluntarily or as a result
of a state or local requirement.
This guidance describes approaches for developing an onroad GHG inventory in different
geographic areas and the implications of each of these approaches.4 It discusses the data input
options that are most important for estimating onroad GHG emissions and explores which inputs
should be populated with locally-derived data, versus data from the MOVES default database, to
improve the quality of the results. This guidance should help users develop an approach for
using MOVES to estimate GHG emissions or energy consumption with the time and data
resources available.
This guidance covers the use of MOVES for estimating onroad GHG emissions and energy
consumption only; it should not be followed when using MOVES to develop criteria pollutant
inventories for state implementation plan (SIP) or conformity purposes. EPA has guidance for
using MOVES for SIP and conformity purposes; see Section 1.7 for information about other
MOVES guidance and information.
1 EPA, "Fast Facts U.S. Transportation Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990-2014," EPA Office of
Transportation and Air Quality, EPA-420-F-16-020, June 2016, available on the web at:
www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-06/documents/420fl6020.pdf
2 More information can be found inEPA's "Report to Congress on Black Carbon," March 2012, EPA-450/R-12-
001, available on EPA'swebpage at: www.epa.gov/blackcarbon/.
3 EPA, "Using MOVES for Estimating State and Local Inventories of On-Road Greenhouse Gas Emissions and
Energy Consumption," EPA-420-B-12-068, November 2012.
4In GHG emissions literature, often a distinction is made between an "inventory," which is for a year in the past, and
a "forecast," which is for a year in the future. The term "inventory" in this and other MOVES guidance refers to
total emissions in a geographic area regardless of whether the year modeled is past or future.
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While MOVES2014 incorporates EPA's nonroad emissions model, this guidance does not cover
estimating nonroad GHG emissions or energy consumption. This guidance also does not include
estimating onroad GHG at the Project Scale, which is used to model an individual transportation
project such as a highway, intersection, or transit project. While not covered in this document,
MOVES is EPA's best tool for project-level GHG analyses, and EPA may offer such guidance in
the future, particularly if there is interest from the user community.5
EPA coordinated with the Department of Transportation during the development of this
guidance.
1,2 Introduction to MOVES
MOVES is a state-of-the-science model for estimating air pollution emissions from mobile
sources under a wide range of user-defined conditions. MOVES incorporates analysis of millions
of emission test results and considerable advances in the EPA's understanding of vehicle
emissions. MOVES can estimate emissions from running and evaporative processes as well as
brake and tire wear emissions for all types of onroad vehicles across multiple geographic scales
for any part of the country, except California. MOVES is EPA's best tool for estimating GHG
emissions from onroad mobile sources.
The latest version of MOVES that is available at the date of this guidance is MOVES2014a,
available for download on the EPA's MOVES website.6 MOVES2014 is a major revision to
EPA's mobile source emission model and replaces MOVES2010 and its minor revisions
(MOVES2010a and MOVES2010b). MOVES2014 (and its minor revisions such as
MOVES2014a) allows users to benefit from new regulations promulgated since the release of
MOVES2010b, incorporates new and up-to-date emissions data, and has improved functionality
compared to MOVES2010b. MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a also have added the capability to
model nonroad mobile sources by incorporating EPA's NONROAD2008 model. For an
overview of the improvements in MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a, refer to EPA's factsheets,
"MOVES2014 Questions and Answers," and "MOVES2014a Questions and Answers," found at
EPA's MOVES website.
This guidance reflects MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a, and hereafter refers to "MOVES" to
mean either of these two versions unless otherwise noted. EPA will be updating the MOVES
model over time to account for revisions to GHG emissions and fuel economy standards as well
as other new information. EPA will revise this guidance as needed to reflect future versions of
MOVES.
Many state and local air quality agencies may already be familiar with MOVES, as it is currently
used across the country, except in California, to develop onroad emission inventories of
5 MOVES users interested in estimating GHG emissions at the Project Scale could do so; this guidance and EPA's
project-level MOVES CO guidance could be helpful (see Section 1.6).
6 www. epa. gov/otaq/models/moves/index. htm
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transportation-related criteria pollutants and their precursors.7 These criteria pollutant inventories
are needed either for state air quality plans (state implementation plans, or SIPs) or transportation
conformity determinations, and existing EPA guidance describes how and when to use MOVES
for these regulatory purposes.8
1.3 Latest Version of MOVES
Users should use the latest version of MOVES for conducting a new GHG or energy analysis.
Using MOVES2014a to estimate GHG emissions or energy consumption should allow users to
take full advantage of recent improvements. MOVES2014a is the latest version of MOVES that
has been released, and it accounts for all national fuel economy and GHG standards for cars and
trucks as of October 2015, including heavy-duty vehicle GHG regulations that phase in during
model years 2014-2018 and the second phase of light-duty vehicle GHG regulations that phase in
for model years 2017-2025.
1.4 Types of GHG and Energy Analyses in MOVES
MOVES can estimate GHG emissions and energy consumption at a variety of geographic scales
- national, county, and project - for various time spans.9 The national and county scales can be
used to produce inventories for the nation as a whole, an individual county or state, and multi-
state, multi-county, and metropolitan regions. MOVES can create an annual GHG emissions
inventory for the year 1990 and any calendar year from 1999 through 2050. MOVES can also
calculate daily inventories, but this guidance does not specifically address daily inventories.
(The MOVES User Guide and Technical Guidance explain how to specify different time periods
for analysis.)
MOVES can also be used for scenario planning and policy efficacy analysis in the area being
modeled, be it a state, a region, or a county or a portion of a county. For example, with user-
supplied information on travel activity, such as vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and speeds,
MOVES can perform scenario analyses to assess the GHG and energy use impacts of various
travel efficiency strategies, such as:
Region-wide travel demand management e.g., rideshare programs, employer-based
programs;
7 Onroad emissions include those emissions that result from the operation of on-highway vehicles such as passenger
cars and trucks, commercial trucks, buses, motorcycles, and motorhomes. MOVES does not include "upstream"
emissions, i.e., those emissions that come from the production and distribution of fuel, or nonroad vehicles such as
construction equipment, agricultural equipment, or recreational off-road vehicles. For more information about the
difference between onroad and nonroad sources, please refer to EPA's website at:
www.epa.gov/otaq/inventory/overview/examples.htm . Transportation-related criteria pollutants are carbon
monoxide (CO), ozone, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and paniculate matter (PM2 5 and PMio).
8 Refer to EPA's website at www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/policv.htnrfmodels for the latest versions of
EPA's policy and technical guidance for using MOVES for SIP and conformity purposes.
9 As noted earlier, this guidance does not cover using MOVES at the project scale to estimate GHG or energy
consumption for an individual project, but it is possible for users to do so.
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Land use and smart growth strategies, e.g., transit-oriented development policies, policies
to increase diversity and density of land uses;
Transit-promoting programs, such as increased transit frequency or lower fares; and
Pricing strategies, such as parking pricing or mileage fees.10
In addition, MOVES can be used to evaluate GHG or energy impacts of other types of strategies,
such as those that affect vehicle and fuel technologies or that are designed to change the
composition of the vehicle fleet. MOVES captures the effects of fleet turnover and the change in
vehicle emissions and fuels over time. MOVES includes vehicle and fuel technologies that are
currently in widespread use. Since MOVES emissions estimates depend on vehicle types,
vehicle ages, vehicle activity (including speeds and operating modes), road types, and fuel types,
MOVES can answer the question of how emissions would change in the future under various
scenarios that affect any of these inputs. MOVES can estimate the effects of individual control
measures and emission reduction strategies, or combinations of them, in any future year up to
2050.
In some cases MPOs and state DOTs are already using MOVES or will need to for analyzing
criteria pollutants and precursors for SIP or conformity purposes. In these areas, it may be
efficient for modelers to include GHG emissions and black carbon when running MOVES for
these other purposes.
1.5 New MOVES Users
EPA encourages using MOVES to estimate onroad GHG emissions or energy consumption
regardless of the user's experience level. Though MOVES is a sophisticated model, EPA
provides extensive documentation on how to use the model to help familiarize the user to the
MOVES graphical user interface and MOVES data inputs. See the MOVES website for the
MOVES User Guide and other relevant documents.
EPA also offers free classes on using MOVES; see the MOVES website for course material and
details about course offerings. Between course offerings, users can download the course material
and follow it on their own. The course material is also available from the MOVES website.
1.6 Other MOVES Resources
EPA provides extensive resources and documentation for using the MOVES model to perform
various types of analyses. The following EPA websites may be relevant to estimate onroad GHG
emissions or energy consumption:
10 For more information about travel efficiency strategies and estimating emission reductions from them, please see
the EPA's web page at www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/ghgtravel.htm. which includes links to the following
documents: "Potential Changes in Emissions Due to Improvements in Travel Efficiency - Final Report," EPA-420-
R-l 1-003, March 2011, available on the web at: www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/policv/420rll003.pdf. and
"Transportation Control Measures: An Information Document for Developing and Implementing Emission
Reduction Programs," EPA-430-R-09-040, March 2011, available on the web at:
www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/policv/430r09040.pdf.
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MOVES (MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator) website
Address: www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/
This website contains general information about the MOVES model including links to
download the most recent version of the model. This site also hosts EPA guidance and
documentation related to MOVES such as the MOVES User Guide and technical and
policy guidance on using MOVES for SIPs and transportation conformity
determinations.11
Transportation Conformity Policy and Technical Guidance
Address: www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/policy.htm.
This website contains links to SIP and conformity guidance documents as well as
transportation conformity guidance for using MOVES at the project level for PM hot-spot
analyses and CO hot-spot analyses.12 Users should review relevant links under the
"Project-Level Conformity" and "Emission Models and Conformity" headings on this
page.
Estimating Onroad Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Address: www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/ghgtravel.htm.
This website contains additional resources for state and local planners interested in
estimating GHG emissions from the onroad transportation sector and assessing the impact
of specific travel efficiency strategies.
EPA will continue to update MOVES in the future, and will provide additional documentation and
supplementary guidance as needed. EPA encourages MOVES users to check the MOVES website
regularly and subscribe to EPA's mobile source emissions model listserv (subscription information
on the MOVES website) to find information about updates to MOVES and guidance for its use.
1.7 Contact Information
General, technical, or policy questions related to this guidance or about using MOVES for
estimating GHG emissions should be sent to mobile@epa.gov. For questions regarding the
application of this guidance to specific locations, please contact the mobile source expert at the
nThese documents include "MOVES2014 and 2014a Technical Guidance: Using MOVES to Prepare Emission
Inventories in State Implementation Plans and Transportation Conformity," EPA-420-B-15-093, November 2015,
and "Policy Guidance on the Use of MOVES2014 and Subsequent Minor Revisions for State Implementation Plan
Development, Transportation Conformity, and Other Purposes," EPA-420-B-14-008, July 2014.
12 These documents include "Transportation Conformity Guidance for Quantitative Hot-spot Analyses in PM2.5 and
PM10 Nonattainment and Maintenance Areas," EPA420-B-15-084, November 2015, and "Using MOVES2014 in
Project-Level Carbon Monoxide Analyses," EPA420-B-15-028, March 2015.
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appropriate EPA Regional Office. Contact information can be found at
www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/contacts.htm.13
1.8 Does this document create any new requirements?
This document does not create any new requirements. There is no federal requirement to
estimate onroad GHG emissions or energy consumption. This document does not impose legally
binding requirements on EPA, DOT, states, or the regulated community, and may not apply to a
particular situation based upon the circumstances. This document may be revised periodically
without public notice.
13 This website provides a list of EPA Regional transportation conformity contacts who are familiar with MOVES.
The use of MOVES for onroad GHG inventories is not subject to conformity, but since MOVES is used for both of
these purposes, the EPA Regional transportation conformity contact is a good place to start if you have questions.
Please be sure to indicate your question is related to GHG emissions rather than criteria pollutant emissions.
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Section 2: Modeling Approaches
2.1 Introduction
There are multiple ways to use MOVES to develop emissions and energy consumption estimates,
however, different approaches affect the precision of the analysis. Section 2 explores the
approaches a modeler could choose to develop an annual onroad GHG inventory or estimate of
onroad energy consumption using MOVES, including selections for:
Calculation type: using an emissions inventory or emission rates;
Domain/Scale: Using County or National scale; each of which provides options for
modeling the particular geographic area of interest; and
Time Span: Options for level of time aggregation and modeling the particular time period
of interest.
Note: When comparing GHG emissions between two cases, such as in two different years, or
with and without a particular transportation strategy, EPA recommends using the same selections
for calculation type, scale, geographic area, and time period between model runs.
2.2 Calculation Type Options
MOVES has two calculation types - Inventory or Emissions Rates. Either may be used to
develop emissions estimates for GHGs or energy consumption.14 However, each calculation
type requires different inputs as noted in the descriptions below and later within the guidance
text.
Inventory: users input VMT and vehicle population data into MOVES and the model
calculates an output inventory of total emissions in units of mass. Using the Inventory
approach is the simpler method to generate a GHG emissions inventory and may be
preferable when the user wants to minimize post-processing MOVES outputs thus
avoiding inadvertent errors during post-processing.
Emissions Rates: VMT and vehicle population must be manually applied to a MOVES
generated emission rates output table to calculate an inventory (although VMT and
vehicle population data are still needed as inputs for an Emission Rates MOVES run).
Output data include emissions per unit of distance for running emissions, emissions per
vehicle or per start for start emissions, and emissions per vehicle or per idle hour for
hotelling emissions. (GHG emissions are not produced from evaporative processes,
therefore for a GHG inventory users would not need to generate "emissions per profile"
rates.) The Emission Rates method may be preferable when the user wants to apply
emission rates to multiple geographic locations, or to use rates in conjunction with travel
model post-processing software already developed to calculate total emissions of other
pollutants.
14 Section 3.2.2 includes a discussion of the equivalency of the Inventory and Emission Rates options in calculating
emissions.
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2.3 Domain/Scale
MOVES allows users to analyze mobile emissions at various scales: National, County, and
Project.
The National scale can be used to model the entire nation, one or more states, or one or
more counties. The National scale largely relies on MOVES default data to perform
inventory calculations.
The County scale can be used to model a single county or multi-county area. Calculations
at the county scale rely heavily on user supplied data.
The Project scale can be used to model an individual transportation project such as a
highway, intersection, or transit project.
While the County scale is necessary to meet statutory and regulatory requirements for SIPs and
transportation conformity, either the County or National scale can be used for GHG inventories.
This guidance covers both of these scales with an emphasis on the County scale. This document
does not contain guidance for use of the Project scale for estimating onroad GHG emissions or
energy consumption.15 However, MOVES is EPA's best tool for project-level GHG analyses,
and EPA may offer such guidance in the future, particularly if there is interest from the user
community.
2.3.1 County Scale
The County scale can be used to create onroad GHG inventories for an individual or multi-
county area, a metropolitan area, a region of a state, an entire state, or a multi-state area or
region. EPA recommends using the County scale for GHG or energy consumption analysis. The
County scale allows the user to enter county-specific data through the County Data Manager
(covered in Section 4). As indicated earlier, providing local data significantly improves the
precision of the modeling results. In addition, the County scale is appropriate for creating an
onroad GHG inventory that will be combined with or compared to GHG inventories for other
sectors, such as industrial, commercial, and residential. The County scale is also appropriate
when estimating differences that depend on detailed local data, such as comparing GHG
emissions from various transportation planning alternatives in a metropolitan area. MOVES
provides modelers with various options for analyzing emissions using the County scale, as
described below. Some combinations may be more convenient than others depending on the
number of counties to be modeled.
Users have two options for defining the Geographic Bounds when using the County scale:
County or "Custom Domain" (described in Section 3.4 of this document). Selecting County
allows the user to select a county from a pull-down list, however, this method is for modeling a
single county. Users have two methods for modeling a multi-county area. One method is to
select the County option and run MOVES multiple times, once for each county. This method
allows users to easily access some of the MOVES default database inputs for individual counties,
if appropriate, as described in Section 4 of this document. Each run where County is chosen will
produce output for the county selected.
15 MOVES users interested in estimating GHG emissions at the Project Scale could do so; this guidance and EPA's
project-level MOVES CO guidance could be helpful (see Section 1.6).
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The second option for a multi-county area is to select Custom Domain as the region within the
County Scale. This allows users to define a geographic area that may consist of multiple
counties, parts of counties, or combinations of counties and partial counties described using a
single set of inputs. MOVES2014 provides additional flexibility when using Custom Domain:
users can vary vehicle activity and generate output by zone within a Custom Domain. Zones can
be the individual counties within the Custom Domain. Vehicle age distribution, fuel inputs, and
Inspection/Maintenance (I/M) program must be the same throughout the Custom Domain, but
the user can vary meteorology inputs by zone and allocate vehicle activity among the zones.
