A Study for the Measurement of Environmental Impact Resulting From Railway Construction

This study shows how to measure CO₂ emissions caused by railways during its life span from construction to disposal. It is now a common global concern that CO₂ reduction is vital for conserving the global environment. Amidst this growing awareness, rail transport has attracted significant attention as an environmentally-friendly transportation mode due to its low emission of CO₂ gas. But in many studies the amount of CO₂ is calculated only during operation and doesn’t include emissions during the phase of construction of related infrastructure and rolling stocks. Rail transport can not be a truly environmentally-friendly transportation mode if it isn’t proven to emit less gases compared with other modes during a modes whole life cycle. In this paper, we introduce the method to calculate CO₂ emission from the construction of infrastructure with the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the result of a case study.