Green Performance Evaluation System for Energy-Efficiency-Based Planning for Construction Site Layout

Abstract

The location of temporary facilities in a construction project and the entire site layout plan directly affect project objectives such as time, labor cost, and material transportation and handling. The layout of construction sites also affects entrainment factors such as energy consumption, carbon footprints, and overall construction operation productivity. While site layout planning has been intensively investigated from a project objectives perspective, there have been very few studies of energy-efficiency-based planning, or of the sustainability performance of site layouts. This study developed a green performance evaluation system aimed at improving the sustainability of construction site layouts. The identified factors include six sustainable evaluation categories covering energy conservation and environmental protection, people-oriented principles, construction efficiency, intensity of economic growth, intensity of space use, and the overall control of process. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was adopted to determine the weight of each attribute and a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was established to carry out the evaluation. The 23 attributes adopted in this paper were identified in the literature; however, the major contribution of this paper is the development of a green performance evaluation system. This system integrates both qualitative and quantitative attributes and provides an overall evaluation of the environmental effectiveness of a construction site layout. The proposed evaluation system was validated with a commercial building project. The average utilization ratio of the case study site was calculated as 94%, and lessons learned are discussed in this paper. The case study analysis identified available site spaces around the building and examined how the arrangement of resources and facilities ensures effective connection between construction activities. The findings showed that the facility’s layout plays a crucial role in energy consumption and green performance. The proposed system will support construction project managers to create high-performance construction site layouts in more scientific and systematic ways.

A Systematic Review of Digital Technology Adoption in Off-Site Construction: Current Status and Future Direction towards Industry 4.0

“…These facts indicate that many problems need to be solved to fully realize the potential benefits of OSC. Moreover, there are many surveys conducted in the OSC industry to measure performance from different perspectives, for example, energy and environment [29][30][31][32], labour productivity [29,33], and market and social factors [29,34]. These surveys demonstrate the industry's desire to improve OSC in general.…”

The Performance Gap in Energy-Efficient Office Buildings: How the Occupants Can Help?

“…This will also help policymakers in devising subtle but effective behavior training strategies to reduce energy usage. Such behavioral retrofitting comes at a much lower cost than the physical or technological retrofit options to achieve the same purpose and this study establishes the foundation for it.Energies 2020, 13, 1480 2 of 27 explored from various angles including predictive controls for refrigeration [3], green performance evaluation system for construction site layout [4], performance comparisons of energy systems [5], indoor air quality assessments [6] and others.The modern ways of living drive substantial energy use inside the buildings. United Nations Energy Program (UN-Energy) reports that buildings consume 30-40% of the total global energy [7,8].…”

“…Energies 2020, 13, 1480 2 of 27 explored from various angles including predictive controls for refrigeration [3], green performance evaluation system for construction site layout [4], performance comparisons of energy systems [5], indoor air quality assessments [6] and others.…”

A Safety Warning Algorithm Based on Axis Aligned Bounding Box Method to Prevent Onsite Accidents of Mobile Construction Machineries

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