Transportation’s Impact Assessment on Construction Sector

Nuki Agya Utama, Keichii N. Ishihara, Tetsuo Tezuka, Qi Zhang, Miguel Esteban

.

DOI: 10.4236/lce.2011.23019                

Abstract

Pollution sources in Indonesia have been classified into those from movable and unmovable sources. Transportation of goods and people through water, air and land are the movable sources of pollution, these sources of pollution originate mainly from gasoline and diesel combustion. This paper will discuss the movable pollution, which will be referred to as the embedded emissions from the transportation sector in buildings. The embedded emissions refer to the emissions, which occur indirectly throughout a building’s lifetime (for instance, during manufacturing, transportation etc). This is in contrast to the emissions normally considered for buildings, which usually only include those originating from its usage during a certain life span. By using life cycle analysis tools the value of the impacts of the transportation sector on buildings can be quantified. GEMIS 4.4 was used to simulate the emissions during the process of transporting materials as well as any other goods related to the construction of the building. The research however did not include the transportation of materials after the demolition of the building to the landfill. The results show that the transportation emissions from glass, sand, gypsum and concrete roof production have the highest emissions per kilogram of product. Concrete roofs emit 1.82 × 10^–4 kg CO₂/kg, transporting raw material and glass products to customers emits 1.05 × 10^–3 kg NO_x/kg, and transporting wood material 1.33 × 10^–5 kg of particulates/kg. Furthermore, the future emissions caused by this sector are also analysed in the present paper by comparing four potential scenarios regarding different types of future fuels that could be used by vehicles, including a (JCL) Jatropha Curcas L. based biodiesel scenario that uses a perennial harvesting system, a (PME) Palm Methyl Ester based biodiesel both scenarios, Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV) that could replace the current petroleum diesel engines and the business as usual (BaU) scenario.

Keywords

Transportation, Construction, Environmental Impacts, Materials

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	CIWMB, “Designing with Vision: A Technical Manual for Materials Choices in Sustainable Construction,” California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, 2000.
[2]	T. Hirano, S. Kato, S. Murakami, T. Ikaga, Y. Shiraishi and H. Uehara, “A Study on a Porous Residential Building Model in Hot and Humid Regions: Part 2—Reducing the Cooling Load by Component-Scale Voids and the CO2 Emission Reduction Effect of the Building Model,” Building and Environment, Vol. 41, 2006, pp. 33-44. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.01.016
[3]	B. L. P. Peoportier, “Life Cycle Assessment Applied to the Comparative Evaluation of Single Family Houses in the French Context,” Energy and Building, Vol. 33, No. 5, 2001, pp. 443-450. doi:10.1016/S0378-7788(00)00101-8
[4]	T. Randall, “Environmental Design: An Introduction for Architects and Engineers,” 2nd Edition, E & FN Spon Press, London, 1999.
[5]	M. Asif, T. Muneer and R. Kelle, “Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study Of a Dwelling Home in Scotland,” Building and Environment, Vol. 42, No. 3, 2007, pp. 1391-1394.
[6]	N. A. Utama and S. H. Gheewala, “Life Cycle Energy of Single Landed Houses in Indonesia,” Energy and Buildings, Vol. 40, No. 10, 2008, pp. 1911-1916.
[7]	N. A. Utama and S. H. Gheewala, “Influence of Material Selection on Energy Demand in Residential Houses,” Materials & Design, Vol. 30, No. 6, 2009, pp. 2173-2180.
[8]	A. Purnomo, “Panel on Climate Change,” ASEM Development Conference—Towards Sustainable Development, Manila, 20-21 April 2009.
[9]	Indonesian Statistical Bureau (BPS), “Construction Sector,” 2009 (accessed October 2 2010). http://www.bps.go.id/tab_sub/view.php?tabel=1&datar=1&id_subyek=04¬ab=1
[10]	Indonesian Ministry of Environment (KLH), “Indonesian Environmental Status,” 2005 (accessed May 4 2006). http://www.menlh.go.id/tebaru/soe/artikel.php?article_id=495
[11]	International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), “Biofuels and Food Security—Implications of an Accelerated Biofuels Production,” OFID Pamphlet Series, Vol. 38, 2009.
[12]	International Association for Natural Gas Vehicle (IANGV), “Average Natural Gas Vehicle Growth by Region,” 2010 (accessed January 4 2010). http://www.iangv.org/tools-resources/statistics.html
[13]	M. E. Bouwman and H. C. Moll, “Environmental Analyses of Land Transportation Systems in the Netherlands,” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Vol. 7, No. 5, 2002, pp. 331-345. doi:10.1016/S1361-9209(02)00002-0
[14]	H. C. Frey and K. Kim, “In-Use Measurement of the Activity, Fuel Use, and Emissions of Eight Cement Mixer Trucks Operated on Each of Petroleum Diesel and Soy- Based B20 Biodiesel,” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Vol. 14, No. 5, 2009, pp. 585-592. doi:10.1016/j.trd.2009.08.004
[15]	Y. Huang, R. Bird and M. Bell. “A Comparative Study of the Emissions by Road Maintenance Works and the Disrupted Traffic Using Life Cycle Assessment and Micro-Simulation,” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2009, pp. 197-204. doi:10.1016/j.trd.2008.12.003
[16]	OEKO (?ko-Institut), “Stammdatenbasis zum GEMISProjekt, kontinuierliche Fortschreibung und Erweiterung der GEMIS-Datenbasis für Energie,” Stoffe und Transport, 1989.
[17]	N. A. Utama, “Sustainable Sourcing Material in Construction,” Master’s Thesis, London South Bank University, London, 2003.
[18]	United States National Biodiesel Boards, “Biodiesel Information,” 2010 (accessed October 4 2010). http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/
[19]	Indonesian Statistical Bureau (BPS), “Number of Transportation based on Type 1998-2008,” 2009 (accessed May 3 2010). http://dds.bps.go.id/tab_sub/view.php?tabel=1&daftar=&id_subyek=17¬ab=12
[20]	K. Prueksakorn and S. H. Gheewala, “Energy and Greenhouse Gas Implications of Biodiesel Production from Jatropha curcas L.,” The 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environment, Bangkok, 21-23 November 2006.
[21]	S. Pleanjai, S. H. Gheewala and S. Garivait, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Production and Use of Palm Methyl Ester in Thailand,” International Journal of Global Warming, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2009, pp. 418-431.
[22]	S. Sampattagul, C. Suttibut, S. Yucho and T. Kiatsiriroat, “Life Cycle Management of Jatropha Bio-Diesel Production in Thailand,” The 3rd International Conference on Life Cycle Management, Zurich, 27-29 August 2007.