Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator 

(MOVES) 

User Guide for MOVES2010a 
Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator 


(MOVES)
 

User Guide for MOVES2010a
 

Assessment and Standards Division 

Office of Transportation and Air Quality 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

EPA-420-B-10-036 

August 2010 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Table of Contents 

Page 

Preface .........................................................................................................................................................iii 

1.0. Getting Started with MOVES ...............................................................................................................1 

1.1 About MOVES..................................................................................................................................1 

1.2 MOVES Documentation ...................................................................................................................2 

1.2.1 About this Manual......................................................................................................................2 

1.2.2 Other Documentation and Online Help......................................................................................2 

1.2.3 What's Next? Working with MOVES .......................................................................................3 

1.3 Installation.........................................................................................................................................4 

1.3.1 System Requirements.................................................................................................................4 

1.3.2 Starting and Testing Your Installation .......................................................................................5 

1.4 Executing Example Run Specification..............................................................................................5 

1.4.1 Step-by-step Example Run.........................................................................................................6 

1.4.2 MOVESExecution Database ......................................................................................................6 

1.4.3 MOVES Output Structure ..........................................................................................................7 

2.0 Using MOVES.......................................................................................................................................9 

2.1 Overview of MOVES User Interface..............................................................................................10 

2.2 Navigation Panel.............................................................................................................................12 

2.2.1 Description ...............................................................................................................................13 

2.2.2 Scale .........................................................................................................................................14 

2.2.2.1 Domain/Scale....................................................................................................................14 

2.2.2.2 Calculation Type...............................................................................................................16 

2.2.3 Time Spans...............................................................................................................................17 

2.2.3.1 Time Aggregation Level ...................................................................................................18 

2.2.3.2 Years.................................................................................................................................18 

2.2.3.3 Months..............................................................................................................................19 

2.2.3.4 Days..................................................................................................................................19 

2.2.3.5 Hours.................................................................................................................................19 

2.2.4 Geographic Bounds..................................................................................................................19 

2.2.5 Vehicles/Equipment .................................................................................................................26 

2.2.6 Road Type ................................................................................................................................27 

2.2.7 Pollutants and Processes...........................................................................................................28 

2.2.7.1 Processes...........................................................................................................................30 

2.2.7.2 Pollutants ..........................................................................................................................30 

2.2.8 Manage Input Data Sets ...........................................................................................................31 

2.2.9 Creating and Using Internal Control Strategies .......................................................................33 

2.2.9.1 Adding Strategy Files .......................................................................................................34 

2.2.9.2 Deleting Strategy Files......................................................................................................35 

2.2.9.3 Exporting Strategy Files ...................................................................................................35 

2.2.9.4 Naming Strategy Files.......................................................................................................36 

2.2.9.5 Saving and Transferring Strategy Files.............................................................................36 

2.2.9.6 Creating AVFT files outside of MOVES..........................................................................36 

2.2.9.7 Managing On-Road Vehicle Retrofit Data .......................................................................37 

2.2.9.8 Importing Retrofit Data.....................................................................................................38 

2.2.9.9 Rate of Progress Calculation.............................................................................................39 

2.2.10 Output.....................................................................................................................................39 

2.2.10.1 Specifying Database, Time Period, and Units in Output ................................................40 

2.2.10.1.1 Output Database ......................................................................................................40 

2.2.10.1.2 Units ........................................................................................................................41 

2.2.10.1.3 Activity ....................................................................................................................41 

2.2.10.2 Specifying Emission Distinctions in Output...................................................................42 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page i 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.2.10.2.1 Always.....................................................................................................................43 

2.2.10.2.2 For All Vehicle/Equipment Categories ...................................................................44 

2.2.10.2.3 On Road/Off Road...................................................................................................44 

2.2.10.2.4 Estimate Uncertainty ...............................................................................................45 

2.2.11 Advanced Performance Features............................................................................................45 

2.3 Main Menu Bar...............................................................................................................................47 

2.3.1 File............................................................................................................................................47 

2.3.2 Edit ...........................................................................................................................................47 

2.3.3 Pre Processing ..........................................................................................................................48 

2.3.3.1 Database.............................................................................................................................50 

2.3.3.2 RunSpec Summary.............................................................................................................51 

2.3.3.3 Tools .................................................................................................................................52 

2.3.3.4 Data Managers (Importers)...........................................................................................53 

2.3.3.4.1 Meteorology Data Importer...................................................................................59 

2.3.3.4.2 Source Type Population Importer .........................................................................59 

2.3.3.4.3 Age Distribution Importer.....................................................................................59 

2.3.3.4.4 Vehicle Type VMT and VMT Fractions...............................................................59 

2.3.3.4.5 Average Speed Distribution Importer ...................................................................61 

2.3.3.4.6 Road Type Distribution Importer..........................................................................61 

2.3.3.4.7 Ramp Fraction Importer........................................................................................62 

2.3.3.4.8 Fuel Formulation Importer....................................................................................62 

2.3.3.4.9 Fuel Supply Importer ............................................................................................ 63 

2.3.3.4.10 I/M Importer........................................................................................................64 

2.3.3.4.11 Zone Road Activity Importer..............................................................................65 

2.3.3.4.12 Links Importer.....................................................................................................65 

2.3.3.4.13 Link Source Types Importer ...............................................................................66 

2.3.3.4.14 Operating Mode Distribution Importer ................................................................67 

2.3.3.4.15 Link Drive Schedules Importer...........................................................................67 

2.3.3.4.16 Off Network Importer .........................................................................................67 

2.3.4 Action.......................................................................................................................................68 

2.3.5 Post Processing.........................................................................................................................69 

2.3.5.1 Run MySQL Script on Output Database...........................................................................69 

2.3.5.2 Produce Summary Report.................................................................................................70 

2.3.5.3 Produce State/County Map ...............................................................................................74 

2.3.6 Tools.........................................................................................................................................76 

2.3.7 Settings.....................................................................................................................................80 

2.3.7.1 Configure MOVES ............................................................................................................80 

2.3.8 Help ..........................................................................................................................................81 

Appendix A - Using MOVES to Generate Lookup Tables...........................................................................1 

Appendix B - Linking MySQL Tables from MS ACCESS or MS Excel (includes ODBC usage).............. 1 

Appendix C - Using the Batch Command Line Interface .............................................................................1 

Appendix D - Creating an On-Road Retrofit Input File ...............................................................................1 

Appendix E - Best Practices .........................................................................................................................1 

Appendix F – Stage II Refueling Control Programs.....................................................................................1 

Appendix G - MOVES Project Level Example ............................................................................................1 

Appendix H - County Data Manager Example and Basic MySQL Queries for Analyzing Output..............1 

Appendix I – MOVES DECODER...............................................................................................................1 

Page ii United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Preface 

MOVES2010a, released in August 2010, is a minor update to MOVES2010, EPA’s stateof-the-art tool for estimating emissions from highway vehicles.. EPA has released MOVES2010a 

to allow MOVES users to easily account for emissions under new car and light truck energy and 

greenhouse gas standards and to benefit from several improvements to MOVES general 

performance. 

MOVES2010a incorporates new car and light truck greenhouse gas emissions standards 

affecting model years 2012-and-later (published May 7, 20101

) and updates effects of corporate 

average fuel economy standards affecting model years 2008-2011.2 MOVES2010a includes 

reductions in greenhouse gases associated with those standards in future calendar years, and 

small reductions in refueling and sulfur-related emissions associated with the reductions in 

vehicle fuel consumption. 

MOVES2010a also includes a number of other improvements. Major changes are listed 

in the table below. The net impact of these changes on criteria pollutant emissions is small. 

Compared to MOVES2010 (released in December 2009), most regional inventory runs should 

see an increase in methane emissions and a small decrease in the associated Volatile Organic 

Compound (VOC) and air toxics emissions. However, comparisons for runs that focus on a 

particular project or sourcetype may vary. 

Instructions for downloading and installing MOVES2010a are available on the MOVES 

web page http://www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/ . Users will find that runspecs and input 

databases developed with MOVES2010 may need modification to be able to run with 

MOVES2010a. Users should regenerate fuelFormulation input files and Alternate Vehicle 

Fuels & Technologies (AVFT) strategy files. Output databases will need to be recreated with a 

new name since several new tables have been added. Users should always specify what version 

of MOVES was used to create emissions results. 

1 http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=0900006480ae8a38 

2 http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=09000064802cefcd and 

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=09000064809375ea 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page iii 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Changes from MOVES2010 to MOVES2010a 

Change from MOVES2010 to MOVES2010a Implication 

1) Updated light duty energy and carbon 

dioxide rates and algorithm to account for new 

fuel economy/CO2 regulations. 

Reduced energy consumption and carbon dioxide 

emissions for light duty gasoline vehicles; reduced 

hydrocarbon emissions from refueling and sulfate 

emissions from fuel consumption. 

2) Incorporated all data corrections distributed For users who have switched to the May 15, 2010 

in May 15, 2010 version of the MOVES database, these changes will have no impact. 

database (i.e. data in MOVESDB20100515). Compared to MOVES2010 as released in December 

See MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet 2009, MOVES2010a will change NO and NO2 

(May 15, 2010) for additional information. emissions (no change in NOx), decrease hydrocarbon 

evaporative emissions slightly, change diesel vehicle 

volatile organic compound (VOC) and air toxics 

emissions for calendar years 1999-2006, change 

hydrocarbon emissions for vehicles running on gasoline 

containing ethanol in calendar years 1999-2004, and 

reduce particulate matter emissions for 2021-and-later 

light-duty diesel emissions. 

3) Improved algorithm for brakewear and 

tirewear so emissions are always zero at idle. 

Reduced brakewear and tirewear emissions. Change is 

very small for regional inventories, but larger for 

projects with substantial idling on steep grades. 

4) Improved MOVES algorithm for calculating 

emissions on ramps. 

Negligible changes for regional emissions calculated 

using Inventory mode (emissions inventory output). 

Increase in emissions on highways (restricted access 

roadtypes) for those using Emission Rate mode (rateper-distance emissions). 

5) Improved methane algorithm and updated Methane emissions increased substantially. VOC and 

methane rates. Better accounts for methane other non-methane hydrocarbons are reduced by a 

variation with temperature, driving activity, small amount. “Carbon Dioxide Equivalent” 

etc. Adds methane emissions for some emissions are increased less than 1 percent by this 

processes where it was not calculated. change and when combined with the impact of the new 

regulations (see above), total greenhouse gas emissions 

decline. 

When methane output is desired, users now must 

calculate total hydrocarbons also. 

6) Fixed error that reduced temperature Increases hydrocarbon, CO, and NOx emissions for 

correction for temperatures greater than 100F. temperatures greater than 100F. Users who have 

modeled days with temperatures over 100F should 

evaluate emission changes that result from this 

revision. 

7) Fixed error in pre-aggregation by month that 

occurred in some HD runs. 

Some runs will see an increase in emissions for 

medium and heavy duty trucks and buses for VOC and 

other hydrocarbons. 

8) Repaired an error in the ammonia emissions 

calculations. 

Increases ammonia emissions for passenger and light 

commercial trucks. 

9) Improved calculation of air toxics emissions, Increases air toxic emissions from diesel vehicles. 

Page iv United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Change from MOVES2010 to MOVES2010a Implication 

particularly for diesel vehicles. 

10) Updated default national heavy truck and 

bus sales-growth and VMT-growth factors to 

account for more recent data and updated 

projections. 

Increased default population, sales and emissions for 

buses and heavy trucks. This does not affect emissions 

in runs using local inputs for bus and truck populations. 

11) Fixed errors in motorcycle scrappage, 

migration and sales growth defaults. 

Increases default population of motorcycles. This does 

not affect emissions in runs using local inputs for 

motorcycle populations. 

12) Fixed error that increased emissions when 

users selected "placeholder" fuel. 

Reduces emissions, sometimes substantially, in runs 

where “Placeholder fuel” was selected. Even with 

MOVES2010a, use of “Placeholder” fuel is not 

recommended. 

13) Added a new output option -- emission 

rates by SCC. 

Eliminates some users’ need to calculate SCC rates in 

post-processing. Adds an additional column to 

emission rate output tables. 

14) Changed units for project-level start & 

extended idle rates (see Users Guide). 

Users may need to modify post-processing to apply 

rates properly. 

15) Improved MOVES user interface, 

including run spec editor, importers, summary 

reporter and "Multiple Run Spec Creator." 

Many small changes that should make MOVES easier 

to use. 

16) Improved error checking in MOVES 

importers. 

A number of changes that should make MOVES easier 

to use. 

17) Allow the batch creation of import 

databases. 

Makes it easier for users to create a group of similar 

import databases. 

18) Allow user to add new fuel formulations 

rather than just editing existing formulations. 

Provide more flexibility for users changing default fuel 

characteristics. 

19) Made MOVES more compatible with 

UNIX/Linux. 

Makes it easier to adapt MOVES to run with 

UNIX/Linux systems. While EPA does not have the 

resources to provide or fully support such adaptations, 

we encourage Linux/UNIX users to contact us to share 

information. 

20) Updated the “Example” files distributed 

with MOVES. 

Example file runs correctly with MOVES2010a. 

21) Improved MOVES run time and added 

tools to better monitor MOVES performance. 

MOVES runs slightly faster and users can better 

diagnose performance problems. 

22) Improved MOVES robustness by adding 

additional error checking. 

Improved code that sometimes led to MOVES crashes. 

23) Improved Custom Domain functioning. Allow users to calculate Custom Domain emissions for 

“off-network” roadtype without requesting output for 

other roadtypes. 

24) Corrected a problem in which evaporative 

permeation emissions were not always 

aggregated correctly. Previous output 

More accurate post-processing. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page v 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Change from MOVES2010 to MOVES2010a Implication 

sometimes had rows with duplicate key fields. 

Depending on the post-processing method 

used, totals could have been miscalculated. 

25) Made the “DecodeMOVESOutput” script 

compatible with new version of MOVES. 

Decode script should run without error. 

26) Corrected several other minor errors in the 

MOVES program. 

Negligible impact on emissions. 

Page vi United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

1.0. Getting Started with MOVES 

MOVES is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Motor Vehicle Emission 

Simulator. It helps the user to answer "what if" questions, such as "How would particulate 

matter emissions decrease in my state on a typical weekday if truck travel was reduced during 

rush hour?" or "How does the total hydrocarbon emission rate change if my fleet switches to 

gasoline from diesel fuel?" The purpose of the tool is to provide an accurate estimate of 

emissions from mobile sources under a wide range of user-defined conditions. 

In the modeling process, the user specifies vehicle types, time periods, geographical 

areas, pollutants, vehicle operating characteristics, and road types to be modeled. The model 

then performs a series of calculations, which have been carefully developed to accurately reflect 

vehicle operating processes, such as cold start or extended idle, and provide estimates of bulk 

emissions or emission rates. Specifying the characteristics of the particular scenario to be 

modeled is done by creating a Run Specification, or RunSpec. 

The MOVES model is different from previous EPA mobile source emissions models in 

that it was deliberately designed to work with databases. With this design, new data that may 

become available can be more easily incorporated into the model. In addition, MOVES allows 

and facilitates the import of data specific to a user's unique needs. 

The MOVES model includes a “default” database that summarizes emission relevant 

information for the entire United States. The data for this database comes from many sources 

including EPA research studies, Census Bureau vehicle surveys, Federal Highway 

Administration travel data, and other federal, state, local, industry and academic sources. The 

MOVES team continually works to improve this database, but, for many uses, up-to-date local 

inputs will be more appropriate, especially for analyses supporting State Implementation Plans 

(SIPs) and conformity determinations. 

. 

1.1 About MOVES 

MOVES2010a is the latest version of the MOVES emissions modeling tool. 

MOVES2010a builds on the functionality of previous MOVES versions: MOVES2004, 

MOVESDemo, DraftMOVES2009, and MOVES2010. MOVES can be used to estimate 

national, state, and county level inventories of criteria air pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions, 

and some mobile source air toxics from highway vehicles. Additionally, MOVES can make 

projections for energy consumption (total, petroleum-based, and fossil-based). 

MOVES2010a is intended for official use. Please see the MOVES2010a policy 

statement available on the EPA's MOVES web site 

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/index.htm for EPA's policy on selecting appropriate 

models for official mobile source emission estimates. 

Future versions of MOVES will be able to estimate pollutants from other mobile sources 

such as aircraft, locomotives, and commercial marine vessels. In addition, the capability to 

estimate non-highway mobile source emissions is planned. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 1 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

MOVES is distributed free of charge by EPA pursuant to the GNU General Public 

License (GPL). It is written in Java and uses the MySQL relational database management 

system. Oracle Corporation owns, operates, and supports MySQL, and allows distribution of the 

database system pursuant to the GNU GPL. The principal user inputs and outputs, and the 

internal working storage locations for MOVES are MySQL databases. The MOVES model 

includes a "default" input database, which uses national data and allocation factors to 

approximate results for the 3,222 counties in the United States, District of Columbia, Puerto 

Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. MOVES is capable of modeling emissions for the calendar 

years 1990 and 1999-2050. 

MOVES is set up to run both a “Master” and one or more “Worker” sub-programs. This 

allows users to operate MOVES on a single computer system or on a network of computers. See 

the MOVES2010a Installation Guide and/or the Software Design Reference Manual for more 

information about specific requirements and computer configurations. 

1.2 MOVES Documentation 

The following discussion highlights the contents of this manual, how best to use the 

manual, and where additional information may be found. 

1.2.1 About this Manual 

The MOVES User Guide focuses on operating MOVES software to create and execute 

Run Specifications (RunSpecs). 

Throughout this document, information may be highlighted to make it easier to find 

solutions to problems or to avoid errors using the following prompts: 

CAUTION! Cautions must be observed to avoid errors in execution or to ensure the 

intended execution will occur. 

NOTE Notes contain important information about the panel being described. 

TIP Tips contain hints for input or better operation of the run. 

The MOVES2010 User Guide is accessible as a .pdf file under the Help menu in the 

MOVES interface. 

1.2.2 Other Documentation and Online Help 

Additional documentation covering the following topics is available for MOVES2010. 

Installation: A README text file is included on the MOVES Installation CD. 

It guides the user through the MOVES system requirements and the process for installing 

the MOVES program and associated software. 

Page 2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Software Design: The MOVES Software Design and Reference Manual 

(SDRM) will be available on the MOVES website. The SDRM covers the basic concepts 

and functional design of the software and the underlying MySQL database, including 

technical specifications for all calculations performed in the model. It is intended to 

answer more detailed and substantive questions about the MOVES software than those 

addressed in this guide. 

MOVES Database Documentation: More detailed documentation of the 

MOVES database can be found within the README folder of the database itself. For 

example, C:\MySQL\data\movesdbyyyymmdd\readme 

1.2.3 What's Next? Working with MOVES 

Depending on the status of your installation and how familiar you are with MOVES, you 

have several options for next steps to get up and running with MOVES. 

If you have just installed MOVES or are uncertain about your installation, 

follow instructions in "Testing Your Installation," provided in Section 1.3.2 of 

this guide. 

If MOVES is installed and operational on your computer, you should run the 

example to become more familiar with the tool before moving on. See 

"Executing Example MOVES2010 Run Specification" included in Section 

1.4. 

If you would like to become more familiar with MOVES terminology and 

design, see the "MOVES Software Design and Reference Manual," available 

in .pdf format on the MOVES website. 

If you have questions about the MOVES Graphical User Interface (GUI) or 

executing a run, see "Overview of MOVES RunSpec User Interface" in 

Section 2 of this guide. 

If you are ready to begin using MOVES, see "Starting MOVES," also in 

Section 2 of this guide. 

If you would like to work through an example, a set of sample scenarios is 

included in the Appendices. 

If you would like to get started using MOVES for regular work, advice and 

guidance on using MOVES is available on the MOVES website. 

The rest of this guide provides information on using the MOVES2010 model. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 3 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

1.3 Installation 

Step-by-step instructions on installation are supplied by EPA in the MOVES2010a 

Installation Suite. The MOVES2010a Software Installation Suite consists of the required 

installation programs (MySQL 5.1.32, Java 1.6.0_12, and MOVES2010, MySQL Query 

Browser, and MySQL ODBC). 

1.3.1 System Requirements 

MOVES is a 32-bit application and has been developed to work with Microsoft Windows 

XP, VISTA, and Windows 7 environments. Note that installing MOVES with Microsoft Vista 

or Windows7 may require changes to the User Access Control (UAC) security settings 

Computer(s) used to run either of the MOVES application programs must have at least 512 MB 

of RAM, although it is recommended that additional memory be available to improve execution 

times. Because execution run time performance is a constraint with MOVES, high speed 

processor(s) are highly recommended. 

The MOVES program is open source and is written in JAVA and MySQL. 

Page 4 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

The MOVES Default database distributed with MOVES2010 requires approximately 1.0 

GB of disk storage. MOVES Worker and Output databases are often large, so several additional 

gigabytes of disk space should be available on all machines used to run either the MOVES 

Master and/or the MOVES Worker program. Users who conduct many MOVES runs will want 

to use late-model, high-performance microcomputer systems. 

1.3.2 Starting and Testing Your Installation 

After all necessary components of the MOVES2010a Installation Suite have been 

executed, test the installation with the following steps. 

1. Double-click the MOVES Master program icon. 

2. When starting the MOVES Master program, the About MOVES panel will 

appear in the center of the GUI screen. Click the "OK" button to continue. 

NOTE This panel identifies the version of MOVES that is in use and includes the version date, 

the EPA copyright, and a link for the GNU General Public License (GPL) website. 

Also included is the Computer ID or name. This panel will appear only at start-up. 

3. Execute the Example Run Specification (MOVES2010aExample.mrs) as 

described in the following section. 

1.4 Executing Example Run Specification 

The MOVES2010a Example Run Specification (MOVES2010aExample.mrs) models 

the entire U.S. for one year (1999) at the most aggregate level. It estimates total energy 

consumption and emissions of methane and nitrous oxide for the running, start, and extended idle 

processes for all vehicle (use) types (gasoline, diesel, and CNG transit buses) and roadway types. 

Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) is also estimated. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 5 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

1.4.1 Step-by-step Example Run 

If MySQL and MOVES2010 have been installed, the MySQL server and the MOVES 

Master program have been started, and the MOVES Worker program(s) are operational, the 

example RunSpec can be executed as follows: 

1. Select File, Open on the Main Menu Bar. 

2. Navigate, if necessary, to the top level of the MOVES directory. 

3. Select the MOVES2010aExample.mrs file. 

4. Select Output, then General Output on the Navigation Panel, which is the left-side 

panel. Select or click on Create Database to establish a database into which results 

should be placed. Select or enter a database name. 

NOTE Many MOVES features request that the user create input or output databases. These 

database names must be consistent with MYSQL naming conventions. In general, this 

means they may contain letters, numbers, "_"(underscore) and "$". They may not 

contain spaces, special characters, or be "reserved words" (SQL words such as "select", 

"where", "delete", etc.). See Appendix E, "Best Practices" for additional advice on 

naming MOVES databases. 

5. Select Action, Execute on the Main Menu Bar to start the RunSpec. The GUI will 

ask you if you want to save the RunSpec before executing. You may choose Yes, No or 

Cancel. The RunSpec will execute if either Yes or No are chosen, but selecting Cancel 

will not execute and will allow users to make changes to the RunSpec. This RunSpec 

may take up to 15 minutes to process. 

6. The output will be saved in the MySQL relational database named in Step 4. The 

output can be reviewed using the Post-Processing menu options described in Section 

2.3.5, below, or by viewing the database directly using MYSQL commands, either 

through the command prompt window or through MySQL Query Browser. 

1.4.2 MOVESExecution Database 

After Execute has been selected, MOVES begins to compile and populate all the 

necessary tables in the MOVESExecution database. This database is in many respects similar 

to the default database, but there are several key differences. 

The MOVESExecution database is the location where conflicts are resolved 

between the default database and user input databases. First, information is pulled from the 

Domain Input Database on the Geographic Bounds panel (see Section 2.2.4). MOVES takes 

note of the tables and key fields within the tables that are imported and uses that to limit what is 

imported from database tables that are lower in the hierarchy. Next to be added to the 

MOVESExecution database are user input databases listed on the Manage Input Data Sets 

panel (see Section 2.2.8), with the last database listed taking priority over those listed above it. 

Page 6 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Finally, MOVES uses the default database to populate the remaining tables not provided by the 

user. 

 Also, the MOVESExecution database contains data in tables that are empty in the 

default database and additional tables that are not present in the default database. These tables 

are often not complete: to save memory, much of these additional data are cleared after they are 

used in calculations. Users can save more of this data by checking one or more Save Data boxes 

on the Advanced Performance Features panel (see Section 2.2.11). Note that the Save Data 

process lengthens run time and the tables it produces are often difficult to interpret correctly. 

1.4.3 MOVES Output Structure 

The output database will typically contain eleven tables. The tables are: 

1. movesoutput: This table contains the inventory emission results (emissionQuant) of 

the run disaggregated by parameters such as Year, Month, Day, Source Type, County, 

Fuel, Model-Year, Road-type, SCC, and Emission Process. 

Caution! If the Emission Rates calculation type is selected on the Scale panel, the 

emissionQuant values will represent an intermediate step in the rates 

calculations rather than the real emissions for that time and place. To reduce 

the size of the MovesOutput table, use the Aggregation and Data 

Handling panel on the Advanced Peformance Features screen to select 

“Clear MOVESOutput after rate calculations.” 

2. movesactivityoutput: This table provides information on the vehicle activity 

generated and used in the run. It is disaggregated by parameters such as Year, Month, 

Day, County, Fuel, Model-Year, Road-type, and SCC. Activity is not distinguished by 

pollutant and process. If a certain activity type (see also Section 2.2.10.1.3) is not 

needed for the emission processes in a run, it is not generated. 

