Mastering Research Methodology

The study will be conducted with the aim of determining whether there is an impact of Intelligent Transport Systems on environmental conservation. The primary objective will be to determine the necessity of the Intelligent Transport Systems to the environmental protection. Also To find the various ecological effects exposed by different transport mechanisms, how it can solve the environment menaces and the importance of using ITS to address the above issues. How can the ITS change the setting we to be a better place by recovering the lost beauty and solving the environmental challenges.

Background information

The proposed research aims at using intelligent transportation systems that are geared towards conserving the environment. Transportation media is composed of; land, water, and air transport. All of these transport media affect the environment. They either lead to pollution and also endangering the ecosystem by making it unfriendly to the creatures living on it (Tyagi et al, 2012). For instance, all the above channels use fuel. Most of the fuels used in the circuits emit gases that are dangerous to the environment. Therefore, the proposed study will give solutions on how to use intelligent transport systems to promote environmental conservation in our SURROUNDING.

DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM

According to the current research, most of the transportation channels used have an impact on the environment. The intelligent transportation systems have a role to play promotion of the environmental conservation. For instance, the way vehicles are designed the nature of the ecological impact. The cars are currently made with engines that consume petrol or diesel which emits dangerous and harmful gases that pollute the air. The engines also have a noise impact on the environment. Therefore the intelligent transport systems have a role in making the designs of the transportation systems that are safe to the environment.

RATIONALE

The proposed topic looks at the need of intelligent transport systems in the conservation of the environment. The world has experienced problems relating to environmental pollution resulting from transport Media. For instance, the effect of the water transport on the marine ecosystem has grown too high percentages (Tyagi et al, 2012). This has endangered the marine life like currently; the impact of fuel from ships has led to the reduction of fish in the market.

LITERATURE REVIEW

 This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of intelligent transport systems and how they are of importance to environmental conservation. This section is based on published books, journals, reports, and views prior collected. It is expected that by bestowing this, the study and the scope are broadened and thus enlightening the information gap.

 Past research shows that the transport sector hurts the environment thus there is the need for perfect solutions by the ITS (UNEP, 2017). Various mechanisms have been improvised towards coming up with the right measures that are geared towards environmental conservation. Some of the tools made include; using lead-free fuels (Coffin AW, 2007)

UNEP argues that the effect of transport channels has been exposed to wildlife, during the development of the transportation channels the wild animals are displaced from their ecosystem (UNEP, 2016). The effect has extended to marine life as the marine life has been endangered much with the waste products from vehicles and ships. Thus there is need to develop measures that will protect the environment for the good future of the situation and safety of humans and animals (Penn DOT, 2012).

Traffic density affects the environment, the effect exposed by a lot of vehicles passing on a specific road or place leads to increase in the environmental destruction of the streets. When an impact is presented to the roads through damage, the natural ecological beauty is destroyed. Proper measures should be put in place to reduce the destructions (Tyagi et al,2012). Using ITS in recognizing the destroyed roads is one of the measures. According to European ITS definition, there is need to focus on road transport as it is the primary environmental hazard (EU, 2010).

Therefore, this study will be based on the necessity of Intelligent Transport Systems to the environment and how they promote its conservation. The study will bring forth the various environmental menaces by the transport sector and how to conserve the environment by using ITS. Hence explaining the criteria and the methodology discussed in the above literature.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the environmental jeopardies exposed by the transport sector

2. How can the Intelligence Transport Systems solve the perils?

OBJECTIVE

The specific objective of this study is to find the necessity of the Intelligent Transport Systems to the environmental conservation.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

1. To find the various environmental effects exposed by different transport mechanisms

2. To determine how ITS can solve the environment menaces.

3. To find out the importance of using ITS to solve the above issues.

Hypothesis

Null hypothesis

 ITS is necessary for environmental conservation.

METHODOLOGY

This project will be based on case study method where we will be checking whether it affects environmental conservation. This method will be used because it helps the researcher to explore the data in real life environment and help to understand the complications in real life situations (Zainal, 2003). Moreover, the research will be conducted on a deductive approach where the solutions of ITS in existing literature will be tested.

As data collection is concerned, primary data will be obtained via interviews and survey questionnaires. The mixed method of data collected will be both qualitative and quantitative data which will be collected for the research. Qualitative data will be collected as it will be necessary to understand significant environmental effects caused by transport sector at large. Quantitative data, on the other hand, will be required to identify the significance and the overall effect on the ecology.

 DATA COLLECTION

 Primary data

These are the data obtained by the researcher for the current research purpose (Hox & Boeije, 2005). This research will use interviews and survey as a form of primary data collection.

Interviews

A face-to-face interview will be conducted with a total of 10 randomly selected employees from the environmental sector department of Management. The interviewees will be initially briefed about the purpose of the research. The research and assurance will be given as that the data to be collected will be confidential and will be used for research purpose only. This will help the researcher to carry out the interviews smoothly as there will be no refusals to participation. The semi-structured question will be asked of the respondents to collect reliable qualitative data. Both explanatory and exploratory problems will be proposed to the participants to identify how ITS should be used in promoting environmental conservation.

