Engineering Analysis Impact on Carbon Emission Reduction of an Infrastructure Project: A Case Study of Semantok Dam Project

Abstract

Semantok Dam located in Semantok River Stream, Nganjuk District, East Java. Dominated by lowlands and mountains, the 1900-hectare fertile agricultural land will be irrigated by this nominated “The Longest Dam in Southeast Asia”. The construction of this three kilometers long dam requires enormous resources of rockfills as the dominant material to build the main dam body. While the process of excavation, mobilization, and material settings are the dominant contributor aspects of the project’s carbon footprint, at the same time this project encounter a challenge on insufficiency of existing quarry. This situation drives a comprehensive strategy not only to find the most efficient and accessible material, but also to minimize and mitigate environmental damage, ultimately by reducing the material carbon footprint. Thus, an innovative engineering solution is applied to overcome this challenge such as utilizing the available material in surrounding project site which is random rock soil by using geotechnical analysis tools for design optimization and material usage simulation also collaborating with Building Information Modeling (BIM) to visualize and calculate the estimated cost. Eventually, this analysis plays a big role in ensuring the environmental sustainability in an infrastructure project by deciding the appropriate alternative which produce the least carbon emission