Total activity in terms of VMT and population is provided for the entire area, and MOVES
allocates these data to the zones based on factors the user inputs. The advantage is that the user
can model a multi-county area and generate output for each county (or zone) with a single run.
When Custom Domain is selected, users do not have direct access to county-specific information
in the MOVES database, but modelers can obtain this information with some extra steps.
Section 3.4 provides further information on County and Custom Domain, including how activity
can be allocated by zone in MOVES2014a.
In summary, there are multiple approaches to create an onroad GHG inventory for an area made
up of more than one county, such as a metropolitan area or an entire state. For example:
Each county could be modeled individually, either with "Inventory" or with "Emission
Rates," depending on the user's preference.
The user could define the modeling area as one or more "Custom Domains." One
"Custom Domain" might be appropriate for a metropolitan area; more than one may be
needed to represent an entire state. MOVES2014a allows the user to vary activity by
county and generate output by county (or zone).
Another option a modeler could use would be to model one county as a representative
county with "Emission Rates" to generate emission rates at various temperatures. These
emission rates could then be applied to a larger area, as long as fuel used in the larger
area is the same as that modeled for the representative county. If methane emissions are
modeled, the Inspection/Maintenance (I/M) program in the larger area also must be the
same as that modeled for the representative county.
Table 2-1 summarizes the combinations of calculation type and geographic area definition that
users can employ for creating GHG emissions inventories using the County scale. Any of the
combinations will produce accurate results when executed correctly. The number of counties
included in the area to be modeled and whether results for each individual county are needed are
key considerations in choosing an approach.
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Table 2-1: Summary of Modeling Approaches Using the County Scale
Geographic Area to
Be Modeled
One county, using
County option
Approach
Use Inventory
Use Emission Rates
Advantages
Shorter run time and smaller output
files
Considerations
Rates can be applied on a link basis
if desired
Longer run time, larger output files
Running, start, and hotelling rates must be
post-processed to create GHG inventory
Multi-county area or
an entire state using
County option
Use Inventory and County to
model each county separately
Automatic access to MOVES
default database
Produces results for each county
An individual run is needed for each county,
so this strategy is more feasible if the number
of counties is small
Use Emission Rates and County to
model a representative county (or
counties), and create inventories
from rates with activity data for
each county
Only one run per representative
county is necessary
Allows user to generate results for
each county
Automatic access to MOVES
default database
Rates can be applied on a link basis
if desired
Better able to model an area when
vehicle characterization (age
distribution, fuel type, I/M) are
uniform in the area, but
temperatures vary widely
Emission rates from the representative county
can be used for other counties only if they
have the same fuels, and if methane emissions
are being modeled, the same I/M program as
the representative county (i.e., a separate run
is needed for each combination of fuel type
and I/M program present in the area). See
Sections 4.11 and 4.12 (Fuel and I/M
Programs) for more information.
Running, start, and hotelling rates must be
post-processed to create GHG inventory
Only one run per Custom Domain is
necessary
Some vehicle activity can be varied
by county within the Custom
Domain and output can be
generated by county
Multi-county area or
an entire state using
Custom Domain
Use Inventory and Custom
Domain to model the entire area
No automatic access to MOVES default
database
The same vehicle age distribution, fuels, I/M
program, and temperature profile must apply
throughout the area of the custom domain
Use Emission Rates and Custom
Domain to model the entire area,
and create inventories from rates
with activity data for each county
Only one run per Custom Domain is
necessary
Allows user to generate an
inventory for each county, by taking
the MOVES output of emission
No automatic access to MOVES default
database
The vehicle age distribution, same fuels and if
methane emissions are modeled, same I/M
program must apply throughout the area of the
custom domain
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rates and multiplying them by
activity data from each county
Rates can be applied on a link basis
if desired
Running, start, and hotelling rates must be
post-processed to create GHG inventory
Multi-county area or
an entire state,
or
a multi-state region
with rates by
temperature16
Use Emission Rates and County to
model a representative county;
model each hour as a separate
temperature to get emission rates
for each temperature; then create
inventories from rates at the
appropriate temperature with
activity data for each county
Allows user to generate results for
each county
Automatic access to MOVES
default database
For a multi-state area, several representative
counties will need to be run to capture the
combinations of fuels and I/M programs that
exist
Running, start, and hotelling rates must be
post-processed to create GHG inventory
Users will need to use care to ensure
appropriate rates are used for each county
16
See Section 4.2.1 of this guidance and the MOVES User Guide, Appendix A (Using MOVES to Generate Lookup Tables) for more information.
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2.3.2 National Scale
MOVES may be used at the National scale for GHG analysis, however, users should understand
the tradeoffs of estimates based on the National scale. The National scale is simple and
convenient for GHG analyses. The National scale allows the user to model the entire nation or
any smaller geographic region. Similarly, this scale allows the user to simultaneously model
more than one geographic region (i.e. multiple counties or multiple states). The National scale
also allows the user to model more than one year in one model run. However, this convenience
comes at the cost of significantly reduced precision of local analysis. A National scale analysis
relies entirely on MOVES default data for data inputs, (unless the user enters data via the Data
Importer, which is similar in structure to the County Data Manager and serves a comparable
function at the National scale). Default data are typically not the most current or best available
information for any specific county. Users should use caution when considering the results from
a MOVES run at the National scale for GHG analysis.
When the National scale is used to model counties or states, the default database information is
applied to the area being modeled in different ways, which affects how well the information
represents the geographic area chosen. For some data fields, the national average data, such as
vehicle age distributions and speed distributions, are used for the area as-is, meaning that
MOVES will use the national average for any county or state selected. However, in the real
world, vehicle age distribution and speed distribution vary across the United States. For VMT
and vehicle population ("source type population"), the national data are "scaled down" to the
area using allocation factors within the model.17 For fuel and I/M program inputs, the national
default database includes survey data collected during model development that varies by county
for fuel and I/M program type. The model will use the information it has for the specific county.
As stated, EPA encourages users to input local VMT and vehicle population data when using
MOVES to develop more accurate onroad GHG inventories. EPA expects that users will always
have more precise local VMT information than the National scale default VMT for the area.
However, users cannot enter local data for either VMT or vehicle population via the Data
Importer, because the model will treat this information as if it applies to the nation as a whole,
producing erroneous results. EPA has developed a method to incorporate local VMT data when
using the National scale, described in Appendix A. This method should improve the GHG
estimates obtained compared to not including local VMT.
There is no analogous method for inputting vehicle population data when using the National
scale. Users should expect their results to be less precise using the National scale, even when
supplying local VMT data. If the user has local information for vehicle population, EPA
recommends the use of the County scale instead of the National scale so that this important
information can be included. Alternatively, users can perform an Emission Rates run MOVES at
the National scale and apply local VMT and vehicle populations outside of the model using the
approach described in Section 2.4 for the County scale.
17 The most recent national default VMT data included in MOVES2014a are for the year 2011. When a future year
is modeled using the National scale, MOVES applies an annual growth rate to the 2011 national VMT for the
appropriate number of years. A portion of this scaled-up VMT is then allocated to the geographic area of interest.
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Although the National scale allows the user to model multiple years and multiple counties or
states, the user can only enter more a single set of data through the Data Importer. If the analysis
is for more than one year and local data are entered, it will apply to all analysis years. If users
have information that varies by analysis years, again, EPA recommends using the County scale.
For example, if the user is modeling two states and has information about each state's vehicle
age distribution or speed distribution, both sets of information could not be entered for the run.
In this case, the user should use the County scale, and include the information unique to each
state via the County Data Manager (see Section 2.4 for various approaches).
There may be instances when GHG estimates using the National scale will be sufficient for a
user's purpose. For example, because the user does not have to input local data, the National
scale may help new users become familiar with the model. The National scale may be sufficient
for users in areas that are not already using MOVES for other purposes. In addition, the National
scale may be helpful for a screening analysis designed to inform more detailed subsequent
analyses, or for some types of comparative GHG analyses, where the relative difference in
emissions between different scenarios is more important than the precision of the absolute level
of emissions. Examples of comparative analyses could include developing simple projections of
GHG emissions trends over time or over different speeds, or comparing GHG emissions rates of
different vehicle types (e.g., passenger cars versus passenger trucks) or different road types. If a
statewide inventory is needed, the user may want to use the County scale for each county for
which the user has local data, and the National scale for the rest of the counties in the state, with
local VMT information applied for those counties as described in Appendix A.
In summary, the National scale with MOVES default database information produces a less
precise estimate of onroad GHG emissions. Including local VMT information will improve the
precision of this estimate. If in addition to VMT, the user has other local data, or the user has
data that varies by analysis year, users are encouraged to run MOVES at the County scale instead
of the National scale.
2.4 Time Spans
MOVES can use a range of time periods to calculate an annual onroad GHG inventory. For
example, MOVES can generate an annual GHG inventory by estimating hourly emissions
individually and summing them to produce the year's emissions. In MOVES, this is referred to
as "pre-aggregating" data over time to estimate emissions. The main reason for pre-aggregating
hourly data over a longer time period such as "Year," "Month," or "Day," instead of "Hour" is to
reduce model run time. Generally, pre-aggregation reduces model run time while also reducing
precision. For more details, see the MOVES2014 User Guide.18
Pre-aggregation over a specified time period computes a weighted average of some data
otherwise differentiated by a smaller unit of time, such as VMT distributions and temperature,
prior to the execution of the run. For example, if the user chooses Month, the model will average
18
The latest version of the User Guide can be found at: www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/documents/
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the temperature of all selected days and hours into an average Month set, and perform the
simulation with these average values for the selected month or months.
Pre-aggregation affects the various input data differently. Pre-aggregation accounts for hourly
variations in travel activity data because the model weights each hour's activity when it averages
over the time period. However, temperature effects are non-linear, therefore, pre-aggregation
does not account as well for variations in temperatures, and some information about peak
emissions at high and low temperatures will be lost. Runs using average temperatures typically
produce lower emissions than runs that account for all the high and low temperatures.
EPA's general recommendation is for users to consider the purpose of the analysis and how the
results will be used when deciding whether to pre-aggregate and over what time period. Users
will want to consider how much variation exists in their input data, how sensitive MOVES is to
those inputs, and whether any control strategies being considered will affect those inputs. For
example, temperature and humidity vary over the course of a day and year, yet this variation may
not be of concern for a particular run. At very low temperatures, elemental carbon emissions
will be greater for light-duty gasoline vehicles, but this effect would be irrelevant if only CO2 is
being modeled. At high temperatures, air conditioner use, estimated by the model as a function
of temperature and humidity, affects fuel economy and will increase CO2 emissions, but this
effect may be less of a concern in northern states.
Users should strongly consider how pre-aggregating their runs will produce output that meets
their needs for precision. There may be applications where precision is not as important as the
general trends over time or differences between scenarios where pre-aggregation may make
sense. There may also be some analyses, such as comparing an onroad GHG inventory to a
GHG inventory for other source sectors, where precision is more important. Users may want to
do a simple sensitivity analysis to determine whether the range of temperatures that occur in the
area being modeled has a significant impact on their GHG emissions inventory.
Specific recommendations:
If temperatures matter for a GHG inventory, EPA recommends using the default selection
of Hour for the time aggregation level on the Time Spans Panel instead of pre-
aggregating over a day, month, or year. EPA recommends that users model all 24 hours
in a single run to reduce the post-processing steps needed. (There is no substantial
advantage to running only some and not all hours. If users do not have unique data inputs
for all 24 hours of the day, users should apply the data for the hours they do have to the
24 hours of the day as appropriate. Sections 3 and 4 provide further information.) In
addition to choosing all 24 hours, EPA recommends using a set of 12 average
temperature and humidity profiles, each one representing a month of the year. Results
will need to be aggregated appropriately (i.e., the 24-hour total emissions in each month
need to be multiplied by the number of days in that month, and these 12 monthly totals
summed together) to represent emissions over the entire year.
Where temperature variations are less important in the GHG analysis, users could save
time when using Inventory mode by pre-aggregating by day, month, or year, depending
on the level of detail desired in the output. Pre-aggregated MOVES runs may also be
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useful for purposes such as approximate comparisons of GHG emissions between two
different years, even if they are not accurate enough for assessing the effects of various
programs or control strategies. Before using pre-aggregated MOVES output for a GHG
inventory, users may want to compare results with different levels of aggregation to
determine how much these differences matter based on local inputs.
When using Emission Rates instead of Inventory, the time aggregation level is
automatically set to Hour and no other selections are available. Pre-aggregating time
does not make sense when using Emission Rates and would produce emission rates that
are not meaningful. All running and start emission rates vary with temperature, and start
emission rates also vary by time of day because vehicle activity differs throughout the
day. For example, the temperature may be the same at 8 am and 8 pm, but there are more
starts at 8 am, and a higher fraction of those are cold starts. Thus start emission rates at 8
am will be considerably higher than at 8 pm. This variation in emission rates in different
hours would be lost if the Time Aggregation Level was anything other than Hour.
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Section 3: Creating a Run Specification (RunSpec) File
3.1 Creating a Run Specification (RunSpec) File
The MOVES Run Specification (RunSpec) defines the geography and time period of the analysis
as well as the vehicle types, road types, fuel types, and the emission-producing processes and
pollutants that will be included in the analysis. The RunSpec is a computer file in XML format
that can be edited and executed directly, or accessed, changed, and run through the MOVES
graphical user interface (GUI).
Setting up a RunSpec involves accessing the Navigation Panel in the MOVES GUI. The
Navigation Panel consists of a series of other panels and tabs that describe the input options to
create the RunSpec. For a GHG inventory, the user would progress through the Navigation
Panel and make the appropriate selections or enter the appropriate data in each one of the
following panels:
Description
Scale and Calculation Type (Inventory or Emission Rates)
Time Spans
Geographic Bounds
Vehicles/Equipment
Road Type
Pollutants and Processes
Manage Input Data Sets
Strategies
Output
Advanced Performance Features
Each panel is described below. Note that selections made in some panels affect available options
in other panels. While MOVES allows the user to complete these panels in any order, we
recommend completing them in the order they appear in the Navigation Panel.
The information below applies for all GHG and energy consumption analyses unless otherwise
indicated (e.g., there are some differences between the County and National scales). Additional
guidance for developing a National Scale RunSpec is found in Appendix A, which describes how
to include local VMT information when using the National scale.
3.1.1 Description
The Description Panel allows the user to enter a description of the RunSpec using up to 5,000
characters of text.19 Entering a complete description of the RunSpec will help users keep track of
their MOVES runs. Users may want to identify key aspects to help identify the run later, such as
the GHG emissions, geographic area, and time period modeled.
19 Due to restrictions in MySQL software, no quotation marks, ampersands, or backslashes are allowed.
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3.2 Selecting Scale and Calculation Type
Selecting Scale on the Navigation Panel accesses the Model, Domain/Scale, and Calculation Type
Panel. MOVES allows users to choose either onroad or nonroad emissions. Either the National
or County scale can be used for estimating onroad GHG emissions for a county, a metropolitan
area, a region of a state, or an entire state; Section 2 contains a discussion of the two scales. In
addition, MOVES provides two options for calculation type: Inventory or Emission Rates. Either
option can be used, depending on the user's preference and purpose, as described in Section 2.
This guidance provides additional detail where necessary to indicate the differences that result
from selecting the Inventory versus the Emission Rates option.
3.2.1 Model
Unlike previous versions of MOVES, MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a include the capability of
estimating emissions of nonroad equipment and engines. Within MOVES2014 and
MOVES2014a, the onroad and nonroad capabilities exist as separate modules, and users must
select one or the other. For this first implementation of nonroad capabilities, MOVES2014
simply adds existing NONROAD2008 code into the MOVES GUI and database structure.
MOVES2014a adds new VOC and air toxics options to MOVES and updates the default nonroad
fuels database. Future versions of MOVES will update the underlying nonroad code and data
and more fully integrate the onroad and nonroad capabilities of MOVES. Until then, this
guidance only covers the onroad capabilities of MOVES.
3.2.2 Domain/Scale
Each scale option in MOVES has an intended purpose and the amount of data that the user must
supply varies depending on the selection:
National scale can be used to estimate emissions for the entire country, for a state, for a
group of counties, or for individual counties. At the National scale, MOVES uses
information in its default database to calculate emissions for the geographic area chosen.
The default data used for a county or state is based on a mix of national data, allocation
factors, and pre-loaded local data. In general, EPA cannot certify that the default data in
the national database is the most current or best available information for any specific
county. Users can also input local data using the Data Importer, if desired; see Section
4.2 for more information about the Data Importer.
