Development of a Multi-User GIS-Based Emission Inventory Tool

This paper presents an overview of the design and current status of a project to develop a multi-user GIS-based Emission Inventory Tool (GIS-EI Tool). The fundamental goal behind the GIS-EI Tool is to allow for the timely and efficient creation of regional Emission Inventories from first principles; and, to allow for the timely analysis, reporting, and model input creation of Emission Inventories by a number of simultaneous users. To accomplish this, the GIS-EI Tool must be capable of producing new or updated inventories (e.g., emission scenarios for modelling) based on changes in science (e.g., emission factors), activity data (e.g., road traffic volumes, population density), and geography (e.g., changes in the location and/or magnitude of emissions that are based on physical characteristics of geographic features such as roads, land use, etc.). The authors, in cooperation with scientists and engineers at Environment Canada, Pacific an