NOTE In the MOVESActivityOutput table, population always has month, day & hour 

keys of zero (i.e. “doesn’t matter”) because population is assumed constant in 

time across an entire year. This scheme reduces table size, but requires care 

when filtering results and when joining to other tables. Also, if you assign some 

VMT to a road type, but then do not select that road type in the RunSpec, the 

population will be lower than it should be. This is because the assigned VMT is 

not used when calculating population. Users should model all road types 

(where VMT is allocated) to ensure proper calculations. 

Caution! If the calculation type Emission Rates is selected on the Scale panel, the 

activity values will represent an intermediate step in the rates calculations 

rather than the real activity for that time and place. To reduce file size, use 

the Aggregation and Data Handling panel on the Advanced Peformance 

Features screen to select “Clear MOVESActivityOutput after rate 

calculations.” 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 7 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

3. movesrun: This table contains information about the date and time of the run, 

information about the run specification, and the name of the units in which MOVES 

outputs are represented. These include units for energy (i.e., joules), emissions (i.e., 

tons), VMT (i.e., miles), and time units (i.e., months, days, hours, etc.). 

4. moveserror: This table contains any error messages or diagnostic information that 

might be generated if the MOVES run is unsuccessful. 

5. movesworkersused: This table contains information as to which copy of theMOVES 

Worker Program processed portions of the run. It is of interest if the run is executed on a 

multi-computer configuration. 

6. activitytype: This table lists the activity types that can be reported in the 

movesactivityoutput table and provides their activitytypeid. In MOVES2010 this table 

lists: distance traveled, source hours, extended idle hours, source hours operating, source 

hours parked, population, and starts. (See also Section 2.2.10.1.3) 

7. moveseventlog: This table is used by MOVES programmers for storing diagnostic 

results. It contains no information useful to users. 

8. rateperdistance: When “Emission Rates” is selected on the Scale panel, the 

RatePerDistance table stores emissions as rates per distance (e.g. grams per mile) with 

the units depending on those selected in the run specification. This table includes rates 

for exhaust and evaporative emissions that occur while vehicles are on “real roads”, but 

does not include rates for starts, extended idle, or evaporative emissions (with the 

exception of refueling) that occur while a vehicle is parked. 

9. rateperprofile: When “Emission Rates” is selected on the Scale panel, the 

RatePerProfile table stores vapor venting emissions from parked vehicles as rates per 

vehicle (e.g. grams per vehicle). Note that the denominator is the total vehicle 

population—not just the vehicles that are parked. The temperature profile id in this table 

refers to a particular daily pattern of temperatures, important because vapor venting 

depends on temperatures in both the current and previous hours. 

10. ratepervehicle: When “Emission Rates” is selected on the Scale panel, the 

RatePerProfile table stores emissions from starts and extended idle, and some evaporative 

emissions (permeation and liquid leaks) from parked vehicles as rates per vehicle (e.g. 

grams per vehicle). Note that the denominator for national and county level runs is the 

total vehicle population—not just the vehicles that are parked. However, for project-level 

runs the denominator for start emission rates is the number of starts in the hour, and the 

denominator for extended idle emission rates is the vehicle-hours of extended idle 

activity in the hour. 

11. movestablesused: This table contains a list of the tables used when executing the 

RunSpec and the source database for each table. The numbering of the 

tableUseSequence is such that lower numbers take priority. Some tables may be listed 

more than once; this occurs when information comes from both the user and default 

databases. 

Page 8 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

12. bundletracking: This table contains information about data that is processed by the 

MOVES master and workers. It is mainly used by the MOVES developers for tracking 

MOVES performance. 

2.0 Using MOVES 

Using MOVES, the user can model various scenarios in order to determine specific 

emissions profiles. To use MOVES the user prepares a Run Specification (RunSpec) to define 

the place, time, vehicle, road, fuel, emission producing process, and pollutant parameters. The 

RunSpec is an XML file that can be edited and executed directly or with the MOVES Graphical 

User Interface (GUI). This section of the User Guide gives an overview of the screen layout and 

navigation functions of the GUI, and provides details on how to create and modify a RunSpec. 

Appendix C provides instructions for how MOVES can be executed without running its 

graphical user interface. This may be useful in situations where repeated or unattended runs are 

needed, or when another computer program is used to execute MOVES. This "batch mode," or 

“command line” interface presumes that a MOVES RunSpec file has been prepared. 

Although a full range of default data is available in MOVES, the allocation of the default 

data down to the county level is based on a generalized algorithm and will not be the most recent 

nor best available local data. Therefore, MOVES is designed to allow the user to customize the 

model. The primary reasons a user would customize MOVES are: 

●	 To better represent conditions and vehicle activity in a local area, especially for use in 

conformity demonstrations or for SIP purposes; and, 

●	 To alter inputs for "what-if" analysis, such as the use of different I/M or fuel scenarios. 

Several components of the model are intended to facilitate customization. These include 

the Strategies procedures described below. MOVES also allows users to provide User Input 

Databases and to use various Importers with the County Data Manager, and Project Data 

Manager described later in this document. 

For future versions of MOVES, EPA intends to develop additional data importers or 

strategies to make it easier to incorporate alternate activity inputs. 

NOTE Many MOVES features request that the user create input or output databases. These 

database names must be consistent with MYSQL naming conventions. In general, this 

means they may contain letters, numbers, "_"(underscore) and "$". They may not 

contain spaces, special characters, or be "reserved words" (SQL words such as "select", 

"where", "delete", etc.). See Appendix E, "Best Practices" for additional advice on 

naming MOVES databases. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 9 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.1 Overview of MOVES User Interface 

The MOVES Graphical User Interface (GUI) consists of a Main Menu Bar, a Navigation 

Panel, and a Detail Panel. The Main Menu Bar and Navigation Panel are available on every 

screen as the user prepares for execution of the RunSpec. When the user selects a menu item 

from the Navigation Panel, the Detail Panel displays data elements specific to the parameter(s) 

defined by the menu item, and provides a platform for user input of parameter specifications. 

Page 10 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

During execution of a RunSpec, a progress indicator will appear on the screen. 

The Main Menu Bar will remain available, allowing the user to pause, resume, or stop 

(cancel) the RunSpec during execution. 

The MOVES model features "mouse hover" user help throughout the model. To use it, 

the user simply places the mouse over a particular MOVES GUI icon or command and keeps it 

still. A small help box will appear with a brief text message; for example, the readiness status of 

a Navigation Panel icon, the keyboard combination required to execute a command from the 

Main Menu Bar, or a brief description of a Detail Panel icon. 

Most panels use buttons and scroll or drop down list boxes, typified by the "Select All" 

"Delete" and "Add" buttons. These buttons will be enabled or disabled based upon selection in 

the associated list box. For example, a "Delete" button will be disabled until a selection is made 

in the associated list box. 

Note When a selection is identified (e.g., by highlighting one state or county in a 

Geographic Bounds list box), the user must click the "Add" button to add the selection 

to the RunSpec. The user can consult the associated icon in the Navigation Panel to 

determine if the parameter has been sufficiently defined. If the parameter icon changes 

from exclamation point to check mark, the parameter definition is sufficient to allow 

the RunSpec to be executed. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 11 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.2 Navigation Panel 

The Navigation Panel appears on the left side of the MOVES screen and includes 

parameters the user must consider when setting up a RunSpec. 

Selecting an item from the Navigation Panel will open a user interface in the Detail Panel 

in the center of the MOVES screen. In some cases, the RunSpec parameter listed on the 

Navigation Panel is split into sub-topics; these items are shown with an icon ( or ) that 

allows the list of sub-topics to be expanded or collapsed. The user must click on the sub-topic 

for the user interface to be opened. 

The Navigation Panel includes icons that display the readiness status of the various 

RunSpec parameters. A RunSpec will not be executable if an exclamation mark is shown for 

any parameter. 

Page 12 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Icon Meaning 

Needs additional user supplied data. 

Sufficiently filled in to run. 

Default data present, but otherwise sufficiently filled 

in to run. 

/ Parameter expand/collapse. 

Note Parameters may be visited in any order, however some choices affect the choices 

available in other screens. In particular, changing the “Scale” parameters can impact 

other parameter choices. You may wish to save your Run Spec before switching Scales 

and to pay attention to the Navigation Panel icons after making any selection to make 

sure it did not affect another parameter. 

Tip The icons shown on the sample GUI in this document do not necessarily indicate which 

sections/subsections will have default data available. 

Tip A RunSpec cannot be executed until all necessary data are supplied. 

2.2.1 Description 

Select Description, the first item on the Navigation Panel, to open a scrollable text 

window that allows the user to give the RunSpec a particular textual description. This is useful 

for keeping track of various RunSpecs or providing information for someone else looking at the 

file (such as "This run produces annual total energy consumption for the nation in 1999"). The 

text entered in the Description Panel is for documentation purposes only. Its contents are 

reported for each run in the MOVESRun table. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 13 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Up to 5,000 characters of text may be entered to describe the RunSpec. 

Tip The default Description is blank and the MOVES model can be run without a Description. 

However, it is considered a best practice to carefully describe each and every version of a 

RunSpec. This will assist in documenting the purpose of that particular MOVES2010 run. 

See Appendix E, Best Practices, for additional information. 

2.2.2 Scale 

Select “Scale” on the Navigation Panel to choose the level of detail represented by the 

MOVES input database and whether the model will calculate emissions sum or emissions rate 

data. 

2.2.2.1 Domain/Scale 

National Domain/Scale is the default selection in MOVES. If National Domain/Scale 

is selected, data collected on a nation-wide level is apportioned or allocated to states or counties. 

This data will differ from data collected for a specific state or county. For example, consider 

vehicle miles traveled. If using the National Domain/Scale, the primary input is national VMT 

data which is then allocated to a county or state. The allocation does not take into account 

factors that may differ between areas of the country (e.g. age distribution). Consequently, a 

model run for two states or counties that uses the National Domain/Scale may not provide an 

accurate portrayal of specific emission differences between these counties or states that would 

occur due to dissimilar vehicle age distributions or other factors. For these reasons, the National 

Domain/Scale cannot be used by states for preparing SIP or conformity analyses. 

Page 14 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

For a finer level of detail about a particular area, the user can choose the County 

Domain/Scale. With this scale choice, the model will replace national default allocations with 

user-supplied data. Only one year and one county (or custom domain) can be selected in the 

Time Span and Geographic Bounds panels, respectively. By supplying local data through the 

County Data Manager (see Section 2.3.3) the user can provide more accurate information about 

a particular state or county than would be provided using the National Domain/Scale. The 

County Domain/Scale is intended to be used when doing SIP or regional conformity analyses. 

Project Domain/Scale is the finest level of modeling in MOVES. It allows the user to 

model the emission effects from a group of specific roadway links and/or a single off-network 

location. The definition of a roadway link is a section of any road where a vehicle is moving for 

more than three seconds. An off-network location is an area of activity that is not a roadway, for 

example a parking lot where vehicle starts and extended idling emissions are produced. The use 

of the Project Domain/Scale requires the user to completely define the individual project (i.e., 

specify all individual roadway links and/or the off-network area). All of the project level data is 

entered in the Project Domain Manager (see Section 2.3.3.3.2) for data input details). If 

specified correctly, the MOVES Project Domain/Scale will utilize MOVES emission rates and 

other factors to correctly calculate emission inventory results for the user’s defined project. 

Note MOVES2010 is not capable of modeling any evaporative emission processes when 

using Project Domain/Scale. EPA plans to add this feature in future versions of 

MOVES. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 15 
 

 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Note that switching scales is a major change to the RunSpec. It affects the operation of 

other Navigation Panel items and may cause previous RunSpec specifications to be changed or 

lost. You may wish to save your RunSpec before switching scales. Also, the choice the user 

makes on the Domain/Scale panel affects the selections that will be presented in the Geographic 

Bounds detail panel. These differences are covered in greater detail in Section 2.2.4 Geographic 

Bounds. 

2.2.2.2 Calculation Type 

In this section of the panel, the user can choose the type of calculation that will occur in 

the Run. MOVES will calculate the quantity of emissions and/or energy used within a region 

and time span if the user selects the “Inventory” button. This output is stored in the 

MOVESOutput and the MOVESActivityOutput tables. 

The rate at which emissions occur (the mass and/or energy per unit of activity) is 

calculated if the user selects the “Emission Rates” button. This output is stored in the 

RatePerDistance, RatePerProfile and RatePerVehicle Tables. 

If you select Emission Rates, you must assign a MOVESScenarioID which will be used 

in the rates tables. The MOVESScenarioID should be a unique identifier for the scenario for 

which the rates apply. See Appendix A for more information on defining scenarios. 

Note Calculating Emission Rates requires more run time and more output space than 

inventory calculations, so this choice should be selected with care. See Appendix A for 

advice on using the Emission Rates option to develop a “lookup table” of rates. 

Note While activity is “divided out” in the Emission Rates output, the amount of time spent 

driving affects the evaporative emission rates. Therefore, it is important to input 

realistic VMT, Population, Average Speed Distribution and Road Type Distribution 

information. 

Note If Emission Rates is selected as the Calculation Type, then several other panels are 

affected: 

1) If National Domain/Scale is selected, only “Zone & Link” can be chosen in 

the “Region” section of the Geographic Bounds panel, or 1b) if County or Project 

Domain/Scale is selected, only “Zone & Link” or “Custom Domain” can be chosen; 

2) The “Distance Traveled” and “Population” boxes on the General Output 

panel are automatically checked; and 

Page 16 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

3) The “Road Type” and “Emission Process” boxes are automatically selected 

on the Output Emission Detail panel. 

2.2.3 Time Spans 

MOVES can be set to model specific time periods by selecting Time Spans on the 

Navigation Panel. Clicking “Time Spans” will open the panel shown below. 

This panel is divided into five sections with boxes, buttons, or drop-down menus in each, 

allowing the user to select specific aggregation levels, years, months, days, and hours. These 

panel sections are used to define the time period for which emissions will be modeled in the Run. 

In the screenshot depicted above, the user has specified that the Run should calculate emissions 

for the two hours from 10 am to noon on a typical January weekday in the year 2000. The 

emissions for each hour will be calculated separately. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 17 
 

 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.2.3.1 Time Aggregation Level 

Click in the Time Aggregation Level section to set the level of pre-aggregation that is 

desired. Only one choice can be selected. The default level is "Hour" and implies no preaggregation of the MOVES data by time. If the user chooses a longer aggregation level time 

period such as "Year", "Month", or "Day", the model will pre-aggregate (i.e., compute a 

weighted average of) all underlying MOVES internal data that are differentiated by hour (e.g., 

temperatures, VMT distributions, etc) prior to execution of the run. For example, if the user 

chooses "Month", the model will average the temperatures of all selected Days and Hours into 

an average "Month" set (it may be a set because the temperatures will not necessarily be 

averaged by geography unless that has also been pre-aggregated), and perform the simulation 

with these average values. Pre-aggregation sacrifices precision to improve model run time. 

Note Once the user has selected a higher aggregation level than "Hour", the model's GUI 

will automatically fill in the required lower GUI inputs. For example, if the user selects 

the "Month" button in the Time Aggregation Level panel, the model will fill in all of 

the hours and days input. After the initial automatic selection, the user may de-select 

particular hours, kinds of days, or months. If such a de-selection is done, the user will 

end up with results that are based on aggregations that do not include de-selected hours, 

days, or months. For example, if the user selects "Months" in the Time Aggregation 

Level panel and de-selects "Weekends", the final emission result will represent a 

monthly aggregation that includes "Weekdays" only. 

Note The proper levels of time aggregation for SIP and conformity analysis will be addressed 

in guidance documents. 

Caution! Because of non-linearity in the general MOVES algorithm, differences may arise 

between aggregated results and non-aggregated results. For example, the emission 

results from a run where all 24 hours are selected and the Time Aggregation Level 

is set to "Hour" may not match the results from a run where the Time Aggregation 

Level is set to "Day". 

2.2.3.2 Years 

Select a calendar year(s) in the Years section and click on the "Add" button. Select a 

year by clicking the black triangle to see a drop-down list of calendar years and select an 

individual year. Click on "Add" to have that year appear in the Year selection pane. This can 

be repeated to select as many years as desired if National Domain/Scale has been chosen. 

However, if County or Project Domain/Scale was chosen on the Scale panel, only 1 year can 

be selected in the Year pane. Use the "Remove" button to deselect years. 

Tip At least one calendar year must appear in the Years Selection panel to obtain a 

valid Time Spans input 

Page 18 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

 

 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

2.2.3.3 Months 

Click one or more individual months to model to select the appropriate boxes in the 

Months section. At least one Month box must be selected. Click the "Select All" button to 

select all of the months. Similarly, the "Clear All" button removes all of the previously chosen 

months. 

Note If the Project Domain/Scale is selected, the Run Spec may cover only a single month.. 

2.2.3.4 Days 

Click one or more kinds of days of the week to model to select the appropriate boxes in 

the Days section. At least one kind of Day box must be selected. Click "Select All" button to 

select all of the days. Similarly, the "Clear All" button removes all of the previously chosen day 

types. 

Note If the Project Domain/Scale is selected, the Run Spec may cover only a single type of 

day. 

2.2.3.5 Hours 

The default time resolution for MOVES at both National and County Domain/Scale is 

hourly, with hours expressed in military time ranging from midnight - 12:59 am (expressed as 

00:00 - 00:59) to 11 pm - 11:59 pm (23:00 - 23:59). Use the drop down menu to select the 

appropriate Start and End hours from the list. Click the "Select All" button to select all of the 

hours of the day. Similarly, the "Clear All" button removes all of the previously selected hours 

of the day. 

Tip The times selected are relative to the time zone so that 7:00 to 9:59 AM is 7:00 to 9:59 AM 

in each selected county-state combination. 

Tip If only one hour of output is desired, select the same entry for start time and end time (i.e., 

0-0:59 and 0-0:59). This will produce one hour of output. 

Note If the Project Domain/Scale is selected, the Run Spec may cover only a single hour.. 

Note The hours selected are run for all chosen days, so it is not possible, for example, to 

model only from 11:00 PM on Friday to 01:59 AM on Saturday. It is also not possible 

to run the model for a group of months that span a year end. That is, the user cannot 

run the model for just December of 2003 through January 2004. However, the model 

can be run multiple times with different RunSpec time spans to accomplish these tasks, 

or it can be run for multiple days or years and then manually post-processed to 

eliminate the un-needed times. 

2.2.4 Geographic Bounds 

Selecting Geographic Bounds allows the user to define the region to model. The 

options available on this panel depend on the choice of Domain/Scale and Calculation Type 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 19 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

(see Section 2.2.2 of this User Guide). If the user has chosen Inventory calculations at the 

National scale, the following screen will appear: 

Three buttons, "Nation", "State" and "County" are normally available. Choose the one 

appropriate for your desired run. 

Caution! Your choice of "Region" will impact your results. If the user chooses the "Nation" 

or "State" input options, the model will pre-aggregate (i.e., compute a weighted 

average of) all underlying data that is a function of geography (temperatures, road 

types, etc) and execute the "National" or "State" run as if it were a single county 

run. Thus, a run at "Nation" or "State" level will be faster than a "County" level run 

for the same area, but it will be less accurate. 

For example, if the user chooses "State" and "Michigan," the model will average the 

temperatures of all Michigan counties into a single average set (it will be a set because the 

temperatures will not necessarily be averaged by time) and perform the simulation with these 

average values. The report "MOVES2004 Validation Results" includes a sensitivity analysis of 

different pre-aggregation levels. An alternative method of computing a state simulation is to 

select "County" Region and then selecting all the individual counties in the desired state. If the 

user chooses this option, no pre-aggregation will be done and the model will execute separate 

simulations for each county in the particular state. This option will likely produce a slightly 

different emission result than if the geographic specific data were first aggregated and then used 

because of non-linear calculations in some algorithms. 

Page 20 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Caution! Be advised that if an entire state or nation is run at the county level, execution times 

may be quite long. For such runs, we generally recommend multiple-computer 

processing. 

Nation: Choose "Nation" to run scenarios and compute emission inventory results for 

all counties/parishes in the United States and Territories. The "Nation" button is generally 

chosen if the user wishes to create a simple national U.S. emission inventory. 

State: Choose "State" to run scenarios and compute emission inventories for particular 

States or Territories within the United States. This panel has two parts (States, and Selections) 

and buttons for choosing the appropriate selections. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 21 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

To choose the desired state(s): 

1. Scroll to desired state in "States" box and click on it to highlight. Click 

the "Add" button under box. State will appear in the “Selections” box. 

2. Click the "Select All" button to choose all U.S. states and territories 

available. 

To remove a previously selected state, highlight it in “Selections” box and click the 

"Delete" button. 

Note The "Add" and "Delete" buttons are inactive if no states are highlighted. 

County: Choose "County" to run scenarios and compute emission inventories for 

specific counties within a state. If the "County" button is selected, a new bounds panel will 

show in the Detail Panel, as shown below. 

Page 22 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

The process for selecting a specific county is similar to selecting a state, outlined above. 

When using the County Domain/Scale and Inventory calculation type, the Region 

portion of the Geographic Bounds detail panel indicates County by default, and the user must 

specify the state and county in the manner detailed above. 

When using the Project Domain/Scale and Inventory calculation type, the Region 

portion of the Geographic Bounds detail panel indicates County by default, and the user must 

specify the state and county in the manner detailed earlier. 

When a user selects the Emission Rates calculation type on the Scale panel, the 

Geographic Bounds panel allows a choice of Zone & Link at the National scale, and Zone & 

Link or Custom Domain at the County and Project scales. 

When either the County or Project is chosen on the Scale panel, the user can also define 

a "custom county" by selecting the Custom Domain option in the Region portion of the 

Geographic Bounds panel, as shown in the screen shot below. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 23 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

In this case, the user must provide a short county identifier (1-999) that will combine with 

the state ID (99 for generic) to form the standard 5 digit county identifier used throughout 

MOVES. In addition, the user must provide a description and GPA (Geographic Phase-in Area) 

fraction. The Geographic Phase-in Area refers to a group of counties in the western U.S. that 

had special gasoline sulfur requirements under Tier 2 regulations. See 65 Fed. Reg. 6755-6759 

for details on the GPA. The user must also provide the Barometric Pressure (in inches of 

mercury, inHg) and the Vapor and Spill Adjustment factors, which describe the Stage II 

Refueling program in the area. 

Note Barometric Pressure must be indicated by the user for two reasons: 1) it is a required 

input for some MOVES calculations; and 2) the area is assigned a “Low” or “High” 

altitude depending on the user’s input (areas with pressure less than or equal to 25.8403 

are high altitude; areas with pressure greater than 25.8403 are low altitude). 

Tip A user might want to use the Custom Domain option to represent an area that 

encompasses a portion of a county, multiple counties, or an area that crosses state 

boundaries (a nonattainment area may have these characteristics). 

When either the County or Project is chosen on the Scale panel, the Geographic 

Bounds panel will contain an area in which to define the Domain Input Database for the 

model, as shown in the following screenshot. 

Page 24 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

For both the County and Custom Domain option, the user must specify the usersupplied database that will contain county-specific data. For Project scale, a database of detailed 

information on the project is required. See section 2.3.3.3 Data Importer, County Data 

Manager and Project Domain Manager for more information. In most cases, this database 

will be located on the server "localhost" (generally the user’s own machine) ; however, the user 

can specify a different host server in the Server box. After specifying a server, the user must 

identify a database to receive the data that will be imported. If the user has already created the 

database, it can be selected by clicking on the drop-down arrow adjacent to the Database box 

and making a selection from the drop-down list. If the database has not been created or if the 

user wants to make changes to the database, the user can click the "Enter/Edit Data" button to 

open the County Data Manager. 

Tip The user should be sure to fill out all panels and fields to define the RunSpec before using 

the County Data Manager or Project Domain Manager. The selections in the Run Spec 

are used by the County Data Manager to define the data needed for the county data to be 

complete, and to filter the data used when creating export or template files. 

Caution! Defaults that are exported from the MOVES database are generally not appropriate 

for SIP or conformity analyses. See MOVES Policy Guidance document for more 

information. 

Note If the user selects Custom Domain, the County Data Manager will not export any 

default data; therefore, the user must have all the required information to use this 

option. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 25 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

The user can clear the selected database and update the list of available databases by 

clicking the "Refresh" button. 

The Geographic Bounds panel includes the text box, Geographic Bounds 

Requirements, which defines what is expected of the user on the panel. 

2.2.5 Vehicles/Equipment 

To select which on-road vehicles are to be modeled, click on Vehicles/Equipment in the 

Navigation Panel. This will open the On Road Vehicle Equipment Detail Panel. Two lists 

(Fuels and Source Use Types) appear to the left of this panel to allow distinct selections for the 

vehicles/equipment. 

Note We hope to add additional fuels in the future, and the “Placeholder Fuel Type” is an 

incomplete step in this direction. However, the Placeholder Fuel is not currently active, 

and there is no reason to select it. 

1. Click and highlight the Fuels choice or click the "Select All" button to choose all the 

choices. 

2. Click and highlight the Source Use Types choice or click the "Select All" button to 

choose all the choices. 

3. Click "Add Fuel/Type Combinations" button to move the selected choices to the 

Selections box. 

Page 26 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

To clear highlighted selections from Selections box click “Delete” 

Note No default selection will appear on this panel, and the model cannot be run without a 

selection made. 

Note The On Road Vehicle Equipment panel contains a small subpanel at the bottom that 

reminds the user that they are required to select a Fuel and Source Use type. This panel 

disappears after the user makes a valid Fuel and Source Use Type selection. If a 

selected combination is not in the database, the subpanel will notify the user that the 

combination is invalid (e.g. “Diesel fuel/Motorcycle combination is not in the 

database”). These non-existent combinations do not need to be removed from the 

RunSpec, but no results are reported for such vehicles. 

