Abstract:
Effects of disruption and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems have been largely overlooked when conducting assessments of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in road construction projects. This is an important oversight given the intensive land-conversion generated by linear infrastructure development, as well as the relevance given to carbon pool variations associated with land use and land-use changes by national inventories of GHG emissions and global reports. This paper describes the implementation of a methodology to classify those environmental systems in land-uses categories, to determine their carbon stocks (vegetation and soil), and to quantify CO2 emissions and removal related to their management at the different stages of road construction projects. The procedure is illustrated through its application in the impact assessment of road projects in the territory of Spain. This methodology integrates currently available information on carbon stocks and considers the accounting criteria adopted in national GHG emissions inventories. It is intended to constitute part of an integral assessment tool for GHG emissions in linear infrastructure projects. Four case studies are presented in which emis...