Carbon emission quantification and reduction in pavement use phase: A review

Abstract

The carbon emissions arising from road pavement infrastructures have emerged as critical issue in recent years. The life cycle of a pavement can be divided into five phases, namely raw materials and production, construction, use, maintenance and end of life. While the use phase generates the highest carbon emissions throughout the pavement's life cycle, it is usually neglected in most pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) studies due to its complexity and uncertainty. Therefore, this review selected 126 relevant references, focuses on quantification methods, influential factors and reduction technologies of carbon emissions in pavement use phase. Among the carbon accounting approached, the LCA approach, remains the most widely used for evaluating the environmental impact of pavements. Second, the primary influential factors on the use phase' carbon emission include pavement-vehicle interaction primarily affected by pavement roughness, pavement albedo and climate change. Most influential factors above indirectly cause changes in carbon emissions by influencing the pavement performance and subsequent vehicle emissions. Finally, the review surveys carbon emission reduction technologies during pavement use phase, focusing mainly on reducing pavement rolling resistance and constructing cool pavements. Reflective pavements and permeable pavements are the most widely used cool pavement technologies. Overall, the aspects involved in this paper hold significant promise for quantifying and reducing carbon emissions in the pavement use phase.