County scale requires the user to enter data to characterize local meteorology, fleet, and
activity information through the County Data Manager. The County Data Manager
facilitates the input of local data and also allows the user to review county data included
in the MOVES default database. The County scale will generally give more precise
GHG estimates compared to the National scale. See Section 2 for more information
about choosing between the National and County scale. Section 2.4 describes possible
approaches for creating inventories for geographic areas comprised of multiple counties.
Detailed guidance on specific inputs in the County Data Manager, including the use of
default inputs, is given in Section 4 of this guidance.
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Project scale allows analysis of emissions on individual roadway links or locations where
emissions from vehicles starts or hotelling activity occur. The Project scale could be
used to examine GHG emissions from a specific travel facility, or to examine GHG
impacts of changes that affect travel (number of trips or driving behavior) on a specific
facility. This document does not cover the use of the Project scale for estimating onroad
GHG emissions. EPA may offer such guidance in the future, particularly if there is
interest from the user community. In the meantime, EPA has provided guidance on the
use of the Project scale in MOVES for quantitative hot-spot analysis for transportation
conformity.20 Users can refer to that guidance for information about setting up run
specifications and using the Project Data Manager for Project scale MOVES runs.
3.2.3 Calculation Type
Under the Scale Panel, MOVES gives users the option to calculate emissions either as:
Inventory (total emissions in units of mass) or,
Emission Rates (emissions per unit of distance for running emissions or per vehicle for
starts and hotelling emissions) in a look-up table format.21
The selection of calculation type is required early in the RunSpec construction process because
this choice affects the available options in later panels.
If Inventory is selected, MOVES provides emissions estimates as mass, using VMT and
vehicle population entered by the user. For additional guidance when using the National
scale and Inventory, see Appendix A of this guidance.
If Emission Rates is selected, MOVES provides emission rates as mass per unit of
activity. The Emission Rates option produces a look-up table of emission rates that must
be post-processed to produce an inventory. Even though vehicle activity would be
applied outside of MOVES when developing an onroad GHG inventory using Emission
Rates, when using the county scale vehicle activity inputs are still important because they
are used by MOVES to calculate the relative amounts of running and non-running
activity, which in turn affects the rates for these processes.
As discussed in Section 2 of this document, each calculation approach has advantages and
considerations and users will need to decide which approach is more appropriate for their type of
analysis. Both approaches use the same underlying emission data and will produce the
essentially same results if the user calculates an inventory from rates in the same way that
MOVES does this internally. Table 1 in Section 2 provides a summary of modeling approaches.
20 See Section 4 of "Transportation Conformity Guidance for Quantitative Hot-spot Analyses in PM2 5 and
Nonattainment and Maintenance Areas," EPA-420-B-10-040, December 2010; and "Using MOVES in Project-
Level Carbon Monoxide Analyses, EPA-420-B-10-041, December 2010. Both documents are available at:
www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/policv.htm.
21 Evaporative emission rates would not need to be generated when using MOVES to estimate onroad GHG
emissions.
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As noted in Section 2, the Emission Rates approach is more complex than the Inventory
approach. Successful application of this approach requires careful planning and a clear
understanding of the rates calculations in MOVES. Large differences in results between the
Inventory and Emission Rates approaches are usually an indication of a mistake in post-
processing of the emission rates. The most common mistakes when using the Emission Rates
approach are not including all pollutant processes or multiplying emission rates by the wrong
activity. To correctly compile an emissions inventory using rates, running rates must be
multiplied by VMT, while emission rates from processes that occur when the vehicle is parked,
such as start and hotelling rates must be multiplied by the total population of vehicles in the area.
Note that there are alternative rates for some of the processes that occur when the vehicle is
parked:
Start emission inventories can be calculated either by multiplying the rate per vehicle by
the total population of vehicles in the area, or by multiplying the rate per start by the total
number of starts;
Hotelling emissions can be calculated by multiplying the rate per vehicle by the total
population of long-haul combination trucks in the area or by multiplying the rate per hour
by the hours of hotelling activity.22
There are no GHG emissions associated with refueling or evaporative processes.
Even when done correctly, minor differences in post-processing methods can create small
differences in results. EPA recommends that the same approach be used in any analysis that
compares two or more cases (e.g., a comparison of emissions with and without a control
strategy).
If you select Emission Rates, you must assign a MOVESScenarioID which will be used in the
rates tables. The MOVESScenarioID should be a unique identifier for the scenario for which the
rates apply.
3.3 Time Spans
The Time Spans Panel includes five sections - one to select the Time Aggregation Level, and
four more to select specific years, months, days, and hours. This section provides guidance for
each of these time span inputs. See Appendix A for additional guidance on time span selections
when using the National scale.
3.3.1 Time Aggregation Level
Time aggregation level determines the amount of pre-aggregation of input data. A longer time
span will aggregate (or average) input data to create a single value for the time aggregation level
chosen. The Time Aggregation Level has four options: Year, Month, Day, and Hour. For
example, if the user chooses Hour, MOVES will calculate emissions for each hour of a day based
22 More information about creating complete inventories using the Emission Rates calculation type can be found in
the presentations used in EPA's 2-day training course, available for download on the web at:
www. epa. gov/otaa/models/moves/training. htm#2 .
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on the specific inputs for that hour (e.g., temperature, speed distribution, etc.). If the user
chooses Day, MOVES calculates emissions for a day based on the average of the hourly inputs
for the day, e.g., a single average temperature is applied to the whole day. Likewise, if the user
chooses Month or Year, MOVES will calculate emissions based on single monthly or annual
average inputs, e.g., a single average temperature will be applied to a full month or year. Refer
to Section 2.5 for discussion regarding when the aggregation at a level above Hour could be used
for a GHG inventory.
3.3.2 Calendar Year of Evaluation
MOVES can model calendar years 1990 and the years 1999 through 2050. The County scale in
MOVES allows only a single calendar year in a RunSpec. Users who want to model multiple
calendar years using the County scale will need to create multiple RunSpecs, with local data
specific to each calendar year, and run MOVES multiple times. MOVES can be run in batch
mode operation to automate the process of doing multiple MOVES runs.23
Alternatively, MOVES can model multiple calendar years when operating at the National scale.
3.3.3 Month of Evaluation
MOVES allows users to calculate emissions for any month of the year. Emissions for multiple
months may be produced by a single RunSpec. The best choice for developing an annual
inventory of onroad GHG emissions is to select all months. Since MOVES can model all 12
months in one run, there is no advantage to running only some months and not all of them.
When modeling multiple months (e.g., all 12), the user must be aware of how MOVES treats the
input data. Fuel Supply and Meteorology can vary by month in a single RunSpec because the
month is defined in the data tables used for these inputs. However, the other data fields in the
County Data Manager (or COM, described in Section 4 of this document) can be input only as a
single set applied to all months selected. Therefore, if the user has, for example, Average Speed
Distribution data that vary by month, the user would have to execute multiple RunSpecs to use
each data set with the corresponding month.
If the user has selected the Emission Rates option, the Month can be used to input groups of
temperatures as a shortcut for generating rate tables for use in creating inventories for large
geographic areas. However, this is useful only for estimating running exhaust emissions, and not
start or hotelling emissions. The MOVES training materials provide more details. 24
3.3.4 Type of Day of Evaluation
Weekdays and weekend days can be modeled separately in MOVES. MOVES provides the
option of supplying different speed and VMT information for weekdays and weekend days to
allow the calculation of separate emissions estimates by type of day. Average Speed
23 For information on batch runs, contact EPA's MOVES in-box at mobile(@,epa.gov.
24 The latest MOVES training materials can be downloaded from: www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/training.htm.
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Distribution, Day VMT Fraction, Hour VMT Fraction, and Starts are the only inputs in the CDM
that differentiate between weekdays and weekend days.
If separate weekend day data is available for speed distributions, daily VMT fractions, and/or
hourly VMT fractions, select both weekdays and weekend days and input the weekday and
weekend day speed and VMT data accordingly.
However, if speed distribution data is available for only one type of day, use the same
information for both types of days. This makes using built-in post aggregation tools easier.
These tools are covered in Section 3.10.4 of this document, "Output Emission Detail." (Note
that if data are input for only one type of day, and Month or Year is selected in this panel,
MOVES will provide an incorrect result. The Month or Year will be the total emissions from
only one day type (e.g., weekdays) in that month or year and emissions from the other day type
(e.g., weekend-days) will be missing.)
For the Day VMT Fraction, users can generate the appropriate mix of VMT on each type of day
with the EPA-provided AADVMT Converter for MOVES2014 (described in Section 4.6 of this
document). If only one type of day is selected, the calculator will appropriately adjust the day
fraction to account for VMT for a single weekday or weekend day.
The Hour VMT Fraction can also differ by type of day and users can supply this information if
available; however, if information is available only for a single type of day, either the default
value or the user-supplied value for the single day can be used for the other type of day.
3.3.5 Hour of Evaluation
This option allows users to select single or multiple hours. However, to properly estimate
emissions for a day, month or year, EPA recommends that the user select all 24 hours to reduce
the post-processing steps needed (see Sections 2.3 and 2.4 for additional explanation). Note,
when the Time Aggregation Level is Day, then all 24 hours should be selected; with Month, then
all 24 hours and both day types should be selected; with Year, then all 24 hours, both day types,
and all 12 months should be selected. Refer to Section 2.6 for additional explanation of time
aggregation level.
3.3.6 Time Span Panel Sections: Emission Rates Mode
When Emission Rates is chosen, users may choose to approach the selection of options in the
Time Spans Panel differently than when running MOVES in Inventory mode. For example,
when modeling running emission rates, instead of entering a diurnal temperature profile for 24
hours, users can enter a range of 24 temperatures in increments that represent the temperatures
over a period of time. By selecting more than one month and using a different set of incremental
temperatures for each month, users could create a table of running emission rates by all the
possible temperatures over an entire season or year.
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For start emissions, users can create a start emissions table that could be used for an entire season
or year by selecting more than one month and entering a different diurnal temperature range or
profile for each month.
Users should consult Section 4.3.1 for additional guidance on developing rate lookup tables. It is
important to note that the selected month will have no impact on the emissions results (assuming
identical fuel and temperature inputs). For instance, a temperature of 40 degrees for a particular
hour will result in the same emission rate regardless of what month is chosen.
3.4 Geographic Bounds
3.4.1 National Scale
When using the National scale, the Region section choices in the Geographic Bounds Panel are
"Nation," "State," and "County." As this guidance is focused on using MOVES to create state or
local GHG and/or energy consumption estimates, users should choose either State or County
rather than Nation. Choosing State will give the user an alphabetical list of states plus the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands to select. Users can select one or
multiple states at the National scale. Choosing County will give the user the list of states, and
once a state is selected, a list of counties will appear. Users can select one or multiple counties at
the National scale. For additional guidance on selections to be made in this panel when using the
National scale, see Appendix A of this guidance.
3.4.2 County Scale
Once the County scale is selected, the Region section of the Geographic Bounds Panel gives the
user the choice between County or Custom Domain. Either option can be used for estimating
onroad GHG emissions. The user should choose the one that is best suited for the data they have.
These options are discussed in Section 2.4 and each option is explained in greater detail below.
3.4.2.1 County Option
Within the County scale, the user would select the County option if:
Only one county is being analyzed, or
Unique data are available (e.g., different vehicle age distribution, fuels, or I/M program)
for each county being modeled.
If users choose County, they also specify which county they are modeling in the Geographic
Bounds Panel. The County scale allows only one county and one calendar year to be analyzed at
a time. As a result, users will need to do multiple runs of MOVES, using multiple RunSpec files,
to develop emission estimates for multiple counties.
Use of the County option has two advantages. The county option allows the user to more easily
employ some of the MOVES database default inputs for that county if appropriate, as described
in Section 4 of this document. The County option also provides individual output for each
county.
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3.4.2.2 Custom Domain Option
A custom domain is a geographic area that may consist of multiple counties, parts of counties, or
combinations of counties and partial counties that can be described using a single set of inputs in
the County Data Manager. The custom domain area is described by a single RunSpec file.
Using the Custom Domain option can reduce the number of MOVES runs required, as long as
inputs are appropriate to the entire domain or appropriately varied within the domain, as
described in Section 4.13).
Unique fractions of running, start, and hotelling activity can be applied to each zone within the
custom domain, and output will be disaggregated by zone. Users who choose to define each
county in a custom domain as a separate zone can then get separate output for each county
(zone).
As an alternative, when using the Emission Rates calculation option, MOVES produces a lookup
table of emission rates. These emission rates can then be post-processed outside of MOVES to
produce separate emissions estimates for each county by multiplying the emission rates by the
appropriate source type population and VMT for each county. Using Custom Domain and
Emission Rates is an option to develop emissions estimates for a large number of areas with
similar characteristics, while preserving the ability to specify the emissions within each area.
Users should consider whether this advantage outweighs the convenience of using a single
representative county with Emissions Rates.
For a Custom Domain, users will create a generic "county" for which no data are available in the
default database. Therefore, users must supply data for all the tabs in the County Data Manager
(see Section 4 of this document) and essentially re-create entries in the County and County Year
Tables of the default database by providing information about the area on the Geographic
Bounds Panel. Users can refer to these tables to find data for the counties that comprise the
custom domain being created. Users must provide the following information to create new
entries for the County and County Year Tables for the custom domain:
CountylD (e.g. a unique number to identify the domain),
Description (e.g., the name of the custom domain),
Geographic Phase-in Area (GPA) Fraction,
Barometric Pressure (in inches of mercury), and
Refueling Vapor and Spill Adjustment Factors.
The Geographic Phase-in Area (GPA) is an area around the Rocky Mountains where the Federal
Tier 2 sulfur control program was implemented on a delayed schedule. Users should enter 1 if
the custom domain falls within the GPA and 0 if it is outside the GPA; in the unlikely event the
custom domain is split, users should enter the fraction of VMT that occurs inside the GPA. The
refueling Vapor and Spill Adjustment Factor terms are factors that describe the extent and
effectiveness of a Stage II refueling program in the area, but have no impact on GHG emissions.
Users can refer to the County Year Table in the MOVES default database to see the default
factors for the counties in the Custom Domain.
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3.4.3 Domain Input Database
In this section of the Geographic Bounds Panel, the user can open the CDM by clicking on the
"Enter/Edit Data" button (the CDM can also be accessed from the Pre-Processing Menu).
Once a database has been completely populated, users should select the database in the Database
section of this panel. Users may have to hit the Refresh button to make sure the database they
create appears on the drop down list.
When the National scale has been chosen, there is no Domain Input Database section in the
Geographic Bounds Panel.
3.5 Vehicles/Equipment: Onroad Vehicle Equipment
MOVES describes vehicles by a combination of vehicle characteristics (e.g. passenger car,
passenger truck, light commercial truck, etc.) and the fuel that the vehicle is capable of using
(gasoline, diesel, etc.). The Vehicles/Equipment Panel is used to specify the vehicle types
included in the MOVES run. MOVES allows the user to select from 13 "source use types" (the
terminology that MOVES uses to describe vehicles), and six different fuel types (gasoline,
diesel, ethanol E-85, compressed natural gas (CNG), electricity, and liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) 25). Some source/fuel type combinations are not valid and therefore not included in the
MOVES database (e.g., diesel motorcycles).
For estimating onroad GHG emissions, users should select the appropriate fuel and vehicle type
combinations in the On Road Vehicle Equipment Panel to reflect the full range of vehicles that
will operate in the county. In general, users should select all valid Compressed Natural Gas,
Diesel Fuel, Ethanol (E-85), and Gasoline vehicle and fuel combinations. Ethanol should be
selected even if there is no E-85 fuel sold in the area. Flex-fueled E-85 capable vehicles are a
component of the vehicle fleet in every county in the U.S. and MOVES automatically assigns
some VMT to these vehicles. For more information on the relationship between source types
and HPMS vehicle types, see Section 4.5 of this document.
The vehicle and fuel combinations selected on this panel will be affected by the Fuel Tab (see
Section 4.11 of this document) in the County Data Manager. If no changes are made on the Fuel
Tab, national default fuel fractions will be used. If the user has data indicating that no E-85 fuel
is available in the county, this would be specified in the Fuel Usage Fraction input of the Fuel
Tab. If the user has other data detailing the fleet and activity of alternative fuel/vehicle
combinations, then those combinations should be selected using the AVFT input in the Fuel Tab.
For example, if you are restricting your analysis to only diesel fueled buses, the MOVES default
will still allocate some of the VMT to gasoline and CNG buses and thus the results may
underestimate emissions. The Fuel Tab AVFT Table is a way to correct the fraction of fleet by
fuel type. See Section 4.10 for more information. Additionally, the user must supply valid fuel
' The default MOVES database does not include any emission factors for onroad LPG vehicles.
