Incorporating Flood Hazards into Pavement Sustainability Assessment

Abstract

The functional and structural performance of pavement infrastructures are at risk from climate change impacts. However, past sustainability assessment studies do not consider how the performance of infrastructure will be affected by a changing climate. The goal of this research is to investigate the impacts of flooding in a unified assessment of the resilience and sustainability of pavement. A case study of concrete pavement was evaluated for scenarios with and without flooding. The AASHTOWare Pavement ME design program was used to simulate the structural performance of typical jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) designs for collector roads in Canada. Predicted performance was used in the resilience and sustainability assessment under scenarios with and without flooding. The damage ratio and cost of damage were assessed to quantify the resilience of concrete pavement to floods. Life cycle costs and environmental impacts were compared across a climate change scenario with consideration of maintenance and rehabilitation activities. Results reveal that a typical Ontario JPCP design with structural slab thickness < 200 mm is less resilient than the Manitoba design for collector roads, but the 25 mm slab thickness difference in Manitoba design can lead to 50% change in damage ratio and damage cost. When estimating the social cost associated with greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, the additional environmental impact resulting from flooding for the Ontario road is almost seven times that of the Manitoba road. However, the life cycle economic cost and environmental impact do not yield an overall benefit with increased slab thickness.