Life cycle assessment tools for road design: analysing linearity assumptions

TL;DR

This paper reviews transport life cycle assessment tools for roads, highlighting their reliance on linear assumptions, and emphasizes the need for integrating these tools into the design process to improve sustainability.

Contribution

It critically analyzes existing tools' data sources, methods, and limitations, and identifies the gap in non-linear modeling and integration with road design.

Findings

Road area correlates with emissions

Slope adjustments can reduce emissions

Soil type impacts emissions

Abstract

Road infrastructure significantly impacts how people move and live and the emissions associated with travel behaviour. The design of roads is crucial in mitigating emissions. This paper reviews existing transport life cycle assessment tools that have been developed by various entities and can be used for roads. The review focuses on data sources used in the analysis, methods of estimating carbon dioxide emissions, the underlying software that is used to make the estimates, and any limitations of the tools. A critical issue identified in life cycle assessment analysis is the erroneous assumption that relationships within the assessed systems are linear. The current tools focusing on transport infrastructure assessment were developed based on the linear assumptions and limitations of the life cycle assessment analysis. A significant research gap identified is that existing life cycle assessment tools are not integrated with the design process. The analysis is an add-on process to design and the results of an assessment are not then used iteratively to enhance the design. A case study on aggregate road design found that road area significantly correlates with emissions, slope adjustments reduce emissions, and soil type impacts emissions, suggesting future research should explore non-linear relationships for sustainable road design.