Estimation of greenhouse gas emissions from land-use changes due to road construction in the republic of Korea

Land-use changes are one of the three major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to human activity, along with fossil fuel combustion and cement production. Because road construction is the foremost cause of land-use changes, it is crucial to quantify the GHG emissions from road construction. However, the effect of GHG emissions attributed to land-use change for a single road construction project has not yet been fully investigated. This study quantified GHG emissions and sequestration from land-use changes due to road construction. Following the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this study developed a framework to estimate GHG emissions for land-use changes. Eighteen cases involving a typical highway construction project in the Republic of Korea were selected for this study. The net GHG emissions from road construction were estimated to be within the range of 24-105 tons of carbon (tC)/lane-km, with an average of 66 tC/lane-km. Practical methods are suggested to effectively minimize emissions and maximize sequestration. These findings are expected to facilitate the identification of strategies for transportation policies and the realization of a low-carbon society.