Our previous work shown that pavements can positively and negatively impact human well being in addition to having economic and environmental impacts. Social impacts may include fatalities, bodily health, mobility, comfort, environmental emissions, financial impact, and equity. What metrics and evaluation methods can we create to assess road conditions and maintenance while considering their social, economic, and environmental impacts? How can we develop measurements that capture user experience in a way that works together with existing pavement design tools that track costs and emissions? 

Pavement design often includes a mixture of mechanistic and empirical components. Mechanistic components rely on physical relationships and processes, whereas empirical components use experimental and field data. Can we use physics informed machine learning to bring the two closer together such that our approaches can take advantage of both components?

While section level pavement life-cycle assessment (LCA) have seen numerous advancements over the last decade, network-level LCA frameworks are still missing key pieces. How can we fill in this knowledge gap, keeping in mind that increasing the scope to network level may bring additional sources of uncertainty that must be accounted for?

Modern vehicles are equipped with many sensors that can be used to identify and track various pavement distresses. What are some ways to leverage these technologies to supplement existing data collection efforts? What sensors can be used to detect what sort of distresses? What are the most efficient ways of collecting, sorting, storing and reporting this data?

State agencies must make major operational and capital investments into our multi-modal transportation system with wide-ranging impacts. How do we assess the sustainability of each mode, across environmental, social, and economic dimensions, to help agencies make more informed decisions? 

• Final Report

Vulnerable communities are often located near deteriorated and/or high-volume roads. The condition of such roads can have negative impacts on both the drivers and residents in terms of increased vehicle operating costs, emissions, and noise. How do we investigate these social impacts so that they can be incorporated in pavement design frameworks alongside life-cycle costs and emissions?

• Quantitative Methods of Social Sustainability

• Which Social Impact Matter for Pavement Management?