Sustainable Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements

Dear Colleagues,

Pavements, as an important part of infrastructure systems, can contribute significantly to global warming and environmental pollution in terms of air, water and creating a heat island effect. The focus on environmental effects of pavements has been growing during recent decades as global efforts to reduce climate change have intensified. As part of efforts to understand the effects of pavement sector and its branches on the environment, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used extensively to evaluate pavement construction effects and to quantify its impacts on environment. These efforts have been made through proposing novel methods to conduct LCA, how to change the scope of study to include a wider range of pavement life cycle and considering more environmentally friendly alternative materials for pavement instead of traditional materials.

Therefore, it is timely to foster a strong body of literature which covers different aspects of pavement sustainability and novel approaches towards lower environmental impact of pavement construction and the material sector. The purpose of this Special Issue, titled “Sustainable Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements”, is to open discussion into novel approaches to conduct LCA of pavements and to evaluate effective parameters on long-term impact of pavement construction, materials and design on climate change and the environment as well as society, as one of the pillars of sustainability. We propose the following topics as a guide for authors to initiate a more target-oriented discussion:

• Sustainable life cycle inventory analysis;
• Novel pavement LCA methods (heuristic and probabilistic methods);
• Novel approaches to quantify sustainable impacts of pavements;
• Comprehensive scope of study definition in LCA of pavements;
• Improving sustainability of pavements using novel materials;
• Role of policy and policy makers on improvement of pavement sustainability;
• Comparative life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis of pavements;
• Novel construction techniques to improve pavement sustainability;
• Use of intelligent devices to improve pavement sustainability.

Dr. Alireza Samieadel
Dr. Amir Golroo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• pavement
• management
• life cycle assessment
• sustainability
• asphalt
• concrete