A Study on the Method of Estimating Environmental Load on Earthwork

Great efforts have been made worldwide to reduce the Green House Gas (GHG) emission following the "Kyoto Protocol" declared during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1997. Many industries have restructured to meet the standard set by the Protocol. In construction industry, however, no clear guidance has been established for the purpose of reducing the GHG emission.

In Korea, the effort to reduce the environmental pollution by construction industry has been behind compared with the rate of economic growth. In addition, although construction industry is one of the most energy-consuming sectors, no significant effort has been made to conserve the energy during construction activities. For more effective energy saving in construction industry, with the current trend of mega-project, it is essential to collect data about energy consumption, quantity of environmental emissions and environmental costs. However, due to the difficulties of collecting such data, most studies on sustainable construction have been concentrated on the use of equipment, maintenance and repair works during construction.

In this study we used the data base (DB) suggested by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Ministry of Environment of Korea in calculating the pollutant emission during earthwork, and suggests a method in selecting the most environmentally friendly equipment combination for construction.