Life-cycle assessment of climate change impact on time-dependent carbon-footprint of asphalt pavement

Abstract This study aims to quantify life-cycle carbon footprint of asphalt pavement due to warming temperatures under climate change scenario. Pavement Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) Design Method was used to simulate long-term pavement performance with historic and projected temperature inputs. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to calculate CO2 emissions in pavement life cycle including phases of raw materials, plant production, transportation, field construction, traffic delay, and use. In particular, time-dependency of CO2 emission was considered with physical decay to increase the accuracy in estimating cumulative radiative forcing. It was found that warming temperatures would lead to faster structural deterioration of pavement, resulting in earlier or more frequent overlay treatments. Pavement rehabilitation treatments generate more CO2 emission in material and construction related stages but cause the reduction of CO2 emission in pavement use phase. The LCA results show that climate change causes greater CO2 emission abundance over the years during the study period.