Inland transportation system planning by life cycle impact assessment: a case study

The comparison of land and inland water transportation from economical and ecological points of view is discussed. Required freight rates for trucks and ships are calculated and compared to find which has economic superiority. From the environmental impacts of these two transportation types, the comparative environmental destruction indices for two different time-durations are estimated. All these investigations were conducted for the Yokohama–Fukuoka route in Japan. Life cycle impact assessment, a very useful tool for quantitatively evaluating the environmental influence of a product, was used to compare the environmental burden imposed by these types of transportation. Finally, the way that these results can be used for inland transportation system planning is discussed. Received: January 21, 2000 / Accepted: June 27, 2000