Sustainability assessment of transport infrastructure outside urban areas
In cooperation with CBI (organizational partner) as well as DGNB and Autobahn GmbH
Project description
Climate change is a major challenge, both at international and national level. In this context, the EU has set ambitious targets such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2050, so there is an acute need for action to achieve these goals.
The construction sector not only has a major impact on the economy and society, but also on the environment, for example through the generation of emissions and waste and the consumption of resources. Within the construction sector, road infrastructure plays a central role in achieving European and German sustainability goals.
Although sustainability assessment of infrastructures is not a new topic, it has not yet been implemented in the road infrastructure sector in Germany. International studies also show that there is no uniform approach for the definition and application of scientifically based sustainability criteria for transport infrastructure so far. Currently, various stakeholders have shown interest in applying a system to design, build and operate more sustainable highways. However, there is not yet a system that provides a fair comparison of potential paving alternatives across the life cycle and addresses the most important aspects of transportation infrastructure projects.
The goal of this project is to define holistic sustainability criteria for transport infrastructure. These criteria will encompass the three pillars of sustainability, environmental, economic and social. The first step is to lay the groundwork for the assessment by defining a single functional unit and uniform system boundaries. Case studies are then defined to identify environmental, economic, and social hotspots. Hotspots are processes that have the greatest impact on the sustainability performance of different project types. These hotspots will be used to identify specific criteria to be incorporated into the evaluation and certification of road projects.
