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BIM- and GIS-Based Life-Cycle-Assessment Framework for Enhancing Eco Efficiency and Sustainability in the Construction Sector

Author(s):

ORCID

ORCID
ORCID
Medium: journal article
Language(s): English
Published in: Buildings, , n. 2, v. 14
Page(s): 360
DOI: 10.3390/buildings14020360
Abstract:

The world is progressing towards sustainable, eco-friendly, recyclable materials to enhance the circular economy and mitigate the issues of carbon footprint, overburdened landfills, and waste of natural resources. As increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are a major contributor towards climate change and given that the construction industry is one of the major producers of GHG emissions, it is crucial to meticulously quantify and lower its emissions, especially in the context of developing countries. This research presents a novel framework by combining advanced tools i.e., building information modeling (BIM), life-cycle assessment (LCA), geographic information systems (GISs), and quantification of embodied emissions to optimize construction’s design, material-selection, operations, maintenance, and waste-management processes. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been demonstrated with the help of a real-world case study in Islamabad, Pakistan. A building model has been generated using BIM, and a comprehensive LCA has been conducted. Additionally, GIS tools have been utilized to identify the locations and accessibility of available-waste-management facilities. Based on this data, embodied emissions related to handling and transportation of waste material to disposal facilities have been computed using mathematical analyses. Furthermore, targeted mitigation strategies have been proposed and an optimized route has been designed using GIS-based route-optimization tools along the suggested facility centers in the Islamabad region. The case study has been reassessed with alleviation strategies, and the results show that 29.35% of the materialization stage, 16.04% of the operational stage, and 21.14% of the end-of-life-phase GHG emissions can be effectively reduced. Hence, pre-evaluating the environmental degradation caused by construction projects throughout their life cycle might offer an opportunity to comprehend and reduce prospective environmental impacts.

Copyright: © 2024 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
License:

This creative work has been published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license which allows copying, and redistribution as well as adaptation of the original work provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and the conditions of the license are met.

  • About this
    data sheet
  • Reference-ID
    10760423
  • Published on:
    15/03/2024
  • Last updated on:
    25/04/2024
 
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