Estimating Transport Footprint along Highways at Local Levels: A Combination of Network Analysis and Kriging Methods

Transport impacts on the natural environment have been increasingly quantified by ecological footprint analysis. Existing studies estimate transport footprint at local levels when traffic data are available. This study introduces an approach to estimate and visualize the transport footprint along highways where traffic data are unavailable by using a combination of network analysis and Kriging methods. The use of this approach is demonstrated in Houghton County, Michigan, USA. The estimated transport footprint along highways provides useful information for environmental and transportation planners to understand traffic impacts on the natural environment at local levels and identify hotspots/corridors of the transport footprint.