LCA analisys and economic estimation of urban transport system in the city of Padua, Veneto - Italy
This report provides an LCA-based method for studying and quantifying
environmental and economic impacts due to urban mobility. It describes, also, a
case study concerning historical center of Padua, Veneto.
A bottom-up approach is adopted: the method use traffic data available at the
municipalities, well-known information about specific costs, technical sources
for every vehicle group and a computer programme available on sale to LCA
project management.
With regards to environmental impacts, the method use performance indexes
calculated by the software. Economic costs are split into individual and social
cost: the first one describes running costs for urban system users; the second
one describes costs due to public transport and urban system problems (accidents
or traffic jam).
This report finds system problems, quantifies and compares them with a virtual
scenario of traffic reorganization based on the Urban Mobility Plan, issued on
2001 by Municipality of Padua.
The described procedure allow to quantify actual problems and, by comparing them
with a virtual scenario, to test technology improvements and provide a helpful
tool for strategic planning of urban transport system.