A study on analysis of the environmental load impact factors in the planning stage for highway project

Abstract

In regards to the guideline for computing carbon emission amount by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) and existing studies on the computation of environmental load of road facilities, they present computation methods based on construction output volume finalized after the design development. Accordingly, they are not being helpful in the decision making of the environmental economics of road facilities in the planning stage in which specific information on construction output volume is lacking. Based on literature analysis of existing studies and consultation from a group of construction environmental professionals, 12 types of property information considered to be related to environmental load were selected from an inventory of information that will be available in the road planning stage. In addition, multiple regression analysis was performed based on the environmental load computed through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of 40 national highway project cases of Korea to deduce five impact factors of environmental load in the road facilities planning stage, namely administrative district, road height, road division, geographical feature and design speed. This paper presented a foundation on which environmental economics can be assessed by quantifying in the planning stage environmental load expected to occur from road construction project.