2.2.6 Road Type 

If any on-road vehicle has been selected (see Section 2.3.4 Vehicles/Equipment), the 

Road Type panel becomes available on the Navigation Panel, allowing the selection of road 

type. All Road Type panel controls are disabled otherwise. 

Tip The user must select at least one road type. 

1. Click and highlight the desired Road Types from the list.

 2. Click the "Select All" button to select all Road Types in list. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 27 
 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

3. Click the "Add" button to move choice to the Selected Road Types box. 

Click the "Delete" button to clear the highlighted selections. 

Note The list of Road Types is the complete list of roadway types present in the underlying 

MOVES database. The default database has Road Types that represent urban and rural 

driving on roads with restricted and unrestricted vehicle access. Restricted access 

roadtypes are usually used to model freeways and interstates; ramps are considered part 

of restricted access roadtypes. The Ramp Fraction tab of the CDM (see Section 

2.3.3.4) will only become available if an unrestricted road type (i.e. 2 or 4) is selected. 

Note "Off Network" is automatically selected when start or extended idle processes are 

selected on the "Pollutants and Processes" panel. All Road Types are automatically 

selected when any evaporative or refueling processes are selected on the "Pollutants 

and Processes" panel. 

Tip	 All Road Types in an area on which VMT is allocated should be selected to correctly 

calculate population.
 

Caution! Selected Road Types may or may not exist in the geographic bounds of the 

RunSpec. For example, a county may have no urban roads. MOVES will display 

results only for road types that exist in the selected geographic area. 

2.2.7 Pollutants and Processes 

To select the pollutants and processes to include in the RunSpec, the user should choose 

Pollutants and Processes on the Navigation Panel. A matrix will appear in the Detail Panel, 

with "Pollutants" listed as rows and "Processes" listed as columns. When a pollutant/process 

combination is selected by clicking a check box, it is included in the RunSpec. When the 

RunSpec is run, the model will compute emissions for that pollutant/process combination. 

Page 28 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

There is no limit to the number of boxes that may be checked; however, at least one box 

must be checked to produce a valid MOVES RunSpec input. 

Note It may be necessary to scroll the Pollutants and Processes panel to see all of the 

Process columns or Pollutant rows. 

Note Checking the box on the left side of the panel will select all of the processes for that 

pollutant. The box on the left side of the panel will also show a check if any process is 

selected. Additionally, unchecking the box on the left side of the panel will deselect all 

processes for that pollutant. 

Note In order to replicate MOBIL6.2 runs (e.g. to compare the results of the two models), all 

processes except extended idle need to be selected. 

Caution! Users are cautioned that the number of check boxes selected will affect execution 

time. Large runs calculating many pollutant/process combinations may require 

processing times of several hours, so users are advised to begin with only a few 

pollutant/process combinations. 

A Pollutant/Process Requirements box is included at the bottom of the Detail Panel. 

Text in this box actively responds to pollutant/process combination selections made in the 

matrix. In some cases, a specific pollutant/process calculation depends upon another 

pollutant/process calculation, and the user must select the base pollutant/process combination in 

order to be able to select the dependent combination. An error message will appear in the 

Pollutant/Process Requirements box should the user not select the base combination. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 29 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.2.7.1 Processes 

In MOVES, "Process" refers to the mechanism by which emissions are created. Engine 

operation creates Running Emissions Exhaust, Start Emissions Exhaust (the addition to 

running emissions caused by the engine start), and Extended Idle Emissions Exhaust (i.e., 

“hotelling” emissions from a combination long-haul truck). MOVES also distinguishes 

Crankcase Running Exhaust, Crankcase Start Exhaust, and Crankcase Extended Idle 

Exhaust to describe the exhaust gases that escape around the piston rings and enter the 

crankcase during normal operation. 

MOVES models evaporative emissions, situations in which unburned fuel escapes the 

vehicle's fuel system, through the "Evap Fuel Vapor Venting", "Evap Permeation", and "Evap 

Fuel Leaks" processes. In addition, vehicle refueling can cause "Refueling Spillage Loss" and 

"Refueling Displacement Vapor Loss". "Brakewear" and "Tirewear" describe the nonexhaust particulate emissions that result from brake use and tire wear. 

2.2.7.2 Pollutants 

MOVES allows the user to calculate emissions of criteria pollutants, greenhouse gases, 

and air toxics associated with motor vehicle operation. MOVES also calculates energy 

consumption. For many pollutants, the emissions calculation is based on the prior calculation of 

another pollutant emission. As noted earlier, the Pollutant/Process Requirements box will 

display an error message if the user selects a dependent pollutant but not the base pollutant. 

Pollutants and base pollutants are listed in Table 2.2.7.2 below. 

Page 30 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Table 2.2.7.2 

2.2.8 Manage Input Data Sets 

Select Manage Input Data Sets on the Navigation Panel to specify databases containing 

user-supplied data to be read by the model during execution. Databases entered using this 

feature will overlay existing databases tables (or portions of a table, if a table containing only a 

subset of records is provided) in the MOVES default database tables, if they exist. No default 

selections exist for this panel and the model can be run without any selections on this panel. 

Note Each database added through this feature can consist of one or more MOVES input 

database tables. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 31 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Note These databases must adhere to the MOVES schema and use the database management 

system (DBMS) used by MOVES. In practice this means that individual tables in the 

user-supplied database must have identical names as the MOVES default input database 

and the individual fields in the tables must have identical lengths and types as MOVES 

default tables. For details regarding the MOVES database schema see the Software 

Design Reference Manual. 

Tip The data in user input databases take priority over data from the MOVES default database. 

Note Entries in the Manage Input Data Sets panel are used in the run, but will not change 

the values in the MOVES default database. 

To create a new database with empty tables of the proper schema on an existing local or 

remote server, type the server and a new database name and click the "Create Database" button. 

Leaving the server box blank creates the new database on the localhost server. 

You can use database tools outside of MOVES, such as MySQL, to populate new database 

tables with alternate values. Within MOVES, the Data Importer, County Data Manager, and 

Project Domain Manager also aid in creating and populating User Input databases. For more 

information about each of these tools, see Sections 2.3.3.3 Data Importer, County Data 

Manager and Project Domain Manager. 

Page 32 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Tip Databases created with the County Data Manager or Project Domain Manager are 

selected in the Domain Input Database pane of the Geographic Bounds panel rather 

than the Manage Input Data Sets panel. 

To choose a database, select it from the dropdown list, and click the "Add" button to add the new 

or existing database to the input databases, shown in the Selections window. MOVES will first 

validate that the combination of server and database are unique within the selections. The same 

server-database combination cannot be added more than once. Click the "Move Up" or "Move 

Down" buttons to modify the order in which a particular database selection is used. To remove a 

database, highlight it and click the "Delete" button. 

Tip The order in which these databases are applied to the default data is important. If two or 

more alternate databases are specified in the Selections list, the one that appears last in the 

list will replace any previous ones in cases where the internal tables and records of each 

database overlap. 

2.2.9 Creating and Using Internal Control Strategies 

In MOVES, "Strategies" are sets of parameters that replace MOVES defaults, and thus 

allow the user to model different future scenarios. MOVES has two internal control strategies 

that are built into the RunSpec Navigation Panel. The "Alternate Vehicle Fuels & 

Technologies" (AVFT) strategy allows users to modify the fraction of vehicles using different 

fules and technologies in each model year. The "On-Road Retrofit" strategy allows the user to 

enter information about diesel trucks and buses that have been retrofit with emission control 

equipment. The use of control strategies is optional; if the user does not select any strategy, the 

RunSpec will use data from the MOVES default database. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 33 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

The selection of either strategy opens a split panel on the screen. The left side of the 

panel is common for both Strategies menu options. It is called the Strategies Management 

panel (shown in the screen shot above), and contains buttons that enable the user to add, import, 

export, delete, and check data. Detailed information specific to the strategy appears to the right, 

on the Strategies Detail panel. 

The buttons on the Strategies Management panel are used to manipulate the strategy 

data sets, or "objects", needed for each RunSpec, as explained below. The panels and tools for 

the AVFT and On-Road Retrofit Strategies are similar, but not identical. 

Caution! A RunSpec may have only one AVFT and one On-Road Retrofit strategy. The 

"New" button cannot be selected without first clicking "Delete" to remove any 

existing loaded object. If a strategy data set is already loaded and the user imports a 

new file, the import action will overwrite the existing data set. 

2.2.9.1 Adding Strategy Files 

Users can add new strategy data to a RunSpec by clicking the "New" button or the 

"Import" button. 

Clicking the "New" button creates a new strategy data set, which is added to the 

RunSpec. The new strategy data appears on the list of “Loaded Objects” as "(default)". 

However, in MOVES, the “Loaded Objects” window does not function as intended and should 

be ignored. 

Clicking the "Import" button allows the user to import an appropriate input file. The 

AVFT Strategy allows the user to import XML, tab-delimited text, and Microsoft Excel files. 

Page 34 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

The On-Road Retrofit Strategy allows the user to import Microsoft Excel (.xls), tab-delimited 

text files, or comma-delimited text. Typically, the import file is created by exporting a template 

file, editing it in a spreadsheet, saving the edited version as a tab-delimited text file, and 

importing this text file. 

Note The AVFT will not import comma-separated data files. 

2.2.9.2 Deleting Strategy Files 

The user may delete a strategy data set from the RunSpec by clicking the "Delete" button. 

MOVES will prompt the user for confirmation before actually removing the data set. 

2.2.9.3 Exporting Strategy Files 

The "Export" button allows the user to write strategy parameter sets to file for storage. 

When the user clicks "Export", a standard Windows file browser appears from which the user 

can name a file to which to write the data as tab-delimited text. 

To create a template file for the AVFT, the user should “Export Default.” To create a 

template file for the On-Road Retrofit strategies, the user chooses "New," and then exports a file 

containing only headers. Both the AVFT and the On-Road Retrofit Strategies allow the user to 

export previously imported files. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 35 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.2.9.4 Naming Strategy Files 

By clicking the "Description" button, the dialog box shown below is displayed: 

Changing the description will change the text shown in the “Loaded Objects” window. 

However, importing different files will not change the description. 

Tip The Desciption text can be misleading since it must be manually updated if new strategy 

files are loaded. Users may wish to leave it blank. 

2.2.9.5 Saving and Transferring Strategy Files 

Strategies can exist both inside and outside of a RunSpec, that is, the parameters can be 

saved as part of a RunSpec and/or as a separate file that can be re-used from one RunSpec to the 

next. This feature can help a user create a set of RunSpecs that use a consistent set of strategy 

settings. The "Import" and "Export" buttons allow for the transfer of strategy data between 

RunSpecs. 

Using the File menu to save and open RunSpecs automatically saves and loads the 

Strategies embedded within the RunSpecs. The files containing the strategies do not need to be 

imported separately. However, the version of the file embedded within the RunSpec is set at the 

time of the import; in other words, if any change are made to the strategy file outside of 

MOVES, the file must again be imported for the RunSpec to reflect the changes made. 

2.2.9.6 Creating AVFT files outside of MOVES 

To create AVFT strategy files outside of MOVES, it is easiest to start by exporting the 

default parameters as a template, then opening the saved file with a spreadsheet program such as 

Microsoft Excel. 

The first row contains field names: "SourceTypeID", "ModelYear", "fueltypeID", 

"EngTechID" and "FuelEngFraction". Default SourceTypeIDs and FuelTypeIDs are defined in 

the SourceUseType and FuelType tables of the MOVES Default Database and are summarized 

in Appendix I. "ModelYear" refers to the model year of the vehicles. "EngTechID" refers to 

the engine technology type: “Conventional Internal Combustion” for most fuels, “Electric” for 

vehicles with a Fueltype of “Electricity.”,. "FuelEngFraction" refers to the fraction of the 

sourcetype in that model year that have that combination of fueltype and engine technology. 

Beneath the field names are data rows. For MOVES2010a, there are about 2046 rows in 

an AVFT file if all source types are selected. Users can add rows for new fuel/engine technology 

Page 36 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

combinations if they are allowed for that sourcetype, or delete rows for combinations that the 

user does not want included. Once the user has decided upon a complete set of fuel and engine 

technologies for a source type/model year combination, the user should edit the 

"FuelEngFraction" in each row so that the fractions entered sum to 1 within the source 

type/model year combination. 

The edited AVFT file should be saved as a tab-delimited text file and then imported into 

the desired RunSpec(s) using the "Import" button. 

If all years do not sum to one, the panel will display an error message and an option to 

“Normalize” the data. Normalizing will proportionally adjust the entries so that each 

sourcetype/modelyear combination sums to one. 

Tip	 If you “Normalize” imported AVFT data, it can be useful to export and view the 

normalized data to make sure that the normalization adjustments lead to the 

vehicle mix you intended 

2.2.9.7 Managing On-Road Vehicle Retrofit Data 

MOVES has the capability to model on-road vehicle retrofit strategies for all exhaust 

pollutants for diesel trucks and buses. Appendix D provides detailed instructions for creating an 

On-Road Retrofit data file. 

To add on-road vehicle retrofit data, the user should click the On-Road Retrofit option 

under Strategies on the Navigation Panel. This will open the On-Road Retrofit panel, which 

displays the Strategies Management Panel on the left side of the panel as described earlier in 

the Strategies section. The "Description", "New", "Export", "Delete", and "Check" buttons 

work as described earlier. 

Note The Retrofit Strategy only works for non-passenger diesel trucks and buses. Importing 

a strategy for motorcycles, cars, passenger trucks or for other fuel types will generate 

an error. 

The "Import" button is similar to the AVFT import and is described below. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 37 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.2.9.8 Importing Retrofit Data 

When the user clicks on "On-Road Retrofit", the Detail Panel to the right of the 

Strategies Management Panel instructs the user to click the “New” button first and then click 

the "Import" button to select a retrofit parameter file. The "Import" button enables the user to 

import On-Road Retrofit data as a tab delimited, comma separated (.csv), or .xls file. When the 

user clicks on "Import", a standard Windows file browser window appears from which the user 

can select the file. If an .xls file is imported, MOVES will prompt the user to specify a 

worksheet from which the data should be imported 

Once data are imported, the display in the Detail Panel will show the name and location 

of the imported file ("Data Source"). A "Reload" button that will also appear next to the file 

name can be clicked on to capture any changes to the imported data file. 

Importing retrofit data automatically saves the data to the RunSpec, but it does not 

automatically apply the retrofit parameters to the emission results that MOVES produces. To 

apply the retrofit parameters to the emission results, the user must check, the Use the On-Road 

Retrofit Settings box that appears at the top of the On-Road Retrofit panel. This allows the user 

to turn retrofit on and off without reloading the files. 

CAUTION! If the user does not select Use the On-Road Retrofit Settings, the retrofit inputs 

will not be used. 

Page 38 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

If there are any data format or consistency issues in a file that the user is trying to import 

(e.g., incorrect number of columns or data that are inconsistent with what the user selected 

elsewhere in the MOVES GUI), a message(s) will appear in the Messages window at the bottom 

of the panel. Importing data for retrofits requires that the user enter the description of the field 

(e.g. NOX rather than pollutant 3). 

2.2.9.9 Rate of Progress Calculation 

If the user selects “Compute Rate-of-Progress ‘No Clean Air Act Amendments’ 

Emissions, the MOVES model will assign 1993 model year emission rates to all post-1993 

vehicles. 

Under the Clean Air Act, some State Implementation Plans (SIPs) must include a 

demonstration that the state is making “reasonable further progress” in reducing hydrocarbon and 

NOx emissions. To compute the rate of progress to this goal, the Act requires calculating 

emissions with and without the impact of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. To perform 

the highway vehicle portion of these calculations with MOVES, users should use the Rate of 

Progress feature. They should also set inspection maintenance programs and fuel programs to 

appropriate parameters. For more information, see the MOVES Technical Guidance. 

2.2.10 Output 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 39 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Selecting Output on the Navigation Panel expands to show General Output and Output 

Emissions Detail. Each of these panels allows the user to specify aspects of the output data. 

2.2.10.1 Specifying Database, Time Period, and Units in Output 

Click on the General Output panel to specify the output database, the units, and the 

activity types reported. The panel has three sub-panels: Output Database, Units, and Activity. 

2.2.10.1.1 Output Database 

The first box, Output Database, contains input boxes for the server name and the output 

database name. A blank server box is the default and it indicates that the localhost (the MySQL 

data folder located on the user's computer) is to be used. Most users should leave this blank. 

The second box contains the name of the MySQL output database where the user desires the 

MOVES output to be written. The user must select an existing MOVES output database or 

create a new MOVES output database into which the results should be placed. If the output 

database already exists and contains rows within its output tables, a warning icon is displayed. A 

new run of the MOVES model will add its results to an existing MOVES output database, and 

automatically give them the next available MOVES Run identification number. MOVES output 

records in an existing output database cannot be deleted or replaced from within the MOVES 

GUI. 

Page 40 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

A user choosing to create a new MOVES output database must choose a unique name 

and may click the "Create Database" button. All new output databases begin with a MOVES 

Run identification number of one. 

Caution! The user should never attempt to create a new output database with the same name 

as the MOVES default database or of any user-supplied MOVES input databases. 

Tip The output database should follow a naming convention to differentiate it from other 

databases; typically, using “_out” at the end of the database name is recommended. 

2.2.10.1.2 Units 

The Units box contains user choices for the mass, energy, and distance units in which the 

results will be reported. The choices for mass are kilograms, grams, pounds, or US tons (short 

tons). The available energy units are Joules, Kilojoules, or Million BTUs (British Thermal 

Units). The available distance units are miles or kilometers. The user may choose only one unit 

for each of the three measurement types. The units are reported in the output database in the 

MySQL output table "movesrun." 

Tip	 Make sure to choose units of the appropriate magnitude for your RunSpec. For instance, 

if the RunSpec is very narrow spatially, temporally, and in terms of vehicle and road 

types, then choosing “Tons” as the “Mass Units” may not give you the desired level of 

detail. 

2.2.10.1.3 Activity 

The Activity panel allows users to choose which vehicle activity to report in the 

MOVESActivityOutput table. 

If “Emission Rates” is selected on the “Scale” panel, “Distance Traveled” and 

“Population” will be selected automatically since their values are needed for the rates 

calculations. 

Caution! If the calculation type Emission Rates is selected on the Scale panel, the activity 

values will represent an intermediate step in the rates calculations rather than the 

real activity for that time and place. To reduce file size, use the Aggregation and 

Data Handling panel on the Advanced Peformance Features screen to select 

“Clear MOVESActivityOutput after rate calculations.” 

NOTE In the MOVESActivityOutput table, population always has month, day & hour keys of 

zero (i.e. “doesn’t matter”) because population is assumed constant in time across an 

entire year. This scheme reduces table size, but requires care when filtering results and 

when joining to other tables. Also, if you assign some VMT to a road type, but then do 

not select that road type in the RunSpec, the population will be lower than it should be. 

This is because the missing VMT is not used when calculating population. Users 

should model all road types (where VMT is allocated) to ensure proper calculations. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 41 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

NOTE Activity is generated only when at least one process that uses that activity is chosen on 

the Pollutants/Processes panel. If the user chooses an activity but does not choose the 

associated process, the MOVESActivityOutput table will not include the desired 

results. 

The following Table 2.2.10.1.3 lists and describes the activities MOVES can output, 

their units, and the processes that generate their information. 

ActivityTypeID Description Units ProcesseID Notes 

1 Distance traveled Distance 

units as set 

in a RunSpec 

1 Also needed for 

proper calculation of 

evaporative 

emissions when 

doing “Rates” 

calculations 

2 Source Hours 

(population times the 

number of hours) 

Hours, 

regardless of 

time unit 

aggregation 

11, 12, 13 

3 Source Hours Idling 

(the number of hours 

that combination long 

haul trucks spent in 

extended idle mode) 

Hours, 

regardless of 

time unit 

aggregation 

90 Offnetwork roads 

only 

4 Source Hours 

Operating (the number 

of hours that vehicles 

spent operating) 

Hours, 

regardless of 

time unit 

aggregation 

1, 9, 10, 11, 

12, 13 

5 Source Hours Parked 

(the number of hours 

that vehicles were 

parked) 

Hours, 

regardless of 

time unit 

aggregation 

11, 12, 13 Offnetwork roads 

only 

6 Population (the 

number of vehicles— 

assumed constant for 

each year) 

SourceUseT 

ype count 

1, 2, 9, 10, 

11, 12, 13, 

90 

7 Starts (the number of 

engine starts) 

Number of 

starts 

2 Offnetwork roads 

only 

Table 2.2.10.1.3 

2.2.10.2 Specifying Emission Distinctions in Output 

Select Output Emissions Detail on the Navigation Panel (after expanding Output) to 

specify distinctions desired in the output data. The Output Emissions Detail Panel consists of 

four sub-panels: Always, for All Vehicle/Equipment Categories, On Road/Off Road, and 

Estimate Uncertainty. 

Page 42 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Note Selecting detailed output here and using MYSQL post-processing to aggregate the 

output to the desired level allows the user control over the aggregation level without rerunning the model. This is often the best choice for intial investigation of a question 

and smaller runs. However, if a run includes many times, locations, source types, etc., 

the user may want to reduce the number of items selected on this screen to avoid 

producing unmanageably large output files and longer post-processing queries. 

2.2.10.2.1 Always 

The Always box at the upper left is a reminder that the output data will always contain 

dimensions for time, location, and pollutant. The Always box also contains two buttons that 

allow the user to specify the level of output aggregation by time and location level. 

By default, the "Time" button will report the same time level as selected in the Time 

Spans panel. The user may change the time level in the "Time" button to a value that is equal or 

longer than the Time Aggregate Level specified in the Time Spans panel. For example, if the 

Time Aggregate Level is set to "Hour" in the Time Spans panel, then the "Time" button can be 

set to "Hour", "24-Hour Day", "Portion of Week", "Month", or "Year". 

The "Time" selection requires explanation. The "24-Hour Day" selection does not select 

a particular day of the week but a kind of day of the week and the results are for one day of each 

kind of day requested in the RunSpec (e.g. one weekend day and/or one weekday). Similarly, the 

“Hour” selection will result in hourly output for each kind of day requested in the RunSpec. In 

the default case where the MOVES input database specifies two kinds of days, reporting by 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 43 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

"Portion of Week" reports weekday results as a total of five weekdays and weekend results as a 

total of two weekend days. 

Note The behavior of the aggregation function of the Time selection may cause unexpected 

results. For example, if only two hours of the day are selected in the Time Spans 

panel, but “24-Hour Day” is selected in the Output panel, the daily results will only be 

the sum of the two selected hours, not all 24. Similarly, selecting only weekdays in the 

Time Spans panel, but selecting “Month” in the Output panel will result in a monthly 

total that only includes weekdays. See the MOVES Software Design Reference Manual 

for more information about how MOVES aggregates output. 

By default, the "Location" button will report the same geographic aggregation level as 

selected in the Geographic Bounds panel. The user may change the aggregation level in the 

"Location" button to a value that is equal to or larger than the level set in the Geographic 

Bounds panel. For example, if the Geographic Bounds panel is set to "County", then the 

"Location" button can be set to "County", "State", or "Nation". 

Note The choice of "State" or "Nation" will aggregate results from the areas chosen in the 

Geographic Bounds panel. For example, if only two counties from a state are 

specified in a RunSpec, the output results for "State" will be the sum of the emissions 

from only these two counties. 

A "Pollutant" button is not available because MOVES pollutants are always reported 

separately in the output. Where aggregation of pollutants is available, the aggregate is listed as a 

separate pollutant on the Pollutants And Processes panel. (For example, “Primary Exhaust 

PM2.5 – Total.”) 

2.2.10.2.2 For All Vehicle/Equipment Categories 

The dimensions that apply to both on road and off road sources are "Model Year", "Fuel 

Type", and "Emission Process". Checking any or all of these items means that the output will 

be distinguished by that factor. For example, if "Emission Process" is checked, the output will 

be distinguished by the emissions processes selected, such as Running Exhaust, Start Exhaust, 

etc. 

2.2.10.2.3 On Road/Off Road 

MOVES does not include the ability to model Off Road emissions, as yet. Thus, within 

the On Road/Off Road only the On Road section is functional. In the On Road box, options 

are available to report by "Road Type", "Source Use Type", or Source Classification Code 

(SCC)". If none of these options are checked, no vehicle or road classification distinctions will 

be made in the output. Instead, the results will be reported as summed across all vehicle and 

road classes. 

Tip "Source Use Type" and "SCC" are mutually exclusive. Source Use Types are native to 

MOVES, so this is the preferred option. MOVES can report by Source Classification Code 

(SCC), but this introduces an additional approximation step in the calculations to convert 

output by Source Use Type to SCC. 

Page 44 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Caution! If “Custom Domain” is chosen on the Geographic Bounds panel and output is 

distinguished by “SCC”, the user must manually populate the 

“sccRoadTypeDistribution” table in MySQL and input it as a user-input database in 

the Manage Input Data Sets panel. As stated earlier, the default database contains 

no default data about custom domains, but this table cannot be edited in the County 

Data Manager so it must be provided separately by the user. Additionally, while 

there is default information for individual counties, users may want to review the 

“sccRoadTypeDistribution” table to determine how the MOVES road types 

translate to the SCC roads types for the county of interest. 

= 

Several interdependencies exist among these items. For example, reporting by SCC 

implies that FuelTypes, but not RoadTypes will be distinguished. (The SCC itself includes an 

indication of both the fuel type and the roadway classification.) 

2.2.10.2.4 Estimate Uncertainty 

The Estimate Uncertainty function is not yet available.. 

