Process-based sustainability assessment tool for road transport asset management practice

Road asset management is a process that consists of a number of phases, each with many tasks and processes that are associated with sustainability challenges. Many of road agencies around the world have responded to these challenges by adopting sustainable practices in their asset management process. Some have even developed measures and targets for assessing their sustainability performance in certain tasks or phases of the asset management process. The purpose of this paper is to present the development process and functionalities of a new Excel-based tool for assessing sustainability performance. The tool is referred to as Road Asset Management Sustainability Assessment Tool (RAMSAT). In RAMSAT, the classification of assets has been expanded beyond physical assets and both tangible and intangible assets are considered. Additionally, six dimensions of sustainability are considered including environmental, social, economic, corporate, financial and technological. The tool utilises the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for rating the impacts that an agency’s practices and processes have on achieving each of the sustainability objectives relevant to each goal of the sustainability dimensions considered. RAMSAT can be used to measure the performance at every level of the asset management process, separately and collectively. The latter is represented by a composite index (Sustainability Composite Index) which is determined by aggregating the indices relevant to all six sustainability dimensions.