Survey questionnaire

A self-administered questionnaire will be developed and distributed to a sample size 120 people in the Nairobi region. Stratified sampling method will be adopted where some staffs will be randomly chosen from the Kenyan environmental staff department (Strata). The Likert scale can be used to ask the teams about factors affecting promotional mix. The first part of the questionnaire will be aimed at collecting the general information about the participant's such gender, age and years of experience in the tourism industry. And then, a 5-point Likert scale will be used to quiz the employees about how advertising is done in the industry. Furthermore, the Likert scale will be used to rate the effect of ITS on environmental conservation. Same as interviews, the survey participants will be assured of confidentiality limiting the refusal rate to a zero.

The collected data will be entered into Excel sheets. The interview data will be used to develop the questionnaires while the primary data will be used to calculate correlation, regression and other means to analyze the effects of transport on the environment.

Problems expected during the study

1. During the data collection process the following issues are expected;

2. The language barrier, some communities might not understand the English language. Therefore it was hard to communicate.

3. Respondents are not showing up in the study, some of the expected respondents might not show up in the study. It will bring about problems in the education we will have missing predicted data.

RESULTS

Questionnaires will be used because it is easy to have the exact data can be easily collected. As compared to other collection methods like observation where the data collected can be altered depending on the respondent. There is no supervision for data to be collected, the respondent can quickly fill the questionnaire and present to the researcher. Lastly, they are familiar and comfortable to administer to many respondents.

Interviews will be used because they are used to collect data about something that is emotional and that the interviewer has feelings. The environment is something that affects everybody in any particular place of the world. Therefore interviews will be the best collection tool to determine how the people are affected by the hazards of transport to the environment.

FINDINGS

How transport modes affect the environment

air pollution modes effect in the past 10 years

            year

     air

               Water           

Land

2008

14

13

73

2009

15

10

75

2010

6

17

77

2011

7

15

78

2012

6

12

82

2013

5

13

82

2014

4

12

16

2015

6

10

84

2016

4

8

88

2017

3

6

93

2018

2

6

92

Figure 1

From figure 1 above it can be shown that air pollution causes an almost insignificant percentage. This clearly shows that the rate of pollution by air transport does not affect the environment much. Air transport has performed well over the last years as it has the lowest percentages and they have consistently reduced over time.

Also from the chart, we can note the effect of water transport is slightly higher than water as water is much exposed to land. Though the rates are not consistent thus not predictable. Water transport affects marine life and ships use oil and for that reason, they are a little bit higher. The oil deposits from the ships and other channels during accidents in excess and on normal times a small percentage.

Finally, land transport has the highest percentage and it is consistent. This is because land transport has many distribution channels including vehicles, motorcycles, railway, pipeline and many more. All these channels use lead-fuels, this is what causes the big impact on the environment. Many people afford the lead fuels and most vehicles exposed to the environment are the lead fuels.

The statistical implication of the findings

The mathematical description will mainly depend on the results obtained. If the effect obtained during the analysis will be bellow 25% one, it means that the need for ITS on environmental conservation is high thus there is need to employ ITS, but if it is more than 75%, it implies that the ITS has been implemented and is working well as per the required standards in the environment (Christie et al, 2011). These are the national results thus we expect more on the study and we expect any result depending on the findings after conducting the study.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The focus will mainly depend on the data obtained. Therefore after conducting the study, the various talks basing on the data collected are expected to be aired.  The various factors and their statistical significance will be discussed here.

The impact exposed by different factors will be explained, and conclusions did base on the data obtained. Data from graphical presentations will also be analyzed and discussed with the relevant statistical significance.

Air transport

Airplanes use fuels that contain harmful substances which when emitted changes the air in space. When these gases mix with clouds, they form acidic rain which is detrimental to the environment. The effect exposed on air transport is minimal with an average of 7.2%, this shows that air transport has a good progress. The acid rain affects the soil acidity thus plants and the habitat depending on the plants are affected. Also, plants that are rained on by the acidic rain might dry or lose their original beauty.

The metals used by the aircraft engineers are disposed to the environment. Minerals are not decomposed when they are left there for an extended period in the atmosphere. They destroy the environmental friendliness by making the background dangerous to the surrounding habitats.

Water transport

Water transport mainly uses ships, motor boats and many more. Water has an average rate of 12.2% over the past 10 years, this is a small percentage thus the ITS will be recommended but on less percentage.  These channels have an impact on the environment as when accidents occur at the oceans and lakes a lot of oil is disposed to the water masses. This affects the marine ecosystem much, and recent research has shown that the quantity of fish keeps on reducing in the water masses mainly because of the water pollution to the environment.

