Development of an assessment framework for green highway construction

Abstract

The objective of this research is to develop a framework for the assessment of green highway projects. Highway construction is chosen from among the various types of large‐scale infrastructure because they cover broad areas and take up a large share of a nation's infrastructure development. After completing a literature review we employ the Max‐Min Fuzzy Delphi method to identify the major categories and their corresponding items most suitable for assessing the “greenness” of a highway project. The five major categories identified are: preservation of the eco‐system, plantations to reduce CO₂ emission, preservation of material resources, waste reduction, and water conservation. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is then employed to determine the weighting of the major categories as well as the sub items in each category. The end result is an assessment rating framework to assess the “greenness” of a highway construction project.