Hestia Traffic App

What is Hestia?

The Hestia Project is a branch of the overall Southwest Urban Field Laboratory project that CAZCA is partnering in.

Hestia is a cutting edge modeling system offering very accurate estimates of fossil fuel CO2 emissions, air quality & human-generated heat, all at high precision in space & time. We’re working to improve the accuracy of on-road emissions estimates in Hestia. To achieve this, we’ve launched a user-friendly, community science app to gather more accurate and detailed data about traffic emissions in urban areas. Once the app is downloaded, watch the training video and follow instructions to conduct 5 minute traffic counts at the locations indicated in the app. It’s easy and fun!

Hestia quantifies all fossil fuel CO2 emissions for individual cities to the building and street scale every hour. Hestia has been applied to the Los Angeles Basin, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City and Baltimore. It was created by the research team of Dr. Kevin Robert Gurney at Northern Arizona University.

The Hestia Project is a NIST-funded effort to quantify urban fossil fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2) emissions at space and time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past. The purpose is to aid in quantification of the urban carbon budgets, to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks, and to support urban decision makers and stakeholders. The detail and scope of the Hestia FFCO2 inventory have made it a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers, social scientists and the public at large.

How You Can Help!

You can participate in this project and help with data collection by downloading the app and then observing traffic at the designated locations! Instructions can be found in this presentation, and you can schedule an Office Hours Visit with the CAZCA team for help, answers to any questions, or to discuss the project.

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