Assessing the environmental impact of inland waterway transport using a life-cycle assessment approach: The case of Flanders

Focus in determining the environmental component of external transport costs has been mainly directed towards vehicle travel related emissions, while more indirect emissions related to well-to-tank operations, vehicle fleet and transport infrastructure received less attention. Especially for inland waterway transport, little research exists in this domain.In this paper, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) based framework is recommended in order to assess the full environmental impact of inland waterway transport services. Environmental emissions (both air polluting and greenhouse gas emissions) for barge transport are analyzed in detail for one particular geographical region, namely Flanders (in Belgium), applying an LCA approach.Three distinct categories are being considered: emissions directly related to vehicle operation (both “tank-to-wheel” and “well-to-tank” emissions), emissions related to barge fleet (building and maintenance of barges) and emissions related to transport infrastructure (construction, operation and maintenance of waterway infrastructure). This approach allows to map environmental emissions for different transport components in much greater detail and enables to determine their relative importance. The analysis also shows that for some pollutants, taking into account other categories besides vehicle travel is relevant from a sustainability perspective.