ECMR research team at UAEU develops a new comprehensive methodology to assess road projects

ECMR research team at UAEU develops a new comprehensive methodology to assess road projects

Al Ain: A pioneering research project from the Emirates Centre for Mobility Research (ECMR) at UAE University, led by Dr. Hamad Al Jassmi and Dr. Umair Hasan, has developed a comprehensive methodology to assess life-cycle cost and sustainability impacts for road projects, which aid decision makers in choosing optimum alternatives at a stage where their decisions have implications on infrastructure facilities that would last for more than 50 years. The methodology integrates all aspects of lifecycle assessment including stakeholder (government authorities and users), cost, energy consumption and pollutant emissions across any specified lifecycle period, which covers raw material extraction, material production and transport, construction, operation, and usage (including traffic), maintenance and rehabilitation, and the end-of-life recycling stage.

The findings of this project can aid the decision-makers in the UAE and beyond to optimize their design, operation and end-of-life handling of road transport systems and assist in achieving a net-zero objective on the basis of scientific methods. It also proposes a strong integration between stakeholder groups to achieve actual sustainability. The outcomes of this project have been published as two research articles in the Journal of Cleaner Production, ranked amongst top 5% journals in the field of sustainability. This project has been