Green and Low-Carbon Transition of Urban Low-Altitude Transportation Infrastructure: A Carbon Footprint-Oriented Intelligent Management Framework Based on Digital Twin and Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

Under the background of global carbon neutrality goals, the green and low-carbon transition of urban transportation infrastructure has become an important strategic task. As a new form of urban transportation, low-altitude transportation infrastructure (LATI) is facing prominent carbon emission challenges in the whole life cycle (construction, operation, maintenance, decommissioning), which restricts its sustainable development. Traditional low-carbon management strategies for LATI focus on single-link emission reduction (such as energy replacement in operation stage) and lack systematic carbon footprint control and full-cycle intelligent management capabilities. This study proposes a carbon footprint-oriented intelligent management framework integrating digital twin (DT) technology and life cycle assessment (LCA) method, aiming to realize the full-cycle, refined and intelligent carbon emission control of LATI. Based on the full-element mapping and dynamic simulation advantages of DT, and the systematic carbon accounting advantage of LCA, this study constructs a four-dimensional green low-carbon management system covering carbon footprint accounting, emission reduction simulation, intelligent control and effect evaluation. Empirical verification is conducted through case studies of LATI in carbon peak pilot cities (Beijing, China) and sustainable transport demonstration cities (Copenhagen, Denmark), and the effectiveness of the framework is evaluated using the low-carbon evaluation index system including carbon emission intensity, energy utilization efficiency and resource recycling rate. The research results show that: (1) The DT-based full-cycle carbon footprint monitoring system can improve the accuracy of LATI carbon accounting by 75%-88% and realize real-time tracking of carbon emission dynamics; (2) The LCA-oriented emission reduction simulation system can optimize the low-carbon scheme of LATI, reducing the whole-life cycle carbon emission by 22%-35% compared with the traditional scheme; (3) The integrated application of DT and LCA can comprehensively promote the green low-carbon transition of LATI, with the carbon emission intensity reduced by 30%-42% and the renewable energy utilization rate increased by 45%-55%. Finally, targeted policy suggestions are put forward from the aspects of carbon accounting standardization, low-carbon technology promotion, and incentive mechanism construction, which provides a new theoretical framework and practical reference for the green low-carbon transition of urban LATI under the carbon neutrality goal.