In recent years, urban flooding has occurred frequently in different cities in China. This has caused huge economic and environmental damages. As one of the main elements in the concept of sponge city – a potential solution to this problem – permeable pavements have attracted great attentions. This new technology has the ability to mitigate urban flooding effectively and it also provides other environmental benefits. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a newly developed evaluation approach that can be applied to estimate the environmental impacts of pervious pavements in the entire life cycle. This study propose a basic model which can be applied to both permeable asphalt pavements and permeable concrete pavements to evaluate their environmental impacts. The impacts of this technology are investigated on urban flooding, water recycling and