Sustainable Decision Making in Civil Engineering

This paper deals with the intergenerational aspects of decision making in regard to lifecycle benefit-based design and maintenance planning for civil engineering facilities. Firstly a decision framework is described facilitating decision making consistent with the principle of intergenerational equity.

A philosophical framework by which different types of environmental damage may be compared and expressed in either monetary terms or related to a measure of the quality of life, is needed. The philosophy underlying the Life Quality Index is outlined and explained how be utilized to assess the economical feasibility of different engineering activities, for the purpose of saving lives. Furthermore, it is explained how the concept of the LQI facilitates inclusion of the societal economical loss due to fatalities in engineering decision making. The sustainable decision framework is illustrated by means of a structural design optimization problem where concrete building structures subject to earthquake loading are considered. The results from this study clearly indicate that sustainable decision making yields different optimal design decisions than those presently pursued.