Innovations in transport and transport infrastructure are intended to maintain and improve mobility. Roads must be designed in such a way that they can be operated sustainably and safely and that their environment remains livable. To this end, emissions and immissions of noise, air pollutants and light must be kept to a minimum.

On the one hand, vehicles must be able to operate with as little noise and air pollution as possible and their emissions must also be verifiable by third parties (e.g. institutions or associations). On the other hand, immissions can also be reduced on the road and traffic side. For example, suitable road surface layers combined with low-noise tyres can reduce noise pollution or stabilized traffic flows can reduce noise and pollutants in the air.

Increasing electromobility contributes to improved air quality and climate protection at the point of emission. However, the higher weight of the e-vehicles partly counteracts the positive effects. Due to European goals, there is a high pressure to innovate in the interplay between road surfaces, tyres and infrastructural protection measures.

However, significant effects can only be achieved with combined measures. Road safety remains a key precondition for mobility, especially when promoting new and active forms of mobility.

Objectives

• Bringing the mobility of tomorrow into harmony with people and the environment
• Making residential locations livable
• Reduce emissions and ensure compliance with limit values
• Investigate and further develop measures to reduce noise and air pollution

The federal trunk road network has many areas of roadside greenery and a large number of compensatory areas that have a high potential for the promotion and preservation of biodiversity.

Innovative methods such as biodiversity-friendly mowers and AI-controlled vegetation detection can help with the ecological care of roadside greenery. Such technologies must be tested and further developed from an ecological and economic point of view. Data generated by remote sensing methods from biotope type mapping and monitoring of these areas can be used as a basis for decision-making for nature conservation considerations. It is also necessary to assess the suitability and applicability of novel detection methods for the localisation of problematic species and efficient control methods by road operations services.

Compensatory areas not only contribute to nature conservation, but can also contribute to climate protection, for example by planting wet grassland and bogs for carbon sequestration in the soil. It is important to raise this potential in the sense of a nature-oriented design in order to exploit synergies between nature and climate protection.

In order to avoid wildlife accidents and at the same time to further implement the federal reconnection programme, measures must be investigated that affect the behaviour of road users, the technical equipment of vehicles and road infrastructure as well as the surrounding landscape.

Prerequisites for the expansion of photovoltaics on roadside areas are to be developed in order to ensure that they are implemented in a way that is compatible with nature conservation.

Objectives

• Ancillary traffic areas are maintained to promote biodiversity throughout the country
• Networking of habitats is not significantly restricted by road infrastructure
• Compensating areas are designed in such a way that they are ecologically valuable and typical locations for the respective landscape area
• Synergies between biodiversity promotion and climate protection are exploited both on side roads and on compensatory areas

Street lighting – as part of the road equipment – ensures that road users are safe on the road and supports public order.

In the planning and realization of street lighting, brightness techniques (luminance and illuminance) are used. Due to increased energy costs and climate protection efforts, municipalities are increasingly relying on LED lighting systems that can also be controlled digitally.

However, street lighting also has a negative impact on the environment. Incorrectly mounted or too bright luminaires, for example, cause light pollution, which has a negative effect on humans and animals. Night-active insects can, for example, die at the lights, other animals can be disturbed by light pollution in their life and behavior, which contradicts the protection of species.

To solve these problems, there are adaptive, digital lighting systems as well as new assessment methods. These should not only ensure greater safety in traffic, but also save energy and reduce disruptive effects.
The possibilities for improving today's street lighting lie, on the one hand, in the use and further development of adaptive, digital, utility-area-oriented lighting systems and, on the other hand, in new evaluation methods that save energy and reduce the interference effect by increasing the safe recognition of objects and thus road safety while at the same time lowering the lighting level.

Objectives

• Improve road safety by improving the light quality of street lighting in line with all environmental concerns
• Keep light emissions to a minimum in order to protect humans and fauna from harmful effects

Road infrastructure can make a major contribution to climate protection and resource conservation by reusing upgraded materials, such as upgraded soils, on site.

However, emissions from building materials must be avoided or minimized, and methods are developed for this purpose. Adapting the road infrastructure to climate change is also important, for example, considering the influence of sealed surfaces on the local climate or the resistance of the building to floods and heavy rain. Here you will find links to the topic "Sustainable Building". Practical demonstrators help to investigate structural and ecological questions for the modernization of the transport infrastructure and to test new solutions.

Good road drainage is not only important for road safety, but also for the protection of water bodies and drinking water. Therefore, the road surface water is examined, as well as the abrasion caused on the road, the de-icing salt and water-hazardous substances from accidents. The retention and degradation of pollutants in soils and water bodies is researched in order to minimize inputs from abrasion, such as tyre abrasion, into water bodies.
Our research results should precede the growing legal and social requirements and protect people and the environment from harmful substances.

Objectives

• Soils and waters are protected as livelihoods
• In the construction of the road infrastructure, the excavated soil and finishing materials are used as a climate-friendly building material

The German Sustainability Strategy implements the international guiding principle of sustainable development.

Concrete targets are defined, which can be transparently monitored by suitable indicators. Environmental indicators are assigned to various objectives, such as health, climate protection and the protection of terrestrial ecosystems.

Various protection objectives must also be taken into account in road construction and operation, such as air quality, noise protection, soil and water protection as well as nature protection and climate protection. For this purpose, BASt develops scientific foundations and suitable sustainability indicators with monitoring concepts. It also advises on the collection and implementation of these indicators.

Further research is aimed at finding even better indicators that can be collected more cost-effectively and quickly. In this way, a sustainable development of the road system is possible.

Objectives

• Development of environmental sustainability indicators and related monitoring plans to support sustainable development in road transport

In the course of road planning, construction and operation, environmental and species protection-related considerations and decisions are required. These are to be made target- and legally secure without delays. For this purpose, reliable data and knowledge bases are to be evaluated and made available.

Planning, approval and implementation measures in the transport sector and associated environmentally relevant planning steps must be accelerated. In coordination with the federal states and the Federal Highway Authority, processes are to be digitised in a legally secure and compliant manner and approval procedures for infrastructure projects are to be standardised nationwide.

In addition, road construction requires tools with which environmental data are evaluated on a large scale, existing data is bundled and supplemented. The collected data should be available to planners and decision-makers.

Environmental protection issues often concern the natural environment surrounding the road infrastructure. Landscape Information Modeling (LIM) adds a new dimension here. In this way, digitization can be extended beyond the functional infrastructure. In this way, functional relationships between various environmental information and data can be identified. They can be integrated into research and later also the planning and operation of roads.

Digital information on the current traffic situation and the current environmental conditions is continuously collected. Networking this information makes it possible to set up demand-oriented (e.g. environmentally sensitive) traffic control and energy-saving operation of the road equipment. The thresholds and thresholds required for dynamic adjustments must be derived and evaluated by means of special, targeted investigations and analyses.

Objectives

• Digitize processes to accelerate environmentally relevant planning steps
• Evaluate, bundle and supplement environmental data
• Extend digitalization beyond the functional infrastructure with Landscape Information Modeling (LIM)
• Networking information to set up demand-oriented traffic control and energy-saving operation of road equipment