Prospecting and Mining Resources in Pavements.

Built environment stocks—building and transport infrastructure—provide essential services to fulfill basic human needs, such as shelter, workplace, mobility, and communication. Road infrastructure constitutes an integral part of built environment stocks. It connects and shapes human settlements, ensuring daily mobility of people, access to jobs, and distribution of goods. Materials accumulated in road infrastructure and other built environment stocks over their long-life span could potentially serve as future resource providers, which have been termed as anthropogenic material stocks. Material stocks and flows in pavements, however, are hitherto less characterized and poorly understood, therefore hindering comprehensive monitoring and improved utilization of resources accumulated in pavements. More importantly, operational mining of resources in pavements depends on a thorough assessment of the occurrence and configuration of resources, as well as the technical and socioeconomic drivers and barriers involved. Therefore, this project will be organized into three synergistic research thrusts: (A) Creating a resource cadaster for pavements; (B) Mapping the availability and mineability of secondary resources in pavements; and (C) Computational design optimization for circular and sustainable pavements.

Keywords:LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT, INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, ASPHALT, LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSIS

Disciplines:Infrastructure engineering and asset management, Life cycle analysis of construction materials, Infrastructure, transport and mobility engineering not elsewhere classified, Life cycle engineering