Integrated life cycle assessment of permeable pavement: Model development and case study

Abstract

The permeable pavement has exceptional environmental benefits compared to the traditional hardening pavement. However, few studies have been conducted on the evaluation of the life cycle impacts of permeable pavement. By developing an integrated life cycle evaluation method, this paper aims to comprehensively evaluate the life cycle benefits of permeable pavement from the perspective of both the economic cost and the environmental impact, thus realizing a comprehensive trade-off of impacts of permeable pavement. In the case study, the economic cost and environmental impact of Permeable Asphalt pavement (PA) and Dense-graded Asphalt pavement (DA) with different traffic volumes and structures are compared under the same functional unit and environmental conditions. The results show that PA's high investment in raw material and maintenance makes its economic cost higher than DA, whereas the environmental benefits are considerable. However, the results of the uncertainty analysis indicate that the application of PA still needs caution when the environmental conditions are unstable. This study can act as a supplement to the existing life cycle research of the permeable pavement, and provide theoretical support and reference for its further promotion and application.