Application of Standard Indicators for the Quantification of SDGS in the Environmental Assessment of Civil Engineering Projects

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an initiative promoted by the United Nations and assumed by most of the countries of the world. They are made up of 17 objectives with 169 goals and 232 indicators.The universities in charge of training professionals play a fundamental role, since they must train graduates who are capable of integrating the SDGs in the projects they carry out in their professional lives. To do this, an attempt is made to integrate the SDGs in the subjects that complete the teaching plans of the degrees.In the group of traditional engineering, Civil Engineering is a fundamental tool to advance towards the achievement of the SDGs proposed by the United Nations, since it is the one that provides the basic infrastructures that determine the quality of life of populations.In this context, in the EscuelaTecnica Superior of Ingenieria Civil of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, the metrics corresponding to some of the SDGs are being implemented in the subjects that make up the degree.Based on the indications of the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (INECP), prepared by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, a procedure has been developed to measure the different indicators of certain SDGs within the activities of the subject called Environmental Impact Assessment.Evaluating and quantifying the degree of compliance of elements that have a high degree of subjectivity is a complicated task. Procedures are used to measure Energy Efficiency, GHG calculation, water footprint, pollutant emissions, introduction to the calculation of exergies of the different processes and standardized methodologies based on AHP (analytical hierarchy process) for evaluation and decision making. It consists of a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions, based on human perception and the TOPSIS method (Technique of order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution) of multi-criteria decision analysis for information processing.This methodology aims to standardize and objectify the calculations of compliance with the SDGs in the subjects of Civil Engineering and for this the way of working is the development of the metrics of several indicators, the ones we are using at the moment are number 9 and number 11.The training activities begin with the analysis of the indicators of SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities in the framework of integration with the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (INECP), so that the project objectives explicitly specify the relationship with these goals.