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formulations for all vehicle-fuel combinations selected in the Onroad Vehicle Equipment Panel
in the Fuel Supply Table, accessed through the Fuel Tab of the CDM. See Section 4.11 of this
document for more information about the requirements for this tab.
Tip: Even if you do not have any E-85 sold in your area, be sure to include
Ethanol (E-85) in your fuel/source type combinations. Otherwise, VMT
and emissions from E-85 capable vehicles will not be included in your
inventory. If there is no E-85 sold locally, use the Fuel Usage Fraction
input in the Fuel Tab to indicate that. MOVES will then calculate
emissions for E-85 vehicles using gasoline fuel.
Tip: If your local transit bus fleet uses only one type of fuel (CNG, diesel,
or gasoline), use the A VFT input in the Fuel Tab to change the fractions of
the bus fleet appropriately (e.g., with a fraction of 1.0 for that fuel and 0.0
for the others). Otherwise, MOVES will, by default, allocate some of the
VMT to buses that use the other fuels and thus the results may
underestimate emissions.
Detailed information describing the local vehicle fleet and its activity can be entered in the CDM
using the Source Type Population, Age Distribution, Vehicle Type VMT, Average Speed
Distribution, and Road Type Distribution Tabs. See Section 4 of this document for more
information on these input options and the use of default vs. local information.
3,6 Road Type
The Road Type Panel is used to define the types of roads that are included in the run. MOVES
defines five different road types as shown in Table 3-1.
Table 3-1: MOVES Road Types
Roadtypeid Road type Description
1
2
3
4
5
Off-Network
Rural Restricted Access
Rural Unrestricted
Access
Urban Restricted Access
Urban Unrestricted
Access
Locations where the predominant activity is vehicle
starts, parking and idling (parking lots, truck stops,
rest areas, freight or bus terminals)
Rural highways that can be accessed only by an on-
ramp
All other rural roads (arterials, connectors, and local
streets)
Urban highways that can be accessed only by an on-
ramp
All other urban roads (arterials, connectors, and
local streets)
Generally, all road types should be selected including Off-Network. The determination of rural
or urban road types should be based on the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS)
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classification of the roads in the county being analyzed. Onroad GHG emissions estimates
should include the Off-Network road type in order to account for GHG emissions from vehicle
starts and hotelling activity. The Off-Network road type is automatically selected when start or
hotelling pollutant processes are chosen. Off-Network activity in MOVES is primarily
determined by the Source Type Population input, which is described in Section 4.4 of this
document. Hotelling activity is determined in MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a by the user
defined rural highway long-haul combination truck VMT.
MOVES uses Road Type to assign default drive cycles to activity on roadtypes 2, 3, 4, and 5.
For example, for unrestricted access road types, MOVES uses drive cycles that assume stop and
go driving, including multiple accelerations, decelerations, and short periods of idling. For
restricted access road types, MOVES uses drive cycles that include a higher fraction of cruise
activity with less time spent accelerating or idling, although some ramp activity is also included.
Selection of road types in the Road Type Panel also determines the road types that will be
included in the MOVES run results. Additionally, MOVES can provide a separate output for
ramps. This panel contains a button to toggle this option on or off. This option should only be
selected if output is needed for ramps and highways separately. More information about how
this option works is found in Section 3.6 of the MOVES Technical Guidance.26 Different
characteristics of local activity by road type are entered in the CDM using the Average Speed
Distribution and Road Type Distribution importers as described in Sections 4.7 and 4.8 of this
document.
3.7 Pollutants and Processes
The Pollutants and Processes Panel allows users to select from various pollutants, types of
energy consumption, and associated processes of interest. In MOVES, a pollutant refers to
particular types of pollutants or precursors of a pollutant but also includes energy consumption
choices. Processes refer to the mechanism by which emissions are created, such as running
exhaust or start exhaust. Users should select all processes associated with a particular pollutant
in order to account for all emissions of that pollutant. This can be done by checking the box to
the left of the pollutant, which selects all of the relevant processes for that pollutant. Note that
checking the box next to any of the GHG pollutants selects only running, start, and hotelling
processes. Evaporative processes do not produce GHG emissions.
For many pollutants, the emissions calculation is based on calculations of another pollutant. In
such cases, users must select all of the associated pollutants and processes. MOVES will display
warning messages in the box on the Pollutants and Processes screen until all necessary base
pollutants are selected. Clicking the button "Select Prerequisites" automatically selects all
necessary pollutants and will clear the warning messages.
When using the Inventory calculation type, the total emissions for a particular pollutant are the
sum of the emissions for all pollutant processes that apply to the pollutant. When using the
26 MOVES2014 and 2014a Technical Guidance: Using MOVES to Prepare Emission Inventories for State
Implementation Plans and Transportation Conformity, November 2015, EPA-420-B-15-093, on the web at
www.epa. gov/otaa/models/moves/documents/420b 15093 .pdf
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Emission Rates calculation type, the total emissions for a particular pollutant are the sum of the
product of emission rates and the appropriate activity measure (VMT or vehicle population) for
each vehicle type for all pollutant processes that apply to that pollutant and vehicle type.
3.7.1 Pollutants
Users may want to select any of the following pollutants, depending on the purpose of their
analysis:
Atmospheric CCh;
Methane (CH4);
Nitrous Oxide (N2O); and
Elemental Carbon (equivalent to black carbon).
If "Atmospheric CO2" is chosen, then "Total Energy Consumption" must also be chosen. The
"Select Prerequisites" button can be used in this case.
If methane is chosen, the user will be prompted to select "Total Gaseous Hydrocarbons." Using
the "Select Prerequisites" button will select only the necessary processes, whereas checking the
button to the left of Total Gaseous Hydrocarbons would select all processes for hydrocarbons,
including evaporative processes. Evaporative processes for hydrocarbons should not be selected
when modeling methane, because methane is a result of combustion.
"Elemental Carbon" can be found under "Primary Exhaust PM2.5 - Species" on the Pollutants
and Processes Panel. When the user clicks "[+]," Elemental Carbon is in the list of PIVh.s species
displayed.
Additionally, users may select "CCh Equivalent" or CChe in the Pollutants and Processes Panel.
The CO2 Equivalent pollutant is the sum of the global warming potential of other greenhouse
gases expressed as a unit of CO2. The CO2 equivalents that MOVES uses are as shown in Table
3-2:
Table 3-2: COi Equivalence Factors in MOVES
Pollutant
COi
Methane (CH4)
Nitrous Oxide (NiO)
COi Equivalent27
1
25
298
If CO2 equivalent is checked, MOVES will report the CO2 equivalent of the pollutants that the
user has selected. For example, if you want MOVES to calculate the CO2 equivalent of methane
only, select CO2 equivalent from the list as well methane. If you want the total CO2 equivalent
of all three GHGs, select CO2 equivalent as well as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide. (Note CO2
equivalent will include CO2 if CO2 has been selected in this panel. MOVES provides reminders
27 Greenhouse gas equivalencies are quantified as CCh-equivalent (CChe) emissions using weightings based on the
100-year Global Warming Potentials, using IPCC Second Assessment Report values unless otherwise stated.
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of which pollutants will not be included in the CO2 equivalent calculation if all three have not
been selected.) Elemental carbon is not included in the CO2 equivalent calculation even if
elemental carbon is selected on the panel.
3.7.2 Energy Consumption
This panel can also be used to select different types of energy consumption, which are listed with
the pollutants. Choices are:
Total energy consumption, which estimates the total energy consumed from all fuel types
selected;
Petroleum energy consumption, which does not include compressed natural gas or
ethanol; and
Fossil Fuel energy consumption, which does not include ethanol.
3.7.3 Pollutants and Processes in Emission Rates Mode
Users should be aware that MOVES produces separate output tables with different activity
measures for different emission processes:
Rate per Distance Table - emissions in mass per distance (e.g., grams/mile); user
multiplies these rates by total VMT by vehicle type:
o Running exhaust
o Crankcase running exhaust
o Brake wear (select this process only if Elemental Carbon is being analyzed)
o Tire wear (select this process only if Elemental Carbon PM is being analyzed)
Note: The processes Evaporative permeation, Evaporative fuel vapor venting, Refueling
displacement vapor loss, and Refueling spillage loss are not necessary to select as they
produce no GHG emissions.
Rate per Vehicle Table - emissions in mass per vehicle (e.g., grams/vehicle); user
multiplies there rates by total vehicle population by vehicle type:
o Start exhaust
o Crankcase start exhaust
o Exhaust hotelling emissions (long-haul combination trucks only)
o Crankcase exhaust hotelling emissions (long-haul combination trucks only)
Note: Rates for evaporative and refueling processes are not necessary to use for a GHG
inventory as they produce no GHG emissions.
MOVES includes alternative rates for some of the emissions reported in the Rate per Vehicle
Table. These rates represent alternative forms (units) of some of the emissions reported in the
Rate per Vehicle Table, not additional emissions. Users should not apply both sets of rates to the
same emissions processes, in order to avoid double-counting.
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Rate per Start Table (alternative to using Rate per Vehicle Table for start emissions) -
emissions in mass per start (e.g., grams/vehicle-start); user multiplies these rates by
the number of individual vehicle starts:
o Start exhaust
o Crankcase start exhaust
Rate per Hour (alternative to using Rate per Vehicle Table for extended idle and
auxiliary power emissions) - emissions from hotelling activity in mass per hour (e.g.,
grams/hour); user multiplies these rates by the number of hours of hotelling activity:
o Extended idle exhaust (long-haul combination trucks only)
o Extended idle crankcase exhaust (long-haul combination trucks only)
o Auxiliary Power Exhaust (long-haul combination trucks only)
In order to calculate a total emissions inventory using the emissions rate mode, users need to
properly sum the products of emission rates and activity for each vehicle type, for each
applicable pollutant process in each of the applicable tables.
3.8 Manage Input Data Sets
Most analyses will not use the Manage Input Data Sets Panel.
This panel allows users to create alternate data tables that are used in place of data from the
MOVES default database. For GHG analyses in MOVES, the County Data Manager at the
County scale and the Data Importer at the National scale serve the same function. However, if
the user wishes to enter additional data about the area being analyzed that is not one of the input
requirements in the COM or Data Importer, then the data could either be included in the generic
importer or referenced in this panel. Users should consult with EPA before using the Manage
Input Data Sets Panel to input other additional data.
3.9 Strategies
The Strategies option in the Navigation Panel provides access to the Rate-of-Progress check box.
The Rate of Progress Panel applies only to SIP analyses in certain ozone nonattainment areas. It
is not applicable to GHG inventories, therefore is not covered in this guidance.
3.10Output
The Output option in the Navigation Panel provides access to two panels - General Output and
Output Emissions Detail. In general, users can generate output in whatever form works best for
their specific needs. The following subsections provide some considerations when specifying
output details and format. For additional guidance on selections to be made in this panel when
using the National scale, see Appendix A of this guidance.
The General Output Panel includes three sections: Output Database, Units, and Activity. The
Output Emissions Detail Panel also includes several sections.
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3.10.1 General Output Panel: Output Database
EPA recommends that users indicate that a database is an output database (such as using "_out"
at the end of the output database name). Results from multiple RunSpecs can be stored in a
single output database, but generally these RunSpecs should be similar in units and aggregation
because, typically, the user wants to compare results (e.g., RunSpecs that are identical except
that a different fuel formulation was used) or sum them (e.g., RunSpecs for multiple counties that
are part of the same metropolitan area). EPA recommends that users create a new output
database for RunSpecs that are considerably different from RunSpecs whose output is already
stored in existing output databases. Users will also want to consider total database size when
deciding which RunSpecs to store in the same output database.
3.10.2 General Output Panel: Units
Users are free to choose any of the mass unit selection options, but should generally choose a
unit whose magnitude is appropriate for the parameters of the RunSpec so that interpretation and
processing of the output is easier. For example, selecting tons in the output for a run aggregated
hourly may produce emissions of "0" if emissions are significantly less than one ton. For CO2
emissions at the county level, selecting tons may be appropriate. If the National scale is used,
and local VMT will be incorporated into the analysis according to Appendix B, grams may be a
better choice (because MOVES will compute CO2 per mile traveled). For other GHG emissions
such as elemental carbon or methane, users may want to select grams.
3.10.3 General Output Panel: Activity
MOVES allows the user to select multiple activity output options. These options are:
o Distance Traveled,
o Source Hours,
o Hotelling Hours,
o Source Hours Operating,
o Source Hours Parked,
o Population, and
o Starts.
For Inventory calculations, activity output is not required, but can be useful to verify whether
activity was properly entered in MOVES and whether the monthly and daily VMT fractions are
correctly allocating the annual VMT inputs. Therefore EPA recommends selecting "Distance
Traveled," and "Population" so that the user can compare these outputs with the VMT and
population that the user included in the input database. Users providing vehicle start information
through the Starts Importer of the CDM should always select "Starts" in the Activity portion of
the General Output Panel. Similarly, users providing hotelling information using the Hotelling
Importer of the CDM should always select "Hotelling Hours" here.
For Emission Rate calculations, distance and population are reported automatically, but the
values in the output are intermediate steps in the rate calculation and do not represent the true
activity. Also see Appendix A for applicable selections when running MOVES at the National
scale and using the "EmissionRates" post-processing script.
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3.10.4 Output Emission Detail Panel
This panel allows the user to select the amount of detail provided in the output. More detail may
be aggregated later by the user for various types of analysis, however, too much detail can lead
to longer run times, large output tables, longer query execution in MySQL, and adds to
complication to post processing. Users should determine exactly what output detail is needed and
care should be taken to determine where analysis will be focused in post-processing. Once the
run is executed, detail that was not selected cannot be recovered without re-running MOVES. In
the event that another run is needed for more output detail, MOVES run execution times for
energy consumption and/or CO2 are relatively short. For additional guidance on selections to be
made in this panel when using the National scale, see Appendix B of this guidance.
Time: Output at the Hour level is recommended for Time unless the user is certain that emission
results are not needed by time of day. As described in Section 3.3, if the user only selected a
single type of day in the Time Spans Panel because the user had a single Average Speed
Distribution, then selecting any time period longer than the Portion of the Week would not be
appropriate.
Location: The County scale allows only one county or custom domain to be modeled at a time,
so selection of "County" is automatic. For the National scale where more than one county is
selected, the user can have the output reported by "Nation," "State," or "County." If state is
selected, MOVES will show the output by state but only for the counties selected. For example,
if four counties in one state and five counties in another state were selected in the Geographic
Bounds Panel and "State" is selected in the Output Emission Detail Panel, the output for these
counties will be grouped by state. For the National scale, see Appendix A for recommendations
in this panel.
For the All/Vehicle Equipment Categories: In most cases Model Year does not have to be
selected; it would only be selected if the user has activity information by model years. Note that
selecting Model Year will increase the rows of output 31 times. Detailing output by Fuel Type
may be helpful if the AVFT was used to input activity by alternate fuel vehicles or if separate
output for gasoline and diesel vehicles are needed. Users can select Emission Processes to obtain
output for each emissions process; otherwise MOVES will aggregate the results.
On Road: Detail for Source Use Type and/or Road Type can provide useful information and
users will generally want to select at least one of these to be able to differentiate light and heavy
duty emissions or restricted and unrestricted roadway emissions. If you checked the "Provide
separate ramp output" box in the Road Type Panel, then select Road Type here (otherwise, you
will get output aggregated for all road types and not get separate ramp output).
Two additional output options are SCC (Source Classification Code) and Regulatory Class. EPA
uses SCCs to classify different types of anthropogenic emission activities. The existing SCCs
for onroad vehicles are combinations of vehicle type and road type based on the classifications
used in MOVES source type and roadtype IDs. Regulatory Class is a system EPA uses to
classify vehicles for emission standards purposes. EPA recommends using Source Use Type and
Road Type instead of SCC or Regulatory Class.
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3.10.4.1 Output Emission Detail When Using Emission Rate Mode
When the Emission Rates option is chosen in MOVES, Road Type is automatically selected in
the Output Emissions Detail Panel. Users should also select Source Type when using the
Emission Rates option. If Source Type is not selected, MOVES will calculate aggregate
emission rates for all source types based on the VMT and population by source type used as an
input in the RunSpec (i.e., values entered using the County Data Manager). Thus, the output
emission rates would be valid only for the mix of VMT and population by source type used to
aggregate them. When users select Source Type in Output Emissions Detail and produce a table
of running emission rates by road type and source type, these emission rates can be correctly
applied to VMT and population estimates that may have different amounts of VMT by individual
source type.
Likewise, it is recommended to leave model year and fuel type unchecked, unless the user has
VMT and population by model year or fuel type that could be applied to these more specific
rates. Producing more detailed rate tables can provide flexibility, by allowing these rates to be
applied across large geographic areas that have different age, fueltype or VMT distributions.
