Transport-related environmental problems continue to constitute a major challenge to policy makers at all levels. A key feature of these problems is that they arise from the interaction of human behavioral systems and physical systems. Thus, to improve our understanding of environmental and health problems associated with vehicle emissions it is necessary to combine data on both travel and traffic behavior with environmental data linked to the corresponding spatial and temporal variables. There are currently no such databases available. A new low-cost real-time device is currently under development utilizing the latest developments in environmental monitoring, navigation, communications, data mining and warehousing to capture spatio-temporally referenced data on vehicle and driver performance and the level of emissions and concentrations. Because of the need to acquire data in all environments, there are potential limitations in using a global satellite navigation system such as GPS to determine the spatial and temporal data in built-up areas. Therefore, an augmentation strategy involving differential GPS and new low-cost dead reckoning sensors utilizing micro-electromechanical systems technology has been explored. This paper presents a high-level description of the real-time vehicle performance and emissions monitoring system, and details the results of a study carried out to characterize the performance of stand-alone and augmented GPS, and assess whether the required navigation performance is achievable. The study characterized the performance of different types of stand-alone GPS receivers and GPS augmented with differential infrastructure and low-cost dead reckoning sensors. The performance indicators used were satellite visibility, coverage, accuracy and integrity. The results highlight the weaknesses and differences in performance, depending on the type of GPS receiver used and shows that, unlike GPS alone, an integrated system employing GPS and low-cost dead reckoning sensors is capable of meeting the required navigation performance in built-up areas. Furthermore, no significant difference in accuracy between standalone GPS and differential GPS has been seen.