Critical green road criteria for Malaysia green rural road index

Abstract

Malaysia is on its path in adapting the green roadway system. The introduction of green road rating tools such as Malaysia Green Highway Index (MyGHI) for highways and Penarafan Hijau (pHJKR Jalan) for non-toll roads which the value of the projects are more than RM50 million are parts of the green initiatives taken towards the sustainable development in Malaysia. However, there is no specific green road rating tool focusing on rural roads in Malaysia. The rural road falls under the state road category, which contributes the largest proportion of the road network in Malaysia. The absence of specific green road rating tools for the assessment of the largest network of the road in Malaysia is seen as the gap that needs to be filled with a systematic approach. With that, this paper highlight the methodology of the study to develop a specific green road rating tool that suits the nature of rural road in Malaysia which is called Malaysia Green Rural Road Index (MyGreen RRI). It also aims to highlight a thorough comparative review of the established criteria of the existing international and local green road rating tools by using cross-national comparison. This comparative review leads to a set of proposed criteria to be used in MyGreen RRI. The analysis is later will be extended for the development of score and to be used for the assessment of MyGreen RRI. The establishment of MyGreen RRI as the later final output of is expected to benefit the nation in the environment, social and economic perspectives.