Galatioto, F, Huang, Y orcid.org/0000-0002-1220-6896, Parry, T et al. (2 more authors) (2015) Traffic modelling in system boundary expansion of road pavement life cycle assessment. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 36. pp. 65-75. ISSN 1361-9209
Abstract
This paper uses a case study of a UK inter-urban road, to explore the impact of extending the system boundary of road pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) to include increased traffic emissions due to delays during maintenance. Some previous studies have attempted this but have been limited to hypothetical scenarios or simplified traffic modelling, with no validation or sensitivity analysis. In this study, micro-simulation modelling of traffic was used to estimate emissions caused by delays at road works, for several traffic management options. The emissions were compared to those created by the maintenance operation, estimated using an LCA model. In this case study, the extra traffic emissions caused by delays at road works are relatively small, compared to those from the maintenance process, except for hydrocarbon emissions. However, they are generally close to, or above, the materiality threshold recommended in PAS2050 for estimating carbon footprints, and reach 5–10% when traffic flow levels are increased (hypothetically) or when traffic management is imposed outside times of lowest traffic flow. It is recommended, therefore, that emissions due to traffic disruption at road works should be included within the system boundary of road pavement LCA and carbon footprint studies and should be considered in developing guidelines for environmental product declarations of road pavement maintenance products and services.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Life cycle assessment; System boundary expansion; Road works; Microsimulation; Pollutant emissions; Sensitivity analysis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jul 2018 12:46 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:25 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.trd.2015.02.007 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:132946 |