However, smaller geographic areas may not have activity data in this level of detail, and they
may find that more aggregated rates are easier to use in producing an inventory.
When Road Type and Source Type detail are selected, MOVES produces lookup tables of
emission rates by source type and road type. For running emissions, users then post-process
these lookup tables outside of MOVES to apply local VMT by source type, road type, and speed
bin to the gram per mile emission rates for each speed bin (based on local distributions of
average speed). For start and hotelling emissions, users would post-process the Rate per vehicle
lookup tables outside of MOVES to apply local source type population information to the per
vehicle emission rates (or alternatively, Rate per Start and/or Rate per Hour Table, see Section
3.7.3). Additional detail on the applicability of data entered in the COM when using the
Emission Rates approach is provided in the individual subsections of Section 4 of this document.
3.11 Advanced Performance Features
The Advanced Performance Features Panel is used for EPA internal testing and is not necessary
for creating estimates of onroad GHG emissions. Use of these features requires knowledge of
the detailed software components of the MOVES program, the inputs they require, and the
outputs they produce. Users interested in these features should review the appropriate sections in
the MOVES User Guide and the MOVES Software Design and Reference Manual.28
! These documents can be downloaded from www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/faser-2014a.
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Section 4: Creating the Input Database
After completing the RunSpec, the next step is to supply MOVES with data to create an input
database. If using the National scale, the Data Importer can be used to incorporate local data, but
it is optional and a National scale run can operate with national default data instead. If using the
County scale, the County Data Manager (COM) is used to create an input database and populate
it with local data. Users that have several local data inputs are encouraged to use the County
scale instead of the National scale. Refer to Section 2 for more information about the difference
between the scales and when each would be appropriate for a GHG analysis.
As with any model, the quality of the data inputs greatly affect the accuracy of the outputs.
MOVES requires input data to describe the location, time, and characteristics of the vehicle fleet
being modeled to calculate emissions. Modelers can either rely on MOVES default information
or local data that the user inputs. The data contained in the MOVES default database are
typically not the most current or best available for any specific county. Therefore, with the
exception of fuels, EPA recommends using local data for MOVES for GHG analyses when
available to improve the accuracy of GHG emissions estimates. At a minimum, EPA strongly
encourages the use of local VMT and vehicle population data.29 EPA believes these inputs have
the greatest impact on the quality of results. However, if local data are not available, MOVES
default data may be useful for some inputs without affecting the quality of the results. This
section explores the process of entering data inputs and discusses the various data input tabs.
4.1 Data Importer and County Data Manager Tabs
The Data Importer, which is available when using the National scale, and the CDM available
with the County scale, serve the same function: they simplify importing specific local data
without requiring direct interaction with the underlying input database. The Data Importer and
CDM include multiple tabs, each one of which opens importers that are used to enter specific
local data. These tabs and importers include the following:
Meteorology Data
Source Type Population
Age Distribution
Vehicle Type VMT
Average Speed Distribution
Road Type Distribution
Ramp Fraction
Fuel
I/M Programs
Zone (used with Custom Domain only)
29 The national default VMT data included in MOVES2014a are for the year 2011. When a future year is modeled
using the National scale (see Section 2.4), MOVES applies an annual growth rate to the 2011 national VMT for the
appropriate number of years. A portion of this scaled-up VMT is then allocated to the geographic area of interest.
Thus EPA expects that users will always be able to find more recent and accurate VMT information than what is
available within the MOVES model.
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Starts
Hotelling
Retrofit Data
Generic
Each of the importers allows the user to create an import template file with required data field
names and some key fields populated. The user will then edit these templates to add specific
local data with a spreadsheet application or other tool, and import each data file into an input
database for the run. In some importers, there is the option to export default data from the
MOVES default database to review it. Once the user determines that the default data are
applicable to the particular analysis, or determines that the default data need to be changed and
makes those changes, the user then imports that data into the input database. Details of the
mechanics of using the data importers are provided in the MOVES User Guide. Guidance for
the use of these importers for estimating onroad GHG emissions is given below.
4.2 Importing Local Data When Using the County Scale
Use of the CDM is necessary when the scale is set to County. In order to complete a RunSpec at
the County scale, the user must either import local data, or review and import default data for
each tab in the CDM except for Ramp Fraction.
The CDM can be accessed either from the "Pre-Processing" pull-down menu at the top of the
MOVES User Interface, or by selecting "Enter/Edit Data" on the Geographic Bounds Panel.
However, before a user can input any locality specific data, an input database must be created on
the Database Tab on the Geographic Bounds Panel. EPA recommends that this database name
end with "_in" to indicate it is a user input database. When the database is created, MOVES
keeps track of the selections made in the RunSpec at that moment. Users should be careful of
making changes to the RunSpec after the Domain Input Database has been created, because this
can create inconsistencies between the Domain Input Database and the rest of the RunSpec.
In Emissions Rates runs, entering reasonable activity inputs in the CDM is important even
though activity data will be applied outside of MOVES to calculate an inventory. Vehicle
activity inputs are important because MOVES uses them to calculate the relative amounts of
running and resting activity, which in turn affects the rates for start and hotelling. As a general
rule, users should input accurate activity for the scenario being modeled regardless of whether
MOVES is being used in Inventory or Emissions Rates mode.
4.3 Importing Local Data When Using the National Scale
As described in Section 2, the National scale could be sufficient for some types of GHG
analyses. At the National scale, local data other than VMT and vehicle population can be
imported to an input database for a MOVES run using the Data Importer, which has the same set
of importers as the County Data Manager, each on its own tab.
When using the National scale for a smaller geographic area than the entire nation, do not use the
Data Importer to import local VMT or vehicle population ("source type population") data.
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MOVES will treat VMT and population data entered as applying to the nation as a whole and
apportion only some fraction of what is entered to the chosen geographic area, thus producing
erroneous results. When using the National scale, VMT information can be included using the
process described in Appendix A. In this process, the user will run MOVES to calculate an
inventory, have MOVES post-process the inventory to calculate emissions rates, and then
multiply those rates by the VMT in the area. Emissions resulting from vehicle starts will be
included in the estimated emissions rates rather than calculated based on vehicle population.
Therefore with this method, the user cannot include local information about vehicle population.
If the user has both VMT and vehicle population information, EPA encourages the use of the
County scale rather than the National scale so this information can be utilized by the model for a
more precise estimate of emissions.
The Data Importer can be accessed from the "Pre-Processing" pull-down menu at the top of the
MOVES User Interface. Users will be prompted to create an input database name on the
Database Tab. EPA recommends that this database name end with "_in" to indicate it is a user
input database.
The remainder of Section 4 describes the panels to create an input database
file in terms of the County Data Manager. Because of the similarities
between the County Data Manager and the Data Importer, this information
applies to the Data Importer except where otherwise noted.
4.4 Meteorology Data
Ambient temperature and relative humidity data are important inputs for estimating onroad GHG
emissions with MOVES. Ambient temperature and relative humidity are important for
estimating GHG emissions from motor vehicles as these affect air conditioner use. MOVES
requires a temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) and relative humidity (in terms of a percentage, on
a scale from 0 to 100) for each hour selected in the RunSpec. For example, MOVES requires a
24-hour temperature and humidity profile to model a full day of emissions on an hourly basis.
EPA has created a tool (available at www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/tools.htm) that takes
minimum and maximum daily temperatures and creates an hourly temperature profile that could
be used as input to MOVES. EPA recommends that users input the average daily temperature
profile for each month if they are modeling all 12 months.
Temperature assumptions used for estimating onroad GHG emissions should be based on the
latest available information. The MOVES database includes default monthly temperature and
humidity data for every county in the country. These default data are based on average monthly
temperatures for each county from the National Climatic Data Center for the period from 2001 to
2011. These national defaults can be used for a GHG inventory, or more recent data can be
used.30 Detailed local meteorological data are available from the National Climatic Data Center
at www.ncdc.noaa.gov. EPA recommends documenting the sources of temperature data and any
30 In general, more recent temperature data is likely to be warmer, which may increase emissions because MOVES
estimates vehicle air conditioner use based on temperature.
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methods used to adjust them to fit the requirements of MOVES, as a means of keeping track of
the inputs to the analysis and to ensure that the same method can be replicated over time.
4.4.1 Meteorology Data in Emission Rate Calculations
Users can develop Emission Rates for either a single county or a Custom Domain. If the
Emission Rate calculation type is chosen in the RunSpec, users can enter a different temperature
and humidity for each hour of the day to create an emission rate table that varies by temperature
for running emissions processes. Emission rates for all running processes that vary by
temperature can be post-processed outside of MOVES to calculate emissions for any mix of
temperatures that can occur during a day. This creates the potential to create a lookup table of
emission rates by temperature for the range of temperatures that can occur over a longer period
of time such as a month or year from a single MOVES run.
However, for emissions from any non-running processes that occur on the "off-network" road
type, i.e., start and hotelling emissions, it is still necessary to define a temperature profile for
each hour of the day. Unlike running emissions that depend entirely on temperature, off-network
emissions depend on both temperature and hour of day. It is possible to model both running and
off-network emission rates in one run to create a lookup table that can be post-processed into an
inventory. See the MOVES User Guide and the MOVES Technical Guidance for further
information.31
4.5 Source Type Population
Use this importer with the CDM (County scale) only. Do not use this importer with the Data
Importer (National scale). MOVES will treat source type population data entered in the Data
Importer as applying to the nation as a whole and apportion only some fraction of what is
entered to the chosen geographic area, thus producing erroneous results. If users have
information about source type population, the County scale should be used.
Source type (vehicle type) population is used by MOVES to calculate start and hotelling
emissions. It is also used to calculated evaporative emissions, but as stated earlier, evaporative
emissions are not necessary when estimating GHG emissions. Start and hotelling emissions
depend more on how many vehicles are parked and started, rather than how many miles they are
driven. Therefore, in MOVES, start emissions are a function of the population of vehicles in an
area and therefore users need to develop local data for vehicle population.
MOVES categorizes vehicles into 13 source types, which are subsets of five HPMS vehicle types
in MOVES, as shown in Table 4-1.32 EPA believes that states should be able to develop
population data for many of these source type categories from state motor vehicle registration
data (e.g., passenger cars, passenger trucks, light commercial trucks, motorcycles). States may
31 MOVES2014 and 2014a Technical Guidance: Using MOVES to Prepare Emission Inventories for State
Implementation Plans and Transportation Conformity, November 2015, EPA-420-B-15-093, on the web at
www.epa. gov/otaq/models/moves/documents/420b 15093 .pdf.
32 There are actually 6 HPMS vehicle Type IDs, but MOVES uses Vehicle Type ID 25 to substitute for HPMS Type
IDs 20 (short wheelbase light-duty) and 30 (long wheelbase light-duty) for VMT input only.
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be able to obtain population data for other types of vehicles from their owners or operators:
population data for intercity buses may be available from bus companies, data for transit buses
may be available from local transit agencies, data for school buses may be available from school
districts, and data for refuse trucks may be available from refuse haulers or local governments.
Estimating population for other source types may be more difficult. If population is not available
for a particular source type, users could estimate population for that source type based on the
MOVES default split of that source type within the HPMS vehicle class. In the absence of any
other source of population data, users could base population estimates on the VMT estimates for
a particular source type and the ratio of MOVES default population to VMT by source type.
That ratio can be calculated by doing a very simple MOVES run at the national scale for the
county in question, and including VMT and population in the output (a running emissions
process must be selected to generate VMT).33 Local VMT multiplied by the ratio of default
population to default VMT will give an estimate of local population based on local VMT.
Table 4-1: MOVES Source Types and HPMS Vehicle Types
MOVES
Source Type ID
11
21
31
32
41
42
43
51
52
53
54
61
62
Source Types
Motorcycle
Passenger Car
Passenger Truck
Light Commercial Truck
Intercity Bus
Transit Bus
School Bus
Refuse Truck
Single Unit Short-haul Truck
Single Unit Long-haul Truck
Motor Home
Combination Short-haul Truck
Combination Long-haul Truck
HPMS
Vehicle Type ID
10
25
40
50
60
Vehicle Type
Motorcycles
Light Duty
Vehicles
Buses
Single Unit Trucks
Combination
Trucks
33 Population isn't available in the Summary Reporter, so users will have to access the output database through
MySQL.
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Tip: A useful quality check on population and VMT inputs is to divide VMT by source
type by source type population to estimate VMT per vehicle, and then determine
whether these estimates are reasonable.
4.6 Source Type Population in Emission Rate Calculations
Users can develop Emission Rates for either a single county or a custom domain. If the
Emission Rates option is used at the County scale and Source Type is selected in the Output
Emission Detail Panel, MOVES will produce emission rates for start emissions and hotelling
emissions by source type in terms of unit of mass (e.g., grams) per vehicle. Total start and/or
hotelling emissions would then be calculated outside of MOVES by multiplying the emission
rates by the vehicle populations for each source type. However, users will still need to enter data
using the Source Type Population Importer that represents the population of vehicles in the total
area where the lookup table results will be applied. This is necessary because MOVES uses the
relationship between source type population and VMT to determine the relative amount of time
vehicles spend parking vs. running. If the lookup table results will be applied to a large number
of counties, use the total source type population for all the counties covered. The guidance in
this section concerning the use of local vehicle population data applies both for generating the
total population as an input to the model and for generating more geographically detailed
population values to use in applying the emission rate results.
To generate the non-running portion of the inventory from rates, multiply the rates from the
Ratepervehicle Table by vehicle population. Alternatively, for start emission processes, use the
Rateperstart Table , which requires multiplying by the number of vehicle starts and/or for
hotelling processes, use the Rateperhour Table, which requires multiplying by the number of
hotelling hours. All of these rate tables are found in the output database.
4.7 Age Distribution
A typical vehicle fleet includes a mix of vehicles of different ages, referred to as Age
Distribution in MOVES. MOVES covers a 31 year range of vehicle ages, with vehicles 30 years
and older grouped together. MOVES allows the user to specify the fraction of vehicles in each
of 30 vehicle ages for each of the 13 source types in the model.
The age distribution of vehicle fleets can vary significantly from area to area and affects
emissions. Generally, fleets with a higher percentage of older vehicles have higher emissions.
Older vehicles have typically been driven more miles and experience more deterioration in
emission control systems. Likewise, a higher percentage of older vehicles means that there are
more vehicles in the fleet that do not meet newer, more stringent emission standards or CAFE
standards. Surveys of registration data indicate considerable local variability in vehicle age
distributions, which is not reflected in the default age distributions in MOVES. MOVES uses a
single national default age distribution for each vehicle type in each year for every county.
For estimating onroad GHG emissions, EPA recommends and encourages states to develop age
distributions that are applicable to the area being analyzed (e.g., for one or more individual
counties, a state as a whole, etc.). Only one age distribution can be entered for the area being
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modeled, so if you have age distribution information that varies by county, you would have to do
a run for each county to utilize it. An age distribution may have already been developed for SIP
and conformity purposes and if so, could also be used for estimating onroad GHG emissions.
Tools for creating and converting age distributions are available at
www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/tools.htm. As users develop new data in the future, EPA
recommends recording those data according to MOVES vehicle classifications and model year
breakdown.
While the MOVES Age Distribution input asks for an age distribution by source type, EPA does
not expect that detailed local age distribution data will be readily available for all 13 of these
source types. If local age distribution information is not available for some source types, states
can use the same age distribution for all source types within an HPMS vehicle class (see Table 4-
1 for a comparison of MOVES source types to HPMS vehicle classes). For example, states
could use the same age distribution for Source Types 31 and 32 if separate age distributions for
passenger trucks and light commercial trucks are not available.
Local age distributions can be estimated from local vehicle registration data. If users are unable
to acquire data to develop a local age distribution or have reason to believe that data about
locally registered vehicles is not necessarily representative of that entire portion of the fleet (as
may be the case with long-haul trucks), then MOVES national default age distributions can be
used.34 A set of these national default age distributions for all source types and all calendar years
is available on EPA's website at www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/tools.htm. (Age distributions
cannot be exported directly from the default database within MOVES.)
The default age distributions in MOVES are specific to each calendar year and include
assumptions about changes in age distributions over time. If local registration age distributions
are used, they normally should not change across calendar years. That is, regardless of analysis
year, the same percentage of the fleet can be assumed to be 0-1 year old, 1-2 years old, 2-3 years
old, etc. The vehicle fleet turns over as people replace aging vehicles, but the age distribution
generally remains the same.