2.2.11 Advanced Performance Features 

The Advanced Performance Features panel invokes a variety of options. Some will be 

use to many users, others require specialized knowledge. 

Many of these are features which may be used to diagnose problems with the model 

software, or to improve the run time for long model runs by saving and reusing intermediate 

results. Use of these features requires knowledge of the detailed software components of the 

MOVES program, the inputs they require, and the outputs they produce. Users interested in 

these features should review the MOVES Software Design and Reference Manual. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 45 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

This panel allows users save intermediate results from various portions of the model and 

to turn off portions of the model code. 

This panel also allows the user to "turn off" final aggregation of MOVES results. 

Selecting the "Do Not Perform Final Aggregation" option can reduce execution time for large 

runs. When this option is selected, the MOVES output tables may include rows with duplicate 

key fields. The results from these rows must then be summed to produce useful output. Use this 

feature with great care. 

When the Emission Rates calculation type is selected on the Scale panel, the user may 

choose to “Clear MOVESOutput after rate calculations” and “Clear 

MOVESActivityOutput after rate calculations.” These options are recommended because 

the tables they affect may be quite large, and the values the tables hold represent only an 

intermediate step in the rates calculations rather than the real activity for that time and place. 

Finally, this panel includes a sub-panel where the user can specify an input database to be 

used instead of the MOVES default input database. Most users will not need this option. 

Page 46 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

2.3 Main Menu Bar 

The Main Menu Bar runs across the top of the screen and contains eight drop down 

menus: File, Edit, Pre Processing, Action, Post Processing, Tools, Settings, and Help. 

Menus can be opened by either clicking on the menu command, or by using a keyboard 

combination, defined as ALT and the underlined letter of the menu command (e.g., ALT + F for 

the File menu, ALT + R for the Pre Processing menu). 

2.3.1 File 

File provides a drop-down menu typical of those used when manipulating documents. 

Click File to open the drop down menu and then on a menu item to select New, Open, Close, 

Save, Save As, Print, Exit, or to choose to open recently opened files. Use the File commands 

to create, load, and save RunSpec objects. The Example RunSpec may be opened from this 

menu (see Section 1.4 for details). MOVES provides the option to execute file manipulation 

commands using keyboard combinations as well; for example, the File Open procedure can be 

initiated by selecting the Alt and O keys simultaneously when the File drop down box is opened. 

Key sequences required to execute the file manipulation commands are displayed using the 

"mouse hover" feature while placing the cursor over the desired command. Note that the Print 

command prints the XML version of the RunSpec, not a screen shot. 

2.3.2 Edit 

Edit provides the usual cut/copy/paste commands. These commands are only available 

in text entry sections of MOVES RunSpec. Keyboard combinations are available to execute edit 

commands when the Edit drop down box is opened, and can be identified using the "mouse 

hover" feature. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 47 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.3.3 Pre Processing 

The Pre Processing menu contains four active options, IM Importer, Data Importer, 

County Data Manager, and Project Domain Manager. Each option enables the user to access 

importers for individual tables in order to create user-supplied databases for direct entry of data 

into MOVES. The Project Domain Manager, in particular, requires the user to provide 

virtually all of the data required to model a specific project. 

The County Data Manager (CDM) and the Project Data Manager (PDM)are means 

by which the user can define the county-specific or project-specific data required if the user 

selects County Domain/Scale or Project Domain/Scale when defining the Scale parameter of 

the RunSpec. Neither the County Data Manager nor the Project Data Manager menu options 

will be enabled unless the user has made the County Domain/Scale or Project Domain/Scale 

choice. The I/M Importer also provides users with the ability to define county-specifc data by 

allowing the user to edit the inspection and maintenance programs in an area. The I/M 

Importer can be used at any Scale. 

The County Data Manager and Project Data Manager are designed to specify all the 

inputs required for certain kinds of runs and the I/M importer only allows I/M programs to be 

modified. The Data Importer, on the other hand, allows the user to select individual importers 

"ala carte" from the importer menu. 

Caution! All tabs/fields in the County Data Manager and Project Data Manager should be 

completed to ensure the output generated is correct. In some cases, a RunSpec may 

execute even though all the tabs in the County Data Manager or Project Data 

Manager were not completed; however, the results from such RunSpecs may 

Page 48 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

populate the incomplete tabs with default data, which may not be appropriate due to 

how MOVES generates, calculates, and allocates various data. 

Tip The user does not have to specify a database containing county or project data that was 

created with the County Data Manager or Project Data Manager in the Manage Input 

Data Sets panel. These databases only have to be selected in the Domain Input Database 

pane of the Geographic Bounds panel. However, databases created with the Data 

Importer or I/M Importer should be input using the Manage Input Data Sets panel. 

From the user perspective, there are three major differences between working with 

importers through the Data Importer and working with the same importers through the County 

Data Manager and the Project Data Manager (leaving the I/M Importer aside, for the 

moment). First, as "domain managers" the County Data Manager and Project Data Manager 

indicate whether the user has imported all of the data that is needed to establish a new domain. 

To this end, the County Data Manager and the Project Data Manager will identify the 

parameters where data is needed by displaying red "x-circles" on the importer tabs (see 

screenshot below). Green checks indicate where data has been properly and completely 

imported. The Data Importer does not display such information. 

. 

Secondly, because of the level of detail required and the structure of the underlying data 

tables, the County Data Manager restricts the RunSpec to a single county and single calendar 

year, and the Project Data Manager restricts the RunSpec to a single hour, daytype, month and 

county. The Data Importer can be used with any RunSpec. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 49 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Thirdly, the Data Importer is generally used to import data for a RunSpec at the 

National Domain/Scale. Therefore, when importing Population or Vehicle Type VMT at the 

National Domain/Scale, these inputs should be national values even if only a small number of 

counties are selected. MOVES will use the default allocation factors for the counties selected in 

the RunSpec to apportion data to each county. 

This user guide will use the Data Importer screens to explain functionality of individual 

importers, including the I/M Importer.. Specific instructions associated with using the County 

Data Manager or the Project Data Manager to establish a new domain are included where 

appropriate. 

When the user selects one of the data manager options, the manager window will open. 

This window contains several tabs to aid the user in defining the data source, destination, and 

database structure for the imported data. Importer tabs provide templates for collecting userprovided data. 

2.3.3.1 Database 

The Database tab is the default initial tab for the Data Importer menu option. It 

contains: a text box where the user can select an input database from a drop-down list or name a 

new database; three buttons to aid in the creation and management of the database; and a 

scrollable log detailing the success of the data import and other helpful diagnostics. 

Note Data cannot be imported until an input database is identified. 

Page 50 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

By default, the host server for the receiving database is "localhost" (generally the 

MYSQL data folder on the user's own machine). The user can specify a different host server by 

entering the name of the alternate server in the Server box. The input database can be identified 

by clicking on the drop-down arrow adjacent to the Database box and making a selection from 

the list. Alternatively, the user can create a new database by typing a database name in the 

Database box and clicking the "Create Database" button. Clicking the "Refresh" button will 

clear the database selection from the Database box display, refresh the list of databases in the 

drop-down list, and clear the Log. The final button is the “Clear All Imported Data” button, 

which clears all the imported data (but not all the tables in the input tables as some are “core” 

tables that are populated based on the selections in the RunSpec at the time the database was 

created). 

Caution! The user should never attempt to create a new input database with the same name as 

the MOVES default database or of any user-supplied MOVES output databases. 

Tip The input database should follow a naming convention to differentiate it from other 

databases; typically, using “_in” at the end of the database name is recommended.
 

Caution! When a database is created for a RunSpec at the County or Project Domain/Scale, 

a “year” table is automatically created with the year selected in the RunSpec. If any 

files are imported with a different year in a field, MOVES will add this year as an 

additional record in the“year” table. However, even if the incorrect data is cleared 

using the importer, the “year” table will not be changed, and MOVES will not 

execute. Users should take care to not import different years into an input database, 

but if this occurs there are currently two solutions: 1) Create and populate a new 

database with corrected files; or 2) Use MySQL to view and delete the row from the 

table. The MySQL queries to do this are: SELECT * FROM [database_in].year; 

 DELETE FROM [database_in].year WHERE yearID=[undesired_year]; 

The Database tab also contains a Log panel. This panel is used by the system to display 

the results of the import process. Once the user chooses either the Tools or an Importer tab to 

import data into the selected database, the user can refer to the Log panel in the Database 

window to view the results of the import process. The Log panel also includes the description of 

the imported file, if one was entered. 

2.3.3.2 RunSpec Summary 

The RunSpec Summary provides a summary of RunSpec parameters defined by the 

user. The user cannot view the Navigation panels of the GUI without closing the Importer, but 

doing so may impact the user’s ability to effectively employ “Generate Importer XML File” in 

the Tools tab. Therefore, the user should choose this tab to see an overview of the RunSpec. In 

setting up the RunSpec, the user defines modeling parameters that limit the scope of the 

modeling process; templates and export files created with the Data Importer will be limited by 

choices the user made in defining the RunSpec. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 51 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

The RunSpec Summary panel of the Data Importer displays the geographic, time span, road 

type, vehicle, pollutant and process, and input data set choices made by the user. The panel is 

auto-generated and does not accept user input. 

2.3.3.3 Tools 

The Tools tab is provided to facilitate batch input of imported data into the MOVES 

system, such as a series of data import files representing all the counties in a state. When the 

user clicks the "Generate Importer XML File" button after completing an import, the system 

will write an importer instruction file in Extensible Markup Language (XML), containing a 

statement that replicates the import done through the GUI. Note, the XML file only includes 

files that have been imported during the active session so the XML must be generated before the 

user closes the Data Importer. 

Page 52 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Using an XML or text editing program, the user then can copy and edit the importer 

XML file to create a series of similar, but not identical import statements; therefore, naming 

conventions are important to use this tool effectively. The resulting XML files can be called 

from the command line, generating a series of user-input databases. For more information on 

running MOVES from the command line, see Appendix C. 

2.3.3.4 Data Managers (Importers) 

The remaining tabs in the Data Importer menu option are Data Manager or Importer 

tabs. These tabs contain templates and rules that aid the user in bringing specific types of data 

into the model and ensuring it has the correct format. By choosing a Manager or Importer, the 

user gains access to several tools that will help create a successful data import. 

Tip The user should be sure to fill out all fields in defining the RunSpec before using the 

County Data Manager or the Project Data Manager, as a filter is used when exporting 

default data that depends on selections the user makes when defining the RunSpec. Only 

the county, year, months, vehicles, road types, etc. that have been selected are exported. 

Some data may not be exported if the "Export Default Data" button is used before fully 

defining the Run Spec. 

Tip EPA has developed MOBILE6 converters to help users prepare import-ready data files 

from their existing MOBILE6 files. These converters are available on the MOVES 

website. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 53 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

The user should select a Manager or Importer tab to choose a specific importer to assist 

with specialized data file structure definition and to complete the import process. Importers for 

the following tables are included in MOVES: 

MOVES Table Data Importer County Data 

Manager 

Project Data 

Manager 

RampFraction X X 

RoadTypeDistribution X X 

SourceTypePopulation X X 

VehicleTypeVMT X X 

ZoneRoadActivity X (Custom 

Domain Only) 

X (Custom 

Domain Only) 

AgeDistribution X X X 

AverageSpeedDistribution X X 

FuelSupply X X X 

FuelFormulation X X X 

MeteorologyData X X X 

I/M Coverage X X X 

OperatingModeDistribution X 

LinkSourceType X 

LinkDriveSchedules X 

Off-Network X 

Table 2.3.3.4a 

When the user selects one of these tabs, a panel opens allowing the user to define the import 

parameters. Each Importer tab is organized in the same way, with a place for the user's 

description of the data; a place where the corresponding MOVES default database table and the 

user’s input file are identified; buttons to browse for data files, create templates, clear, import, 

and export data; and a space for messages informing the user of the success or potential errors 

with the import process. 

Page 54 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Near the top of each impoter panel is a text box that allows users to enter a description of 

the data or file being imported. Any text entered here will be reported and saved in the Database 

Log. Just below the Description box is the Data Source section of the window. Along the left 

side of this section is text that states: [MOVESTable] Data Source:. The [MOVESTable] 

corresponds to the name of the table in the MOVES default database for which the tab will 

import data. In most cases, the tab header and MOVESTable name are similar, but in some cases 

they are not (e.g. Meteorology Data corresponds to the ZoneMonthHour table because 

temperatures are defined for each zone, month, and hour). Users can refer to the MOVESTable 

in the MOVES default database to learn more about that table, its structure, and the data 

contained within it. 

Note The default database table may contain more fields than the template or exported 

default files (described below). There are several reasons why these additional fields 

may exist in the default table (e.g., the population and VMT tables each include a 

growth factor that is not used in the County Domain/Scale because only a single year 

can be modeled). Users should be aware that if the fields do not exist in the template or 

exported default data file, then these fields should not be added or populated. 

Also in the Data Source section of the window are the Browse, Clear Imported Data, 

and Create Template buttons. After clicking the Browse button, the user can search through 

the computer’s (or network’s) drives to identify the file containing the data to be imported. 

Upon selecting a file, users may be prompted to select a worksheet: 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 55 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

The correct worksheet should be highlighted before the “OK” button becomes active. 

The user can click the "Create Template" button to create an import template file and a 

set of reference files. After selecting the "Create Template" button, the user must define the 

file, file path and extension (e.g., .xls for an Excel file) and click the Save button. The template 

and reference files will be specific to the RunSpec. The template will include required data field 

names and often will be populated with the required key fields, as specified in the Run Spec. 

The reference files will provide lists and descriptions of the relevant MOVES ID fields (i.e., 

countyID codes, fuelformulationID codes, roadtypeID codes, hourDayID codes, and 

sourcetypeID codes). The user can then edit the template with a spreadsheet application or other 

tool before importing the data files into MOVES. 

Although the meaning of many data element names may seem clear, the user should 

consult the reference tables provided with the template to determine appropriate content for the 

fields. For example, although fuelYearID might seem to refer to the calendar year, it actually 

refers to "fuelyear" and does not have a one-to-one mapping with calendar year (the latest 

fuelyear in MOVES2010 is 2012). 

In many cases, users can import duplicate information by using "wildcards" in the input files. 

See Table 2.3.3.4b. For example, using the word “ALL” in a sourceTypeID column of the input 

file will result in records with the same information for each source type selected in the runspec. 

Caution! "ALL" produces inputs only for all the sourcetypes in the RunSpec rather than all 

the sourcetypes in the default database. For this reason, users are strongly urged to 

create a comprehensive RunSpec prior to using the importers. 

The hourDayID column supports a special form of the “ALL” wildcard. It allows the 

user to populate all 48 hour intervals (24 x 2 day types) or just the hours in a given day type. 

Remember, these are constrained by the runspec’s day and hour selections. 

Page 56 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

The affected fields are: 

Column Wildcard 

dayID ALL 

hourID ALL 

hourDayID ALL 

ALL Weekday 

ALL 5 

5* 

*5 

ALL Weekend 

ALL 2 

2* 

*2 

monthID ALL 

yearID ALL Note: Only one year is allowed in the CDM. 

roadTypeID ALL 

sourceTypeID ALL 

1* - Applies to all motorcycles 

2* - Applies to all passenger cars 

3* - Applies to all passenger trucks 

4* - Applies to all buses 

5* - Applies to all single unit trucks 

6* - Applies to all combination trucks 

hpmsVTypeID ALL 

countyID ALL Note: Only one county is allowed in the CDM. 

zoneID ALL 

Table 2.3.3.4b 

In the receiving database, wildcard data is fully expanded. Importing a file that uses 

wildcards and then exporting again will produce a file with the full data set. 

 Once a correctly formatted source file is created, the user should use the "Browse" 

button to find and open the source file. The file path and name of the selected import file will 

appear in the panel. 

Tip Make sure to save any changes made to a source file before you import it. 

Note “Warning” messages do not necessarily mean that the imported data is incorrect. For 

example, users may receive a “Warning” if data for a source types, month, etc. are 

imported, but that source type or month is not selected in the RunSpec. On the other 

hand, “Error” messages indicate situations where the source file should be amended to 

correct the problem, the data should be cleared, and the file re-imported. 

Once a file has been selected for import, the user may click the "Import" button to bring 

the data into MOVES via the file and path defined in the Database window. If the file contains 

multiple worksheets, the user is prompted to select the appropriate worksheet as well. The user 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 57 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

should refer to the Messages box in the Importer tab or the Log panel in the Database window 

to determine the status of data import. 

Tip See the Messages box for information on import problems and basic information for 

fixing problematic import files. 

Imported data can be cleared from the database by clicking the "Clear Imported Data" 

button, which is in the Data Source section of the window. When the "Clear Imported Data" 

button is clicked, the message box shown below pops up. 

Clicking “Yes” clears the data, while clicking “No” cancels the action and allows the user to 

export the imported data, as described below. 

Tip	 Users should "Clear Imported Data" before reattempting to import a file that resulted in 

an error message. 

Data files can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet or text file using either the "Export 

Default Data" or "Export Imported Data" button; however, not all tabs in the County Data 

Manager have the “Export Default Data” button. These exceptions are noted in the sections 

below. Also, some tabs in the Project Domain Manager include an additional export button, 

“Export Most Recent Execution Data”. Use of this button requires a previous execution of the 

MOVES model in order to generate the data which is to be exported. 

Clicking on an "Export" button will cause the Export [Importer] Data window to open. 

The user defines the file path, file name and file extension in the Export Data window, and 

clicks the "Save" button, to export the data to the specified location. 

Occasionally, clicking an “Export” buttons may result in the following pop-up window: 

This message simply means that there were no data available to export. 

Page 58 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

2.3.3.4.1 Meteorology Data Importer 

The Meteorology Data Importer allows the user to import temperature and humidity 

data for months, zones, counties, and hours that are included in the RunSpec. While the MOVES 

model contains 30-year average temperature and humidity data for each county, month, and 

hour, the user should enter data specific to the modeled location and time. 

2.3.3.4.2 Source Type Population Importer 

The Source Type Population Importer allows the user to input the number of vehicles 

in the geographic area which is to be modeled for each vehicle or "source type" selected in the 

RunSpec. While the MOVES table that this importer populates (SourceTypeYear) includes 

fields for sales growth rate and migration factor, neither of these fields should be imported. They 

are extraneous because the importer sets the selected year as a base year and defines the 

population. 

Caution! Vehicle Type VMT, Source Type Population, and Age Distribution are the three 

tables that MOVES needs to define a base year. If any one of these tables is 

imported, then all three must be imported, otherwise MOVES may not generate 

output. However, this requirement does not apply to the Project Domain/Scale. 

This tab does not have the “Export Default Data” button and the user is required to 

acquire/generate this data independently if the County Domain/Scale is chosen. Data must be 

supplied for each source type (e.g., passenger car, passenger trucks, light commercial trucks, 

etc.) selected in the RunSpec. 

2.3.3.4.3 Age Distribution Importer 

The Age Distribution Importer allows the user to enter data that provides the 

distribution of vehicle counts by age for each calendar year (yearID) and vehicle type 

(sourceTypeID). The distribution of ageIDs (the variable for age) must sum to one for each 

vehicle type and year. 

Caution! Vehicle Type VMT, Source Type Population, and Age Distribution are the three 

tables that MOVES needs to define a base year. If any one of these tables is 

imported, then all three must be imported, otherwise MOVES may not generate 

output. However, this requirement does not apply to the Project Domain/Scale. 

This tab does not have the “Export Default Data” button and the user is required to 

acquire/generate this data independently if either the County or Project Domain/Scale are 

chosen. 

2.3.3.4.4 Vehicle Type VMT and VMT Fractions 

The Vehicle Type VMT importer allows the user to enter yearly vehicle miles traveled 

(VMT) and the monthly, type of day, and hourly VMT fractions. These values will represent 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 59 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

national values for the general Data Importer and county-specific values for the County Data 

Manager. MOVES requires that “yearly” VMT be imported regardless of the time span selected 

for the run, although the VMT Fraction tables can be modified such that the value does not have 

to actually represent the VMT for the entire year in the area being modeled. Note that the 

appearance of this table differs from other tabs as multiple data sources are listed in the data 

source section. Users can expand the size of the CDM window or use the scroll bar to view all 

the data sources and buttons. 

Tip The MOVES website has spreadsheet tools to calculate yearly VMT from Average Annual 

Weekday VMT (AADVMT) and to convert MOBILE6 formatted VMT data into MOVES 

format. 

Caution! Vehicle Type VMT, Source Type Population, and Age Distribution are the three 

tables that MOVES needs to define a base year. If any one of these tables is 

imported, then all three must be imported, otherwise MOVES may not generate 

output. However, this requirement does not apply to the Project Domain/Scale. 

The “Export Default Data” button for this tab exports the default monthVMTFraction, 

dayVMTFraction, and hourVMTFraction tables. An HPMSVTypeYear table with values of zero 

for all HPMS classes is also exported, which can serve as a template that the user can edit before 

importing, but the user is required to acquire/generate the VMT data indepently if the County 

Domain/Scale is chosen. Data must be supplied for each HPMSVType (e.g., passenger cars, 

combination trucks, etc.) implied by the Source Use Types selected in the RunSpec. 

Page 60 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Each of the VMT Fraction tables must sum to 1 across a varying set of fields. The 

monthVMTFraction table must sum to 1 for each sourcetype. The dayVMTFraction table must 

sum to 1 for each source type-month-road type combination. The hourVMTFraction must sum 

to 1 for each source type-road type-type of day combination. In the monthVMTFraction table, 

users must also correctly identify whether the year being modeling is (Y) or is not (N) a leap year 

in the ‘isLeapYear’ field. 

Caution! For all the VMTFraction tables (month, day, and hour), a “Warning” message will 

appear if the fractions provided by the user sum to less than 1, and the tab header 

will erroneously turn to a green check. This should be an “Error” message, and the 

tab header should be red. Users must enter VMTFraction tables that sum to 1 even 

if not all 12 months, 2 types of day, or all 24 hours are being modeled. 

A user wishing to model a portion of a year has two options: The user may import 

a true yearly VMT value (i.e. a value defining VMT for all months, days, and 

hours) and give the desired allocation to the time periods being modeled and 

populate the other months, day, or hours with placeholder values such that the each 

of the VMTFraction tables correctly sums to 1. Or a user may import only the 

amount of VMT appropriate for the time period being modeled and may assign 

values that correctly allocate this VMT over the modeled time periods. 

The Import button will import the file identified for each data source at once. Therefore, 

users can, but are not required to, select all four files before importing. Users can also clear one 

data source file at a time by clicking the Clear Imported Data button associated with each data 

source. 

2.3.3.4.5 Average Speed Distribution Importer 

The Average Speed Distribution Importer allows the user to input average speed data 

specific to vehicle type (sourceTypeID), road type (roadTypeID), and time of day/type of day 

(hourdayID). MOVES defines 16 "speed bins" which describe the average driving speed on a 

roadtype or link. The user must enter the fraction of driving time in each speed bin 

(avgSpeedFraction) for each hour/day type, vehicle type, road type, and average speed 

(avgspeedbinid), where the fractions sum to one for each combination of vehicle type, road type, 

and hour/day type specified in the RunSpec. If desired, the user can use wildcards to apply one 

set of fractions for all hour/day combinations for a specific vehicle type and road type. Note that 

MOVES uses a time-based distribution, whereas MOBILE6.2 used a VMT-based speed 

distribution. Users may need to adjust their travel model post-processing code in order to 

generate the new distributions. See Section 2.3.3.4.12 for information on entering average speed 

information for Project level modeling. 

2.3.3.4.6 Road Type Distribution Importer 

The Road Type Distribution Importer allows the user to enter data relating to the 

vehicle miles traveled by road type (roadTypeVMTFraction) for the domain being modeled. 

This data is entered as a distribution across road types (roadTypeID), where only road types 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 61 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

selected by the user in the RunSpec are included in the distribution. The distribution must sum 

to one for each source type. 

Note When comparing input roadtype distributions to the VMT output in the 

MOVESActivityOutput table, it may not appear that the road type distribution was 

applied properly if the user looks only at individual hourly or daily VMT results. 

However, users must compare the input road type distribution to the total weekly VMT 

by weighting the VMT results by the number of each type of day (5 weekdays, 2 

weekend days). The VMT should be compared at a weekly level because of the effect 

of the dayVMTFraction table on the VMT output. For example, in the default 

DayVMTFraction table, the weekend fraction for rural roads is slightly higher than the 

weekend fraction for urban roads. If these default dayVMTFraction values are applied, 

the VMT in MOVES output by daytype will show a slightly higher-than-average 

fraction of total VMT on urban roads on weekdays, and on rural roads on weekends. 

This tab does not have the “Export Default Data” button and the user is required to 

acquire/generate this data independently if the County Domain/Scale is chosen. 

2.3.3.4.7 Ramp Fraction Importer 

The Ramp Fraction Importer allows the user to modify the fraction of ramp driving 

time on selected road types. Only limited access roadtypes (freeways and interstates) may have 

their ramp fractions modified. Thus, this Importer is only active if the user selects a limited 

access road type when defining the RunSpec. 

The County Data Manager automatically applies default values of 0.08 (8%) for this 

parameter if the user does not provide input, so importing ramp fractions is optional when 

County Domain/Scale is chosen. 

Note The Ramp Fraction tab will only become available if a restricted road type (i.e. 2 or 4) 

is selected in the RunSpec. 

2.3.3.4.8 Fuel Formulation Importer 

The Fuel Formulation importer and the Fuel Supply importer should be used together 

to input appropriate fuel data. The Fuel Formulation importer allows the user to select an 

existing fuel in the MOVES database and change its properties, or create a new fuel formulation 

with different fuel properties. All fuel formulations imported in the Fuel Supply importer must 

exist in the MOVES default FuelFormulation table or be imported. If the user defines a new 

fuel, all of the fields except the last three (i.e., BioDiesel, Cetane and PAHContent) are required. 

