Sustainability assessment scheme for transport infrastructure projects

In this article system boundaries for the development of a sustainability assessment scheme of transport infrastructure projects are discussed. Existing assessment methods as the ENVISION Rating System launched by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) and the Harvard Graduate School of Design or the UK-based CEEQUAL Assessment Scheme base upon on general criteria which avoid a holistic sustainability evaluation. Hence, it is necessary to define specific criteria including particular requirements for each infrastructure construction type. This has to be carried out for each of the three sustainability dimensions. Especially for transport infrastructure projects sustainability requirements must be evaluated over the projects life cycle. As the result of the study a new modular assessment scheme for highways as a part of transport infrastructure projects is presented. In addition several new specific evaluation criteria for highways are introduced and explained.