However, very large temporary changes in vehicle sales and scrappage rates occurred as a result
of the recession that began in 2008. Therefore, EPA has created the "Age Distribution
Projection Tool for MOVES2014," found at www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/tools.htm. This
tool will take a user supplied age distribution from 2011 or later and apply the same methods that
EPA uses for projecting default national age distributions in MOVES to change the local age
distribution in future years. This tool reduces the impact of the recession, which caused a
temporarily older age distribution, on the vehicle fleet with time.35
34 For example, if an entire fleet of trucks belonging to a national freight company are registered in the county being
modeled and these trucks operate across a larger region of the U.S., it may be more accurate to use the MOVES
national default age distributions for long-haul trucks rather than the county's long-haul truck registration data. The
county's data may be unduly influenced by the freight distributor's particular fleet.
35 Details of the projection algorithm in the Age Distribution Projection Tool may be found in "Population and
Activity of Onroad Vehicles inMOVES2014," Section 7.1.2.2 (pp. 56-58), available at:
www.epa.gov/otaa/models/moves/documents/420rl6003a.pdf.
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It is recommended that users fully document the sources of data and methods used to develop
local age distributions as a means of keeping track of the inputs to the analysis and to ensure that
the same method can be replicated over time.
It is possible to model the effects of an accelerated vehicle retirement program on GHG
emissions or energy consumption, when such programs exist in a given area. One way is to
modify the age distribution by increasing the fraction of new vehicles and decreasing the relative
fractions of the model years targeted for retirement reflecting the effect of the program on the
vehicle fleet. The effect of an accelerated vehicle retirement program can also be modeled by
obtaining emissions rates output by model year, and calculating the effects of the program
outside of the MOVES model using information on how vehicle activity would change by model
year. Note that an accelerated vehicle retirement program would have to be quite large to have a
discernable effect on fleetwide GHG emissions in MOVES. Note that while either of these
approaches could be used for a GHG analysis, it is not acceptable to assume that a future fleet
will be younger than the existing age distribution when modeling emissions for SIP and
conformity analyses, unless there is some enforceable mechanism to bring about this change.
4.8 Vehicle Type VMT
Use this importer with the CDM (County scale) only. Do not use this importer with the Data
Importer (National scale). MOVES will treat vehicle type VMT data entered in the Data
Importer as applying to the nation as a whole and apportion only some fraction of what is
entered to the chosen geographic area, thus producing erroneous results. To include local VMT
information when using the National scale, see Appendix A.
As stated in Section 2.2, EPA believes VMT inputs have the greatest impact on the results of a
state or local GHG or energy consumption analysis. Regardless of calculation type, MOVES
requires VMT as an input. MOVES estimates emissions based on travel activity multiplied by
emission factors. MOVES will multiply the VMT from each vehicle source type, on each road
type, by the corresponding emission factors to generate an emissions inventory.36 MPOs or state
DOTs may have VMT estimates that can be used in MOVES. If VMT data are not available
locally, other sources of VMT and vehicle population data are available. For a historical year,
one source of VMT data is the Federal Highway Administration's Highway Performance
Monitoring System (HPMS).37 For a future year, travel activity information for a GHG analysis
can be estimated using a variety of methods. Future VMT can be estimated by applying a
growth rate to historical VMT, or with a commercially available sketch planning tool, or a
traditional four-step travel demand model. For example, in EPA's Travel Efficiency Assessment
Method, a sketch planning tool was used to estimate changes in travel activity resulting from
various transportation control strategies. Then MOVES was used to estimate the changes in
criteria pollutant and GHG emissions.38
36 This is true even when the calculation type is Emission Rates.
37 For more information, see the Federal Highway Administration's website at:
www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/hpms.cfm.
38 For more information, see "Potential Changes in Emissions Due to Improvements in Travel Efficiency," EPA-
420-R-l 1-003, March 2011, on the web at www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/policv/420rl 1003.pdf and EPA's
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MOVES can accommodate whatever VMT data is available: annual or average daily VMT, by
HPMS class or MOVES sourcetype. Therefore, there are four possible ways to enter VMT,
allowing users the flexibility to enter VMT data in whatever form they have. EPA recommends
that the same approach be used in any analysis that compares two or more cases (e.g., the base
year and a future year) in a GHG analysis. If users have annual VMT, it may be a better for
annual GHG inventories.
Annual or Daily VMT: EPA recommends that users with average annual daily VMT use
MOVES2014a (rather than MOVES2014) to take advantage of the daily VMT input option. For
users who want to use MOVES2014 or annual VMT in MOVES2014a to take advantage of
capabilities in MOVES to allocate VMT across different time periods, EPA has created a
spreadsheet-based tool, the "AADVMT Converter for MOVES2014." This converter allows
users to input average annual daily VMT as well as monthly and weekend day adjustment factors
to create the annual VMT by HPMS class and appropriate monthly and daily adjustments needed
byMOVES2014.
VMT by HPMS Vehicle Classes: The Federal Highway Administration recently modified the
methodology used to generate VMT estimates in HPMS. As a result of that change, the old
categories 20 and 30, which previously represented passenger cars and 2-axle, 4-tire trucks
respectively, now represent short wheelbase and long wheelbase light-duty vehicles. Because
the short wheelbase/long wheelbase distinction does not map well to MOVES source types,
MOVES now uses a single category 25 to include all light-duty cars and trucks for VMT only.
All VMT for HPMS categories 20 and 30 should be summed, and entered as category 25. Note
that although HPMS categories 20 and 30 are combined for VMT entry purposes in MOVES, all
other fleet and activity inputs (vehicle population, age distribution, average speed distribution,
etc.) for Source Types 21, 31, and 32 are still handled separately in MOVES and all emission
calculations and results are based on the emission and activity characteristics of each of these
source types.
VMT by MOVES Source Type: MOVES2014a also includes the option to enter VMT by
MOVES Source Types shown in Table 4-1 in Section 4.5 above. For users who are able to
develop VMT data by the MOVES Source Types, entering VMT by Source Type will bypass the
default allocation of VMT from HPMS class to Source Type that MOVES does internally.
4.8.1 Vehicle Type VMT in Emission Rate Calculations
If the Emission Rates option is used, and Source Type is selected in the Output Emission Detail
Panel, MOVES will produce emission rates for running emissions by source type and road type
in terms of grams per mile. Total running emissions would then be calculated outside of
MOVES by multiplying the emission rates by the VMT for each source type and road type.
However, users will still need to enter data using the Vehicle Type VMT Importer that reflects
the VMT in the total area where the lookup table results will be applied. This is necessary
because MOVES uses the relationship between source type population and VMT to determine
related documents to EPA's Travel Efficient Assessment Method found at:
www.epa.gov/otaa/stateresources/ghgtravel.htnrfassess.
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the relative amount of time vehicles spend parked vs. running. If the lookup table results will be
applied to a large number of counties, use the total VMT for all the counties covered. The
guidance in this section concerning the use of local VMT data applies both for developing the
total VMT to input and for developing the geographically detailed VMT to use when applying
the emission rates.
4.9 Average Speed Distribution
Vehicle power, speed, and acceleration have a significant effect on vehicle emissions, including
GHG emissions. MOVES models those emission effects by assigning activity to specific drive
cycles. While direct input of operating modes and drive schedules is possible using Project scale
inputs, the model also can use the distribution of vehicle hours traveled (VHT) by average speed
to determine an appropriate operating mode distribution. Thus, for estimating onroad GHG
emissions where activity is averaged over a wide variety of driving patterns, a local speed
distribution by road type and source type is a reasonable surrogate for more detailed local drive
cycles or operating mode distributions. In these cases, states could develop and use local
estimates of average speed. The Average Speed Distribution Importer in MOVES calls for a
speed distribution in VHT in 16 speed bins, by each road type, source type, and hour of the day
included in the analysis. EPA urges users to develop the most detailed local speed information
that is reasonable to obtain. However, EPA acknowledges that average speed distribution
information may not be available at the level of detail that MOVES allows. The following
paragraphs provide additional guidance regarding the development of average speed distribution
inputs.
Average speed, as defined for use in MOVES, is the distance traveled (in miles) divided by the
time (in hours). This is not the same as the instantaneous velocity of vehicles or the nominal
speed limit on the roadway link. The MOVES definition of speed includes all operation of
vehicles including intersections and other obstacles to travel which may result in stopping and
idling. As a result, average speeds, as used in MOVES, will tend to be less than nominal speed
limits for individual roadway links.
Selection of vehicle speeds is a complex process. One recommended approach for estimating
average speeds is to post-process the output from a travel demand model. In most transportation
models, speed is estimated primarily to allocate travel across the roadway network. Speed is
used as a measure of impedance to travel rather than as a prediction of accurate travel times. For
this reason, speed results from most travel demand models must be adjusted to properly estimate
actual average speeds.
An alternative approach to develop a local average speed distribution is to process on-vehicle
GPS data. There are a number of commercial vendors that can provide raw, or processed vehicle
speed data from cell phone and other on-vehicle GPS collection devices. This information can
be used to calculate a MOVES average speed distribution. As part of the MOVES2014 model,
EPA used GPS data to calculate a national default average speed distribution. Users wishing to
process their own GPS data into an average speed distribution should ensure that the data are
representative of the modeling domain, and accurately capture variation in vehicle average
speeds across the day, and year.
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In cases where onroad emissions modeling has been done to meet SIP and conformity
requirements for criteria pollutants, areas may already have developed this information. Users
may want to find the latest average speed distribution used in onroad emissions modeling for a
SIP or conformity determination in the area.
Speed is entered in MOVES as a distribution rather than a single value. Table 4-2 shows the
speed bin structure that MOVES uses for speed distribution input. Section 4.7.3 of this
document explains how to create a speed distribution from a single average speed. However,
EPA encourages users to use underlying speed distribution data to represent vehicle speed as an
input to MOVES, rather than one average value. Use of a distribution will give a more accurate
estimate of emissions than use of a single average speed. This is particularly important for GHG
analysis, since GHG emission rates are highest at low speeds and very high speeds. A single
average speed will tend to be in the middle of the speed range where emission rates are lower,
leading the analysis to underestimate GHG emissions.
Table 4-2: MOVES Speed Bins
Speed Bin ID Average Bin Speed Speed Bin Range
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
2.5
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
speed < 2.5mph
2.5mph <= speed < 7.5mph
7.5mph <= speed < 12.5mph
12.5mph <= speed < 17.5mph
17.5mph <= speed <22.5mph
22.5mph <= speed < 27.5mph
27.5mph <= speed < 32.5mph
32.5mph <= speed < 37.5mph
37.5mph <= speed < 42.5mph
42.5mph <= speed < 47.5mph
47.5mph <= speed < 52.5mph
52.5mph <= speed < 57.5mph
57.5mph <= speed < 62.5mph
62.5mph <= speed < 67.5mph
67.5mph <= speed < 72.5mph
72.5mph <= speed
As is the case for other MOVES inputs, EPA does not expect that users will be able to develop
distinct local speed distributions for all 13 vehicle source types. If a local average speed
distribution is not available for some source types, states can use the same average speed
distribution for all source types within an HPMS vehicle class. For example, users could apply
the same average speed distribution for source types 31 and 32 if separate average speed
distributions for passenger trucks and light commercial trucks are not available. Users could also
apply the same speed distributions across multiple HPMS vehicle classes if more detailed
information is not available.
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Average speed estimates for calendar years other than the calendar year on which the average
speed estimates are based should be logically related to the current year methodology and
estimates, with no arbitrary or unsupported assumptions of changes in average speeds. Future
average speed estimates should account for the effect of growth in overall fleet VMT on roadway
congestion and average speeds.
4.9.1 Additional Guidance for Speeds on Local Roadways
MOVES uses four different roadway types that are affected by the average speed distribution
input: rural restricted access, rural unrestricted access, urban restricted access, and urban
unrestricted access. In MOVES, local roadways are included with arterials and collectors in the
urban and rural unrestricted access roads category. Therefore, EPA recommends that the
average speed distribution for local roadway activity be included as part of a weighted
distribution of average speed across all unrestricted roads: local roadways, arterials, and
connectors. Users who want to treat local roadways and arterials separately can develop separate
average speed distributions and estimate results using two separate MOVES runs, each with
appropriate VMT, one using the local roadway average speed distribution for unrestricted access
roads and one using the arterial average speed distribution for unrestricted access roads.
However, using properly weighted average speed distributions for the combination of all
unrestricted access roads should give the same result as using separate average speed
distributions for arterials and local roadways.
4.9.2 Average Speed Distributions in Emission Rates Calculations
The guidance in this section concerning the use of local speed distribution data still applies
whether local average speed distributions are applied within MOVES using the Inventory option
or outside of MOVES using the Emission Rate option.
If the Emission Rates option is used, and Source Type is selected in the Output Emission Detail
Panel, MOVES will produce a table of emission rates by source type and road type for each
speed bin. Total running emissions would then be calculated outside of MOVES by multiplying
the emission rates by the VMT for each source type in each speed bin. However, the CDM still
requires a complete speed distribution to work, and the information provided in this input is used
by MOVES to calculate the relative amounts of running and non-running activity, which in turn
affects the rates for these processes. Users should supply an accurate speed distribution to
produce the necessary emission rates (and at the National scale, the user could rely on the default
speed distribution).
Users can develop Emission Rates for either a single county or a custom domain. With a Custom
Domain, users would define one average speed distribution for the entire domain; it cannot vary
by zone.
4.9.3 Average Speed Distributions for Highways and Ramps
For rural and urban restricted access highways, users should enter the speed distribution of
vehicles traveling on the highway only, not including any activity that occurs on entrance and
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exit ramps. The current version of MOVES automatically calculates a speed distribution for
ramp activity based on the speed distribution of vehicles traveling on the highway.39 Faster or
slower highway speeds result in faster or slower ramp speeds (and higher or lower acceleration
rates) calculated by MOVES. MOVES then calculates emissions for ramp activity based on this
internally-calculated speed distribution for the ramps, using the appropriate distribution of
operating modes related to that speed distribution, and the fraction of VHT that occurs on ramps.
At this point, MOVES adds emissions for ramp activity to emissions calculated for vehicles
traveling on the highway itself to get the total emissions for restricted access roads.
MOVES2014/2014a also allows users to separate emissions between ramps and highways.
Section 4.9 describes the Ramp Fraction input and how it might be used to model ramps
separately from highways. As noted in that section, even when ramps are handled separately
from highways, the speed distribution entered in MOVES should be the speed distribution for the
associated highways, not a ramp-specific speed distribution.
4.10Road Type Distribution
The fraction of VMT by road type varies from area to area and can have a significant effect on
GHG emissions from onroad mobile sources. EPA expects states to develop and use their own
specific estimates of VMT by road type. The VMT fractions by road type used in inventory
modeling for estimating onroad GHG emissions should be consistent with the most recent
information used for transportation planning. For each source type, the Road Type Distribution
Table of the input database stores the distribution of VMT by road type (e.g., the fraction of
passenger car VMT on each of the road types).
As in the case for other MOVES inputs, EPA does not expect that users will be able to develop
local distributions of VMT by road type for all 13 vehicle source types. If local road type
distributions are available for some, but not all source types, the same road type distribution can
be used for all source types within an HPMS vehicle class. For example, users could apply the
same road type distribution for source types 31 and 32 if separate average speed distributions for
passenger trucks and light commercial trucks are not available. Users could also apply the same
road type distribution across multiple HPMS vehicle classes if more detailed information is not
available.
EPA recommends using the same approach for custom domain zones. Users will define one road
type distribution and allocate it via the Custom Zone Tab using reasonable local data.
4.10.1 Road Type Distributions in Emission Rate Calculations
If the Emission Rates option is used, MOVES will automatically produce a table of running
emission rates by road type. Running emissions would then be calculated outside of MOVES by
multiplying the emission rates by the VMT on each road type for each source type in each speed
bin. In that case, data entered using the Road Type Distribution Importer is still required, but is
not used by MOVES to calculate the rate. However, road type distribution inputs are important
39 The algorithm that calculates the ramp speed distribution was incorporated in MOVES2010a.
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for Emission Rates runs involving non-running processes, because they are used by MOVES to
calculate the relative amounts of running and non-running activity, which in turn affects the rates
for the non-running processes. Road type distribution inputs for Rates runs that include any non-
running processes should reflect realistic activity for the area. The guidance in this section
concerning the use of local road type data still applies whether local road type distributions are
applied within MOVES using the Inventory option or outside of MOVES using the Emission
Rates option.
4,11 Ramp Fraction
Use of the Ramp Fraction Tab is optional. The default ramp fraction on both rural restricted
roads (Road Type 2) and urban restricted roads (road type 4) is 8% of VHT and this default value
of 8% will be automatically applied if the user does not import local data. Users who have good
local data indicating a different fraction for ramp activity should use it to modify the default
value.
