Life cycle assessment for sustainable design of railway infrastructures. A case study application in education

Abstract

[EN] The following article deals with the introduction of the life cycle assessment applied to design sustainable infrastructure. Particularly, it is applied in the Railways course of the Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de València, on which students are introduced to the construction, operation and maintenance of railway infrastructures. Traditionally, for the design of any infrastructure, only economic criteria have been considered, mainly the initial construction cost. However, since they last over time, the cost through the entire life cycle, from the production of materials to the demolition of the infrastructure itself, must be analyzed. Additionally, due to the climatic and social challenges caused by global warming, environmental and social criteria are being implemented along with the economic ones to choose design solutions for infrastructures. Using the Ecoinvent database, students will learn about the different impacts caused throughout the life cycle of a railway track, making decisions about its design, and acquiring transversal competencies such as the environmental and ethic responsibility as well as the knowledge of contemporary problems and critical thinking. This article introduces future studies about the life cycle assessment and its applications for the sustainable design of railway infrastructures.