Material flow analysis study of asphalt in an Austrian municipality

Abstract

The large quantity and long service time of construction has a crucial impact on the flow of resources during construction, maintenance, and at the end of life. Reducing waste disposal and increasing recycling rates consequently reduce the consumption of primary raw materials. Hence, through material flow and stock analysis, material consumption, waste generation, and waste utilization can be quantified. Previous research on the material turnover in the transportation infrastructure sector focused on well‐developed cities or countries and showed that maintenance has an increasing contribution to the material input and output. The present study investigated the anthropogenic flows and stocks of asphalt in the road network of an Austrian municipality. The material flow analysis was based on detailed construction reports, regional expert estimations, simulations, and literature. The retrospective analysis from 2006 to 2020 revealed that the asphalt stock of the municipality is constantly increasing through semierratic input and output flows of asphalt. Maintenance of the road network through reconstruction made a major contribution to the stock increase due to improving the road layout. Asphalt outputs of the municipality are reclaimed asphalt, excess asphalt during construction, and asphalt dispersed from the road due to deterioration. The flow into the environment is often neglected but diminishes the potential recycling amount, contributes to dust pollution, and is a source of microplastic. Reclaimed asphalt was not utilized in new asphalt mixtures in the municipality, as it was downcycled and applied as granular material. Several factors, including regional circumstances, were identified for downcycling. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

Research Foundation and Hotspot Analysis of Urban Road Ecology—A Bibliometric Study Based on CiteSpace

“…Cluster #3 introduces the Austrian municipality, focusing on subjects such as material flow analysis study, the transport sector, material stock development, and noise footprint. Grossegger quantitatively analyzed the material flow and inventory of asphalt in the road network of a city in Austria [44]. Cluster #4 discusses the temporal residential density pattern, with a main emphasis on subjects such as North Central, the analytical hierarchy process, urban sprawl susceptibility analysis, and Sialkot city.…”

“…Some changes in roadside plants can also affect the survival and habitat of some local animals. Subsequently, more specific and in-depth analysis of the impacts of road traffic, such as sound (e.g., the road noise classification study conducted by Brown et al [40]), lighting, economy (e.g., Grossegger's study on urban asphalt depots [44]), materials (e.g., Du and Murray's study on the impact of road deicing salts on mosquitoes [49]), and other impacts on ecosystems, received more attention. Some ecological research methods and mathematical models have also been used to evaluate road ecology, such as the SPROADI model based on some ecological indices introduced by Freudenberger et al [39].…”

Material Stock and Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Global and Urban Road Pavement

“…Moreover, population and economic activities are concentrated in urban areas requiring large stock and flows of materials . Drivers behind roads networks and their development have been explored through multivariable regression models of road length at the national level , or power-law scaling relationships between road length/road surface and the city size (often described by its population). − Understanding the relationship between material use and socio-economic characteristics of urban areas becomes crucial to develop strategies for reducing material use and greenhouse gas emissions in urban environments.…”