The Ramp Fraction Tab imports a table that duplicates the Roadtype Table in the MOVES
default database. The user enters the fraction of VHT on ramps for either rural restricted (Road
Type 2) or urban restricted (Road Type 4) roads in the rampFraction field of this table.
For both Inventory and Emission Rates modes, the default output from MOVES combines
highway and ramp activity. However in Inventory mode, users can have MOVES report results
for ramps separately from highways. To obtain results for ramps and highways separately, users
would check the "Provide separate ramp output" box in the Road Type Panel of the RunSpec,
and select "Road Type" on the Output Emissions Detail Panel. This option should only be
selected if there is a need to separate ramp emissions from highway emissions. Typically, when
developing an emissions inventory, this level of detail is not necessary.
Separate ramp output is not available in Emission Rates mode in MOVES2014 or
MOVES2014a. In Emission Rates mode, aggregate ramp/highway emission rates will be
produced that should be combined with aggregate ramp/highway VMT.
For those defining a custom domain, users will define one ramp fraction for each restricted road
type for the entire domain. This cannot vary by zone.
4.12 Fuel (Supply, Formulation, Usage Fraction, andAVFT)
MOVES has four tables - called FuelFormulation, Fuel Supply, FuelUsageFraction, and AVFT
(alternative vehicle fuels and technology) - that interact to define the fuels used in the area being
modeled. In MOVES2014, these tables are accessed through a single tab in the CDM called
Fuel. The MOVES defaults for all four tables are accessible using the Export Default Data
button in the Fuel Tab of the CDM.
The Fuel Supply Table identifies the fuel formulations used in a region (the regionCounty
Ttable defines which specific counties are included in these regions) and each
formulation's respective market share;
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The FuelFormulation Table defines the properties (such as RVP, sulfur level, ethanol
volume, etc.) of each fuel;
The FuelUsageFraction Table defines the frequency at which E-85 capable (flex fuel)
vehicles use E-85 vs. conventional gasoline; and
The AVFT Table is used to specify the fraction (other than the default included in the
sampleVehiclePopulation Table) of fuel types capable of being used (such as flex fuel
vehicles) by model year and source type.
In general, users should rely on the default county-level fuel information in MOVES in a GHG
analysis. The default fuel tables in MOVES2014a have been revised and reflect EPA's latest
information about fuel use in the U.S.
The following subsections of this document specify situations where changes to the MOVES
default fuel data are appropriate. This guidance will apply for county or custom domain zones,
and for Emission Rates and Inventory runs. When running MOVES for a custom domain, the
same fuel formulation, fuel supply, fuel usage, and AVFT information must apply across the
entire custom domain. If different counties in the domain have different fuel characteristics, the
counties must be analyzed using separate runs.
MOVES has default gasoline, E-85, and diesel fuel formulation and supply information for every
county-year-month combination that can be selected. These default tables are based on volumetric
fuel data for thousands of batches of fuel in each of the fuel regions. In MOVES2014, we have
simplified the county-level fuel properties within the MOVES fuel supply, based on averages of
survey data as well as data provided to EPA at the refinery gates as part of our fuel compliance
programs. EPA believes this average data by region provides a more consistent and
maintainable basis for the model and, by aggregating fuel survey data as well as incorporating
refinery batch-by-batch fuel compliance data, a more representative fuel supply was created for
the final default. These new fuel supply and fuel formulation tables better account for fuel
production and distribution networks, natural borders, and regional/state/local variations in fuel
policy and increase confidence that the default fuels in a particular region represent the actual
fuels used in that region. The new fuel regions in MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a are shown
and described in Figure 4-1 and Table 4-3 below.
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Figure 4-1: Fuel Regions in MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a
Table 4-3: Description of Fuel Regions in MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a
Region ID#
1
2
3
4
5
6
11
12
13
14
15
Region Name
East Coast
Midwest
South
North
Rocky Mts
CA/NV/AR
East Coast RFC
MD/VA
Texas RFC
Midwest RFC
California
Description
East coast states up to Appalachians, Florida, and gulf coast region
Midwest states up to Appalachians (not including Wisconsin), Tennessee,
Kentucky
Southern states not including gulf coast, and Nebraska, Iowa
North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Pacific northwest, Rocky mountain states, Utah
California, Nevada, Arizona, AK, and HI NOT using Reformulated Gasoline
(RFC)
East coast states and regions using RFG fuel or under a controlled fuel program
Maryland and Virginia regions using RFG fuel or under a controlled fuel
program
Texas regions using RFG fuel or under a controlled fuel program
Midwest regions using RFG fuel or under a controlled fuel program
California using California fuel, Nevada and Arizona regions using California
Fuel
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4.12.1 Fuel Formulation and Fuel Supply Guidance
In general, users should review the default fuel formulation and fuel supply data and make
changes only where precise local volumetric fuel property information is available. EPA
strongly recommends using the default fuel properties for a region unless a full local fuel
property study exists.
The lone exception to this guidance is in the case of Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) where a user
should change the value to reflect any specific local regulatory requirements and differences
between ethanol- and non-ethanol blended gasoline not reflected in the default database. Any
changes to RVP (or to any other fuel formulation parameters) should be done using the "Fuels
Wizard" tool in the Fuel Tab of the CDM. This tool can be used to adjust unknown fuel
formulation properties based on known fuel properties. For instance, changing a fuel's RVP will
affect other fuel properties due to changes in refinery configuration in order to create that new
fuel. The Fuels Wizard calculates the appropriate values consistent with EPA's refinery
modeling. The Fuel Wizard should be used whenever changing any default fuel property for
gasoline and gasoline-ethanol blends in the FuelFormulation Table.40
Fuel properties are not likely to have a significant impact on GHG emissions. Ethanol does not
have an impact on estimates of CO2 emissions in MOVES, but users may want to quantify
ethanol used when preparing a GHG inventory because ethanol is a renewable fuel. Users that
want information about the biofuels included in MOVES should consult the most recent version
of the MOVES User Guide on the web (see Section 1.7 of this document).
When running MOVES for a custom domain, the same fuels information must apply across the
entire custom domain.
Fuel Formulation
The FuelFormulation Table defines the attributes (such as RVP, sulfur level, ethanol volume,
etc.) of each fuel. Users who would like more information about fuel formulation portion of the
Fuel Tab in MOVES can refer to the MOVES Technical Guidance.41 The SIP and conformity
guidance provides detail about each field in the FuelFormulation Table and highlights the
characteristics users should be able to provide and where default data can be used.
Fuel Supply
The FuelSupply Table identifies the fuel formulations used in an area and each formulation's
respective market share. After the fuel formulations for the area being modeled have been
reviewed and/or modified, the FuelSupply Table can be populated. There are six fields in this
table. The fuelregionID field identifies the area being modeled (see Figure 4-1, describing fuel
regions, above). The monthgroupID is the same as the monthID; monthgroupID was built in to
allow for the possibility of seasonal fuels, but that option is not currently functional. The
fuelformulationID is explained above. The marketshare is described in detail below.
40 The Fuel Wizard is not used for E-85, Diesel, or CNG fuels.
41 MOVES2014 and 2014a Technical Guidance: Using MOVES to Prepare Emission Inventories for State
Implementation Plans and Transportation Conformity, November 2015, EPA-420-B-15-093, on the web at
www.epa. gov/otaa/models/moves/documents/420b 15093 .pdf.
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The marketshare is each fuel formulation's fraction of the volume consumed in the area. The
marketshare should sum to one within each fuel type, listed below in Table 4-4:
Table 4-4: MOVES Fuel Types
fueltypelD Description
1
2
3
5
9
Gasoline
Diesel Fuel
Compressed Natural
*Note: CNGfuel is not
Table
Gas (CNG)
in defaults; must be manually added to the FuelSupply
Ethanol (E-85)
Electricity
In many cases, only gasoline and diesel fuel vehicles will be selected and therefore only these
two fuel types have to be imported. Within each fuel type, multiple fuel formulations can be
listed as long as the market share sums to one (e.g., three gasoline fuel formulations with market
shares of 0.5, 0.4, and 0.1, and two diesel fuel formulations with market shares of 0.6 and 0.4).
If more vehicle-fuel combinations are selected on the On Road Vehicle Equipment Panel (and
some fraction of VMT assigned to them on the AVFT portion of the Fuel Tab), then each
additional fuel type must also be entered. However, it should be noted that only gasoline and
diesel fuels exist in the default FuelSupply Table; so if other fuel types are selected and the
defaults are exported from the CDM, no default alternative fuel formulations will be exported.
Therefore, it is the user's responsibility to enter the FuelFormulationID for the alternative fuel
type in the FuelSupply Table before importing.
The GHG effects of changes in the fuel mix used by vehicles can also be modeled in MOVES.
AVFT can be used to change the fraction of future vehicles using gasoline, diesel, CNG and
electricity.42 These changes will be reflected in MOVES GHG results. Note that while this type
of "what-if' analysis is reasonable for GHG emissions analysis, it would not be acceptable for
SIP or transportation conformity analyses without an enforceable mechanism to ensure that the
anticipated change in fuel use actually occurred; please consult the relevant guidance documents.
4.12.2 Fuel Usage Fraction
E-85 capable vehicles, also known as flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) exist throughout the country and
are capable of using either conventional gasoline or E-85 fuel (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15%
42 In MOVES, the only vehicles that can be fueled by CNG are transit buses; however, future versions may include
other fuels and vehicle technologies for other source types. For electric vehicles, MOVES assumes no emissions
directly from the vehicle and does not estimate emissions from electricity generation. Please check the user guide
and other appropriate documentation for the version of the model you are using to understand any changes from
previous versions.
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gasoline). The FuelUsageFraction Table allows the user to change the frequency at which E-85
capable vehicles use E-85 fuel vs. conventional fuel, when appropriate. MOVES2014 contains
default estimates of E-85 fuel usage for each county in the U.S. In most cases, users should rely
on the default information. If local data are available that indicate different E-85 usage, the
fraction of gasoline (fuel supply fuel ID = 1) and E-85 (fuelsupplyfuellD = 5) can be specified for
sourceBinFuelTypelD = 5.
Note that this table defines the fraction of E-85 use among E-85 capable vehicles, not the
fraction of use among all vehicle or the fraction of E-85 capable vehicles in the fleet. A fuel
usage fraction table entry of 1.0 for fuel supply fuel type ID = 5 would mean that E-85 capable
vehicles (FFVs) are using E-85 100% of the time. A fraction of 0.0 for fuel supply fuel type ID
= 5 and a fraction of 1 for fuel type ID = 1 would mean that FFVs are using conventional
gasoline 100% of the time, e.g., if there is no E-85 available in the local fuel supply. For
example, if you know that no E-85 is used in the county you are modeling, for
sourceBinFuelTypelD 5, for fuelsupply 1 (gasoline), you would change the usagefraction to 1,
and for fuelsupply 5 (E-85), you would change the usagefraction to zero.
As noted in Section 3.5 of this document, Ethanol (E-85) should always be selected in the
Onroad Vehicle Equipment Panel because FFVs are present throughout the national fleet; the
Fuel Usage Fraction inputs are the appropriate place to account for the amount of actual E-85
usage by these vehicles.
4.12.3 AVFT
The AVFT Table allows users to modify the fraction of vehicles using different fuels and
technologies in each model year. In other words, the Fuel Tab allows users to define the split
between diesel, gasoline, ethanol, CNG, and electricity, for each vehicle type and model year.43
For example, if in a certain county, sales data show that more diesel vehicles are sold than
gasoline vehicles, this tab could be used to make the adjustment. In most cases, the default VMT
split between diesel, gasoline, CNG, and E-85 can be used. If local data is used for present
years, that information will be assumed for future years.
For transit buses, the default table assumes that gasoline, diesel, and CNG buses are present in
the fleet for most model years. Note that if the user relies on the model's default allocation of
vehicle activity, portions of the transit bus activity are always assumed to be diesel, gasoline, and
CNG. This is true even if one or more of these combinations is not selected in the On Road
Vehicle Equipment Panel. That is, if the user selects only gasoline and diesel vehicles in the On
Road Vehicle Equipment Panel, MOVES still assumes some CNG transit bus VMT.
If the user has information about the fuel used by the transit bus fleet in the county modeled, the
user should be sure it is reflected in the AVFT Table. For example, if there are no transit buses
fueled by CNG in the modeling area, the user needs to allocate zero activity to CNG transit buses
in the AVFT Table to calculate the correct emission results for transit buses. Otherwise, some
VMT will be allocated to CNG transit buses and the emissions associated with this VMT will not
55
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be included in the output, as only gasoline and diesel vehicles were selected in the On Road
Vehicle Equipment Panel. Or if the transit bus fleet in a county is entirely diesel, then the user
should assign 100 percent of the transit bus activity to diesel (i.e., a "1"), and assign a zero for
gasoline and CNG transit bus activity. The same general principle applies to school buses,
which are a mix of gasoline and diesel in the default distribution. After making appropriate
adjustments to reflect fuel usage by the transit bus fleet, ensure that the AVFT fractions sum to
1.0 for each model year.
Similar concerns apply to E-85 capable flex-fueled vehicles (FFVs). As noted in Section 3.5 of
this document, Ethanol (E-85) should always be selected in the Onroad Vehicle Equipment Panel
because FFVs are present throughout the national fleet. However, in contrast to transit buses, in
general, users should rely on default AVFT assumptions of the fractions of local FFVs, and use
the Fuel Usage Fraction Table to adjust for any differences in the local availability of E-85 fuel.
EPA recommends the same approach for county or custom domain zones. For custom domains,
users will define one Fuel Type and Technology for the entire domain. This factor cannot vary
by zone.
4,13 Inspection and Maintenance Programs
If a user is modeling methane emissions, and is modeling an area where an inspection and
maintenance (I/M) program applies, the user should include the same I/M program inputs used
for SIP and conformity analyses and should refer to Section 4.10 of the MOVES Technical
Guidance for more information.44 However, if a user is modeling CO2, N2O, and/or elemental
carbon emissions only, or modeling an area where no I/M program applies, the user can skip this
tab altogether.
4.14 Zone (Custom Domain Only)
The Zone Importer can be used to define multiple zones within a larger custom domain region.
The Zone Tab will appear only when a custom domain is selected in the Geographic Bounds
Panel. Table 4-5 lists which inputs can vary by zone. The zone option may be advantageous
when modeling a region of multiple counties that share the same fuels, vehicle age distribution,
and I/M program. Rather than modeling each individual county in separate runs, users can
divide activity (e.g., VMT) between multiple zones and run MOVES only once. Emission
results will be produced for each defined zone. Although fuels, age distribution, and I/M
programs cannot vary between zones, users can define specific temperature and humidity values
for each zone within the custom domain. This information should be imported through the
Meteorology Importer - discussed in Section 4.3.
44 MOVES2014 and 2014a Technical Guidance: Using MOVES to Prepare Emission Inventories for State
Implementation Plans and Transportation Conformity, November 2015, EPA-420-B-15-093, on the web at
www.epa. gov/otaa/models/moves/documents/420b 15093 .pdf.
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Table 4-5 MOVES Custom Domain Inputs by Zone
MOVES input
Meteorology
Source Type
Population
Vehicle Type VMT
Starts
Hotelling
Age Distribution
Average Speed
Distribution
Road Type
Distribution
Ramp Fraction
Fuels
I/M programs
Fuel Type and
Technology
Can be varied by
zone?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
How is the input changed?
Temperatures and Humidity are defined for
each zone using the "Meteorology" input
Population (starts, evaporative, and
hotelling emissions) are allocated to each
zone using the "Zone" input
VMT (running emissions) are allocated to
each zone and road type using the
"ZoneRoadType" input
Starts can be varied using the starts fraction
of the "Zone" input
Hotelling can be varied using the extended
idle fraction of the "Zone" input
Not applicable
The Zone Importer includes three input tables: Zone, ZoneRoadType, and
S C CRoadTyp eDi stributi on.
The Zone Table is used to allocate off-network activity between each zone. Users should specify
the distribution of starts (startAllocFactor), hotelling (idleAllocFactor), and parking
(SHPAllocFactor) for each defined zone. Since most off-network emissions are proportional to
vehicle population in MOVES, the Zone Table is useful when modeling regions where starts
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may not be directly tied to population. For example, some urban centers may have a relatively
low vehicle population as determined by vehicle registration data, but commuters may contribute
to high start and evaporative (parked) emissions during the day. (As noted earlier, no GHG
emissions result from evaporation.) Using this input table can address such situations. If
specific start, hotelling, and parked fractions are not available, users can rely on the distribution
of vehicle population among each zone to determine the allocation factors.
