Is cement pavement more sustainable than permeable brick pavement? A case study for Jinan, China

Abstract

As an integral part of sponge city construction, permeable brick pavement can effectively alleviate the urban water issues such as urban waterlogging and groundwater resources shortage. The emergy accounting method is employed in this study to comprehensively evaluate the sustainable development capacity of the cement pavement and permeable brick pavement during the construction stage and operation stage. The results showed that the sustainable development capacity of two pavements is very low. This is because the consumption of a large amount of non-renewable resources during the construction stage. On the contrary, the sustainable development capability of the permeable brick pavement is much higher than that of the cement pavement during the operation stage due to its ability to capture rainwater. Indeed, its own Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI) reached 3044.4 times of that during the construction stage. Therefore, it is feasible to use of permeable bricks for sponge city development, which can improve the sustainability performance of the city effectively. In addition, the suitable conditions for the construction of permeable brick pavement are analyzed from the perspective of resource constraints. The design approaches are also proposed to achieve the optimal design of permeable brick pavement and the minimum demand for rainwater in sponge city development. These findings can provide useful references for the development of sponge cities and the formulation of local policies.