Miljøstrategier ved planlegging og design av veier

Reyn Joseph O’Born ved Fakultet for teknologi og realfag disputerer for ph.d.-graden med avhandlingen "Strategies and solutions for including life cycle emissions in planning Norwegian road infrastructure" mandag 25. november 2019.

Veibygging og vedlikehold av infrastruktur står for en stor andel av de globale CO2-utslippene. Statens vegvesen arbeider med å redusere sine utslipp innen 2030.

Reyn O’Borns forskning er en del av  Statens vegvesens innsats for å ta i bruk og utvikle renere teknologi, drivstoff, materialer og metoder. Doktorgradsarbeidet har fokusert på utvikling og bruk av evalueringsmodeller som kalkulerer miljø-fotavtrykket fra infrastruktur gjennom hele veiens livssyklus, på et tidspunkt der arbeidet er i en tidlig plan og designfase.

Han har fulgt doktorgradsprogrammet ved Fakultet for teknologi og realfag med spesialisering i fornybar energi. 

Statens vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration - NPRA) har finansiert doktorgradsarbeidet.  

Slik beskriver kandidaten selv essensen i avhandlingen:

Strategies and solutions for including life cycle emissions in planning Norwegian road infrastructure

The international focus on climate change have forced governments and organisations around the world to find new and innovative ways to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

Emissions reduction from road construction

Emissions reductions in infrastructure are an important part of the puzzle where construction activities conservatively represent more than 20 % of global annual carbon emissions.

In Norway, the government-managed Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) have been tasked with finding ways to drastically reduce their emissions from road construction and maintenance by the year 2030.

In response, NPRA has invested in research and begun the process of developing policies to promote the uptake of cleaner technologies, fuels, materials and processes.

Life cycle assessment models

Reyn O’Born’s dissertation “Strategies and solutions for including life cycle emissions in planning Norwegian road infrastructure” is concerned with determining the environmental impacts of road construction in a Norwegian context.

The dissertation analyses and discusses the solutions and strategies that NPRA can follow to reduce their emissions.

The analyses carried out focus on the development and use of life cycle assessment models to calculate the environmental footprint of road infrastructure in the early planning and design phases.

The real-world implementation of such models was also discussed within the framework of green public procurement and Norwegian emissions reductions targets for transport infrastructure.

The results of this thesis have shown that the use of life cycle assessment models can be helpful for calculating emissions but that these models must be sufficiently robust and simple to use in order to be useful during road planning.