Examining multiscale built environment interventions to mitigate travel-related carbon emissions

Abstract

While established studies have explored interventions in the built environment (BE) and transportation sector to mitigate travel carbon emissions (TCE), planners still struggle to determine the most effective units of intervention, identify key variables, and determine their optimal values. This study addresses the gap by employing the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model to create a multi-scale comparative framework. This study revealed that the relationship between the built environment and travel-related carbon emissions varies depending on the zoning and scale of the BE measurement unit. The explanatory power of TCE varies across different geographic units, with the 15-min walk distance buffer of residents being the most effective in explaining TCE. Most variables were nonlinearly associated with TCE, and the precise threshold of the association between BE attributes and TCE was quantified. Based on these findings, we provide precise and nuanced insights into BE interventions to reduce TCE.