Biodiesel may be modeled by entering and biodiesel volume in the Fuel Formulation table and a 

marketshare for the new biodiesel fuel in the Fuel Supply table. The inputs for the Cetane and 

PAHContent variables are currently inactive in MOVES. 

The Fuel Formulation importer allows the user to change the following fuel properties. 

Page 62 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Property Description 

FuelFormulationID Fuel formulation identification number. Must 

be greater than 100 and less than 25000 

Fuel Sub-Type Fuel Sub-type coding—see Template File 

RVP Reid vapor pressure in psi 

Sulfur Level Fuel sulfur level in ppm Sulfur 

ETOH Volume Ethanol Volume (% vol) 

MTBE Volume MTBE Volume (% vol) 

ETBE Volume ETBE Volume (% vol) 

TAME Volume TAME Volume (% vol) 

Aromatic Content Aromatic content (% wt) 

Olefin Content Olefin content (% wt) 

Benzene Content Benzene content (% wt) 

E200 Lower volatility percentage (%) 

E300 Upper volatility percentage (%) 

VolToWtPercentOxy Constant based on oxygenate type 

BioDieselEsterVolume BioDiesel Ester Volume (%) 

Cetane Index Not Implemented - NULL 

PAHContent Not Implemented - NULL 

Table 2.3.3.4.2 

2.3.3.4.9 Fuel Supply Importer 

The Fuel Supply importer allows the user to assign existing fuels to counties, months, 

and years, and to assign the associated market share for each fuel. The market share for a given 

fuel type (gasoline, diesel, etc.) must sum to one for each county, fuelyear (i.e., calendar year), 

and month. In MOVES, the user may select fuels from those available in the default database or 

create their own fuel inputs. Any new fuels which are added to the Fuel Supply importer must 

either be added in the Fuel Formulation importer or must already exist in the default MOVES 

database. Users must be sure to identify a fuel formulation for all vehicle-fuel type combinations 

selected in the On Road Vehicle Equipment panel 

This importer also allows the user to supply a data element, "marketShareCV", which is 

the coefficient of variation for the market share. This would be used if uncertainty calculations 

were enabled. For MOVES the value is not required and may be left blank. 

Caution! Although fuelYearID might seem to refer to the calendar year, the year table in the 

MOVES default database maps all years 2012 through 2050 to the "fuelyear" 2012; 

thus for years 2012 through 2050, the fuelyearid 2012 should be used. 

Tip	 Modeling different fuels in different years (2012-and later) can be done with a separate 

run for each year, assigning different fuels to the "2012" fuelyearid for each run. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 63 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.3.3.4.10 I/M Importer 

The I/M Importer allows the user to import information describing inspection and 

maintenance programs. When defining I/M programs in an area, users should refer to the 

supporting information tables to identify the numeric codes for the pollutant-process, source 

type, and test standard for the program being described. I/M programs can only be applied to 

gasoline vehicles (fueltypeID of 1) and only annual or biennial inspection frequency should be 

used (inspectFreq of 1 and 2, respectively). 

CAUTION! I/M emission effects are not currently available for diesel fuel or continuous I/M 

inspection frequency. 

A field that requires more detailed explanation is the IMProgramID. This identifier is an 

arbitrary number that is serves as a substitute for unique combinations of test standard, test 

frequency, begin model year, and end model year. Therefore, the same IMProgramID can be 

associated with multiple source types and pollutant-processes, but not with different test 

standards, frequencies, or model year ranges. 

Note Only one I/M program can apply to each pollutant-process, source type, fuel type, 

model year combination. If the user imports a file that has programs that overlap for 

any of these parameters, an “Error” message will notify the user that there are 

“duplicate active programs”. The user can resolve the “Error” message by either 

modifying the input so that one of the overlapping programs is “ignored” or modifying 

the programs so that they do not overlap. 

For the I/M tab header to be changed from a red X to a green check, the user must 

account for all the default I/M programs in some way. This can be done by simply importing the 

defaults; however, if the user believes the default information is not correct, then a file with 

modified data should be entered. The preferred method for entering modified data is to enter a 

value of “N” for No in the “UseIMYN” field for all the default I/M programs for which the user 

will provide new data. Then the user should add to the file new entries with “Y”s in the 

“UseIMYN” field and new IMProgramID values; this approach ensures that all the default 

programs are accounted for and the user has full control of the new programs. Another method 

is to attempt to edit the default programs, but then the user runs a higher risk of creating 

programs with the same IMProgramID, but different test standards, frequencies, or model year 

ranges, and thus a higher likelihood of introducing errors. 

Note ASM and IM240 programs can only apply to 1981 and later model years; Exhaust and 

Evaporative On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) programs can only apply to 1996 and later 

model years. 

The complianceFactor is a value (0 to 100 scale) that defines the percentage of vehicles 

that participate in the I/M program. Users should consult the MOVES Technical Guidance for 

more information. 

The “Export Default Data” button provides I/M coverage data for many programs 

throughout the United States, but users should review the default programs as current local data 

may be more accurate and up-to-date. 

Page 64 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Note This is the only importer tab in the I/M Importer, although that tool also has the 

Database, RunSpec Summary, and Tools tabs. 

2.3.3.4.11 Zone Road Activity Importer 

The Zone Road Activity Importer is used only if the Custom Domain option is chosen 

in the County Domain Manager. Currently, MOVES only has the capability to model one zone 

at a time within a Custom Domain. The Zone Road Activity tab erroneously shows a green 

check, but data MUST be imported for MOVES to calculate results properly; a value of 1 should 

be entered for the SHOAllocFactor for each road type so that all of the VMT input by the user is 

assigned to the custom domain. 

CAUTION! The green check for this importer is not working correctly; when modeling a 

Custom Domain, user data entry is required. 

This tab does not have the “Export Default Data” button, so users should create a 

template to populate the SHOAllocFactor field with a value of 1 for each road type.. 

2.3.3.4.12 Links Importer 

The Links Importer is used only in the Project Data Manager. It allows the user to 

define individual roadway links. The MOVES links need not correspond to traffic modeling 

"links" but each link should be uniform in its activity as described its MOVES parameters. Each 

link requires a linkID (i.e., a unique integer between 1 and 99999 that is used to reference the 

link in the program). Other required inputs for each link are countyID, zoneID, and roadTypeID 

(these same entries must be specified in the Runspec or an error will occur), the length of the 

roadway link in units of miles, the traffic volume on the roadway link in units of vehicles per 

hour, the average speed of all of the vehicles on the roadway link in the given hour, and the 

average road grade of a particular link. The link description field is a text field included for 

reference and has no impact on the calculations. 

In addition to roadway links, a project may include a single “off-network” (parking lot or 

other non-road) link. For an off-network link, the user should enter a value of zero for link 

length, link volume, link average speed and link average grade (percent grade). 

For Project level modeling, users have a choice of ways to describe the speed, 

acceleration and power of the vehicles being modeled. Depending on the information available 

for each roadway link, a user may enter an operating mode distribution, a drive schedule or an 

average speed. For a given roadway link, a user-supplied operating mode distribution input will 

take calculational precedence over an imported drive schedule, which will take calculational 

precedence over an average link speed input when more than one is entered for a given link. 

Use of a link average speed input in the Links Importer requires the least amount of 

road link data to be provided by the user. All that is required is an average link speed and an 

average link road grade (in units of percent grade). The model will use built-in driving schedules 

and an interpolation algorithm to produce a default operating mode distribution. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 65 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Table 2.3.3.4.12 shows the allowable ranges for the average speed inputs in Project level 

runs.. The user may enter any speed in units of miles per hour (mph) within the given range. 

Average link speed inputs outside of the speed range may produce no output records for the 

given link. No warning or error message is provided. 

These average speed ranges exist in MOVES project level because these ranges represent 

the extent of the available driving cycle data in the MOVES model. The MOVES model does 

not extrapolate beyond its built-in data. Should the user desire to model a link with an average 

speed that is less than the minimum or greater than the maximum, they must supply the second 

by second driving schedule or an equivalent operating mode distribution. 

Allowable Average Speed Input Range for Project Level Input 

By Source Type 

sourcetypeid sourcetypename 

Minimum Speed 

(mph) 

Maximum Speed 

(mph) 

11 Motorcycle 2.5 73.8 

21 Passenger Car 2.5 73.8 

31 Passenger Truck 2.5 73.8 

32 Light Commercial Truck 2.5 73.8 

41 Intercity Bus 4.6 72.8 

42 Transit Bus 4.6 72.8 

43 School Bus 4.6 72.8 

51 Refuse Truck 2.2 71.7 

52 Single Unit Short-haul Truck 4.6 72.8 

53 Single Unit Long-haul Truck 4.6 72.8 

54 Motor Home 4.6 72.8 

61 

Combination Short-haul 

Truck 5.8 71.7 

62 

Combination Long-haul 

Truck 5.8 71.7 

Table 2.3.3.4.12 

2.3.3.4.13 Link Source Types Importer 

The Link Source Types Importer is used only in the Project Domain Manager. It is 

used to enter the fraction of the link traffic volume which is driven by each source type. It is not 

used to enter off-network data, and is not required if the Project contains only an off-network 

link. For each linkID, the sourceTypeHourFraction must sum to one across all source types. If 

the user enters data for source types which are not selected in the Runspec, MOVES will ignore 

that data. The Project level calculator will not re-normalize the fractions to omit the contribution 

of source types which are not selected in the Runspec. 

Page 66 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

2.3.3.4.14 Operating Mode Distribution Importer 

The Operating Mode Distribution Importer is used only in the Project Domain 

Manager. It allows the user to import operating mode fraction data for source types, hour / day 

combinations, roadway links and pollutant / process combinations that are included in the 

RunSpec and Project domain. These data are entered as a distribution across operating modes. 

Operating modes are "modes"of vehicle activity that each have a distinct emission rate. For 

example, "running" activity has modes that are distinguished by their Vehicle Specific Power 

and instantaneous speed. "Start" activity has modes that are distinguished by the time the vehicle 

has been parked prior to the start ("soak time"). See EPA technical reports for additional 

information on operating modes. For a given source type, hour/day combination, roadway link 

and pollutant / process combination, the operating mode distribution must sum to one. 

The Operating Mode Distribution Importer is required for the Project Domain Manager 

when modeling any ‘non-running emission’ process, and for modeling ‘running emission’ 

processes when either the Link Drive Schedules Importer is not used, or the link average speed 

input is not entered in the Links Importer. Operating Mode Importer data has precedent over 

data entered in the Link Drive Schedules Importer and the Links Importer if conflicting data 

are entered. 

2.3.3.4.15 Link Drive Schedules Importer 

The Link Drive Schedules Importer is used only in the Project Domain Manager. It 

allows the user to define the precise speed and grade as a function of time (seconds) on a 

particular roadway link. The time domain is entered in units of seconds, the speed variable in 

miles per hour and the grade variable in percent grade (i.e., vertical distance / lateral distance; 

100% grade equals a 45 degree slope). 

This Importer is used for the Project Domain Manager only when modeling ‘running 

emission’ processes when the Link Drive Schedules Importer is used. For a given roadway 

link, an operating mode distribution input will take calculational precedence an imported drive 

schedule. An imported drive schedule will take calculational precedence over an average link 

speed input when more than one is entered for a given link. However, at least one of three (an 

operating mode distribution, a link drive schedule or a link average speed) must be entered for 

each of the user’s defined roadway links. 

2.3.3.4.16 Off Network Importer 

The Off Network Importer is used only in the Project Domain Manager. It provides 

information about vehicles which are not driving on the project links, but still contribute to the 

project emissions. For each source type in the RunSpec, ‘vehicle population’ is the average 

number of "off network” vehicles during the hour being modeled. The ‘start fraction’ field is a 

number from 0 to 1.0 which specifies the fraction of this population which has a ‘start’ operation 

in the given hour. The ‘extendedIdle fraction’ field is a number from 0 to 1.0 which specifies 

the fraction of the population which has had an ‘extended idle’ operation in the given hour. 

Finally, the ‘parked vehicle fraction’ field is a number from 0 to 1.0 which specifies the fraction 

of the ‘vehicle population’ which have been parked in the given hour. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 67 
 

 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

For example, a vehicle population of 10 long-haul combination trucks with a start 

fraction of 0.5, an extended idle fraction of 0.25 and a parked vehicle fraction of 0.5 implies that 

the project includes the emissions associated with 5 starts, 150 minutes of extended idling (10 

vehicles * 60 minutes *0.25) and 300 minutes of parking (10 vehicles * 60 minutes * 0.5) for 

this sourcetype. 

Note MOVES computes extended idle emissions only for long-haul combination trucks, not 

for other sourcetypes; thus the extendedIdleFraction is ignored for sourcetypeids other 

than 62. 

Note MOVES does not compute evaporative emissions at the Project Domain/Scale; thus, the 

"parked vehicle fraction" is ignored. 

2.3.4 Action 

Action provides a drop-down menu with the choices Execute, Stop, Pause, Resume, and 

MOVES Run Error Log. 

After satisfying the RunSpec input requirements (all check marks in the Navigation Panel 

must be set to green checks or yellow tildes - see 2.2 Navigation Panel for an explanation of 

these marks), choose Execute to begin the MOVES simulation. Choose Stop or Pause in the 

Action menu to stop or pause the execution of the MOVES program. These two items will only 

be active if the MOVES program is running. The user may also resume a paused MOVES 

simulation by clicking the Resume item. 

Note A program that has been stopped cannot be resumed. 

Note Note that, depending where the MOVES program is in its processing, the Stop 

command may not end a MOVES run immediately. If necessary, MOVES can be 

terminated by clicking the X in the upper right hand corner of the MOVES GUI or the 

MOVES command line window. 

Click MOVES Run Error Log to display information on the processing outcome of the 

execution in the MOVES Run Error Log window. Alternatively, the log can be displayed by 

selecting the ALT and R keys when the Action menu option is open. 

Page 68 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Note The MOVES Run Error Log option is available only if a MOVES Output database 

has been created. 

Typically, the user should select MOVES Run Error Log immediately after the 

MOVES program has completed its execution. The window (shown below) will contain either a 

message stating that the run was successful and that no errors occurred, or it will report a brief 

error message. The example shows a successful run, indicating the run number (Run 5) and the 

time and date of the run. The user can also view the Run Error Log for the error status of 

previous runs by clicking the down arrow on the right side of the "Select Run" button. 

Note Not all error log messages indicate invalid results. For example, "Warning: RunSpec 

doesn't have all the RoadTypes", indicates a problem with the RunSpec only if the user 

had intended to include all roadtypes. 

2.3.5 Post Processing 

MOVES output databases can be viewed and processed directly using MYSQL Query 

Browser or other database tools. In addition, MOVES provides a few simple options to postprocess and view the MOVES results. Post Processing contains three menu options, Run 

MySQL Script on Output Database, Produce Summary Report, and Produce State/County 

Map. These features can be used after a successful execution of a MOVES RunSpec to further 

process the MOVES results into more aggregate or easy-to-use formats. 

2.3.5.1 Run MySQL Script on Output Database 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 69 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

The Run MySQL Script on Output Database menu option enables the user to select 

from a set of MySQL scripts to further process the MOVES output databases stored in the 

MySQL database format. After selecting this menu option, the user clicks on the arrow in the 

scroll down box to view all the available scripts. The user selects a post-processing script by 

clicking to highlight it. To execute the script, the user clicks the "OK" button. 

Several scripts are distributed with MOVES. The first script, 

MOVESOutputDecodeExample.sql" is an example script that decodes the SourceUseType and 

FuelType fields from numerical code classification to the full text description. The script 

produces two new output tables with the expanded text descriptions: 

decodedmovesactivityoutput and decodedmovesoutput. 

Caution! Note that the MOVES Decode script uses the “default” database supplied 

with MOVES to decode the numeric values in the tables. If the default database has been 

replaced, the Decode script will need to be modified with the new database name. 

The second script "TabbedOutput.sql" takes three MOVES MySQL output tables 

(MOVESOutput, MOVESActivityOutput and MOVESRun) and converts them into tabdelimited text files that can be read by a spreadsheet program such as Excel or Lotus123. This is 

useful if the user does not want to work with the results in the MySQL relational database 

format. In MOVES, this can also be done with the Summary Reporting feature. Both scripts 

work with Inventory output, not Emission Rate output. 

Tip The Run MySQL Script on Output Database Post Processing feature of MOVES also 

allows the user to run user-created MySQL scripts. Each user-created post-processing 

script must be a text file containing Structured Query Language (SQL) commands, and 

containing a .sql file extension. Detailed instructions on writing a MySQL script are 

beyond the scope of this document. To access a user-created script from the tool bar, the 

completed script must be saved to the OutputProcessingScripts subfolder of the Database 

subfolder of the MOVES program folder. In other words, the path should be similar to the 

following: C:\...\MOVES\Database\OutputProcessingScripts. 

2.3.5.2 Produce Summary Report 

The Produce Summary Report menu option allows the user to summarize and report 

the output of one or more MOVES runs in a variety of ways. Reports can be viewed on the 

screen, printed, or saved in an ASCII text form that is easily imported into other software formats 

such as Microsoft Excel. The Summary Reporter makes it easy to display and print summary 

reports of MOVES Output information and convert them to ASCII text files. For the Summary 

Reporter to operate properly, the run specification which produced the output, or one sufficiently 

similar to it, needs to be loaded in MOVES. 

When Produce Summary Report is selected and suitable run specification has been 

loaded, a popup appears asking the user to specify an emission process to be reported. The 

default option (which is the only option if the run did not distinguish results by emission process) 

is to combine the output results for all emission processes included in the run specification. But 

in many cases the user will want to select an emission process from the drop down list. 

Page 70 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Clicking "OK" allows the user to specify the content and level of report aggregation. 

This screen allows the user to: 

1. Give the report a title. The default title is "Summary Report" but the user may change 

this in the text field. 

2. Specify the base portion of the table names which will be used to store various portions of 

the report. The default file name root is "SummaryReport" but the user should change this in 

the text field. 

Caution! Files which already have this base file name will be overwritten without warning if 

reports are generated with the same base file name. 

3. Select the Run Number(s), Categories, and Data Items to be reported. The "Add" or 

“Add All” buttons may be used to select the Run Number(s), Categories and Data Items. 

Highlighting one entry and pressing the “Add” button will move the selected item to the 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 71 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

“Selection” box below. Pressing the “AddAll” button selects all items and moves them 

to the “Selection” box below. The order in the Selection boxes for Categories and Data 

Items may be changed using the up and down arrows to the right of the Selection boxes. 

Similarly, the items in the Selection boxes may be removed by using the “Remove” or 

the “Remove All” buttons below the Selection boxes. 

4. Choose the categories to be distinguished in the report. At least one category must be 

selected. The category list is based on the run specification. The fewer categories 

selected, the more aggregate the report will be. Dimensions not distinguished when the 

run was made are not included. In this example, one category, "MOVESRunID" has 

been selected. 

Tip If multiple runs are included in the report, the user may wish to select the 

"MOVESRunID" category. Otherwise, the results of the multiple runs will be combined 

in the report. Conversely, if only a single run is included in the report, there is little reason 

to select the "MOVESRunID" category. 

5. Select the data items to be included in the report. At least one data item besides 

"Distance" must be selected. 

6. In the following example, Run 1, Distance, Total Energy Consumption, Total Gaseous 

Hydrocarbons, and Methane have been selected. These items will be reported by yearID 

and sourceTypeID and FuelTypeID. 

Caution! If the output data is disaggregated by day or hour, the output database will contain 

results for only two days in each month - a weekday (dayID 5) and a weekend-day 

(dayID 2). In this case, Summary Reporter should not be used to display results for 

a month or year, since the current code erroneously simply sums these two days 

Page 72 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

together. The user should distinguish by dayID in the report and then externally 

weight the result according to the type of day to see meaningful result for a month 

(e.g. 22 weekdays and 9 weekend-days in a 31-day month) or year (e.g. 261 

weekdays and 104 weekend-days in a 365-day year). 

In the example shown above, all report options have been selected. When "OK" is 

clicked, the screen report appears: 

Note that the report consists of three tabs: Header, Body, and Decode. The Body tab is 

the default view; the other tabs are accessed by clicking on them. The body of the report 

contains columns for each of the category and data items selected. Clicking on the Header tab 

displays the report title, date and time the report was made, several items of information about 

the run specification, and the emission process covered by the report. Clicking on the Decode 

tab displays the decoded numeric codes included in the report. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 73 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

When the user is done viewing the screen report, the user may click on "Save" to save 

the report, “Print” to print the report, or “Close” to close the Summary Reporter without 

printing. 

Caution! The Summary Reporter does not store reporting options, other than the last report 

title and base file name used. Because information is not remembered between 

Summary Reporter runs, the user should not close the report until the user is done 

viewing it. 

2.3.5.3 Produce State/County Map 

The Produce State/County Map menu option allows the user to see the RunSpec output 

depicted in color-coded or gray-scaled maps. The maps can illustrate output at the county level, 

and represent value ranges of a single numerical variable which can be selected from a list by the 

user. It should be noted that this is a very basic mapping tool with very specific input 

requirements. For more sophisticated mapping options, you may want to apply GIS tools or 

other software to the MOVES database output. 

For the Produce State/County Map tool to operate properly, the run specification which 

produced the output, or one that points to the same output file, needs to be loaded in MOVES. 

When the user chooses the Produce State/County Map menu option, the Generate 

State/County Map window opens and displays the name of the source database for the map 

generation at the top of the window. (The source database for the map generation is the database 

containing the output of the RunSpec.) 

Page 74 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

To view RunSpec output on a map, the user must first choose a table contained in the 

output database that has "CountyID" or “StateID” as a column and associates each emission 

quantity with each county or state selected only once; in other words, if there are multiple entries 

for the same pollutant in the same county, then the Produce State/County Map tool cannot be 

used. For example, if all 24 hours were modeled and the level of output detail was chosen to be 

“Hour”, then there are at least 24 values for each pollutant in each county and the 

“MovesOutput” table cannot be used. It is possible for the "MovesOutput" table to be used if 

the user has appropriately defined or aggregated their RunSpec; however, it is more likely that 

the user will have to use the Summary Reporter to generate a table that fits the necessary 

criteria and save it into the output database indicated by the currently loaded RunSpec. 

Once a table with the attributes described above is created, it can be selected in the 

“Table” drop-down menu. The State or County FIPS Column box will be automatically 

populated with "CountyID" or “StateID”, instructing the mapping tool to consider output data at 

the county or state level. Next, the user should specify data to depict by selecting an output 

parameter in the Data Column dropdown menu. By choosing a column from the selected table, 

the user instructs the mapping tool to use results from the RunSpec to generate the map output. 

After making selections in this window, the user should click "Next". 

A window allowing the user to define map attributes opens. The user can choose "Full 

Color" or "Grayscale" using the Colors drop-down box, and can customize the map using the 

check boxes and defining minimum and maximum data values for the emissions output data. 

When the user clicks "Next", the map output is generated. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 75 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

2.3.6 Tools 

Tools provides a drop-down menu with the choice Multiple RunSpec Creator.
 

This menu item contains a list of MOVES tools. Currently, the only tool on the list is 

the Multiple RunSpec Creator, which creates a set of new MOVES runspec files using the 

currently loaded runspec and a user-supplied control file as a template. 

2.3.6.1 Multiple RunSpec Creator 

The Multiple RunSpec Creator creates a set of new MOVES RunSpec files using the 

currently loaded RunSpec information, and additional information in the form of a user-supplied 

control file. The control file is a list of county, year and database data selections in the form of a 

Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file (.xls). The tool produces a set of MOVES RunSpecs and a 

batch (.BAT file) file that can execute the MOVES RunSpecs from the DOS command line 

(MOVES batch files cannot be executed from inside the MOVES GUI). 

Before using the Multiple RunSpec Creator, the user should load or create a viable (all 

green check marks) Runspec (the tool will accept an incomplete RunSpec, but will subsequently 

generate a set of incomplete RunSpecs which require further manual editing). The Multiple 

RunSpec Creator also requires the selection of at least one county and one year in the RunSpec. 

If the menu item Multiple RunSpec Creator is selected, the “Multiple RunSpec 

Creator” panel opens. The top of the panel contains some reminders about the purpose of the 

tool and mentions the output .BAT file. Error messages and other feedback to the user are 

provided in the messages area at the bottom of the window. 

Page 76 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

Once the panel is opened, use the “Create Template...” button to get started with a 

Control File that uses all the counties and years in the current RunSpec. The Create Template 

feature will fill the Control Filecf with the information available in the RunSpec. However, the 

user may edit the Control Filecf and add additional rows and columns of information. The user 

may add additional counties, years and database names. For each row in the Control Filecf 

MOVES will create a new Runspec. 

The figure below shows a template Control File (an .XLS in this case) that will create 

RunSpecs for a list of counties, each with a different output database: 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 77 
 

August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Tip If the National SCALE is selected, a set of runspecs will be generated for unique 

combinations of county, year and additional text name. Information from the other 

columns will be inserted into the runspecs. If the County or Project SCALE are selected, a 

set of runspecs will be generated only for unique combinations of county and year. Note, 

in all three cases, the user must separately create the required input databases. 

The Control File fields are: 

Field Notes 

CountyID Mandatory. The FIPS ID of the county or custom domain (generic county) in the 

format 99999 

County 

Description 

Describes the county. This is not mandatory but is helpful as it gets stored within 

each RunSpec. It will be the label for the generic county if the Custom Domain 

option is used. 

Year Mandatory. A year contained within the current MOVES default database, 

typically 1990 and 1999-2050 inclusive. 