The ZoneRoadType Table is used to vary onroad activity (VMT) by road type and zone. The
source hours operating (SHOAllocFactor) must sum to one for each road type. The allocation
factors should be based on the distribution of VMT for each road type and zone. Users can use
the ZoneRoadType Table to model situations where one zone may have much more highway
VMT but lower arterial/local VMT than other zones by changing the SHO allocation factors. If
data are not available, these factors may be identical for each road type within each zone.
The SCCRoadTypeDistribution Table describes the mapping of MOVES road type to SCC road
types. This table is used only when modeling a custom domain and selecting output by SCC and
would only be imported in this case. It does not impact the emissions calculations within
MOVES.
4.15 Starts
The Starts Tab is used to import local information on vehicle start activity. This input is optional
and should only be used if local data are available. There are several sources for vehicle start
information, but typically this is derived from origin/destination surveys used for travel demand
modeling. If no starts information is available, this importer should not be used and MOVES
will calculate start activity based on user-supplied vehicle populations (sourcetypeyear input)
and default assumptions of vehicle activity.
The Starts Tab contains multiple importers. Depending on the information available, one or
more of these importers can be used to supply local start information. These importers include:
Starts,
StartsPerDay,
StartsPerHourFraction,
StartsSourceTypeFraction,
StartsMonthAdjust, and
StartsOpModeDistribution
The importers are used to create the Starts Table in MOVES. This is a very detailed table
containing start information by source type, hour, day, and month. Typically, local data will not
be available to populate the entire starts table. In a case where a user supplied only one table,
MOVES will use that information to create the Starts Table, and will rely on default information
for the inputs not provided. For instance, if total starts per day are provided through the
Startsperday Table, those values will be used, and will be distributed to source types, months,
and hours based on MOVES default allocations.
Users should confirm in the output that MOVES used the correct number of starts. By selecting
"Starts" Activity in the Output Emissions Detail Panel of the RunSpec, the number of starts used
in the MOVES run will be reported in the MOVES activity output Table of the output database.
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This table can be used to confirm the correct number of starts and/or correct allocations were
used in MOVES.
Starts
The Starts Table can be used to completely replace the MOVES generated Starts Table.
Information on starts must be provided by month, hourdaylD, sourcetypeid, and vehicle agelD.
To use this input, vehicle starts information must be available for all fields. This input should
only be used independently, and should not be used in combination with other starts inputs. Note
that a complete table must be provided that includes all combinations of month, hourdaylD,
sourcetypeid selected in the RunSpec. If you have some but not all of the information required
for this table, use one or more of the tables described below, as appropriate.
StartsPerDay
The Startsperday Table can be used when vehicle start information is available for total starts for
weekend and/or weekdays. Total starts should be provided for a typical weekday and weekend
day (daylD 5 and 2 respectively.) This input can be used independently, or in combination with
other start input tables.
StartsPerHourFraction
The Startsperhourfraction Table can be used when local start information is available by hour of
day. Fractions can be provided to correctly allocate starts to the appropriate hour. Fractions
should be provided for both weekday and weekend day. The fractions should sum to one for
each day type. This input can be used independently, or in combination with other start input
options.
Starts SourceTypeFraction
The Startssourcetypefraction Table can be used when local start information is available by
source type. Fractions can be entered in the table to allocate total starts to each of the 13
MOVES source types. Fractions should sum to one. This input can be used independently, or in
combination with other start input options.
StartsMonth Adjust
The Startsmonthadjust Table can be used to vary the vehicle starts between different months. An
adjustment factor of 1.0 for each month will model a situation where annual starts are evenly
divided between months. This is likely an unrealistic scenario. Usually, start activity increases
in the summer and decreases in the winter. Local starts information can be used to adjust starts
up or down depending on the month (or season) by changing the adjustment factors for each
month. Users should make sure total starts are conserved by checking the MOVES activity output
Table in the output database.
StartsOpModeDistribution
The Startopmodedistribution Table can be used to provide local soak-time distributions. A soak-
time is the period between "key-off and "key-on." Longer periods of soak typically result in
higher start emission rates. If local data are available, the MOVES default soak-time
assumptions can be overwritten by changing the opmodedistribution fractions in this table. This
59
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input can be used independently, or in combination with other start input options. Note that
evaporative emissions will not be affected by changing this table.
4.16 Hotelling
The Hotelling Tab is used to import information on combination truck hotelling activity. In
MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a, hotelling can be divided into four operating modes: Extended
Idle, Diesel Auxiliary Power (APU), Battery Power, and Engine-Off.45 Extended Idle is defined
as long-duration idling with more load than standard idle and a different idle speed. It is used to
account for emissions during hotelling operation when a truck's engine is used to support loads
such as heaters, air conditioners, microwave ovens, etc. Diesel Auxiliary Power refers to use of
auxiliary power units that allow for heating/cooling/power for the cab without running the
truck's engine. Engine-Off refers to hotelling when the truck's engine is off and an APU is not
being used. This could include hotelling resulting from truck-stop electrification.
All hotelling processes only apply to long-haul combination trucks (sourcetype = 62).
The Hotelling Tab contains two importers: HotellingActivityDistribution and HotellingHours.
HotellingActivityDistribution
In most cases, users should rely on the national default hotelling operating mode fractions. In
this case, no action is necessary for the Hotelling Tab. However, if users have detailed local
hotelling data, it can be used to define the fraction of hotelling hours that are in each of the
hotelling modes by model year.
HotellingHours
In most cases, users should rely on the MOVES generated hotelling hours, which are determined
based on the amount of rural restricted access VMT imported. However, the Hotelling Tab also
includes an optional input for Hotelling Hours. This input can be used if users have detailed
local information on total hotelling hours by hour of day, day type, month, and vehicle model
year. Note that a complete table must be provided that includes all combinations of Month,
HourDaylD, and Hour selected in the RunSpec.
4.17 Retrofit Data
The Retrofit Data Tab in MOVES allows users to enter retrofit program data that apply
adjustments to vehicle emission rates. There are no default retrofit data in MOVES. However,
users are not required to input retrofit data into MOVES unless they have a retrofit program that
they wish to model. Users should consult EPA's SIP and Conformity Retrofit Guidance
(www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/policy.htmtfquantify) for additional information.
4.18 Generic
The Generic Tab can be used to export, modify, and re-import any of the default MOVES tables
not covered by the County Data Manager. Users should note that there are complex interactions
' Note that the Battery Power operating mode produces the same emissions as the Engine Off mode.
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between tables in MOVES, and there may be unintended consequences from changing any table.
Generally, other than the Stage II vehicle refueling controls - which are not needed in a GHG or
energy consumption analysis - most tables should never be changed; results would be
compromised if such tables are modified. 46 EPA recommends that users consult with their EPA
regional office before modifying any of the default MOVES tables accessible through the
Generic Tab.
46 See the MOVES Technical Guidance and the MOVES User Guide (Section 1.6 indicates web locations for these
documents) for further information about Stage II vehicle refueling in MOVES.
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Appendix A: Including Local VMT Information Using the
National Scale
A. 1 Introduction
EPA strongly encourages users to use local VMT information in MOVES, even when using the
National scale. As explained in Section 4, at the National scale VMT information for one or
more counties or states cannot be included via the Data Importer. This is because MOVES will
treat VMT entered via the Data Importer as applying to the nation as a whole rather than the
geographic area chosen, and will apportion only some fraction of this VMT to the geographic
area chosen, producing erroneous results.
Instead, the directions given below can be used to include local VMT information when MOVES
is run using the National scale. In this process, the user has MOVES calculate an inventory for
the geographic area chosen. Once MOVES is executed, the user runs a "post-processing" script
to have MOVES calculate one or more emissions rates from this inventory. The user then
applies these emission rates to their local VMT information. EPA believes these additional steps
to include local VMT information will produce a more precise estimate of GHG emissions or
energy consumption than the National scale results that MOVES produces. See Section 2 for
additional discussion.
A. 2 RunSpec Settings
Assuming the user has chosen the National scale, the user should make certain selections in the
Scale, Time Spans, Geographic Bounds, and Output Panels depending on the local VMT
information that the user has, as described below. These directions are not a comprehensive
guide to creating a RunSpec, which is covered in Section 3 of this document.
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A.2.1. Scale Panel
Select "Inventory" for calculation type, as shown below.
i> MOVES - ID 1059018663084198346
Fi!e Edit Preprocessing Action Postprocessing Toots Settings Help
Model
'ง> On road
Domain/Scale
National Use the default national database with default state and local allocation factors.
Caution: Do not use this scale setting for SIP or conformity
A analyses. The allocation factors and other defaults applied at
/ |\ the state or county level have not been verified against specific
^" state or county data and do not meet regulatory requirements for
SIPs and conformity determinations.
O County Select or define a single county that is the entire domain.
Mote: Use this scale setting for SIP and regional conformity analysis.
Use of this scale setting requires user-supplied local data for most
activity and fleet inputs.
O Project Use project domain inputs.
Note: Use this scale setting for project-level analysis for conformity,
NEPA, or any other regulatory purpose. Use of this scale setting requires
user-supplied data at the link level for activity and fleet inputs that
describe a particular transportation project.
Catenation Type
* inventory
Mass and/or Energy wtthin a region and time span.
'_:> Emission Rates Mass andior Energy per unit of activity.
MOVE S ScenanolD:
Caution: Changing these selections changes the contents of other
\ input panels. These changes may include losing previous data contents.
Create new RunSpec
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A.2.2. Time Spans Panel
After selecting the appropriate year, and choosing a time aggregation level (see Section 2.6 for a
discussion of time aggregation level), select "Months, Days, and Hours" according to the local
VMT information you have. For example, if you have annual VMT for the geographic area
being modeled, then select all months, all days, and all hours. These selections are shown below.
- ID 8089990591762503742
Pre Processing Action Post Processing lools .Settings Help
Venicles''Equipment
Road Type
Pollutants And Processes
Manage Input Data Sets
Strategies
Output
Advanced Performance Features
Time Aggregation Level
ฎ Year O Month O Day O Hour
Months
Select Year: [2010 |T
Years:
Add)
Days
0 Weekend
0 Weekdays
0 January 0Juty
0 February 0 August
0 March 0 September
0 April 0 October
0 May 0 November
0 June 0 December
Select All
Clear All
Hours
Start Hour: [00:00-00:59
End Hour: J23:00-23:59
Select All j Clear All
Ready...
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A.2.3. Geographic Bounds Panel
If your local VMT data differs by county, then select County in this panel. Selecting County in
this panel will mean that the script will calculate an emissions rate for each county selected in the
run. If your VMT data differs by state, or applies to the entire state, select State in this panel. If
State is selected in this panel, the script will calculate an emissions rate for each state selected in
the run. Note that the input VMT data will need to be labeled with the appropriate state and
county codes, or error messages will be produced.
You will also need to select the counties or states to be modeled in this panel.
O MOVES - ID 8089990591762503742
File ฃdit Pre Processing Action Post Pro
Description
Road Type
Pollutants And Processes
Manage Input Data Sets
[+] Strategies
3 ' Output
Advanced Performance Features
:e
ssing Tools Bettings Help
Region: states: Counties: Selections:
O Nation ALABAMA ฑ
ALASKA
0 State ARIZONA
ฎ County ARKANSAS
CALIFORNIA
COLORADO
0 Custom Domain CONNECTICUT
DELAWARE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ป
Select AH | | Delete
Geographic Bounds Requirements
Please select a state and county.
/\ Caution: For SIP or regional conformity analyses, you must go back to the
tjj Scale window and select "County" before specifying a county in this window.
Caution: You have selected National scale with detail at the State or County level.
/jV P,10VES will use the default nat onal database with default state and local allocation
t_Lj factors. These factors have not been verified against actual state or county level
data and do not meet regulatory requirements for SIPs and conformity determinations.
Ready...
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A.2.4 Output Panel
This panel includes two other panels, the General Output Panel and the Output Emissions Detail
Panel.
General Output Panel: Under "Activity," "Distance Traveled" must be selected for the post-
processing script to run. You will also need to select the appropriate units and create an output
database in this panel. Mass units of grams may be a good choice because with the post-
processing script, mass units will be divided by VMT to produce an emissions rate.
The screen below shows these selections, with an output database called "vt_
natlscale_CO2_preagg_out." (You may want to include the name of the state or county in the
output database name. EPA recommends naming output databases with "_out" at the end to
identify it as an output database, as noted in Section 3.10.1).
File ฃdit Pre Processing Action ฃost Processing Tools Bettings Help
Description
Scale
Time Spans
Geographic Bounds
Vehicles' Equipment
On Road Vehicle Equipment
Road Type
Pollutants And Processes
Manage Input Data Sets
Strategies
Rate Of Progress
B :
Output Emissions C
Advanced Performance Features
Output Database
Server:
vu
.natlscale_CO2_preagg_yr_out
ป Create Database...
Energy Units:
Distance Units:
Activity
0 Distance Traveled
n Source Hours
H Hotelling Hours
D Source Hours Operating
D Source Hours Parked
D Population
D Starts
Ready...
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Output Emissions Detail Panel: Depending on what type of detail is present in your local
VMT data, you will need to make selections in the in the Output Emissions Detail Panel as
follows.
If local VMT data is for the entire year, then under the "Time" pull-down menu, select "Year."
If your VMT data varies by day or by hour, as noted above, EPA recommends running MOVES
at the County scale to take advantage of the detail in the local data instead of the National scale
approach.
If local VMT data varies by state, then under the "Location" pull-down menu, select "STATE."
If local VMT data varies by county, then under the "Location" pull-down menu, select
"COUNTY."
Furthermore, if local VMT data varies by road type, then select "Road Type," if it varies by
vehicle type, then select "Source Use Type." Your local VMT data may not contain this level of
detail, in which case you should leave them blank. The screen below highlights the fields that
would vary depending on the local VMT information you have, and in this case, the local VMT
data to be applied is for the entire year, for the entire state.
O MOVES - ID 3039990591762503742
File ฃdit Pre Processing Action Post Processing lools lettings Help
Description
Scale
Time Spans
Geographic Bounds
0 > Vehicles'Equipment
On Road Vehicle Equipment
Road Type
Pollutants And Processes
Manage Input Data Sets
Strategies
i i j
Rate Of Progress
0 * Output
General Output
Output Emissions Detail
Advanced Performance Features
0Time [Year | - 1
IE] Location [STATE |^|
0 Pollutant
lor All Vehicle'Equipment Categories
D Hod el Year
D Fuel Type
D Emission Process
r^nmi^i
IE] On Road/Oft Road
D Estimate Uncertainty
Number of iterations:
On and Off Road
D Road Type
C] Source Use Type
Dscc
D Regulatory Class
Off Road
D Sector
EU Engine Tech.
D HP Class
_J
O Keep pseudo-randoinly sampled input
Q Keep output from each iteration
Ready...
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A.3 Execute the Run and Post-Process Results
When the RunSpec has been completed, go to the "Action" pull-down menu at the top of the
screen and select "Execute." This will run MOVES and results will be included in the output
database you specified.
Once the MOVES run has been successfully executed, go to the "Post Processing" pull-down
menu at the top of the screen, and select "Run MySQL Script on MOVES Output Database."
> MOVES - ID 7516408328972560177
ฃile ฃdit Pre Processing Action Post Processing j Jools .Settings Help
Description
Scale
' Time Spans
Geographic Bounds
\+\ Vehicle s/Equipment
Road Type
Pollutants And Processes
Manage Input Data Sets
[+] j Strategies
\+\ Output
Advanced Performance Features
Run MySQL Scrip! on Output Database
Run MySQL Script on Nonroad Output Database
Produce Summary Report
Produce State/County Hap
SdectScn
>
Pt [
Select output processing script
CO_CAL3QHC_EF.sq(
CO_CAL3OHC_EF.sql
CO_Grams_Per_Hour.sql
CO Grams Per Veh Mile sql
FLi*f tuta.UmtCCf\ntm.it *>nl
irmssionRates.sql
PM10_Grams_Per_Hซir.sql
PM1 0_Grams_Per_Veh_Mite.sql
PM25_Graros_Per_Hour,sql
m
-
)VES
e Lmission Simulator
Produce Summary Report
From the list of scripts available in the pull-down menu, select the script called,
"EmissionRates.sql."
After getting a message that the script has been successfully executed, open MySQL Workbench.
In the output database created for the MOVES run, there will be a new data table produced by
the script called "movesrates." This table provides emission rates per unit of distance for the
GHG emissions selected in the Pollutants and Processes Panel of the RunSpec. The user can
find emission rates in this data table according to what was selected in the RunSpec, and
multiply these rates by the appropriate VMT. These rates will include emissions for all
processes selected in the Pollutants and Processes Panel in the RunSpec, expressed in units of
mass per distance, regardless of whether some of these processes (e.g., starts and hotelling) are a
function of distance.
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