Proposal for the integration of sustainability criteria in civil engineering projects: a case study

In this paper an indicator system is proposed for assessing sustainability in linear infrastructure projects from early stages (previous analysis of alternatives) to allow classification of the different alternatives according to their impact on the environment, society and economy, and thus to select the most sustainable alternative. It is developed a brief study of the state of knowledge on sustainable construction worldwide and, according to existing initiatives, it is proposed the sustainability assessment of infrastructure projects using a set of criteria and indicators. The indicator system is also applied to a case study, a Spanish highway, through a multi-criteria analysis, to identify existing constraints to the implementation of sustainability criteria from early stages considering the project life cycle, taking into account the interest of controlling and monitoring the indicator valuation in later stages and their possible application in the comparison between projects.