Special Issue "Green Roadways and Management Sustainability"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Andrew Shing-Tao Chang
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
Interests: green roadways; sustainability indicators; corporate social responsibility reporting
Prof. Dr. Chaohui Wang
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Interests: green pavement materials; intelligent pavement technology; solid waste utilization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development objectives have been applied to infrastructure in recent years, after being widely used for green buildings. The transport sector contributed 14% of total energy-related emissions in the world in 2010. As a part of transportation infrastructure, roadways utilize resources, consume energy, and generate carbon emissions. Thus, designing and constructing green roadways to reduce environmental impacts has become an important issue.

The achievement of sustainability objectives for roadway projects can be assessed using a sustainability rating system with a set of indicators to distinguish the levels of sustainability achieved. Indicators often used in the roadway rating systems include runoff, materials, emissions, waste, stormwater management, environmental management system (EMS), etc. These indicators are related to the sustainability issues that are usually encountered during roadway design and construction.  

From analyzing the above sample indicators, sustainability can be improved by using three methods: materials, technology, and management. Especially for construction, using the right materials can reduce emissions and waste. Using technology to reduce waste can save resources. Management also contributes—for example, implementing EMSs to control jobsite pollution. In early days, materials and technology were researched tremendously to address environmental impacts. Management methods have not been studied much, but they can be less costly and sometimes more effective to address sustainability today.

This Special Issue addresses the above issues and aims to gather recent studies that advance the knowledge about green roadways and management sustainability. Green roadways can supplement green buildings to reduce the heat island effect in urban cities. Management supplements materials and technology methods in sustainability enhancement. This Issue encourages the submission of academic, empirical, and case study research focusing on the keywords below.

  • Green roadways;
  • Green design and construction;
  • Management sustainability;
  • Sustainable transportation infrastructure;
  • Green buildings;
  • Sustainability rating systems;
  • Sustainable performance indicators;
  • Material use reduction;
  • Sustainable management techniques;
  • Sustainability improvement methods;
  • Waste management and recycling;
  • Pollution prevention and control.
Prof. Dr. Andrew Shing-Tao Chang
Prof. Dr. Chaohui Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

 

