Fostering U.S. — European Research Collaboration
Airie, VA, January 7 — 9 , 2010
Background
The provision and maintenance of a reliable and sustainable infrastructure is a priority for all countries. Societal stability, sustainable growth, quality of life, and resilient response to natural and manmade disasters all rely extensively on efficient, well maintained infrastructure networks (roads, water pipelines, electrical grids, etc.). In particular, the road infrastructure is of central importance and a critical lifeline in developed societies, with pavement structures consuming a large percentage of the resources (up to 60% according to some sources) allocated for the provision, and management of the road infrastructure. Because of this importance, because of their ubiquity and because of past and ongoing investment, this highway construction is one of the most important areas of infrastructure in which sustainability must be achieved.
Objectives
- To identify the main issues associated with the design, construction, and management of sustainable pavement systems from an international perspective
- To report on the most recent research advances and current developments in pavement materials engineering and pavement construction that deliver environmental and sustainability benefits
- To investigate means by which the level of sustainability of pavements and their constituent
- To determine the future research efforts that are needed to deliver continuing and increasing sustainability in the sector
- To establish a "roadmap" for its delivery, defining short, medium and long–term research agendas for the development and implementation of more sustainable pavement engineering and management technologies and practices
- To determine the relative areas of strength and expertise in European and North America with a view to fostering international research collaboration that will benefit both regions.
Sustainability in the U.S. and Europe
The addressing of sustainability objectives has only been a strong requirement in the US in recent years, whereas European countries have been pursuing such goals for many years. Thus the US needs to avail itself of the advances made outside its borders to rapidly catch-up in the field. Furthermore, the current strong drive in the US compared to the slower-grown and more mature development in Europe means that countries on either side of the Atlantic have taken somewhat different trajectories in research and practice, both of which have their respective strengths and approaches. In particular it is possible to detect differences of emphasis and states of development in the areas of:
- climate change
- measurement of sustainability
- environmental protection
- available recycling and re–use technologies
- materials innovation
- noise management, reduction and attenuation
- scaling and localization
Therefore it is now timely to establish an international workshop to bring together the leading researchers in this field from the US and Europe so as:
- to compare and contrast best practices in the US, Europe, and other countries
- to explore the vital subject of sustainable pavements
- to identify a roadmap of future research needs
Roadmap
The main outcome of the workshop is the following Research Agenda for Sustainable Pavements, which provides an international roadmap for research and collaboration.
Sponsors
The workshop is kindly sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and by the US Federal Highway Administration.