Assessing Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Impacts of Building Construction Solutions with BIM

Abstract

Worldwide authorities are increasingly concerned about construction’s efficiency and sustainability, leading to the development of high-performance buildings. However, such facts have shifted a significant percentage of the building life cycle environmental impacts from the operation to the product and construction phases. Thus, the need to evaluate and select more sustainable materials and construction solutions arises, to also minimize impacts from these stages. To evaluate those impacts, LCA and LCC analysis are usually applied to assess the building impacts and costs, through the different life cycle stages. Despite the usefulness of LCA and LCC methods during the project phase, they are usually evaluated in the project later stages. It is too complex and time-consuming to gather and process all the required data during the project early stages. With the recent deployment of BIM, the opportunity to automate and shift LCA and LCC analysis to project early stages stands out. Facing the research gap, this study aims to develop a BIM-based decision-making tool for designers to evaluate the environmental, economic, and functional performance of different building construction solutions. To do so, 18 different simulation scenarios have been created in Autodesk Revit with different combinations of external walls, roofs, and floors. Then, a framework was developed in Dynamo to automatically characterize the building elements life cycle environmental impacts and costs, as well as to automate the LCA and LCC analysis during the project early stages. The outcomes can significantly reduce the required time, errors and efforts when performing LCA and LCC analysis, providing designers with real time decision support data and making an important contribution to the use of BIM for sustainability purposes.

Enhancing life cycle assessment for circular economy measurement of different case scenarios of modular steel slab

“…The study led to the formulation of strategic plastic waste management plans and guidelines that should be implemented in Hong Kong to curb its plastic waste problem. To assess and select the most sustainable materials for high-performance buildings, Carvalho et al [19] also adopted LCA, LCC, and BIM to enhance the consideration of the cost and impact potentials of materials from the beginning of life (BoL) / design stage of construction. Adopting this approach helps automate the LCA and the LCC process from the BoL of buildings to reduce assessment errors and delays.…”

Exterior Walls Selection Framework using Building Information Modeling (BIM)

“…Alshamrani et al [5] present a study selecting exterior wall materials according to their LCC. Carvalho et al [16] developed a BIM-based decisionmaking tool for designers to evaluate the environmental, economic, and functional performance of 18 different combinations of external walls, roofs, and floors using Dynamo during the project's early stages. Zhang et al [17] proposed a multi-criteria decision-making framework for selecting external wall retrofit schemes in buildings using BIM.…”

Exploring the synergies between Life Cycle cost / Whole Life Cost and Building Information Modeling: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Used to collect and analyze environmental data to assess impacts. [21,22,37,[74][75][76][77][78][79][80] Building Life cycle management (BLCM) Data asset manipulation and exchange throughout a building's life cycle. It helps to manage the asset's performance throughout its life cycle and guarantee its serviceability.…”