Airfield Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Framework and Guidelines

Environmental considerations are an important aspect of sustainability. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an approach that can identify and quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of a system such as airfield infrastructure. A literature review found few detailed airfield pavement LCA studies. A framework and guidelines have been developed for the FAA for the use of LCA to evaluate airfield airside features and land-side pavement to support decision-making to improve their environmental sustainability. The guidelines cover pavement, and other airside features, and provide recommendations for all stages of LCA, including goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory development, impact assessment, interpretation, critical review, and reporting. The guidelines follow existing standards, and are similar to those recently developed for highway pavements, but include aspects unique to airfields. It is expected that these guidelines will be updated as experience is gained from airfield LCA case studies.