Quantitative Decision Making Model for Carbon Reduction in Road Construction Projects Using Green Technologies

Abstract

Numerous countries have established policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and have suggested goals pertaining to these reductions. To reach the target reduction amounts, studies on the reduction of carbon emissions have been conducted with regard to all stages and processes in construction projects. According to a study on carbon emissions, the carbon emissions generated during the construction stage of road projects account for approximately 76 to 86% of the total carbon emissions, far exceeding the other stages, such as maintenance or demolition. Therefore, this study aims to develop a quantitative decision making model that supports the application of green technologies (GTs) to reduce carbon emissions during the construction stage of road construction projects. First, the authors selected environmental soundness, economic feasibility and constructability as the key assessment indices for evaluating 20 GTs. Second, a fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis (FS/QCA) was used to establish an objective decision-making model for the assessment of both the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the key indices. To support the developed model, an expert survey was performed to assess the applicability of each GT from a practical perspective, which was verified with a case study using two additional GTs. The proposed model is expected to support practitioners in the application of suitable GTs to road projects and reduce carbon emissions, resulting in better decision making during road construction projects. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 11241

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in Spatial Planning Research and Related Disciplines: A Systematic Literature Review of Applications

“…Basurto (2013), instead, used QCA to formulate a new theory, about how multilevel institutional arrangements (i.e., programs) for biodiversity conservation in Costa Rica influence the likelihood of local autonomy. Another example is Jang, You, and Han (2015) who applied QCA to develop a decision-making model that supports the application of green technologies to reduce carbon emissions during the construction stage of road construction projects in Korea. We suggest that the clear dominance of using QCA for developing or testing theories means that there is a lot of untapped potential for the method in SPARD.…”

“…Meso-level cases were analyzed in nine articles. Examples of project-level cases ( N = 5) are residential and commercial building projects in India (Ahuja, Sawhney, and Arif 2017) and the use of green technologies in Korean road construction projects (Jang, You, and Han 2015). Examples of organizational-level cases include small-scale fisher organizations in Chile (Marín et al 2015) and water consumers associations in the Bukhara region in Uzbekistan (Hamidov, Thiel, and Zikos 2015).…”

A Practical Method for Assessing the Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions of Mass Haulers

“…where F c = Fuel consumption per cycle, and C f = CO 2 emissions conversion factor. The estimated energy consumption (E ch (MJ/h)) and CO 2 emissions per hour (CO 2Eh (kg/h)) of hauler work on earthwork activities can be estimated from the number of cycles (N c (cycle/h)) per hour for each hauler based on the optimum hauling schedule (Equations (9) and (10)).…”

“…As such, there is an urgent need for ways of maximizing the efficiency of mass hauling operations and for the widespread adoption of such methods within the construction sector. Many factors acting at different stages of the construction process contribute to the sector's overall fuel consumption and emissions output, but the bulk of the emissions produced during road construction projects occur during the construction stage [10]. Mass hauling operations in road construction projects involve heavy haulers, which generally consume large quantities of energy; fuel costs account for around 30% of their total life-cycle costs [11].…”

A Practical Method for Assessing the Energy Consumption & CO₂ Emissions of Mass Haulers

“…where: Fc = Fuel consumption per cycle, Cf = CO2 emissions conversion factor. The estimated energy consumption (Ech (MJ/h)) and CO2 emissions (CO2Eh (kg/h)) per hour of hauler work on earthwork activities can be estimated from the number of cycles (Nc (cycle/h)) per hour for each hauler based on the optimum hauling schedule (see Equations (9) and (10)).…”