A decision making approach for selection of sustainable pavements in Texas by integrating life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), life cycle assessment (LCA) of environmental and social impacts (original) (raw)

for their spiritual encouragement. I would also like to extend my thanks to Mr. Hans, Concha, and staff CTIS UTEP. I would like to thank my family in India for putting up with an absentee son and brother during this dissertation and for their everlasting support. To my loving, understanding, and supportive wife, Niharika: my deepest gratitude. Your encouragement when the times got rough are much appreciated and duly noted. Finally, to my lovely daughter Aarna, she has been my stress buster and brought joy and life to the home. vi Executive Summary A sustainable pavement can be defined as the one that minimally impacts future economic opportunities, social conditions, human health, and the environment and still fulfills the engineering objectives. Although a pavement as outlined above is not yet entirely feasible, continual effort from every stakeholder with a vision of achieving sustainable development is essential for the future of society. In this study, one such effort was initiated by proposing a framework for selection of pavement design based on sustainable development. The concept of sustainability is widely believed to be founded on three criteria: economic, environmental, and social standards. Since the purpose of pavements it to provide service for many decades, assessing each criterion throughout the life of pavements is required, that is, based on life cycle assessments. Based on the review of information, the most widely used economic evaluation tool for pavements is Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA), which has been proposed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Practitioners have started using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) recommended by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which has been recently adopted by the FHWA to estimate environmental impacts. Although various tools are Brundtland et al. (1987) Sustainability is not about threat analysis, sustainability is about systems. Specifically, it is about how environmental, economic, and social systems interact to their mutual advantage or disadvantages at various space based scales of operation.