Additional 

Text Name 

Optional, 20 characters max. Additional text to be included in both the file name 

of a RunSpec file and in the RunSpec’s description (which gets stored to the output 

database during simulation). Since this field is used as part of a file name, it 

cannot contain operating system special characters such as & : / \ * ? 

Primary 

MOVES DB 

Name of the primary MOVES database to be used with the RunSpec. If blank, the 

created RunSpec will use the “Custom Input Database” (as set on the Advanced 

Performance Features panel) of the current RunSpec, and if that is blank the 

created RunSpec will use the MOVES default database configured at the time it is 

executed. This input will never change the name of the Default Database in the 

MOVES Configuration File as shown in the pull down menu item “Settings – 

Configure MOVES”. 

Output DB Name of the database to store the created RunSpec’s output. If blank, the created 

RunSpec will use the output database of the currently loaded RunSpec, and if that 

is blank an error message will be shown and processing stopped. 

Domain DB When using County or Project domains, MOVES requires an input database 

specific to the domain. If blank, the model will use the database named in the 

RunSpec. If neither is available, an error message will be shown and processing 

stopped. 

Advanced 

Features DB 

If the “Copy Saved Generator Data” checkbox is marked on the Advanced 

Performance Features panel, this field specifies the database where the data should 

be saved. 

User DB The MOVES GUI allows users to supply their own custom data using the Manage 

Input Data Sets panel. On that panel, zero or more user databases are listed. Such 

databases can be specified in the Control File in the User DB column and the 

columns to the right of it. For example, if two databases are desired, fill the User 

DB column with the first database, and fill the next column with the second. 

MOVES places no limit on the number of such user databases. 

After successfully creating a template file, populating the file and saving it as a Control 

File, the user should return to the Multiple RunSpec Creator panel and browse for and select 

Page 78 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES User Guide August 2010 

the Control File. The name of the Control File will be echoed in the Multiple RunSpec Creator 

panel to the left of the first Browse button. 

The next step is for the user to enter a file name prefix in the File Name Prefix box. This 

input is a mandatory, 150 character limit, field that gives a prefix to the file name of each created 

RunSpec and .BAT file. Good usage of this field, perhaps with a project number or metropolitan 

area name, will help preserve the usefulness of the created RunSpecs. 

After setting a prefix, use the second Browse button for an output directory to hold the 

created RunSpecs and .BAT file. Remember that many files may be created, so it may be best to 

create a new directory to hold the new files. 

The Create RunSpecs button will check input values (control file name, file prefix, and 

output directory), read the control file, report errors, and if there are no errors, create the BAT 

and RunSpec files. Files are only generated if there are no errors. 

As an example, using the above control file and a prefix of “Test”, the files created are: 

As can be seen, the naming convention is: 

<prefix>_<countyID>_<year>[_<additional text>].mrs 

<prefix>_ExecuteRunSpecs.bat 

Note If RunSpecs are for the same county and year, it is important that the additional text be 

unique, otherwise, not all listed RunSpecs will be created. 

The resulting BAT file from the example file is: 

@echo off 

rem Script generated by the MOVES Looping Tool 

rem Based on control file: 

C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource\Task910LoopingTool\ControlFile.xls 

rem ----------------------------------------------------------- 

rem Command Line Notes: 

rem "-e DEBUG" logs all types of messages to MOVESbatch.log 

rem ----------------------------------------------------------- 

echo Changing to the MOVES folder and compiling code... 

C: 

cd "C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource" 

call setenv.bat 

call ant compile 

rem ----------------------------------------------------------- 

echo Running Test_26161_2009_Washtenaw.mrs 

java gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine -e DEBUG -r 

"C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource\Task910LoopingTool\Test_26161_2009_Washtenaw.mrs" 

echo Running Test_26163_2009_Wayne.mrs 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 79 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

java gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine -e DEBUG -r 

"C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource\Task910LoopingTool\Test_26163_2009_Wayne.mrs" 

echo Running Test_26161_2010_Washtenaw.mrs 

java gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine -e DEBUG -r 

"C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource\Task910LoopingTool\Test_26161_2010_Washtenaw.mrs" 

echo Running Test_26163_2010_Wayne.mrs 

java gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine -e DEBUG -r 

"C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource\Task910LoopingTool\Test_26163_2010_Wayne.mrs" 

echo Running Test_26161_2011_Washtenaw.mrs 

java gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine -e DEBUG -r 

"C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource\Task910LoopingTool\Test_26161_2011_Washtenaw.mrs" 

echo Running Test_26163_2011_Wayne.mrs 

java gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine -e DEBUG -r 

"C:\EPA\MOVES\MOVESGHGSource\Task910LoopingTool\Test_26163_2011_Wayne.mrs" 

This .BAT file can be run as is (via the command line or by double-clicking), or can be 

edited manually for distribution onto multiple MOVES master machines. 

2.3.7 Settings 

The Settings menu includes one option, Configure MOVES. This menu option allows 

the user to set the basic MOVES operating configuration. 

2.3.7.1 Configure MOVES 

First, the user can specify the default input database by identifying the default server on 

which the MOVES input database is stored and the name of the default database. In most cases, 

"localhost" (the MYSQL data folder on the user’s own machine) is the desired server, although 

the user may input an alternate. Next the user can choose from a drop-down list to define the 

default database to be used as a data source for the MOVES RunSpec. In most cases, the user 

Page 80 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES User Guide August 2010 

will choose the default database distributed with MOVES. The user also can select a server to 

house the default output database server under the SettingsConfigure menu option; 

"localhost" is appropriate in most cases. The actual output database file is named on the 

General Output panel to specify output parameters as part of the MOVES RunSpec setup 

process. 

Caution! If the Default Input Database is changed the program should be stopped and 

restarted. This is because the user interface program will have already connected to 

the previously specified database in order to construct the GUI displays; thus the 

GUI may not match the new input database. 

Using the Settings menu option, the user also can identify the Shared Distributed 

Folder Path for the MOVES Worker and MOVES Master program modules. This is the 

Windows folder where all intermediate and internal MOVES work files are stored during 

processing. This folder is installed as part of the MOVES program installation. The user should 

browse his system to find where this folder was installed and indicate the exact location. It may 

not be the same path as shown in the example above. 

Tip By changing the Shared Distributed Folder Path, the user can take advantage of 

distributed processing by having the master and multiple worker computers on the same
 

network “point” to a drive and folder that is accessible to all the computers involved. 

2.3.8 Help 

Help provides access to .pdf versions of the MOVES User Guide and supplies general 

information about the version of MOVES being used. 

Choose MOVES User Guide to open the document in .pdf format. 

Choose About MOVES in the Help menu to obtain the release date of the model. This 

indicates which version of MOVES is open. In addition to the version, the EPA copyright and 

GNU General Public License (GPL) information is provided. The GNU license grants the user, 

free of charge, complete access to the object and source code of the MOVES program for 

personal use. For specific details regarding the GNU license, the user should consult the website 

http:/www.gnu.org.licenses/. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page 81 
August 2010 MOVES User Guide 

Page 82 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

DRAFT MOVES 2009 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix A - Using MOVES to Generate Lookup Tables 

MOVES can calculate emission inventories (in total quantity of emissions for a given 

time) or emission rates (emissions divided by distance or population), depending on the user 

selection of “Inventory” or “Emission Rates” in the “Calculation Type” section of the “Scale” 

panel. 

When modeling a single time and place, the emission rate calculations in MOVES are 

significantly more time consuming and require more computer memory than inventory 

calculations. However, for large scale projects, a user may want to use the emission rate 

calculations to create a lookup table of rates that--though a post-processor--can be applied to 

many times and places, thereby reducing total MOVES run time. Successful application of this 

approach requires a clear understanding of the rates calculations in MOVES and careful 

planning. EPA is developing tools to automate the use of this feature to create inputs for EPA’s 

Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) model. This section describes the process 

more generally. 

Defining a Scenario 

A scenario defines the set of conditions to which the emission rates may be applied. A 

scenario typically defines a specific fuel mix and set of Inspection/Maintenance (I/M) programs. 

It also assumes a certain pattern of trip activity (number of trips per vehicle per day and the 

distribution of those trips in time). 

Some characteristics of the scenario depend on user choices: If a given age distribution is 

part of the scenario definition, that is, if the lookup table is to be applied only to areas with one 

particular age distribution, the lookup output can be smaller because the user does not need 

output by model year. On the other hand, detailing output by model year allows users to apply 

the lookup table to areas with diverse age distributions. 

A scenario generally does not imply specific temperatures or speed distributions. Instead, 

these characteristics are key fields in the output used to match the emission rate with the 

appropriate vehicle activity. 

The Emission Rate Output Tables 

Selecting “Emission Rates” on the Scale panel populates three additional output tables: 

RatePerDistance, RatePerVehicle and RatePerProfile. The RatePerDistance table stores 

emission rates for emissions that occur while a vehicle is in regular operation. The 

RatePerVehicle and RatePerProfile tables store emissions that occur while a vehicle is stationary, 

on “off network” roadtypes. The latter two tables differ because the emissions in the 

RatePerVehicle depend on the hour and the temperature while emissions in the RatePerProfile 

table also depend on temperatures in previous hours. 

1) RatePerDistance: Includes emissions for the processes that occur while vehicles are 

operating: running exhaust (includes emissions during normal idle at traffic signals, etc), tire 

wear, brake wear, evaporative permeation, evaporative fuel vapor venting, evaporative fuel 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page A-1 
 

leaks, crankcase running exhaust, refueling displacement and refueling spillage. The hour, day 

and month will not be relevant for most uses because the emissions are normalized with regard to 

activity. For national and county level runs, roadtype and avgspeedbin will be relevant. For 

project-level runs, linkID will be important. 

Fields: 

MOVESScenarioID 

MOVESRunID 

yearID 

monthID 

dayID 

hourID 

linkID 

pollutantID 

processID 

sourceTypeID 

SCC 

fueltype ID 

model year ID 

roadtype ID 

avgSpeedBinID 

temperature 

relhumidity 

RatePerDistance 

2)RatePerVehicle: Includes emissions for most processes that occur while vehicles are 

stationary : start exhaust, start crankcase, permeation, liquid leaks, and extended idle (long haul 

combination trucks only). The month will not be relevant for most uses since, in rate 

calculations, it serves primarily as an identifier for the fuel mix and will be redundant with 

MOVESScenarioID, but daytypeid and hourid are important key fields since start and other 

activity vary per vehicle per hour. 

Fields: 

MOVESScenarioID 

MOVESRunID 

yearID 

monthID 

dayID 

hourID 

zoneID 

pollutantID 

processID 

sourceTypeID 

SCC 

fueltype ID 

model year ID 

temperature 

RatePerVehicle 

Page A-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

DRAFT MOVES 2009 User Guide January 2010 

3) RatePerProfile: Includes emissions from the vapor venting process when vehicles are 

stationary. The daytypeid, hourid and temperatureprofileid are important key fields because the 

vapor venting emissions vary depending on activity and previous temperatures. 

Fields: 

MOVES Scenario ID 

MOVESRunID 

TemperatureProfileID 

yearID 

monthID 

dayID 

hourID 

pollutantID 

processID 

sourceTypeID 

SCC 

fueltypeID 

modelyearID 

temperature 

RatePerVehicle 

Setting Up Runs to Generate a Lookup Table 

Setting up an emission rate lookup table for a single scenario requires a number of steps. 

1) Define the scenario, and determine the counties, months, years and day-types in which it 

applies. Using the County Data Manager, a user can set up a run for the desired county, year, 

fuel supply, age distribution and I/M program. 

2) Determine the temperatures and temperature profiles to be covered by the lookup table. A 

“temperature profile” is a set of 24 temperatures over the course of a day. If the user is 

modeling NOx, it may also make sense to include relative humidity as a variable. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page A-3 
Example Temperature Profiles 

0 

10 

20 

30 

40 

50 

60 

70 

80 

90 

100 

0 5 10 15 20 

Hour of Day 

Temperature (F)

Profile 1 

Profile 2 

Profile 3 

3) Determine which pollutants and processes are of interest. Note that the modeling of 

hydrocarbons is more complicated than the modeling of other pollutants due to the need to 

include evaporative processes, and thus the need to represent temperature profiles as well as 

hourly temperatures. 

4) Organize inputs to generate the most rates in the shortest total runtime, while maintaining a 

manageable output size. If multiple similar calculations are required, it is generally a good idea 

to combine them in the same run. However, due to the different requirements for different 

emission processes, redundant calculations can often be avoided by splitting the task into 

multiple runs. 

For running exhaust, crankcase running exhaust, and refueling, hour doesn’t matter, so 24 

temperatures can be modeled as different hours in a single month If more than 24 

distinct temperatures are to be modeled, additional temperatures can be modeled using 

additional months (as long as the fuel characteristics are set to be the same for each 

month). If this approach is used, the month field in the output essentially becomes a label 

for a group of temperatures, and does not represent an actual calendar month. 

For start, crankcase start exhaust, liquid leaks and evap permeation, hour and temperature 

matter. Sets of temperatures can be entered as individual “months” Again, this creates 

output where “month” represents a group of temperatures rather than a calendar month. 

In the illustration above, the three temperature profiles could be modeled in a single run 

as three nominal months, one for each profile. Note, however, that Profile 3 shares an 

hour/temperature point with the each of the other profiles (in hour 8 and hour 15). For a 

lookup table with greater scope, it could be efficient to design the runs to eliminate such 

redundancy. 

Page A-4 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

DRAFT MOVES 2009 User Guide January 2010 

Vapor venting emissions depend on hour, temperature and previous temperatures. For 

these emissions we must model each profile as a separate month. Thus, within a given 

MOVESScenario, monthid becomes equivalent to temperatureprofileid. In some cases, it 

may be appropriate to “bin” similar temperature profiles and to apply the results from one 

profile to a group of similar profiles. 

Temperatures (and humidities) can be entered into the MOVES ZoneMonthHour table, using 

MYSQL commands or through the County Data Manager. See User Guide Section 2.3.3.4.1 

Meteorology Data Importer for more information on entering this data. 

. 

Note While activity is “divided out” in the Emission Rates output, the amount of time spent 

driving affects the evaporative emission rates. Therefore, it is important to input 

realistic VMT, Population, Average Speed Distribution and Road Type Distribution 

information. 

Running MOVES to generate Lookup Tables 

MOVES can generate lookup table output using the menu-driven interface, but for largescale modeling, users will probably want to automate execution of a series of runs. See 

Appendix C for information on running MOVES from the command line. See Section 

2.3.6.1 Multiple Run Spec Creator for information on a tool for creating a set of similar 

run specifications. 

Applying MOVES Emission Rate Output 

To calculate an emissions inventory from emission rate output, rates in RatePerDistance 

values need to be multiplied by the appropriate Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT), and rates in 

RatePerVehicle and RatePerProfile must be multiplied by appropriate vehicle population values. 

Doing this correctly can require a number of considerations. 

Rather than simply summing all activity in a speed or temperature bin, it is usually 

appropriate to do an interpolation as the rates are applied. For example, to calculate the 

total emissions from 100 miles of VMT with an average speed of 17.6 mph, a simplistic 

approach would be to multiply all of the VMT by the emission rate for speed bin 5 (17.5 

mph-22.5 mph), however this approach is overly sensitive to even very small changes in 

speed. To reduce these boundary issues, users should instead interpolate between speed 

bins (in this example, between the rates for speed bin 4 (12.5-17.5) and speed bin 5) 

based on the average speeds for those speed bins. . 

Depending on how the runs were organized, the user should take care not to double-count 

emissions with duplicate emission rates (for example, if the three profiles illustrated 

above were each modeled as independent months, there would be duplicate values in the 

ratepervehicle table for 8am at 34F, and for 3pm at 87F). A simple join of the rates and 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page A-5 
population table using hour and temperature would create extra rows that the user would 

need to be careful not to include in a sum. 

The user should be aware that evaporative emissions are stored in all three tables, and all 

three need to be used to fully account for evaporative emissions that occur during both 

driving and parking. The rates in RatePerDistance need to multiplied by the appropriate 

VMT, and the rates in RatePerVehicle and RatePerProfile need to be multiplied by the 

appropriate population. They can then be summed to calculate the total emissions. 

Page A-6 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
DRAFT MOVES 2009 User Guide January 2010 

[This page intentionally left blank.] 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page A-7 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix B - Linking MySQL Tables from MS ACCESS or MS Excel 

(includes ODBC usage) 

This appendix describes in detail how the user can transform MOVES MySQL tables into 

Microsoft ACCESS database tables or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. This may be useful for 

those who wish to view or manipulate these tables in an alternate format. This appendix also 

explains how to use the Open Database Connectivity interface protocols and tools. 

0B B Adding a MySQL database as an ODBC User Data Source 

1. Install MySQL driver, MyODBC-3.51.06.exe. This is part of the normal MOVES 

installation process and can be done by executing the MOVES2010a Installation Suite 

2. Create an ODBC data source with the same name as the folder which corresponds to the 

MySQL database. 

a. In the Control Panel, select "Administrative Tools": 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page B-1 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Page B-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

b. In the "Administrative Tools" menu, select "Data Sources (ODBC)": 

c. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog choose to "Add" a "User Data 

Source." 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page B-3 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

d. The "New Data Source" should use the MySQL ODBC Driver that was installed 

earlier. Scroll through the list until the MySQL ODBC driver is found, highlight it, 

and click the "Finish" button. 

e. Next, the database links need to be defined. The values shown below are for a 

database called "movesdefault". The database name should be the name of the folder 

which contains the desired MySQL database files (i.e., the MySQL database name). 

Page B-4 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

f. Once the database name and the data source name list an existing MySQL database 

name, the database connection can be checked by clicking on the "Test Data Source" 

button. 

g. The added data source will show up in the list of data sources in the ODBC Data 

Source Administrator dialog. This will finish the process of creating a new ODBC 

data source associated with a particular MySQL database. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page B-5 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Using Microsoft Access with MySQL Tables 

1. Run an Access .mdb (either a new one or an existing one). 

2. On the top menu bar, look for menu items "File", "Get External Data", then "Link 

Tables ..." (see picture below). Click on the item "Link Tables..." 

3. On the pop-up window like the one shown below, choose "ODBC Databases()" from the 

drop-down list which is located next to the label "Files of type". 

Page B-6 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

4. Another pop-up window similar to the one below will appear. Click on the tab Machine 

Data Source, to select a database of interest. 

In this example NMIM20070812 is chosen from the Data Source Name column. Select 

OK to load the data into Access. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page B-7 
 

 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

If the Data Source Name of the file is not listed, the user must follow the instructions 

provided in the Section, "How to create a DSN Connection to a MySQL database" 

presented later in this appendix. 

5. Once the data is loaded into access, the "Link Tables" window shown below will appear. 

This screen displays all of the database tables that are visible in Access. The user may 

select tables to view, and click the "OK" button. 

In the screenshot shown below, the user has chosen three tables to work with in MS 

Access: baseyearvmt, county, and state. The user can now work with these tables in MS 

Access. 

Caution! Edits made to the tables or data in MS Access will not affect the original MySQL 

tables and cannot be used directly in MOVES. 

Page B-8 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page B-9 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

The user can view data specific to a particular state by clicking on the StateName in the table. 

How to create a DSN Connection to a MySQL database. 

If the user does not find the MySql database referenced in the Data Source Name listing in MS 

Access, a DSN connection must be established. In order to do so, click on the Machine Data 

Source tab from the Select Data Source screen. Click the “New” button, and select "Next>". 

Page B-10 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

At the Create New Data Source Dialog box, select MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver. Click “Next >”. 

Click "Finish" to begin to establish the connection. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page B-11 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

The Connector/ODBC screen is used to establish the connection from MS Access to the 

MySQL database. Use this screen to define the “Data Source Name”. 

Note Consider making the Data Source Name similar to the database name, such as 

DSN_DatabaseName. This will make it easier to find. 

Once the Data Source Name has been created, select the "Test" button. The popup box 

Connector/ODBC should open, with the message, "Success; connection was made!" Press OK, 

and the popup box will disappear. Click OK to create the DSN connection. 

. 

The Data Source Name will now be listed in the Select Data Source window. 

Page B-12 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Using Microsoft Excel with MySQL Tables 

Note MYSQL Query Browser can also be used to export MYSQL database tables to Excel. 

1. Follow the instructions in the Section "Adding a MySQL database as an ODBC User 

Data Source" for adding the desired MySQL database as an ODBC data source. 

2. Open an Excel file. Click on "Data" from the top menu bar, and choose "Import 

External Data". Select "New Database Query ..." from the sub-menu window. This 

will open the "Choose Data Source" window. 

3. From the Choose Data Source window, select the desired DSN from the list, e.g., 

"MOVESDB", then click "OK". 

4. Click the "OK" button in the "mysql Driver connect" window. 

5. Follow the instructions posted by the Wizard until finished. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page B-13 

 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix C - Using the Batch Command Line Interface 

The MOVES command line allows MOVES to be executed without running its graphical 

user interface. It is useful in situations where repeated or unattended runs are needed, or when 

another computer program executes MOVES. This interface presumes that a MOVES run 

specification file has been prepared and that the user is running from the DOS prompt. 

These instructions presume some familiarity with DOS commands. The DOS commands 

to execute the MOVES Command Line Interface are: 

java MOVESCommandLine -r runspecfile 

[OR] 

java -XmxNNNm MOVESCommandLine -r runspecfile 

[OR] 

java MOVESCommandLine -rl runspeclistfile 

[OR] 

java XmxNNNm MOVESCommandLine -rl runspeclistfile 

where 

-XmxNNNm is an optional parameter and NNN is a three digit integer number. For example, 

–Xmx200m specifies you are asking java to allocate 200 megabytes of heap memory for your 

runs. This optional parameter is required only if your MOVES runs need more heap memory 

than the default determined automatically by java and your machine. The actual maximum 

amount of heap memory that you can ask for depends on your machine. You can increase or 

decrease the amount of heap memory as your machine allows. For example, 

java -Xmx300m MOVESCommandLine -rl runspeclistfile 

or 

java –Xmx100m MOVESCommandLine -r runspecfile 

"runspecfile" is the name of a file containing a saved MOVES run specification and 

"runspeclistfile" is the name of a text file containing a list of run specification file names, with 

one per line. The rest of the syntax is literal. The spelling of "MOVESCommandLine" is case 

sensitive because it is a java class name. When doing a batch run, you can identify the runspec 

list text file in the command line using quotes because it is located in a folder with spaces (e.g. 

“C:\My Documents". However, the command line doesn't work if you put quotes in the runspec 

list file itself. The command line will think the file doesn't exist. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page C-1 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

By executing one of these commands, the user runs the java interpreter (java.exe). 

MOVESCommandLine is a DOS parameter telling java.exe what java class file to begin 

executing, and the last two tokens are parameters passed to MOVESCommandLine. 

Either version of this command can be executed from a DOS batch file, and batch files 

can contain multiple commands. 

Prior to executing the command, the active directory should be set to the location where 

MOVES is installed, typically C:\Program Files\MOVES, and the SETENV.BAT file should be 

executed. 

It can be difficult for DOS to find everything. For the command to work, three elements 

must be found: 

● The java interpreter. 

● The MOVESCommandLine java class. 

● Any runspeclistfile and all runspecfiles. 

Running SETENV.BAT insures that the java interpreter is found. 

Running SETENV.BAT also insures that the procedure described in the next paragraph 

results in the MOVESCommandLine java class being found. Java experts can also use the 

CLASSPATH environment variable more directly to locate java class files. 

If MOVES has been installed in the default location, C:\Program 

Files\MOVESyyyymmdd, then MOVESCommandLine.class is located at C:\Program 

Files\MOVESyyyymmdd\gov\epa\otaq\moves\master\commandline. This can be made the 

active directory, or the command can specify whatever part of the path is needed. For example, 

if the active directory is C:\Program Files\MOVESyyyymmdd, the command line interface class 

would be specified as "gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine". 

One way to insure that the runspecfile or the runspeclistfile is found is to specify the full 

path. If a simple file name is used the file should be located in the active DOS directory. 

If the GUI is used to create an importer XML file (see Section 2.3.3.3), the XML file can 

be edited and executed via the command line. Remember that when using the command line, 

text output is not sent to the screen but instead stored in MOVESBatch.log. An example 

command line is: 

java gov.epa.otaq.moves.master.commandline.MOVESCommandLine 

 -i importAllFromTemplates.xml 

Be sure to place all of this on one line. The “-i” option directs MOVES to the XML file 

that describes the import actions to occur. Note that this XML file contains a summary of the 

RunSpec within it, thus allowing wildcards even when importing via the command line. For 

MOVES installations on Windows 2000 platforms, there may be a problem with the DOS 

command string length not allowing more than 126 characters. To resolve this, move MOVES to 

Page C-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

the root of C: drive (C:\MOVES\), so that the length of the command line string will be shorter. 

Note that Windows2000 is not a recommended nor supported environment in which to run 

MOVES. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page C-3 

 

 

 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix D - Creating an On-Road Retrofit Input File 

The "On-Road Retrofit" strategy, described in Section 2.9.9 allows the user to enter 

information about diesel trucks and buses that have been retrofit with emission control 

equipment. An On-Road Retrofit Parameters File must be input to the MOVES model to model 

on-road vehicle retrofit effects. This file can be in tab-delimited text, comma-delimited (*.csv), 

or Microsoft Excel (*.XLS) format. The user must create the Retrofit Parameters File by using 

either a text editor such as Wordpad or Notepad, or a spreadsheet such as Excel. 

