MOVES4 Hands-on Training Course

EPA’s MOVES4 Hands-on Training Course contains detailed information on how to use MOVES. This course will provide you with understanding of MOVES’ modeling capabilities and input data needs, how to decide on a modeling strategy, how to use MOVES to estimate both onroad and nonroad emissions, and how and when to apply relevant EPA guidance.

This course covers MOVES at all three scales: Default, County, and Project, with an emphasis on using the County Scale for state implementation plans (SIPs) and regional conformity analyses based on the MOVES4 Technical Guidance (pdf) (1.3 MB, August 2023, EPA-420-B-23-011).

This course has been updated based for MOVES4.0.1 and includes a new module on modeling greenhouse gases.

EPA’s training materials have been designed so that the course can be self-guided. The materials, especially the training slides, also serve as a useful reference for MOVES modelers.

Course Materials

• MOVES4 Hands-on Training Slides (pdf) (13.92 MB, June 2024) The presentation has 11 modules; it is provided as a single PDF to make it easier to search for desired topics.
• MOVES4 Training Course files (zip) (June 2024) The ZIP file includes files needed for the hands-on exercises as well as other references. We recommend downloading and unzipping it to your desktop.

Course Prerequisites

• Download and install the latest version of MOVES4, which is needed to do the hands-on exercises.
• The latest version of Excel is recommended to utilize all features of MOVES’ spreadsheet tools.

Course Outline

• Module 1: Introduction to MOVES
  • General MOVES overview and strategies for running MOVES
  • Introduction to the MOVES GUI
• Module 2: Default Scale
  • Explanation of the MOVES RunSpec
  • Hands-on exercise building a Default Scale RunSpec
• Module 3: Generating Inventories at the County Scale
  • Relevant guidance for County Scale runs
  • Explanation of MOVES inputs at the County Scale
  • Hands-on exercise using the County Data Manager to create an input database and running MOVES
• Module 4: Processing MOVES Output
  • Discuss MOVES output tables
  • Post Processing menu
  • Hands-on exercise writing SQL scripts and using HeidiSQL
• Module 5: Review and Best Practices
  • Best practices for managing files
  • What to look for when reviewing MOVES runs
• Module 6: Emission Rates for County Scale Analyses
  • Discuss differences between rates/inventory
  • Considerations for input files
  • Hands-on exercise using emission rates output to build an inventory
• Module 7: Project Scale Analyses
  • Overview and relevant guidance for Project Scale analyses
  • Explanation of MOVES inputs at the Project Scale
  • Hands-on exercise using Project Scale to model a small transportation project
• Module 8: Capstone Exercise
  • Develop a county level inventory for a given scenario
• Module 9: Modeling Nonroad Emissions
  • Options for modeling nonroad emissions
  • Hands-on exercise using a post-processing script to estimate a nonroad inventory
• Module 10: Modeling Greenhouse Gases
  • Options for using MOVES to model greenhouse gas emissions
  • Hands-on exercise using Default Scale with local VMT and vehicle population
• Module 11: Special Cases and Additional Examples
  • Using Emission Rates mode to create a lookup table of rates by temperature
  • Accessing MOVES output in Excel

Questions about the course can be directed to mobile@epa.gov.