A Sustainability Rating System for Roads in Developing Countries

Abstract

Growth, prosperity and economic development for developing countries are dependent upon reliable and safe transportation systems. Road and highway systems provide a critical role in creating and maintaining economic development and a desirable quality of life. Embedding environmentally sustainable principles and best practices into road projects in the developing world has been a challenge for governments and the International Financial Institutions. The problems faced in the developing world have many unique aspects including varying degrees of commitment, limited financial resources and lack of understanding about sustainability concepts and how to address them given the country specific characteristics.The World Bank developed a guidance document to assist Bank project staff and its clients in integrating environmentally sustainable elements into road transportation projects, thus helping to promote green growth. The focus was to identify a range of ideas and options to improve environmental sustainability throughout all phases of the project cycle (system planning, project planning and design, construction and operation and maintenance) using a rating system tool. The approach builds upon five national and international sustainability rating systems and provides an extensive set of environmental road sustainability criteria. The guidance also presents a summary of road transportation environmentally sustainable technology information to stimulate consideration in existing and new road projects.The paper presents a summary of contents and use of the sustainability-based road guidance and provides some case studies, insights and suggestions for moving forward given the initial findings from its use in Latin America. ICSI 2014: Creating Infrastructure for a Sustainable World

Sustainability Assessment of Transport Infrastructure Projects: A Review of Existing Tools and Methods

“…This approach was built on five national and international sustainability rating systems -see Montgomery, Schirmer, and Hirsch (2014). Another interesting example that can be mentioned is the case of Argentina, where a CEEQUAL scheme, founded by the UK Institution of Civil Engineers, has recently been applied.…”

A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Road Infrastructure Project Implementation in Developing Countries

“…Conversely, it should be noted that a number of studies have been undertaken in the field of SID. The literature review conducted revealed that there has been extensive research [1,22,16,18,5,26,27,8,12] on sustainability features (constructs) which have been utilized to measure SID implementation. However, there appears to be disagreement among the various identified features by individual researchers and institutions.…”

“…CEEQUAL was the most comprehensive framework which considered eleven (11) Besides the various sustainability models, frameworks and guidelines for infrastructure projects developed by institutions and professional bodies, there is a fair number of research works that attempted to develop sustainability frameworks and sustainable criteria and indicators for infrastructure projects. A comprehensive literature review was done on six main studies, as evidenced in Montgomery, Schirmer and Hirsch [22], Lim [18], Transport for New South Wales [25], Assah Amiril et al [1], Ugwu & Haupt [26], and Huang & Yeh [13]. Lim [18] and Ugwu & Haupt [26] are the most comprehensive studies which considered most of the criteria and indicators in the other studies and frameworks.…”

“…It is expected that policies such as sustainable procurement, sustainable monitoring, and sustainability reporting using appropriate requirements, become gradually become pertinent specifications required by clients and key stakeholders for the specific sectors to win work or remain competitive [23]. Reliable and sound road transport system is the core of sustainable economic growth, which contributes to poverty alleviation, distributed prosperity and improved quality of life in developing nations [22]. A significant part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focuses directly and indirectly on Sustainable Infrastructure Development (SID).…”

Aspectos ambientais no Plano Nacional de Logística e Transporte do Brasil

“…Novos e alternativos projetos de sistemas de transporte, que reduzam o consumo de energia e as emissões de poluentes na atmosfera, que garantam a utilização de modos mais eficientes, que racionalizem os deslocamentos de bens e pessoas, otimizando as atividades logísticas, e os impactos das infraestruturas de transporte sobre o território são sempre declarados como princípios estratégicos das políticas públicas setoriais -sejam as do setor de transportes, sejam as de meio ambiente (Jeon et al, 2005;Montgomery et al, 2014). No entanto, tais diretrizes parecem não ser suficientes ou efetivamente incorporadas na concepção desses projetos.…”