A Study for the Measurement of Environmental Impact by Railway Construction

This study shows how to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by railways during its life span from construction to disposal. It is now a common global concern that CO2 reduction is vital for conserving the global environment. Amidst this growing awareness, rail transport has attracted significant attention as an environmentally-friendly transportation mode due to its low emission of CO2 gas. But in many studies the amount of CO2 is calculated only during operation and doesn’t include emissions during the phase of construction of related infrastructure and rolling stocks. Rail transport can not be a truly environmentally-friendly transportation mode if it isn’t proven to emit less gases compared with other modes during a modes whole life cycle. In this paper, the authors introduce the method to calculate CO2 emission from the construction of infrastructure with the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the result of a case study.