Water footprint assessment in expressway infrastructure system

The water footprint is a useful and important method for calculating water consumption in products and systems. Up to date, many studies on water footprints have focused on the high water consumption sectors of agriculture and livestock products, but few have looked at social infrastructure. The aim of this study is to calculate the water footprint using previous water footprint evaluation methodologies for the expressway infrastructure system and compare the results of each different methodology used for expressway infrastructure systems. Boulay's methodology, the Ministry of Environment's methodology using Ecoinvent, and Ministry of Environment's methodology using Korean life cycle inventory were used and compared. As a result, 58,801 m³ H₂Oeq of direct and indirect water was used for 1 km expressway with Boulay method, also 42,030 m³ H₂Oeq, and 27,485 m³ H₂Oeq, of direct and indirect water was consumed using Ministry of Environment's methodology using Ecoinvent and Ministry of Environment's methodology using Korean life cycle inventory. The study approach and results can support for more sustainable water management in infrastructure system.