Keywords

  • green roadways
  • green design and construction
  • management sustainability
  • sustainable transportation infrastructure
  • green buildings
  • sustainability rating systems
  • sustainable performance indicators
  • material use reduction
  • sustainable management techniques
  • sustainability improvement methods
  • waste management and recycling
  • pollution prevention and control.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
Road Performance and Emission Reduction Effect of Graphene/Tourmaline-Composite-Modified Asphalt
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8932; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168932 - 10 Aug 2021
Viewed by 259
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to further improve the road performance and emission reduction effect of tourmaline-modified asphalt. Graphene was used to enhance the performance of tourmaline-modified asphalt, and graphene/tourmaline-composite-modified asphalt was prepared. The temperature susceptibility, high temperature, anti-aging properties and rheological [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study is to further improve the road performance and emission reduction effect of tourmaline-modified asphalt. Graphene was used to enhance the performance of tourmaline-modified asphalt, and graphene/tourmaline-composite-modified asphalt was prepared. The temperature susceptibility, high temperature, anti-aging properties and rheological performance of the modified asphalt were studied. The test method of emission reduction efficiency of the modified asphalt and its mixture was proposed. The emission reduction effect of different modified asphalts and its mixture was evaluated. The enhancement effect of graphene on the properties of tourmaline-modified asphalt was confirmed. It provides a reference for the performance enhancement of inorganic material modified asphalt. The results show that the temperature susceptibility, high temperature, anti-aging properties and rheological performance of the graphene/tourmaline-composite-modified asphalt are better than those of the tourmaline-modified asphalt and base asphalt. The asphalt fume reduction rate of graphene/tourmaline-composite-modified asphalt is higher than that of tourmaline-modified asphalt. With the increase of graphene content, the emission reduction performance increases gradually, and the enhancement effect of graphene on tourmaline performance is more obvious. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Roadways and Management Sustainability)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Investigation of the Formation Mechanism and Environmental Risk of Tire—Pavement Wearing Waste (TPWW)
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8172; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158172 - 21 Jul 2021
Viewed by 343
Abstract
Tire—pavement interaction behaviours result in large amounts of wearing waste matter, which attaches to the surface of the pavement and is directly exposed to the surrounding environment. This kind of matter imposes a great challenge to the environment of the road area. The [...] Read more.
Tire—pavement interaction behaviours result in large amounts of wearing waste matter, which attaches to the surface of the pavement and is directly exposed to the surrounding environment. This kind of matter imposes a great challenge to the environment of the road area. The current study is devoted to carrying out a comprehensive investigation of the formation mechanism of tire—pavement wearing waste (TPWW), as well as the resulting environmental risks. A self-developed piece of accelerated polishing equipment, the Harbin advanced polishing machine (HAPM), was employed to simulate the wearing process between vehicle tires and pavement surfaces, and the TPWW was collected to conduct morphological, physical, and chemical characterisations. The results from this study show that the production rate of TPWW decreases with the increase in polishing duration, and the coarse particles (diameters greater than 0.425 mm) account for most of the TPWW obtained. The fine fraction (diameter smaller than 0.425 mm) of the TPWW comprises variously sized and irregularly shaped rubber particles from the tire, as well as uniformly sized and angular fine aggregates. The environmental analysis results show that volatile alkanes (C9–C16) are the major organic contaminants in TPWW. The Open-Graded Friction Course (OGFC) asphalt mixture containing crumb rubber as a modifier showed the highest risk of heavy metal pollution, and special concern must be given to tire materials for the purpose of improving the environmental conditions of road areas. The use of polyurethane as a binder material in the production of pavement mixtures has an environmental benefit in terms of pollution from both organic contaminants and heavy metals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Roadways and Management Sustainability)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Relationships between Environmental Initiatives and Impact Reductions for Construction Companies
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 8061; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13148061 - 19 Jul 2021
Viewed by 495
Abstract
A company undertakes environmental initiatives to reduce environmental impact from their activities; however, the impact reduction effect of these initiatives is not clear. This study investigated the environmental initiatives and impact indicators disclosed in forty corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of construction companies [...] Read more.
A company undertakes environmental initiatives to reduce environmental impact from their activities; however, the impact reduction effect of these initiatives is not clear. This study investigated the environmental initiatives and impact indicators disclosed in forty corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of construction companies and determined the relationships between the initiatives and indicators. The results demonstrated that the likelihood of an initiative reducing environmental impacts was approximately 25% on average, meaning that one in four companies was able to successfully implement initiatives. The energy consumption reduction from initiatives had the highest probability, at 40%, and water consumption reduction had only 9.4%. This study contributes to making explicit relationships between initiatives and impact reductions possible. A company can verify the effectiveness of initiatives by examining the values of their corresponding indicators before implementing environmental initiatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Roadways and Management Sustainability)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Evaluation and Analysis of CFI Schemes with Different Length of Displaced Left-Turn Lanes with Entropy Method
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6917; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126917 - 19 Jun 2021
Viewed by 370
Abstract
As an unconventional design to alleviate the conflict between left-turn and through vehicles, Continuous Flow Intersection (CFI) has obvious advantages in improving the sustainability of roadway. So far, the design manuals and guidelines for CFI are not enough sufficient, especially for the displaced [...] Read more.
As an unconventional design to alleviate the conflict between left-turn and through vehicles, Continuous Flow Intersection (CFI) has obvious advantages in improving the sustainability of roadway. So far, the design manuals and guidelines for CFI are not enough sufficient, especially for the displaced left-turn lane length of CFI. And the results of existing research studies are not operational, making it difficult to put CFI into application. To address this issue, this paper presents a methodological procedure for determination and evaluation of displaced left-turn lane length based on the entropy method considering multiple performance measures for sustainable transportation, including traffic efficiency index, environment effect index and fuel consumption. VISSIM and the surrogate safety assessment model (SSAM) were used to simulate the operational and safety performance of CFI. The multi-attribute decision-making method (MADM) based on an entropy method was adopted to determine the suitability of the CFI schemes under different traffic demand patterns. Finally, the procedure was applied to a typical congested intersection of the arterial road with heavy traffic volume and high left-turn ratio in Xi’an, China, the results showed the methodological procedure is reasonable and practical. According to the results, for the studied intersection, when the Volume-to-Capacity ratio (V/C) in the westbound and eastbound lanes is less than 0.5, the length of the displaced left-turn lanes can be selected in the range of 80 to 170 m. Otherwise, other solutions should be considered to improve the traffic efficiency. The simulation results of the case showed CFI can significantly improve the traffic efficiency. In the best case, compared with the conventional intersection, the number of vehicles increases by 13%, delay, travel time, number of stops, CO emission, and fuel consumption decrease by 41%, 29%, 25%, 17%, and 17%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Roadways and Management Sustainability)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop