BIM-LCA Integration for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Urbanization Process

Madelyn Marrero, Maciej Wojtasiewicz, Alejandro Martínez-Rocamora, Jaime Solís-Guzmán and M. Desirée Alba-Rodríguez
Additional contact information
Madelyn Marrero: ArDiTec Research Group, Department of Architectural Constructions II, Higher Technical School of Building Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Seville, Spain
Maciej Wojtasiewicz: Datacomp, 30-532 Kraków, Poland
Alejandro Martínez-Rocamora: ArDiTec Research Group, Department of Architectural Constructions II, Higher Technical School of Building Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Seville, Spain
Jaime Solís-Guzmán: ArDiTec Research Group, Department of Architectural Constructions II, Higher Technical School of Building Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Seville, Spain
M. Desirée Alba-Rodríguez: ArDiTec Research Group, Department of Architectural Constructions II, Higher Technical School of Building Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Seville, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-24

Abstract: The construction sector is one of the most polluting industries, generating between 30% and 40% of the worldwide environmental burden in terms of raw materials, direct and indirect energy consumption, waste, and CO 2 emissions. Recent advances in computer science and data management have facilitated the evaluation of present and future impacts, thus improving the sustainability of architectural designs. Powerful software tools, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), allow environmental indicators to be incorporated into the construction elements that make up the project to evaluate it during the design stage. In this work, the state of the art of ecological indicator application through BIM platforms is studied. Barriers and uncertainties are also identified. Subsequently, a model is proposed to evaluate the environmental impact of an urbanization process or a project through several ecological indicators (carbon footprint, water footprint, and embodied energy). To perform this analysis, the most important aspect is to determine the quantities of each construction element and their clear decomposition into subelements, since both aspects add certainty to the analysis. For this purpose, construction cost databases are a good instrument for introducing environmental awareness. The reliability of LCA data, which can be obtained from generic databases or ecolabels such as environmental product declarations, becomes crucial.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; building information modelling; environmental product declaration; ecolabels; environmental impact assessment; urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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