Assessment of Urban Transportation Metabolism from Life Cycle Perspective: A Multi-method Study

The goal of this study is to provide a multi-method based on the eco-thermodynamic framework to examine the environmental sustainability of urban public transportation systems. Urban transportation metabolism (UTM), as a metaphor of urban systematic research methodology for transportation system, has been proposed and combined with life cycle assessment (LCA). Results show that the most important factors in assessing the acceptability of a transportation system are not only the direct fuel consumption, and the energy and material costs of the vehicles, but also the energy and materials costs for the upstream and downstream side of the infrastructure construction and vehicle fuel.