Project Overview

Life Cycle Analysis techniques, combined with intelligent analysis of data coming from railway infrastructure works, would help to reduce their carbon and water footprints by 10% and 5% respectively. 

The LIFE HUELLAS project: “LCA, environmental footprints and intelligent analysis for the rail infrastructure construction sector”, intends to improve the railway infrastructure construction processes with regard to their environmental impact, mainly in those aspects related to climate change like carbon and water footprints and other environmental indicators. The consortium, leaded by Fundación CARTIF, is formed by the companies VIAS y CONSTRUCCIONES and IK-Ingeniería, jointly with the University of Granada. 

Project goal is the development of methodologies and tools to optimize decision making process, reducing carbon and water footprints of railway infrastructure construction related projects, by 10% and 5% respectively. For that purpose, the project will review and analyze the environmental impact of every stage in the construction process. 

The first step will be a comprehensive compilation of basic information in order to analyze the environmental impact of railway networks construction process, based on previously identified variables. Afterwards, project will focus on analyzing the transformation from environmental impact to carbon and water footprints, by means of the development of a consolidated evaluation methodology. A tool will be developed from this information compilation, applying several data mining and computational intelligence techniques, which will allow making alternative works scheduling and showing previously selected specific footprint values and environmental indicators. 

Tool will be tested in two railway construction projects with different topologies along project development. That way, a parametric adjustment can be performed providing companies with an analysis of the alternatives in the scheduling and execution of the construction works and their environmental impact in terms of “footprints”.