Abstract
With the ever-increasing emphasis on climate change and sustainability, there is growing interest in using environmentally friendly coastal structures. In addition to engineering and cost factors, the construction global warming potential (GWP) can and should be an influencing factor in the selection and design of the structures. Therefore, knowledge of construction GWP facilitates informed decision-making in coastal projects to achieve climate goals. Considering the number of Icelandic-type berm breakwater (IceBB) structures worldwide, this structure's design method is commonly accepted in coastal protection projects. In this paper, the construction process of an IceBB was assessed for its GWP and compared with concrete armor unit protection of a conventional rubble mound breakwater (ConRMB). The assessment and comparison were made for constructing a breakwater to protect the port of Thorlakshofn in southwest Iceland. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to calculate the construction carbon footprint of the structures using GaBi software, version 10.6.1. Using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria for nature-based solutions (NBS) and based on the existing literature, the characteristics of IceBB were briefly explored. The results showed that the construction of IceBB has a lower GWP than ConRMB, mainly due to using natural rock armor instead of concrete armor units. Furthermore, the results indicated that IceBB characteristics meet the IUCN criteria for NBS and thus can be granted as a (hard) NBS coastal structure. Acknowledging the advantages of IceBB, adopting this structure in coastal protection projects could meaningfully contribute to climate change mitigating policies.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and codes generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Alexandra Kjeld at EFLA Consulting Engineers in Iceland for her valuable remarks on this study. The authors thank the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (Vegagerdin) for providing data. This research was supported in part by the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (Vegagerdin).
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Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 150 • Issue 1 • January 2024
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 17, 2023
Accepted: Sep 29, 2023
Published online: Oct 17, 2023
Published in print: Jan 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Mar 17, 2024
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