Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Construction within the Industrialized Building Process: A Monetization and Building Information Modelling Approach

Fuyi Yao, Guiwen Liu, Yingbo Ji, Wenjing Tong, Xiaoyun Du, Kaijian Li, Asheem Shrestha and Igor Martek
Additional contact information
Fuyi Yao: School of Management Science and Real Estate, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Guiwen Liu: School of Management Science and Real Estate, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Yingbo Ji: Research Center of Construction Industrialization and Integrated Technology (CIIT), Beijing 100144, China
Wenjing Tong: Research Center of Construction Industrialization and Integrated Technology (CIIT), Beijing 100144, China
Xiaoyun Du: School of Management Science and Real Estate, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Kaijian Li: School of Management Science and Real Estate, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Asheem Shrestha: School of Architecture & Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong Waterfront Campus, Locked Bag 20001, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia
Igor Martek: School of Architecture & Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong Waterfront Campus, Locked Bag 20001, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 22, 1-22

Abstract: Industrialization has been widely regarded as a sustainable construction method in terms of its environmental friendliness. However, existing studies mainly consider the single impact of greenhouse gas emissions or material consumption in the construction process of industrialized buildings, and pay less attention to ecological pollution and community interest, which leads to an insufficient understanding. There is an urgent need to systematically carry out accurate assessment of comprehensive construction environmental impact within industrialized building processes. Various methods, including face-to-face interviews, field research and building information modeling (BIM), were used for data collection. Four categories selected for the study included resource consumption, material loss, ecological pollution, and community interest. A life cycle assessment (LCA) model, namely input-process-output model (IPO), is proposed to analyze the construction environmental impact of the standard layer of industrialized buildings from four life cycle stages, namely, transportation, stacking, assembly and cast-in-place. The monetization approach of willingness to pay (WTP) was applied to make a quantitative comparison. Results reveal that the assembly stage has the largest impact on the environment at 66.13% among the four life cycle stages, followed by transportation at 16.39%, stacking at 10.29%, and cast-in-place at 7.19%. The key factors include power consumption, noise pollution, material loss, fuel consumption and component loss, which altogether account for more than 85% of the total impact. Relevant stakeholders can conduct their project using the same approach to determine the construction environmental performance and hence introduce appropriate measures to mitigate the environmental burden.

Keywords: evaluation; environmental impact; industrialized building; building information modeling (BIM) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (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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