Inyim, P (2015) Time, cost, and environmental impact analysis for sustainable design at multiple building levels. PhD thesis, Florida International University, USA.
Abstract
Construction projects are complex endeavors that require the involvement of different professional disciplines in order to meet various project objectives that are often conflicting. The level of complexity and the multi-objective nature of construction projects lend themselves to collaborative design and construction such as integrated project delivery (IPD), in which relevant disciplines work together during project conception, design and construction. Traditionally, the main objectives of construction projects have been to build in the least amount of time with the lowest cost possible, thus the inherent and well-established relationship between cost and time has been the focus of many studies. The importance of being able to effectively model relationships among multiple objectives in building construction has been emphasized in a wide range of research. In general, the trade-off relationship between time and cost is well understood and there is ample research on the subject. However, despite sustainable building designs, relationships between time and environmental impact, as well as cost and environmental impact, have not been fully investigated. The objectives of this research were mainly to analyze and identify relationships of time, cost, and environmental impact, in terms of CO2 emissions, at different levels of a building: material level, component level, and building level, at the pre-use phase, including manufacturing and construction, and the relationships of life cycle cost and life cycle CO2 emissions at the usage phase. Additionally, this research aimed to develop a robust simulation-based multi-objective decision-support tool, called SimulEICon, which took construction data uncertainty into account, and was capable of incorporating life cycle assessment information to the decision-making process. The findings of this research supported the trade-off relationship between time and cost at different building levels. Moreover, the time and CO 2 emissions relationship presented trade-off behavior at the pre-use phase. The results of the relationship between cost and CO2 emissions were interestingly proportional at the pre-use phase. The same pattern continually presented after the construction to the usage phase. Understanding the relationships between those objectives is a key in successfully planning and designing environmentally sustainable construction projects.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Orabi, W and Chowdhury, A G |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | complexity; uncertainty; construction project; building design; collaborative design; environmental impact; life cycle; manufacturing; project delivery; re-use; sustainable building; sustainable construction; professional; life cycle cost; simulation |
| Index terms: | sustainable building, sustainable building design, construction project, environmental impact, collaborative design, complexity, sustainable construction, sustainable design, building construction, integrated project delivery, life cycle assessment, life cycle cost, design and construction, environmental impact analysis, project delivery, building design, re-use, CO2 emissions, decision-making process, life cycle, lowest cost, sustainable construction project |
| Subjects: | project delivery, energy systems, value management, design methods, air quality, systems engineering, decision analysis, architectural design, bidding, contractual arrangements, environmental impact, building construction, design process, sustainable construction, production management, health safety and environment, research methods |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Risk Management, Procurement, Sustainability, Research Practice, Construction Technology, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here