The rice straw burning in all the Egyptian governorates is seasonally occurring, an environmental disaster called the "Black Cloud". This study's main goal is to conduct the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) methods. Thus, the LCA of four brick types: (1) fired clay, (2) cement, (3) sand, and (4) rice straw has been compared. The BIM has been used to gather the building construction components to build the four LCA scenarios using the PRe SimaPro. The results have been presented by the single score and weighting method using the IMPACT 2002+ method with midpoint and endpoint (Pt) results. (1) Regarding the midpoint results, the fired clay brick has recorded the worst environmental impact with 30.10 Pt. In contrast, the rice straw brick has verified the lowest effects with 1.31 Pt. (2). Regarding the endpoint results, the highest value of human health has been assigned to the fired clay brick type with 11.4 Pt and the rice straw brick with 0.633 Pt. The highest resource depletion impacts have been pointed out the fired clay and cement brick with 7.29 Pt and 6.53 Pt, respectively. A novel framework for integrating LCA and BIM has been conducted on a proposed building during the early phases. The article has also introduced an approach to eliminating the Egyptian life cycle inventory database shortage as the LCA applications in Egypt are scarce. Moreover, it can help the concerned legislative bodies and the decision-makers.
KEYWORDSEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Building information modeling (BIM), Rice Straw Brick, Assiut City Highlights Incineration of the rice straw in the Egyptian governorates is seasonally occurring, and an environmental disaster called the "Black Cloud". LCA and BIM methods have been conducted for four brick types on a proposed building during the early phases. The rice straw brick industry does not use natural resources and fuel in large quantities than the fired clay brick. Due to the fired clay production incineration process, the highest value of the human health impact has been assigned to the fired clay brick. The highest resource depletion impacts have been pointed to the cement brick industry as it is using lime as a primary material to produce the brick.