Integration LCA, BIM and GIS for minimizing embodied emissions of Road

The Norwegian Government’s long-term target is to become carbon neutral by 2050. The transport sector is identified as one of the key areas to realize this target. The direct emissions from fossil fuel combustion of vehicles... [ view full abstract ]

The Norwegian Government’s long-term target is to become carbon neutral by 2050. The transport sector is identified as one of the key areas to realize this target. The direct emissions from fossil fuel combustion of vehicles will be significantly reduced through the electrification. The question of the emissions embodied in the transport infrastructure, however, remains. This is especially true for emissions stemming from construction, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure in Norway, as a low population density country with fjord and mountain landscape.

Life cycle emissions of building and infrastructure can be divided in two: 1) operational – emissions due to the occupation/operation of buildings (including heating/cooling, ventilation, hot water, etc.); 2) embodied –the emissions due to the construction, maintenance, renovation, and demolition of built environment. To achieve the green shift of built environment, the significant role of embodied energy and emissions has been recognized. This is because that 1) more energy efficient building technologies, more advanced and effective insulation materials, and more energy efficient equipment and appliances are implemented (Dixit et al., 2010, Sartori and Hestnes, 2007). 2) For the 'unoccupied' built environment such as road, embodied emissions accounts for over 90% of life cycle emission (Huang et al., 2015, Maguire, 2009, Stephan and Stephan, 2016). There are a number of studies to develop tools and database on embodied and life cycle emissions for road transport, such as LICCER in Nordic. Equally, digital tools and information are used for sustainable road development over past decades. Building information modelling (BIM) is “a set of interacting policies, processes and technologies generating a methodology to manage the essential building design and project data in digital format throughout the building's life-cycle (Succar, 2009). However, the knowledge gap on how we can use digital information to support minimising the embodied emissions of road. To fix such gap, this paper aims to establish a fundamental understanding of the driving force of embodied emissions of road traffic by integrating the existing information system (GIS, BIM) and life cycle assessment based on the a case study on E6 in Norway.

Discovering and visualisation the embodied emissions through integrated platform will facilitate sustainability enabled in the road transport sector. The developed holistic assessment model will help to minimize the embodied emission in Norwegian road stock and then better planning, construction and maintenance with less emission. The knowledge developed through the project will be beneficial to a wide range of public sector and industry, not only for road transport authorities and industry but also for mapping authorities, ICT industry, and so on.