A. Header and Comment Rows 

The first row of the Retrofit Parameter File must be a header row that contains the retrofit 

input parameter names separated by tabs. The remaining rows of the file contain the retrofit 

parameters. Comment rows are allowed if the first character in the row or the first cell in the 

tabbed file or *.XLS file is the '#' character. 

B. Retrofit Parameter File Format 

The Retrofit Parameter File must contain the following ten parameters in the order listed. 

Each parameter's possible values are provided. 

1. Retrofit Pollutant 

This column must contain the full MOVES pollutant name or the pollutant abbreviation 

for which the user wishes to model retrofit data. (In MOVES the user may not use the MOVES 

PollutantID number.) The data must appear exactly as shown in Table D-1 below, except that the 

pollutant abbreviation and/or full name input are not case sensitive. 

Table D-1 

Retrofit Parameter File Pollutants
 

PollutantID Full MOVES Pollutant Name Pollutant Abbreviation 

1 Total Gaseous Hydrocarbons HC 

2 Carbon Monoxide (CO) CO 

3 Oxides of Nitrogen NOX 

5 Methane (CH4) CH4 

6 Nitrous Oxide (N2O) N2O 

90 Atmospheric CO2 AT CO2 

91 Total Energy Consumption TotEnergy 

92 Petroleum Energy Consumption PetEnergy 

93 Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption FossilEnergy 

(cont.) 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page D-1 
 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Table D-1 

Retrofit Parameter File Pollutants (cont.) 

PollutantID Full MOVES Pollutant Name Pollutant Abbreviation 

98 CO2 Equivalent CO2EQ 

101 Primary PM10 - Organic Carbon PM10OC 

102 Primary PM10 - Elemental Carbon PM10EC 

105 Primary PM10 - Sulfate Particulate PM10Sulfate 

106 Primary PM10 - Brakewear Particulate PM10Brake 

107 Primary PM10 - Tirewear Particulate PM10Tire 

111 Primary PM2.5 - Organic Carbon PM25OC 

112 Primary PM2.5 - Elemental Carbon PM25EC 

115 Primary PM2.5 - Sulfate Particulate PM25Sulfate 

116 Primary PM2.5 - Brakewear Particulate PM25Brake 

117 Primary PM2.5 - Tirewear Particulate PM25Tire 

2. Retrofit Emission Process Input 

This column must contain the full MOVES process name or the ProcessID abbreviation 

for which the user wishes to model retrofit data. In MOVES, the user should not use MOVES 

ProcessID. The data must appear exactly as shown in Table D-2 below, except that the 

ProcessID abbreviation and full name are not case sensitive. 

Table D-2 

Retrofit Parameter File Processes
 

ProcessID Full MOVES Process Name Process Abbreviation 

1 Running Exhaust Running 

2 Start Exhaust Start 

90 Extended Idle Exhaust Extended Idle 

9 Brakewear Brake 

10 Tirewear Tire 

3. Retrofit Fuel Type Input 

This column must contain the full MOVES fuel name or the fuel abbreviation for which 

the user wishes to model retrofit data. In MOVES, the user should not use FuelTypeID. The 

data must appear exactly as shown in Table D-3 below, except that the fuel abbreviation and full 

name are not case sensitive. 

Page D-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Table D-3 

Retrofit Parameter File Fuel Types 

FuelTypeID 

Full MOVES Fuel Type 

Name Fuel Type Abbreviation 

1 Gasoline Gas 

2 Diesel Fuel Diesel 

5 Ethanol (E85) Ethanol 

4. Retrofit Vehicle Source Type Input 

This column must contain the Sourcetype abbreviation or the full MOVES Sourcetype 

name for which the user wishes to model retrofit data. In MOVES, the user should not use 

SourceTypeID number. The data must appear exactly as shown in Table D-4 below, except that 

the sourcetype abbreviation and full name input are not case sensitive. 

In MOVES2010, only diesel (FuelTypeID = 2) vehicles with the following 

SourceTypeIDs are covered by the Retrofit Calculations: 32, 41, 42, 43, 51, 52, 53, 61, and 62. 

Table D-4 

Retrofit Parameter File Source Types
 

SourceTypeID 

Full MOVES Vehicle 

SourceType Name SourceType Abbreviation 

11 Motorcycle* MC 

21 Passenger Car* Car 

31 Passenger Truck* PTruck 

32 Light Commercial Truck ComTruck 

51 Refuse Truck RefuseTruck 

52 Single Unit Short-Haul Truck SUShortTruck 

53 Single Unit Long-Haul Truck SULongTruck 

54 Motor Home MH 

43 School Bus SBus 

42 Transit Bus TBus 

41 Intercity Bus IBus 

61 Combination Short-haul Truck CShortTruck 

62 Combination Long-haul Truck CLongTruck 

* These sourcetypes should not be used in retrofit input files. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page D-3 
 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

MOVES compares the user inputs for pollutant, process, fuel type, and source type with 

the stored retrofit possibilities and prompts the user if an incorrect name, abbreviation or number 

for pollutant, process, fuel type, or source type is entered. 

5. Initial Calendar Year of Retrofit Implementation 

The Initial Calendar Year of the Retrofit Implementation is the first calendar year that a 

retrofit program is administered. Initial Calendar Year input must be equal to or less than the 

Final Calendar Year of Retrofit Implementation. All months within a calendar year are affected 

equally by the retrofit. 

6. Final Calendar Year of Retrofit Implementation 

The Final Calendar Year of the Retrofit Implementation is the last calendar year that a 

retrofit program is administered. Final Calendar Year input must be equal to or greater than the 

Initial Calendar Year of Retrofit Implementation. 

7. Initial Model Year that will be Retrofit 

The Initial Model Year that will be Retrofit is the first model year of coverage for a 

particular vehicle class/pollutant combination. Valid entries for initial model year must meet the 

following mathematical requirement: 

Initial Model Year ≥ Initial Calendar Year - 30 

The Initial Model Year cannot be greater than the Final Model Year that will be Retrofit. 

8. Final Model Year that will be Retrofit 

The Final Model Year that will be retrofit is the last model year of coverage for a 

particular vehicle class/pollutant combination. No retrofit will be performed on Final Model 

Year input which is larger than the Evaluation Calendar Year. Also, the Final Model Year input 

cannot be less than the Initial Model Year that will be Retrofit. 

9. Percentage of the Fleet Retrofit per Year 

The Percentage of the Fleet Retrofit per Year represents the percentage of VMT of a 

particular fleet of a particular vehicle class, retrofit calendar year group, model year group, and 

pollutant combination that is to be rebuilt in a given calendar year. For a successful retrofit 

simulation, a value greater than zero and less than or equal to 100.0% must be entered. MOVES 

checks to ensure that the product of the number of calendar years of retrofit coverage (Final 

Calendar Year of Retrofit Implementation - Initial Calendar Year of Retrofit Implementation) 

and the Percentage of the Fleet Retrofit per Year does not exceed 100%. For example, a retrofit 

simulation will be flagged as invalid, and an error message will appear, if the simulation has a 

retrofit program start in calendar year 2005, a program end in calendar year 2008, and a yearly 

Fleet Retrofit Percentage of 50% (3 * 50% > 100%). 

Page D-4 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

10. Percentage Effectiveness of the Retrofit 

The Percentage Effectiveness of the Retrofit is the percent emission reduction achieved 

by a retrofit. It is computed from a non-retrofit emission baseline. The user must enter a retrofit 

effectiveness value for a particular vehicle class, retrofit calendar year group, model year group, 

and pollutant combination. All values up to 100% are valid. A negative value is permitted 

because it implies an emission increase as a result of retrofit, which can occur. A value greater 

than 100% is not permitted because it implies negative emissions will be generated. See also 

EPA’s guidance on quantifying benefits from retrofits at 

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/policy.htm 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page D-5 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix E - Best Practices 

There are several “best practices” that can assist the user in managing various aspects of 

the MOVES process. In particular, we have found it helpful to be careful and consistent in 

naming, managing & documenting RunSpecs and files. 

NOTE MOVES database names must be consistent with MYSQL naming conventions. In 

general, this means they may contain letters, numbers, "_"(underscore) and "$" 

characters. They may not contain spaces, special characters, or be "reserved words" 

(SQL words such as "select", "where", "delete", etc.). 

Table E-1 

MOVES Best Practices
 

Suggestion Rationale Example 

Name all your MOVES Prevents overwriting Washtenaw2008_MO (for 

output databases with a code input files; makes it MOVES Output) or 

indicating that the database easier to identify output Washtenaw2008_out 

includes MOVES output files. 

When testing MOVES, 

name output with "Temp" or 

other indicator. 

Mysql/data folder can get 

cluttered. This allows 

you to clean up more 

easily 

Washtenaw2008_temp_MO 

Name all your MOVES Helps you organize your Washtenaw2008_IN 

input databases and strategy inputs and prevents you 

files with a code indicating from inadvertently 

that the database contains damaging important input 

MOVES alternate input data. information. 

Name all your MOVES run Helps you organize your Washtenaw2008.mrs (for 

specification text files with a input information and can MOVES Run Specification) or 

code indicating that the file be used to locate files Washtenaw2008_mrs.txt 

contains a MOVES run spec. using a search. 

Name all the files you use Helps you organize your Washtenaw2008_in, 

for a specific run using the information. Washtenaw2008.mrs, 

same name, but with 

extensions to identify the 

parts (see file naming 

suggestions above). 

Washtenaw2008_mo 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page E-1 
 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Suggestion Rationale Example 

Keep all of your run 

specifications in the same 

directory as the import files 

associated with that 

RunSpec. This folder should 

be outside the folders 

installed by MOVES so that 

it will not be overwritten 

when installing a new 

version of MOVES. 

MOVES will first look in 

the location of the 

RunSpec when browsing 

for import files, so 

keeping them all in one 

place keeps you from 

searching for the files that 

will be imported. 

My Documents\MOVES\ 

[CountyYear] 

Decide on the Scale and 

Calculation Type you wish 

to use before making 

selections on any other 

panels. 

Changing the Scale or 

Calculation Type option 

after making choices in 

other panels may require 

you to re-enter data for 

those panels. 

Using the description panel 

is helpful when trying to 

discriminate between several 

runs. Think about filling out 

some sort of repeatable 

formula such as date, 

relevant important 

parameters, who is doing the 

run, etc. 

Note that MOVES preserves 

these descriptions in the 

movesrun output table for 

future reference. 

Documentation of the 

RunSpec is very 

important, especially if 

many scenarios are being 

processed. 

2010_01_01; John Doe; 

Washtenaw County; 2010; July 

Every run used for any 

official purpose should be 

archived completely. All 

batch files, RunSpecs, 

MOVES code and 

configuration files, 

supplemental code copied 

into MOVES by batch files, 

default database, user input 

databases, etc. should be 

saved. File location can be 

added as the “Description” 

when the file is imported. 

Months or years later, the 

run can be reproduced by 

anyone opening the 

archive. 

Page E-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Suggestion Rationale Example 

If they are not too large, 

output related runs should be 

saved to the same MySQL 

database 

Combined with useful 

Run descriptions, you can 

keep all the data, and its 

description in a single 

place. Looking at the 

Moves Run table in that 

database can be very 

informative. 

Always “GROUP BY” 

MOVESRunID, PollutantID, 

and DayID when summing 

output results. 

If a table includes output 

from multiple runs, it is 

very easy to mistakenly 

sum them together, 

thereby drastically 

increasing emissions. 

Emissions from different 

pollutants should never 

be summed. The types of 

day must be correctly 

weighted before they can 

be summed. 

SELECT MOVESRunid, DayID, 

Pollutantid, sum(emissionquant) 

FROM movesoutput 

GROUP BY MovesRunid, 

DayID, Pollutantid; 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page E-3 

 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix F – Stage II Refueling Control Programs 

Stage II refueling emission control programs are intended to reduce HC and associated 

air toxics emissions by reducing the amount of gasoline vapor that escapes to the atmosphere 

during refueling. The amount of reduction depends on whether the vehicle has an onboard 

recovery system and the level of uncontrolled emissions. The uncontrolled emissions are 

calculated from inputs such as fuel RVP, vehicle fuel economy, and temperature parameters. 

Stage II programs are run by state, local or tribal governments and the effects of these programs 

will vary depending on the number of locations and the sales volume of stations equipped with 

Stage II recovery systems and their average state of repair. See the MOVES Software Design 

Reference Manual for more information about how MOVES calculates emissions from refueling. 

The MOVES database contains information about all of the existing Stage II programs by 

county based on the parameters used for the 2005 National Emisson Inventory (NEI). For the 

initial release of MOVES, the effects of Stage II programs can only be altered by users by 

manually editing the tables used by MOVES to obtain the Stage II control information. Future 

versions of MOVES are expected to include graphical user interface (GUI) tools to assist in 

altering Stage II program effects for individual counties. Until these tools are available, this 

appendix is intended to assist users in making changes to the default parameters related to Stage 

II program effects. 

Stage II refueling emission control programs can only affect refueling losses that occur 

during refueling. Onboard Refueling Vapor Recovery (ORVR) systems on modern vehicles are 

designed to minimize the refueling losses without Stage II controls. These reductions are already 

accounted for by MOVES, so that the additional control of Stage II will only affect the 

remaining refueling losses from these ORVR vehicles. 

County Year Table 

The MOVES database contains a table named CountyYear which contains information 

about each county for every calendar year. This table contains two fields that determine the 

Stage II program effects: 

o refuelingVaporProgramAdjustment 

o refuelingSpillProgramAdjustment 

The refuelingVaporProgramAdjustment field is a number between zero and one (1.0) 

which indicates the fraction that is the reduction in full refueling displacement vapor losses that 

result from the Stage II recovery program that county in that calendar year. The 

refuelingSpillProgramAdjustment field is a number between zero and one (1.0) which indicates 

the fraction that is the reduction in full refueling fuel spillage losses that result from the Stage II 

recovery program that county in that calendar year. A value of zero would indicate that the 

program had no effect and a value of one would indicate that all vehicle refueling emissions had 

been eliminated. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page F-1 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Updating Refueling Adjustments Using MySQL Query Browser 

The simplest way to change an existing Stage II program effect is to use the MySQL 

Query Browser application to open the appropriate table and manually change the existing 

values, but NEVER change values in a default MOVES database provided by EPA. MOVES is 

designed to easily provide replacement values for default values using MySQL tables via the 

Manage Input Data Sets panel on the MOVES graphical user interface (GUI). Using the 

Manage Input Data Sets panel, type the name you wish to use for the database which will hold 

your Stage II estimates into the Database drop-down box. Now click on the “Create Database” 

button and your will create a database to hold your information. The name will have to meet the 

criteria for database names (no spaces, no special characters) and we suggest it include text to 

help you identify its contents and purpose (for example, StageII_Input). 

Once you have an input database, you can open the MySQL Query Browser to work with 

the tables. If the Query Browser was already open, you may need to right-click in the Schemata 

panel and refresh the list of database. Once you find your database, double-click on the name 

and that will show you all of the tables it contains. The database will contain empty versions of 

every table used by MOVES. The table that contains the Stage II program adjustments is called 

CountyYear and contains only four fields: 

- countyID 

- yearID 

- refuelingVaporProgramAdjustment 

- refuelingSpillProgramAdjustment 

Using the Query Browser Edit function (at the bottom of the result window) you can add 

or alter the contents of the table. Be sure to execute the Apply Changes button to save any 

alterations. 

Now return to the Manage Input Data Sets panel and select your database from the pull 

down menu. You can add additional description text and then click the add button. When you 

include this database in your run specification, MOVES will use your values in preference to any 

default values in the MOVES database. 

The other empty tables may be deleted from your database. Leaving them will not harm 

your run specification (since the tables are empty), but they can be confusing. To delete empty 

tables, go to the Query Browser, double click on the database to show the tables and right click 

on the table you wish to delete. Choose “drop table” from the menu and the table will be 

removed from that database. Multiple tables can be selected by using the CTRL or Shift buttons 

Page F-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix G - MOVES Project Level Example 

1. Definition of the MOVES Project 

In this example MOVES Runspec, the EPA’s Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator 

(MOVES) was used to generate emission inventory estimates for a hypothetical scenario where 

heavy-duty vehicle traffic is entering and departing a parking lot using a single roadway. Since 

this example is only for illustration of the MOVES software features, it was kept simple 

intentionally. It does not represent any specific real-world project. 

The Project constraints are: 

1. There are only two links (inbound and outbound from a parking lot) 

2. The two links and the off-network link are independent of each other. 

3. A single off-network link contains all of the parking, extended idle and vehicle 

start operations. 

4. Only heavy-duty vehicles operate on the roadway and are present in the offnetwork area. 

5. The project example only models nitrogen oxide (NOx). 

6. One hour of operation was selected. If the user desired to model additional hours, 

then additional MOVES Projects need to be created. 

Figure G1 Basic Schematic of the Project 

Parking Lot Roadway Link 

Figure G1 shows a basic schematic of the Project to be modeled. It consists of a parking 

lot and a two-way road link leading in and out of the parking lot. The specific modeling 

parameters are shown and discussed in Tables G1, G2 and G3 below. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency PageG-1 
 

 

 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Table G1 

Summary of On-road Project Level Parameters 

Location County Washtenaw County, Michigan 

Calendar Year 2009 

Month January 

Time 11:00 PM to 11:59:59 PM (hour 24) 

Weekday/Weekend Weekday 

Temperature 28.5 F 

Humidity 69.5 % 

Road type of links (link1 and link 2) Rural Unrestricted Access – can represent 

any non freeway rural road 

Roadway Link Length (both links) 0.997 miles 

Link Traffic Volume – In (link 1) 100 vehicles per hour 

Link Traffic Volume – Out (link 2) 10 vehicles per hour 

Link Average Speed – In (link 1) 28.5 miles per hour 

Link Average Speed – Out (link 2) 28.5 miles per hour 

Average Road Grad – In (link1) 0.857 percent 

Average Road Grad – Out (link2) -0.857 percent 

Number of Vehicle in Parking Lot (link 3) 200 vehicle on average 

Only one county may be chosen for a given project level run. In this example, 

Washtenaw County, Michigan was chosen. Any of the 3,222 counties or a custom domain 

(defined by the user) may be chosen. Also, only one calendar year, one month and one hour may 

be chosen for a given project level run. If the user desires to model more than one such entity 

(i.e., all 24 hours), then they must perform additional and separate project level runs. It is 

suggested for such runs that the user employ MOVES batch mode features. A project level run 

may include either weekday activity, weekend activity or both. In this example only weekday 

was run. A temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (28.5 F), and relative humidity of (69.5 %) were 

also specified. These are the default MOVES values for this county, month and hour. However, 

any appropriate value may be entered for these parameters. 

More than one pollutant / process combination may be modeled in a given project level 

run if the required inputs are entered. In MOVES, some pollutants are ‘chained’ to other 

pollutants. This means that they require the prerequisite calculation of another pollutant(s). If 

the pollutant to be modeled in the Project level is a ‘chained’ pollutant, then a complete set of 

Project level inputs must be entered for all of the required prerequisite pollutants. For example if 

the user wishes to model total PM2.5 emissions, inputs much be entered for elemental carbon, 

organic carbon, sulfate and total energy pollutants. 

Currently, MOVES Project level cannot model evaporative emission processes. 

However, this capability will be added to future model upgrades. 

For each roadway link the user must specify a MOVES road type which best represents 

it. In this example, the rural unrestricted access road type was chosen to represent both links. 

PageG-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Any of the four roadtypes may be chosen to represent each Project link. The user must also 

specify a link length in miles for each roadway link they wish to model. In this case because the 

example is modeling the same roadway in and out of the parking lot, both links are 0.997 miles 

in length. 

The traffic volume must also be specified for each link. This is the total average traffic 

flow from all vehicle types on the link during the hour period. In this simple example, all of the 

vehicles are heavy-duty trucks, but in general any or all of the MOVES vehicle source types may 

be included at the same time in a project level run. 

The average speed on each link must also be specified. In this example where drive 

schedule inputs are used to represent activity of all of the roadway links, the average speed 

inputs in the Links spreadsheet / input GUI tab are used only for minor internal calculations in 

the project level model. However, they should match the overall average speed(s) of the 

individual drive cycles as submitted in the LinkDriveSchedule tab. In this case both the inbound 

and outbound links had the same average speed of 28.5 mph. It is the responsibility of the user 

to insure that they match – no automatic checks are done. 

The average road grade (in percent grade units) may also be specified for each link. This 

input represents the overall average grade of the entire link not one specific section of it. It is 

used only if a drive schedule input is not provided (i.e., it will NOT be used in this example). 

However, in this example the values of 0.857 and -0.857 percent were entered as a placeholders 

(this is the actual average of each second of the drive schedule inbound and outbound). 

In this example, MOVES will use second-by-second driving schedules to model vehicle 

operation. If drive schedules are not provided, MOVES uses the average speed and average 

grade inputs plus default MOVES driving cycles to model the driving behavior. When drive 

schedules are entered, different emission results may be produced even if the average speed or 

average grade of the driving schedules match the average speed / grade input entered in the Links 

spreadsheet tab. 

Figure G2 shows the two driving schedules of this example project in graphical form. 

Link 1 - inbound shown in blue, has vehicles entering the parking lot at 30 mph and eventually 

coming to a stop. Link 2 - outbound shown in dotted pink has driving starting at zero mph and 

accelerating to a 30 mph cruise. These are simple idealized cycles that are for illustration only. 

Note that the two cycles overlap each other at 30 mph on the figure, and are consequently hard to 

read. The driving schedule data and the chart are contained in the input workbook 

“Project_Example1_input.xls” in the worksheets “DriveScheduleSecondLink and Link Drive 

Schedule Chart.” 

United States Environmental Protection Agency PageG-3 
 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Figure G2 

Speed / Time Trace for Example Links 

Speed (mph)

35 

30 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 

Time (seconds) 

Link 1
 

Link 2
 

The distribution of the traffic by MOVES source type is an additional input. It is entered 

as the SourceTypeHourFraction in the LinkSourceType worksheet, and the LinkSourceType 

input tab. In this example, because only heavy-duty long-haul trucks are to be modeled, all of 

the values for SourceTypeHourFraction are set to unity. 

For this example, the off-network parameters are shown in Table G2. These four 

parameters include a vehicle population of 200 vehicles in the parking lot on average during the 

hour period. This input is an average value over the one hour time period, because some 

vehicles may have been in the lot at all times while others entered or exiting during the hour 

period. In this example, the start fraction is set to three percent (0.03). This is the fraction of the 

average vehicle population which were started during the hour. If all of the vehicles in the lot on 

average are started, then this value is unity (1.0). It may also be greater than unity if large 

numbers vehicles are repeatedly started during the period. 

The extended idle and parked vehicle fraction parameters were set to 0.90 and 0.09 

respectively, for this example. The 90 percent input for extended idle reflects the fact that 90 

percent of the total vehicle – hours (only one hour by definition) in the parking lot were spent in 

extended idle mode (vehicles are parked in a lot with their engines idling at higher than curb idle 

speeds). The 9 percent input for parking reflects the fact that 9 percent of the total vehicle – 

hours in the parking lot were spent in park mode (vehicle is parked and the engine is off). The 

sum of extended idling and parking cannot be greater than unity. Currently, the parked vehicle 

input is not active in any of the calculations, but a valid entry must be provided anyway. 

PageG-4 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Table G2 

Summary of Off-Network Project Level Parameters 

Average Vehicle Population 200 vehicles in the parking lot on average 

Start Fraction 0.03 

Extended Idle Fraction 0.90 

Parked Vehicle Fraction 0.09 

The operating mode distribution for the parking lot link must be entered. This is a 

distribution by AVERAGE vehicle ‘soak’ time (i.e., the time since a vehicle was last started). 

For example, Table G3 below shows that 5 percent of the vehicles in the parking lot have not 

been started for more than 720 minutes or 12 hours. Extended Idle operating model fraction is 

always set to unity (1.00) when it is present because it is the only operating mode of its type. 

This input should not be confused with the off network parameter called Extended Idle Fraction 

with a value of 0.90 that is shown in Table G2. 

Table G3 

Operating Mode Distribution Parameters for Start and 

Extended Idle Processes 

OpmodeID 

Code 

Operating Mode Description Operating Mode Fraction 

101 Soak Time < 6 minutes 0.00 

102 6 minutes <= Soak Time < 30 minutes 0.05 

103 30 minutes <= Soak Time < 60 minutes 0.30 

104 60 minutes <= Soak Time < 90 minutes 0.10 

105 90 minutes <= Soak Time < 120 minutes 0.50 

106 120 minutes <= Soak Time < 360 minutes 0.00 

107 360 minutes <= Soak Time < 720 minutes 0.00 

108 720 minutes <= Soak Time 0.05 

200 Extended Idle Operating Mode 1.00 

Table G4 shows the source type age distribution for the vehicles in the project. In this 

example, there is only one source type (heavy-duty long haul trucks) present. Thus, only one age 

distribution is required. Additional age distributions would be required if additional source types 

were present. The age distribution runs from age zero (brand new) to 30 years. All ages greater 

than 30 years are included in the age 30 group. However, in this example, the fraction of 

vehicles from 20 to 30 years old is zero. The distribution must sum to unity within a source 

type. Note that the project level model does not allow separate age distributions for different 

fuel types if the same source type is selected. For example, the same age distribution would be 

used for both gasoline and diesel long haul trucks if both were present in the project. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency PageG-5 
 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

Table G4 

Source Type Age Distribution 

Source Type ageID ageFraction 

62 0 0.2 

62 1 0.15 

62 2 0.1 

62 3 0.1 

62 4 0.1 

62 5 0.07 

62 6 0.05 

62 7 0.05 

62 8 0.05 

62 9 0.02 

62 10 0.02 

62 11 0.01 

62 12 0.01 

62 13 0.01 

62 14 0.01 

62 15 0.01 

62 16 0.01 

62 17 0.01 

62 18 0.01 

62 19 0.01 

62 20 0 

62 21 0 

62 22 0 

62 23 0 

62 24 0 

62 25 0 

62 26 0 

62 27 0 

62 28 0 

62 29 0 

62 30 0 

PageG-6 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

2. Example Data Creation and Input 

A MOVES Runspec (called Project_Example1.mrs) was created to model this example 

MOVES Project level analysis. For this example, the user should load the Runspec – Project_ 

Example1.mrs. 