Land transport

Land transport is mainly composed of road, railway and pipeline transport. Researchers have shown that land transport is the dominant environment pollutant. The effect exposed on land transport exceeds 75%, this is a big risk on the individuals surrounding the areas. Most of the people afford vehicles that used lead fuels. This is the primary air pollutant in every region of the world.

            The pipeline is used in the transportation of fuel. When the pipes used break a lot of fuel is exposed to the environment they make the situation ugly. This majorly affects the soil and water environment which is near the pipelines. Railways emit a lot of smoke that has caused much air pollution to the surrounding areas.

During the construction of these channels that use land as a channel, the habitats of different animals are destroyed. This has led to the reduction of wildlife activities in many countries. For instance, the construction of the standard gauge railway destroyed habitats of many animals. This is an effect on the surrounding environment and to the economy at large

RECOMMENDATIONS

Various recommendations will be made. This thesis will have the following examples of the proposals that are made from the study that will be conducted. These include all the recommendations that are made for the individuals around the environment. They will be based on the data collected from the study. The following are some of the suggestions;

All the individuals are recommended to use lead-free fuels. Depending on the results obtained the individuals are advised to use lead fuels. Lead fuels have a small environmental effect on the surrounding thus the ITS will have helped in conserving the environment by recommending such fuel to be used. This is because the effect of lead fuels has increased over the land transport channels which expose the environment to a big risk.

The engineers and mechanics will be advised to dispose of the metallic wastes well for recycled in the future and not eliminating them. The substances disposed after repair should be well stored as metallic substances can be recycled (Akerman, 2016). The infrastructural planning team should check on the map well before assigning various infrastructures on the land. This is meant to reduce deforestation to conserve the safety of the environment.

How the Intelligent Transport Systems can be used to conserve the environment

Surveillance of the roadways

The ITS can track how the roads are used. This will be mainly by employing the relevant personnel to check on the performance of the road transport channels. There is this technology that has begun that primarily involves the use of technology in tracking roads that are not well maintained. They can also employ communication and tracking devices for vehicles using lead fuels. This will much conserve the environment.

Mass Evacuation

The primary purpose of an environmentally friendly life is based on the safety, cleanliness and the natural beauty of the environment. During natural disasters ITS can save the lives of people affected by transporting them from such places to save their lives.

Reduction of traffic

This mainly happens by the ITS emphasizing on the use of public vehicles like buses for traveling in urban areas. This reduces the environmental effect on areas. The ITS has employed this rule in developed countries urban centers that are highly populated like India and China. In urban areas, peoples should use bicycles, motorcycles or walk.  The rate of environmental pollution is reduced.

Planning infrastructure well

The respective authorities should have good plans for the building of infrastructure to avoid damaging the habitats of wildlife and destruction of forests around the region of construction. By having good ideas, the environment is conserved (Banister et al, 2010)

CONCLUSIONS                                                                              

As the research will indicate the need of ITS on the environmental conservation meets the required standards in air transport, on water transport some implementations are need as the rate is small but the effect exposed at once is large. Lastly land has a gig challenge as the percentage is high above 75%, immediate actions will be needed to be taken. After considering the findings of this research, road transports needs much attendance as it contributes much towards environmental pollution. Nevertheless, factors of some modes like road transport are expected to affect the environment much. Therefore, they need to be following the recommendations to the point.

The research answers my question as basing on the findings there is need for ITS in the environmental conservation. Basing on the land transport results land has a percentage mean of 80.3% on pollution, thus there is need to implement ITS on the mode. As the research will investigate the need for ITS in environmental conservation at Nairobi region, it can believe that the study can be the vital tool for environmental protection at all areas of the world not only Nairobi. Therefore every part of the world is expected to rectify the recommendations immediately and research more on the application of mobile computing in tracking the areas affected much by transport modes for a better future.

References

Åkerman, J. a. (2006). ‘How much transport can the climate stand? Sweden: Energy Policy.

B.Christie,Ann D.,San G., Suzanne s. , R.I.T.A.,. (2011). Intelligent Transportation System standards program strategic plan for 2011-2014. US Dept. of Transportation.

Banister, D., Stead, D., Steen, P., Åkerman, J., Dreborg, K., Nijkamp, P. and Scheicher-Tappeser, R. (2010). European transport policy and sustainable mobility. Landon.

Bows, A., Anderson, K. and Upham, P. (2016). Contraction & Convergence: UK carbon emissions and the implications for UK air traffic. UK: Tyndall Centre Technical Report.

Cairns, S., Sloman, L., Newson, C., Anable, J., Kirkbride, A. and Goodwin, P. (2014). Smarter Choices –Changing the Way We Travel’. Final Report of the Research Project The Influence of Soft Factor Interventions on Travel Demand.

Tyagi, V , Kalyanaraman, S. Krishnapuram.R. (2012). Vehicular Traffic Density State Estimation Based on cumulative Road Acoustics. IEEE transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Glossary

ITS: Intelligent Transport Systems

UNEP: United Nations Environmental Program