Carbon Emission Evaluation System for Foundation Construction Based on Entropy–TOPSIS and K-Means Methods

Yuan Chen, Genglong He, Yuan Fang (), Dongxu Li and Xi Wang
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Yuan Chen: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Genglong He: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Yuan Fang: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Dongxu Li: Guangzhou Airport Construction & Investment Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 510006, China
Xi Wang: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-34

Abstract: Green construction evaluation systems can assist building stakeholders in scientifically evaluating the carbon emission performance of construction projects. However, most green construction evaluation tools and methods fail to explicitly incorporate construction carbon emission indicators, let alone a quantitative evaluation. Therefore, this study proposes a carbon emission evaluation system based on the entropy–TOPSIS and K-means methods for foundation construction projects. In this study, we innovatively divided the carbon emission of the foundation construction process into three phases, namely, transportation emission, excavation and earthwork emission, and pile work emission, considering their different emission characteristics and reduction difficulties by nature. Different from traditional carbon evaluation methods, the carbon emission of the three phases were evaluated separately against the baseline value obtained from local construction quota. After that, the emission performance of the three phases was weighted and evaluated based on the entropy–TOPSIS method, and then rated via the K-means method. Based on a case study of 19 residential buildings, the weights of the three construction phases were 27.66% (transportation), 42.34% (excavation and earthwork), and 29.99% (pile work). The carbon performance of the 19 cases were rated by the K-means method into four levels: six cases were rated “Excellent”, five were rated “Good”, five were rated “Fair”, and three were rated “Poor”. The proposed method was expected to objectively and scientifically evaluate and rate the carbon emission of the foundation construction process, and provided a theoretical basis for decision makers to identify emission hotspots and formulate specific carbon reduction measures.

Keywords: low-carbon construction; carbon emission evaluation; entropy–TOPSIS; K-means; foundation construction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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