Course Comment :
Sustainability considerations have become important for making infrastructure investment decisions. In addition to technical aspects, infrastructure owners and operators must consider the economic, environmental and social impact of their decisions. The investments must be aligned with the performance goals of their organizations in all these areas. Therefore, civil engineers must be cognizant of the wider implication of the infrastructure design and management decisions and the tools available for assessing their impacts. The main objective of this course is to provide the students with knowledge, tools and methods to incorporate sustainability considerations while developing, assessing, maintaining, rehabilitating, and managing transportation infrastructure systems. Tools such as life cycle cost analysis, life cycle assessment, sustainability rating systems, and multi-objective decision support system are key for developing and selecting more sustainable transportation infrastructure investment portfolios. Graduate level is warranted as the course builds upon fundamental concepts in the civil and environmental curriculum by requiring students to utilize advanced knowledge on infrastructure sustainability, deterioration and management. The course provides in-depth treatment of infrastructure life cycle cost and environmental assessment, performance measurement, and decision making. It also covers approaches to adapt to climate change and ask the students to conceive measures to mitigate the impact of the decisions on climate change and to adapt the transportation infrastructure to minimize the vulnerability to climate change. It requires students to work in teams to independently assess a real-life infrastructure design and/or management problem and then develop innovative and sustainable solutions.