Estimation of albedo effect in pavement life cycle assessment

In the modeling of life cycle assessment (LCA) of pavement, the usage module is un-avoidable to reach comprehensive conclusions but far from perfect till date. Typically, the usage module consists of rolling resistance, albedo, lighting requirement, carbonation (for cement concrete pavement), leachate, and others. None of the aforementioned components is well studied among the pavement community. This research makes contribution to better modeling of the albedo effect of pavements, a traditionally ignored aspect. A time-dependent climatological model was developed to estimate the CO2 offset due to pavement albedo in the life cycle, in an either deterministic or probabilistic mode. A case study suggests that the albedo effect produces a non-negligible contribution to the life cycle inventory. Specifically, it reduces the CO2-equivalent emission for the portland cement concrete pavement by 9.2% but increases 19.1% for the hot mixture asphalt pavement.