Driving change: UTC research team addresses “triple bottom line” to earn invitation to national conference

A Tennessee Department of Transportation grant-funded project led by Dr. Ignatius Fomunung developed a framework to help transportation planners better assess the value of infrastructure projects by incorporating economic, environmental and social factors. Photo by Angela Foster.

A University of Tennessee at Chattanooga civil engineering professor is headed to Washington, D.C., via special invitation for his leadership in tackling one of transportation planning’s most persistent challenges.

Professor Ignatius Fomunung, the director of UTC’s Center for Energy, Transportation and the Environment, was the principal investigator on a multidisciplinary grant funded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) titled “A Framework for Quantitative Assessment of the Environmental, Social, and Economic Benefits of TDOT Infrastructure Projects.”

The TDOT-sponsored project, executed from 2021 to 2023 for approximately $280,000, was one of only 30 projects nationwide to receive a High Value Research-2024 award from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Fomunung will present the team’s work at the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 104th Annual Conference—hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—on Jan. 5-9 in Washington, D.C.

Fomunung has attended TRB as a presenter and participant since 1996—when he was a graduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology—and this is his first invited research presentation at the national conference. He has been active with seven TRB committees over the years: statistical and econometric methods; air quality and greenhouse gas mitigation; transportation energy; alternative fuels and technology; pedestrians; bicycle transportation; and intelligent transportation systems.

“It’s very rewarding because it’s a recognition that the effort we put here was worthwhile—and it’s a collective effort. It also speaks to the benefit of having a multidisciplinary team working together on a project,” said Fomunung, a member of the UTC faculty since 2005.

Along with Fomunung, the eight-member UTC faculty and student project team consisted of:

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Jejal Bathi
UC Foundation Professor 0f Civil Engineering Mbakisya Onyango
Professor of Computer Science Yu Liang
UC Foundation Professor of Environmental Science Thomas Wilson
Graduate student Hasan Sabbir, recipient of a master’s degree in civil engineering in 2023 and now working for the California Department of Transportation
Undergraduate student Carmen Harvey, who received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2022 and is now a city of Chattanooga transportation engineering manager
Undergraduate student Dakila Ledesma, who earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2021

The project, Fomunung explained, developed a framework to help transportation planners better assess the value of infrastructure projects by incorporating economic, environmental and social factors—known as the “triple bottom line.”

The team set out to address a critical issue in infrastructure planning. Traditionally, decisions about roads, bridges and other public works have focused heavily on economic considerations—primarily because environmental and social impacts are more difficult to quantify. Fomunung and the team developed a system that incorporates all three elements; the resulting framework provides a comprehensive and objective cost-benefit tool that aids designers in selecting an optimal project type among several competing alternatives.

“The traditional way of making decisions about infrastructure projects often focused on economic factors alone because environmental and social benefits are harder to quantify,” Fomunung said. “This framework provides a comprehensive way to factor those in, leading to more balanced and impactful decisions.”

At the core of the project is a user-friendly decision-making tool designed for engineers at TDOT. A significant component of the work was creating a searchable database of green infrastructure techniques. The database allows users to compare traditional “gray” infrastructure—concrete-heavy approaches—with greener alternatives that offer long-term societal and environmental advantages.

“Gray always looks better, more attractive because if the decision is solely on economic considerations, then gray always seems to win out,” Fomunung said. “But if you look at green, initially the cost might be too high if you just look at the economic considerations. But green has environmental benefits as well as social benefits.

“If we’re able to quantify those, then gray doesn’t look that cost-effective anymore.”

Fomunung said that the tool’s underlying algorithms, while sophisticated, are designed to be intuitive for the end user. Engineers can evaluate options for infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges by selecting criteria through a simplified interface. The system then performs a cost-benefit analysis that integrates economic, environmental and social considerations, allowing decision-makers to see which alternatives offer the most significant overall value.

“It allows them to make those decisions to see which one is most economically beneficial to the community,” Fomunung explained, “and that way, it is a very judicious use of the taxpayer dollars.”

He said the collaborative effort involving faculty and students from civil engineering, computer science and environmental science proved essential in overcoming challenges, such as quantifying benefits that are traditionally difficult to measure.

“We had the opportunity to apply modern techniques and tools,” Fomunung said, “and that’s where the role of the computer science department came into play. By bringing together expertise from different disciplines, we were able to create something truly impactful.”

Beyond its technical achievements, the project has broader implications for transportation planning nationwide. Fomunung said that the Federal Highway Administration recognized early on the potential for the system to be adopted in other states, making it a model for addressing infrastructure challenges across the country.

“The goal was not just to solve TDOT’s problem but to create a framework that other states could adopt, taking into account geographic and temporal variations in infrastructure needs,” he said. “Even within the state of Tennessee, the approaches that will work in Chattanooga may not work in Memphis. Likewise, approaches that may look attractive today might be different than 10 years ago or 10 years from now. This temporal and spatial variation added another level of complexity to the task, but which we resolved.

“It’s exciting to think about the impact this work could have for years to come.”