A Sustainability Rating System for Roads in Developing Countries

Growth, prosperity, and economic development for developing countries are dependent on reliable and safe transportation systems. Road and highway systems provide a critical role in creating and maintaining economic development and a desirable quality of life. Embedding environmentally sustainable principles and best practices into road projects in the developing world has been a challenge for governments and international financial institutions. The problems faced in the developing world have many unique aspects, including varying degrees of commitment, limited financial resources and lack of understanding about sustainability concepts and how to address them given the country specific characteristics. The World Bank developed a guidance document to assist bank project staff and its clients in integrating environmentally sustainable elements into road transportation projects, thus helping to promote green growth. The focus was to identify a range of ideas and options to improve environmental sustainability throughout all phases of the project cycle (system planning, project planning and design, construction, and operation and maintenance) using a rating system tool. The approach builds on five national and international sustainability rating systems and provides an extensive set of environmental road sustainability criteria. The guidance also presents a summary of road transportation environmentally sustainable technology information to stimulate consideration in existing and new road projects. The paper presents a summary of contents and use of the sustainability-based road guidance and provides some case studies, insights, and suggestions for moving forward given the initial findings from its use in Latin America.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784478745.103
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780784478745
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Montgomery, Robert
  • Schirmer, Howard
  • Hirsch, Art
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure 2014
  • Location: Long Beach California, United States
  • Date: 2014-11-6 to 2014-11-8
• Publication Date: 2014-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Pagination: pp 1086-1096
• Monograph Title: ICSI 2014: Creating Infrastructure for a Sustainable World

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Developing countries; Economic growth; Highway planning; Ratings; Road construction; Sustainable development
• Geographic Terms: Latin America
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01549154
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780784478745
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Dec 29 2014 11:10AM