EPA to track emissions with vehicle mapping service

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to adopt Navteq’s mapping service to help the agency better track vehicle emission data by location.

Chicago-based Navteq said its mapping data will be used for a wide range of EPA activities, both for internal analysis in support of decision making, as well as improving the agency’s public mapping applications available on the Internet.

One use of Navteq’s mapping data by the EPA will be the further development of the Texas Ecological Assessment Protocol, the company noted. This protocol requires the creation of a “sustainability layer” describing how resistant a particular area is to emissions changes.

For example, an increase in the relative number of roads in a defined geographic area and associated traffic are important indicators of air, land and water pollution which can be used for assessing sustainability and environmental impact, Navteq said.