Evaluating Environmental Impact in Foundations and Structures through Disaggregated Models: Towards the Decarbonisation of the Construction Sector

Pilar Mercader-Moyano and Jesús Roldán-Porras
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Pilar Mercader-Moyano: Department of Building Construction I, University of Seville, 41012 Seville, Spain
Jesús Roldán-Porras: Department of Industrial and Civil Engineering, University of Cadiz, 11519 Cádiz, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-30

Abstract: Having a tool in Spanish regulations to evaluate the sustainability of the construction process in a simple and efficient way (Annex 13 of the Structural Concrete Instruction EHE-08) means an advance with respect to regulations in other countries. However, the complexity of homogenising the conditions that affect the execution of each structure, which are of a very heterogeneous and variable nature, in order to be able to evaluate their contribution to sustainability within the same reference framework, is the greatest obstacle and can have a great influence on the representativeness of the obtained results. However, there are variables that, given their specificity and nature, are not contemplated in this methodology (dust, noise and vibration emission, transportation). This paper proposes a complementary disaggregated model to evaluate the sustainability of variables that are not considered, namely the transportation of materials to the worksite, the commute of workers, the construction process, the emissions of dust, noise and vibrations, as well as the necessary load tests. The results of the application of this model to the real case of the foundations of two singular buildings, show the importance that these previously unexamined variables can have when choosing the most sustainable technical solution in terms of CO 2 emissions.

Keywords: CO 2 emissions; disaggregated model; dust; noise and vibration emission; environmental impact studies; foundations and structures; sustainability; transportation (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 (4)

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