The user should note that a Project level run MUST contain only ONE 

County 

Year 

Month 

Hour 

The example Runspec was further simplified to include only one sourcetype, two 

roadtypes, one weekday/weekend combination and three pollutant / process combinations. The 

runspec is provided as an example and the user should use it to become more familiar with this 

example. 

 The Project level importer is accessed by either selecting “Project Domain Manager” 

from the “PreProcessing” menu item at the top of the GUI, or pressing the “Enter/Edit Data” 

button on the “Geographic Bounds” panel. After one of these selections is made, the Project 

level importer screen will open. 

Caution! In general the user should complete ALL of the runspec entries (i.e., Scale, Time, 

Geographic Bounds, etc) BEFORE accessing the Project Domain Manager. 

The first input step is to create the Project Level database where the imported data is 

stored. This is a MySQL database and it is named “Project_Example1_input” in this example. 

The user loads the data into the Project Level database (i.e.,Project_Example1_input) for 

each input tab by browsing for the individual file (use the Browse button), and once found, 

pressing the “Import” button to import the data into MOVES. A message diagnostic of “Import 

Complete” will be issued, and the GUI tab should turn from red to green if the data import was 

successful. This process is repeated for each of the tabs until no more red tabs are present. 

Various diagnostic messages are provided if the import was not successful. The data should be 

“Browsed” and “Imported” from the Excel workbook Project_Example1_input.xls. 

The inputs are in the spreadsheets. 

1. DriveScheduleSecondLink 

2. OffNetworkLink 

3. ZoneMonthHour 

4. IM / Reflash 

5. LinkSourceTypeHour 

6. SourcetypeAgeDistribution 

7. Fuel New

8. Link 

9. OpModeDistribution 

United States Environmental Protection Agency PageG-7 
 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

After the data loading process is complete the user should press the Done button to save 

the data in the database. This will exit the Project Level data manager. As a final step, the user 

may be required to go to the Geographic Panel tab and choose the new Project Level database 

(“Project_Example1_input”) from a list of databases. If the new database is not visible, the 

user should press the Refresh button. 

Both the Excel input file Project_Example1.xls and the MOVES project level input 

database Project_Example1_input are provided in the MOVES package as an assistance to the 

user. If the user “Browses” and “Imports” their data from the spreadsheet 

Project_Example1.xls, the user’s final database should be the same as 

Project_Example1_input. 

In this example, all of the inputs for the Project Level were read from a single Excel 

workbook. This was done to make the process easier for the first time user, and to facilitate and 

simple “Browse” and “Import” data entry. However, if the user is starting from scratch with 

their own project, it is recommended that they use the Create Template button or the Export 

Default button for each of the Project Level input tabs. This will create a set of Excel workbook 

templates or default data spreadsheets (with a set of individual worksheets - one for each input 

tab). The user should populate or modify these templates or data tables with the actual data. The 

spreadsheets within each template will provide necessary descriptions of the data fields and 

moves codes (i.e., countyID codes, fuelformulationID codes, roadtypeID codes, hourDayID 

codes and sourcetypeID codes). The MOVES project level importer will show a list of all of the 

individual Excel worksheets from an Excel workbook. The user must pick the ‘active’ 

worksheet (usually the leftmost worksheet in the workbook or the first spreadsheet entry in the 

MOVES importer) as an input 

After using the Project level importer, the user should also notice that the 

DriveScheduleSecondLink and the opmodeDistribution table need not exist together for all of the 

roadtype links. In this example, the DriveScheduleSecondLink table contains an average speedtime ‘trace’ for both roadway links. It is used by MOVES to internally create an 

opmodeDistribution for each roadway link. A separate opmodeDistribution for the road links is 

not required to be supplied, but could have been supplied in-lieu of the 

DriveScheduleSecondLink data input. The opmodeDistribution is always required for the start 

operation parameters (table 3 contains the inputs). It contains the opmodeDistribution for the 

NOx emission starts. These values are used to differentiate start soak times. 

Alternatively, neither a DriveScheduleSecondLink or the OpModeDistribution table need 

be provided. The user may simply specify an average speed for each link in the “Links” table. If 

this option is utilized, MOVES selects two default driving schedules and uses the average speed 

input to interpolate between the two cycles to create a new default cycle for that average speed. 

3. Changes Between MOVES2010 and MOVES2010a 

Changes were made in the Project Level Input GUI between the December, 2009 version 

of MOVES and the MOVES2010a (summer 2010 release). As a result, input databases 

created for the previous MOVES model cannot be used in the new version. The user will be 

PageG-8 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

required to re-enter their data from their Excel spreadsheets. The principal difference is the 

FuelSupply and FuelFormulation tabs have been replaced with a new Fuels tab. This new tab 

contains both the FuelSupply and FuelFormulation inputs in separate Browse and Template 

sections. A single Import button is used for both (do not attempt to import before both have been 

Browsed and Selected). Another change is that the user MUST enter fuel information for their 

project. It is now a required input. It is strongly suggested that the user (1) Export the default 

fuel information first into a spreadsheet, (2) make any necessary changes in the spreadsheet, and 

(3) browse and import the spreadsheet into the database. 

Another input change between the December, 2009 version of MOVES and the 

MOVES2010a (summer 2010 release) is the addition of the average grade input in the Links 

spreadsheet tab. The new version of MOVES requires the header title in the first row of the 

spreadsheet, but accepts any value as a placeholder (i.e., 0 percent) if the user is also supplying a 

DriveSchedule or Operating Mode Distribution input. 

The output for project level has also changed. Emission rate output for starts are now in 

mass per start and emission rate output for extended idle is now in mass per vehicle hour spent in 

extended idle mode. 

4. MOVES Results for the Example 

The results for this simple MOVES Project Level simulation are reported in the MySQL 

database “ProjectLevel_Output”. They are summarized in Table G5 by issuing the 

following MySQL command in the MySQL Query browser: 

SELECT movesrunid,pollutantid,processid,linkid,sum(emissionquant) as e 

 FROM project_example1_output.movesoutput m

 group by movesrunid,pollutantid,processid,linkid; 

Table G5 

MOVES Project Level Example Simulation Results 

LinkID Link Description NOx emissions (grams) 

1 Inbound Road 1266.54 

2 Outbound Road 57.73 

3 Parking Lot (extended idle) 48841.61 

3 Parking Lot (start) 18.92 

The emissions are reported as an ‘inventory’ for the project and are broken down by 

linkID (roadway and off-network – the user must specify that the results to be reported by 

roadway and process in the Runspec). In this example, the results are reported in units of grams 

of NOx emissions. The time domain for the Project Level is always one hour. The user should 

also remember that these results are average results over the one hour time domain and the 

geographic link domain. One reason project level reports ‘average’ results is because the 

model’s calculation methodology assumes (for simplicity) independence of the individual links 

United States Environmental Protection Agency PageG-9 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

in the project, and does not dynamically calculate traffic flows between links or residence times 

in off network (the user must do this step before the data is entered into the MOVE project level 

simulator. 

The large difference in NOx emission inventories between two physically similar links 

(link 1 and link 2) is because of the large difference in traffic volumes. The traffic volume for 

link 1 is an order of magnitude greater than the traffic volume for link 2. The relatively small 

amount of NOx emissions from the start process is the result of a very low start fraction input 

(i.e., 3 percent). The relatively large amount of emissions from the extended idle process reflects 

a fairly high fraction of extended idle operation (i.e., 90 percent). In comparison, the running 

operation of the inbound road contains half as many vehicles (100 vehicles versus 200 in 

extended idle), and the running operation on average lasts only about 2 minutes per vehicle 

versus the entire hour for 90 percent of the vehicles. 

5. MOVES Project Example #2 

This example (the inputs are in Excel Spreadsheet ProjectExample2_input.xls) has 

virtually all of the same inputs as Project Example #1 discussed in Sections 1 through 4. As a 

result none of the data and explanations will be repeated. The only difference between the two 

examples is the ACTIVE use of the Average Speed input in this example instead of the 

DriveSchedule inputs. The purpose of this brief example is to show that different results for 

roadway links are obtained from the two different methods of modeling vehicle operation. 

In this example, the average speed input of 28.5 mph is imported and used for Link 1 and 

28.5 mph is used for Link 2. Likewise, the average grade inputs for Link1 and Link2 are 0.857 

percent and -0.857 percent, respectively. These inputs are in the Links tab. The average speed / 

average grade inputs become ACTIVE in MOVES when the specific drive schedule inputs 

shown in Figure 1 are NOT imported / used by the Driveschedule Importer GUI. If the drive 

schedule data (or operating mode distribution data for roadway links) are imported, they 

automatically over-ride the average speed inputs in the Links tab. 

Instead of user supplied drive schedules being used to represent vehicle operation, builtin default drive schedules that bracket the average speed inputs (in this case 28.5 mph) are used 

when average speed inputs are entered. Likewise, the average grade values of 0.857 or -0.857 

percent are assumed for the entire length of the links rather than the varying road grades used in 

Example 1. The results shown in Tables G5 and G5 for links 1 and 2 definitely show that the 

two input types (specific drive schedule and average speed/grade) are not necessarily equivalent. 

Table G6 

MOVES Project Level Example Simulation Results 

LinkID Link Description NOx emissions (grams) 

1 Inbound Road 1696.47 

2 Outbound Road 117.47 

3 Parking Lot (extended idle) 48841.61 

3 Parking Lot (start) 18.92 

PageG-10 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

6. MOVES Project Example #3 

This example briefly presents and discussed several real world ramp cycles developed 

under contractor for EPA. These are provided because the Project Level does not contain default 

data for modeling freeway ramps. Entering an average speed / grade in the Project Level Links

importer will not model a freeway ramp. The only way a user can model a freeway ramp using 

the Project Level is to enter a ramp drive schedule in the DriveSchedule importer or a roadtype 

operating mode distribution using the OpmodeDistribution input tab. 

The attached Excel spreadsheet Ramp_Driving_Cycles.xls contain several real world 

drive schedules for various ramp configurations. They are based on a 2004 Sacramento, 

California driving study. These schedules do not model any actual real world project, but serve 

as realistic examples of ramp operation. They also function as a starting point for the user to 

develop actual cycles that precisely fit the needs of their specific project. They can be used in 

MOVES Project (or modified for use) by defining a new ramp LinkID (i.e., Ramp1, Ramp2, etc) 

and populating the DriveSchedule importer with a speed-grade / time trace based on ramp 

driving operation. 

The Summary table in the Ramp_Driving_Cycles.xls spreadsheet lists the ramp 

configuration type, the grade change toggle and the ramp metering designation. The table 

includes only “on-ramps”. No data are available for “off-ramps”. Ramps may be configured in 

several ways with different operating behavior occurring on each. The most prominent types are 

the “Diamond” configuration or the “Loop” or “Cloverloop” configuration. The “Diamond” 

configuration typically has higher speed and acceleration operation than the “Loop” 

configuration. A ramp may also be “metered” by a traffic light at the end of the ramp that 

controls access to the freeway. The final ramp configuration is the “Transition” ramp. It occurs 

when one freeway transitions to another freeway. The individual cycles are also denoted by the 

general grade change of the ramp. Three possibilities are provided for the “Diamond” and 

“Loop” configurations. 

7. MOVES Project Example #4 

This final example is not a specific MOVES example, but is instead a possible 

generalized / conceptualized use case for the MOVES Project Level domain. The MOVES 

Project Level domain is structured to operate, calculate and report at the LINK level. 

Traditionally, the term LINK implies a section of road or a road-type. However, it can also be 

thought of in the MOVES context as an individual vehicle operating on a set of roadways or an 

individual vehicle making as ‘trip’. In this context, the drive cycle becomes the entire speedtime operation of an individual vehicle over a road network. Any start or extended idle operation 

is represented in the off-network. Several other parameters can be made more specific by 

narrowing the runspec to certain source types or fuel types, and if necessary creating additional 

runspecs and Project Level inputs to include all of the desired source types or fuel types . Thus, 

a Project domain could consist of thousands of individual vehicles operating over the road 

network. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency PageG-11 

 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix H - County Data Manager Example and Basic MySQL Queries for 

Analyzing Output 

1. Explanation of Scenario 3 

The County Data Manager is expected to be used extensively by users, particularly by 

nonattainment or maintenance areas when conducting SIP or conformity analyses. This tool 

provides the user the ability to import and edit local data, rather than using MOVES defaults. 

This appendix will also go through the MOVESOutput table in the MySQL Query Browser to 

give users some basic queries that can be used for their own analyses. 

In this scenario, the County Data Manager is used to construct a RunSpec using areaspecific data. The area being modeled will be a custom domain. While there are some 

differences between using the custom domain option and selecting an individual county, the 

basic operation of the County Data Manager is the same. Where differences exist, this scenario 

will describe how a custom domain and a single county would be treated differently. 

2. Constructing the RunSpec 

The custom domain in this scenario will be named “Example City” and will be an ozone 

nonattainment area, so the selections and use of the County Data Manager will reflect that 

assumption. On the Pollutants and Processes panel, all processes for Volatile Organic Carbons 

(VOCs) and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX) are selected because these pollutants are associated with 

the formation of ground-level ozone. If VOCs are selected, several other pollutants and 

processes must be selected as well because they are needed when calculating VOC emissions. 

Therefore, this run contains a fair number of pollutant-processes and will take a fair amount of 

time to run (about 16 minutes on a computer with a dual-core processor), but the variety of the 

output will be useful later when analyzing the output in the MySQL Query Browser. If the user 

simply wants practice with the process of using the County Data Manager and importing files, it 

is recommended that the user select only NOX processes on the Pollutants and Processes panel 

as evaporative emissions of hydrocarbons take the most time in MOVES. 

The RunSpec should be filled out in its entirety before the County Data Manager is used. 

In this example, selections were limited to reduce the run-time of the RunSpec, but some 

variation is included to emphasize how output can be post-processed in MySQL. 

Open the file name “examplecity_2013_july.mrs” (located in the c:\Program 

Files\MOVES20100826\USER_Guide_Example_Files\City Example folder) to view the 

RunSpec and to create an output database using the General output panel (e.g. 

examplecity_2013_july_out). Then select the RunSpec Geographic Bounds panel and notice 

that Custom Domains require the user provide additional information about the area. Users can 

change any of these fields (except County ID because the input files have countyID=99001), but 

should be aware that doing so will result in different emission results. Next, click the “Enter/Edit 

Data” button to open the County Data Manager window. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page H-1 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

3. Using the County Data Manager 

With the County Data Manager open, name and create a user-input database (e.g. 

examplecity_2013_july_in). 

Caution! If any changes are made to the RunSpec after the database has been created, the 

database may no longer be correct for the revised RunSpec. This is because some 

“core” tables are populated based on the selections in the RunSpec at the time of the 

creation of the database and these core tables can only be changed directly in 

MySQL (i.e., there are no tabs to edit these core tables). Users should take care in 

if changing the RunSpec while using an existing database and should always 

double-check the tab headers to ensure all the necessary data has been provided 

after making a change to the RunSpec. 

Next, notice that the Generic, Ramp Fraction, Zone Road Activity, and I/M Programs 

tabs all start with green checks for different reasons. For Ramp Fraction, the default fraction of 

8% of VHT is applied if no data is imported on this tab, but users can import new values if 

desired. The Zone Road Activity tab erroneously shows a green check, but data MUST be 

imported for MOVES to calculate results properly; a value of 1 should be entered for the 

SHOAllocFactor for each road type so that all of the VMT input by the user is assigned to the 

custom domain. Finally, the I/M Programs tab starts with a green check because there are no 

default programs in the custom domain that have to be accounted for. Of these 4 tabs, data will 

be imported for Zone Road Activity and I/M Programs. 

For all other tabs, files containing the area-specific data must be imported. The importing 

process is the same for all the tabs, so it is explained generally in the next paragraph. The Excel 

files containing the example area-specific data are included as part of the MOVES installation 

pack and have the following naming convention: 

examplecity_2013_july_[TABNAME].xls 

Users can open the files before importing them to view how the data is formatted and can 

refer to the supporting worksheets for clarification on the numerical codes or abbreviations. 

Notice that for some files, wildcards are used to greatly reduce the number of rows that have to 

be entered (e.g. Average Speed Distribution - 64 with wildcards vs. 11,520 without). 

Importing the files is straightforward - simply click the “Browse” button, find where the 

file is saved, and select the appropriate file for the tab (i.e. if working in the “Age Distribution” 

tab, select the file “examplecity_2013_july_agedistribution.xls”). After the file has been 

selected, a small pop-up window appears: 

Page H-2 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Select the correct worksheet (in this example, it will generally be the first worksheet 

listed and will usually have a name similar to the tab name) and click "OK." For the Vehicle 

Type VMT tab, there are four worksheets within the file 

“examplecity_2013_july_vehicletypevmt.xls” that should be imported: HPMSVTypeYear, 

monthVMTFraction, dayVMTFraction, and hourVMTFraction. The names of the worksheets 

correspond to the names of the database tables for which data is being provided. 

Next click the “Import” button. The “Messages” box should say which table was 

imported and “Import Complete.” If there were problems with the import, error messages here 

would describe the problem. In case of error, the user should revise the input file, save the 

changes, and then click the “Clear Imported Data” button before reattempting the import. 

The above menu is an example where one worksheet is selected from one Excel file, 

which is typical. However, importing data for the Vehicle Type VMT tab, requires the 

vehicletypevmt.xls file to be selected 4 times, once each for year, month day and hour data, and 

all 4 types of data are Imported separately. 

The County Domain Manager can be used to input data for a custom domain (as shown in 

this example) or a specific county. Currently, the only difference is that the custom domain 

option includes a “Zone Road Activity” tab. This tab exists to allow the Source Hours Operating 

(SHO) to be allocated to different zones within a custom domain; however, this capability is not 

fully implemented in MOVES and values of 1 should be entered for all road types within the 

zone. 

Once all the files have been imported, the database tables have been populated. Click 

“Done” in the County Data Manager to return to the Geographic Bounds panel. Make sure the 

user-input database is selected in the Domain Input Database section of the Geographic 

Bounds panel. The RunSpec and county-input database have both been completed, so the 

RunSpec can now be executed by selecting Execute from the Action drop-down menu. 

4. Analyzing the Results in the MySQL Query Browser 

First, a brief summary of the major pieces of the MySQL Query Browser. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page H-3 
January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

The top left box is the Query Area, bottom left is the Data Area, and top right is the List of 

Databases/Tables. The tables within a database can be revealed by clicking the black triangle 

just to the left of the database name. There are queries below that have the following syntax: 

SELECT * FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`[table]`; 

These queries can be auto-generated by dragging the table name from the right-hand List of 

Tables and dropping it in the Query Area or Data Area. If the table name is dropped in the 

Query Area, the text for the query is generated, but the query it self is not executed; so the user 

must either click the Execute button (lightning bolt) or press CTRL + Enter. However, if the 

table name is dropped in the Data Area, the query will be generated in the Query Area and autoexecuted with results immediately appearing in the Data Area. 

Now that some of the basics have been covered, the results from the example can be 

analyzed. Listed below are MySQL Queries and some discussion of the results they generate. 

Users should be able to copy and paste the queries into the Query Area of MySQL as long as the 

output database name is “examplecity_2013_july_out”; if the user provided a different output 

database name, that name should be used wherever “examplecity_2013_july_out” appears. 

1) SELECT * FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`moveserror`; 

Users can look at the MOVESError log to make sure the run executed normally. There should 

be no results from this query. 

Page H-4 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

2) SELECT * FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`movesrun`; 

The MOVESRun table gives some basic information about the RunSpec, the description, the 

date and length of time, etc. If there are multiple runs in the database, there will be multiple 

MOVESRunID entries here. 

3) SELECT * FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`movesactivityoutput`; 

The MOVESActivityOutput table contains all the activity results from the RunSpec and should 

have 1446 rows (there is a bar below the data area that tells you how many rows a query returns). 

In the RunSpec, the distance traveled and population options were selected. Both of these values 

were inputs, so let’s make sure the input values were carried through to the output correctly. 

Population is easier, so we’ll look at that first. 

4) SELECT sourcetypeID, SUM(activity) AS population 

FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`movesactivityoutput` 

WHERE activitytypeID=6 

GROUP BY sourcetypeid 

ORDER BY sourcetypeid; 

You’ll notice the query has gotten more complicated, but it can be easily explained. The first 

line is the SELECT statement, which states the fields from the table that will be displayed. Since 

population is not time dependent and we’re only looking at one county, the only important field 

is the sourcetypeID itself; however, a sum of the activity is required because output was 

differentiated by fuel type, but that is not of interest right now. The SUM(activity) will be 

renamed in the resulting table “AS population”. The second line is the FROM statement, which 

just identifies the database and table that should be used. The third line is the WHERE clause, 

which specifies that only activitytypeID=6 should be used when querying the table (since we’re 

just looking at population). The fourth line is the GROUP BY clause, which is used when a sum 

is calculated. Since the clause says, “GROUP BY sourcetypeid”, all data of different source 

types will be kept separated, but any data within the same source type will be summed (so the 

different populations for each fuel type will be added together). The fifth row is the ORDER BY 

clause, which simply states the order in which the resulting information will appear. 

The resulting table from this query should have just 3 rows and the populations should be (after 

rounding) 500,000; 300,000; and 50,000 for source types 21, 31 and 32, respectively. These 

values match the populations that were imported. 

5) SELECT dayid,sourcetypeid, SUM(activity)*dayID*31/7 AS PortionofMonthVMT 

FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`movesactivityoutput` 

WHERE sourcetypeid=21 AND activitytypeid=1 

GROUP BY dayid 

ORDER BY dayid; 

This statement is the beginning to calculate the VMT for passenger cars (sourcetypeid=21), but 

doing so is not a straight-forward process and that fact can be seen in the SUM statement above 

(notice that the GROUP BY clause only has dayid because the WHERE clause identifies that 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page H-5 
 

January 2010 MOVES2010 User Guide 

only 1 sourcetypeid will be queried, so grouping by sourcetypeid is not necessary, but would not 

affect the query if it were included). The temporal output for the RunSpec is hour, so that means 

the VMT output was originally for one hour of one of the types of days; therefore, the VMT 

should be summed within the dayID to get the total for that type of day. Then, this query adds 

two additional steps: 1) by multiplying by the dayid, the product is the VMT on that type of day 

in a week; and 2) by multiplying by 31/7 (the number of days in July divided by the number of 

days in the days in a week), which is the number of weeks in July, this second product gives the 

VMT on that type of day in the entire month. 

The resulting table should have just 2 rows as can be seen in the table below. An additional 

column has been added using an Excel spreadsheet to sum the VMT from the two types of days. 

dayid sourcetypeid PortionofMonthVMT MonthVMT 

2 21 1.21E+08 

5 21 3.44E+08 4.65E+08 

The monthVMTFraction table assigned a value of 1 to July, so the VMT that was input was 

essentially a monthly VMT for July and we can see that the MonthVMT is equal to the value that 

was input for HPMSVTypeID of 20 (examplecity_2013_july_vehicletypevmt.xls, worksheet 

“HPMSVTypeYear”). There are ways to calculate the MonthVMT entirely within MySQL, but 

that involves either creating tables or using subqueries, which is beyond the scope of this 

example. Therefore, once users get to this point, use of an external spreadsheet tool is 

recommended, unless the user is familiar with more complex MySQL queries. 

More detail can be acquired using the query above as a template (e.g., adding “roadtypeID” to 

the SELECT, GROUP BY, and ORDER BY clauses to see the VMT on each road type to make 

sure the road type distribution was applied correctly; calculating VMT for HPMSVTypeID=30). 

Users are encouraged to experiment with the query above to improve their MySQL skills and 

better understand how to compare inputs with outputs to make sure the results are logical. 

6) SELECT * FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`movesoutput`; 

This table should contain 23432 rows and gives all the emissions output with a significant 

amount of detail since output is differentiated by fuel type, emission process, road type, and 

source type. Therefore, using MySQL to condense the results holds great potential for 

simplifying the post-processing. 

7) SELECT monthid, pollutantid, SUM(emissionquant) AS grams 

FROM `examplecity_2013_july_out`.`movesoutput` 

WHERE dayid=5 AND pollutantid IN (3,87) 

GROUP BY dayid, pollutantid 

ORDER BY pollutantid; 

This query will greatly simplify the original output table from 23,000 rows to 2, but a major 

reason for this is that not all the data is being reported. 

Page H-6 United States Environmental Protection Agency 
MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

monthid pollutantid grams 

7 3 2.11E+07 

7 87 1.21E+07 

Some assumptions were made to reduce the reported output that may be similar to those users 

will make in their analyses, such as only a single weekday is being looked at and the only 

pollutants of interest are NOX (3) and VOCs (87). Notice that in the WHERE clause that a new 

command was used, “pollutantid in (3,87)”; the IN command is a more concise way of saying 

“pollutantid=3 AND pollutantid=87” and can be used with any field that has multiple entries. 

Once again, users are encouraged to vary this query to see the results for different conditions 

(e.g. choose other pollutants; see emission results from each source type or on the different road 

types; etc.). 

United States Environmental Protection Agency Page H-7 

MOVES2010 User Guide January 2010 

Appendix I – MOVES DECODER 

United States Environmental Protection Agency PageI-1