Environmental impacts of introducing cable cars in the Andean landscape: A case study for Kuelap, Peru

Cable cars have slowly become a popular means of transport beyond their classical use at ski resorts. In Latin America their use has thrived to access archaeological sites in the Andes, but also in urban environments for mass transit. Despite some apparent benefits of these systems, the current literature is scarce in terms of quantifying the environmental profile of cable cars. Hence, their environmental performance as compared to other means of transport remains essentially unexplored. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to provide a comparative environmental analysis, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, of the two existing transport methods to visit the Kuelap Archaeological Complex, in northern Peru: a recently built cableway system and the alternative unpaved winding road. An attributional LCA perspective was performed for several impact categories, including global warming and particulate matter formation. In addition, a scenario analysis and an uncertainty analysis, using Monte Carlo simulation, were conducted to account for deterministic and stochastic results interpretation. Results demonstrated that succulent environmental benefits are attained when cable cars substitute road transport in complex Andean orographic conditions. However, the rebound effects of reducing traveling times significantly, as well as social and biodiversity aspects, should be analyzed in further depth to complement the environmental analysis.