CEREAL - CO2 Emission Reduction in roAd Lifecycles
Overview
Background & policy context:
Enhanced reduction of CO2 emission is crucial to modern society and for road administrations this is still an area for development. Some efforts are already made on computation of CO2 emission to identify low CO2 emission solutions in road constructions. CEREAL aims to build a model that can easily calculate the most important contributions of CO2 emission and consequently guide a reduction strategy.
Objectives:
Most currently available national models focus heavily on the design or optimisation of the use of materials. The tool to be developed in the CEREAL project will concentrate on maintenance and rehabilitation of in service roads since few new roads are built in Europe. Approximately 90% of the road construction works is maintenance and reconstruction of roads whereas only 10% of the work consists of building new roads. However, the tool will also be applicable to new roads, to assure full applicability.
CEREAL will be kept as simple as possible without loss of reliability and accuracy for gaining enough information to make the proper decisions. The dominant contributing aspects will be identified and included in the model.
The tool will be easy to use for non-experts, and with a friendly interface. We consider this condition very important, if we want to ensure a widespread use among European road authorities and contractors.
Furthermore, CEREAL will use and evaluate present available models and data and provide a complementary, harmonised European model, in line with the present developments on the European level.
Methodology:
Various efforts will be deployed to enhance widespread use. Platforms like CEDR, FEHRL and EAPA will be contacted at an early stage for inventories of the needs and wishes European wide. Based on this information the functional requirements will be formulated. In a later stage these organisations will be contacted for testing of the CEREAL tool. Close contact with the stakeholders is also needed to get a clear picture of design, maintenance and rehabilitation procedures among EU member states but also how tools as CEREAL should be embedded for a long life use after completion.
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