A Method to Include Life Cycle Assessment Results in Choosing by Advantage (CBA) Multicriteria Decision Analysis. A Case Study for Seismic Retrofit in Peruvian Primary Schools

Abstract

Building information modeling (BIM) is an emerging technology that improves visualization, understanding, and transparency in construction projects. Its use in Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&C), while still scarce, is developing in combination with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, such as the choosing by advantages (CBA) method. Despite the holistic nature of MCDM methods, the inclusion of life cycle environmental metrics is lagging in construction projects in LA&C. However, recent studies point toward the need to optimize the synergies between BIM and life cycle assessment (LCA), in which a method like CBA could allow improving the quality of the decisions. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to integrate LCA and CBA methods to identify the effect that the inclusion of environmental impacts can have on decision-making in public procurement, as well as comparing how this final decision differs from an exclusively LCA-oriented interpretation of the results. Once the LCA was performed, a set of additional criteria for the CBA method were fixed, including transparency, technical, and social indicators. Thereafter, a stakeholder participative workshop was held in order to gather experts to elucidate on the final decision. The methodology was applied to a relevant construction sector problem modelled with BIM in the city of Lima (Peru), which consisted of three different construction techniques needed to retrofit educational institutions. Results from the LCA-oriented assessment, which was supported by Monte Carlo simulation, revealed a situation in which the masonry-based technique showed significantly lower environmental impacts than the remaining two options. However, when a wider range of technical, social, and transparency criteria are added to the environmental indicators, this low-carbon technique only prevailed in those workshop tables in which environmental experts were present and under specific computational assumptions, whereas teams with a higher proportion of government members were inclined to foster alternatives that imply less bureaucratic barriers. Finally, the results constitute an important milestone when it comes to including environmental factors in public procurement in LA&C.

Immersive Technology and Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Sustainable Smart Cities

“…As shown in Table 3, which lists smart city technology applications in immersive technology and BIM in sustainable smart cities since 2014, case studies [6][7][8][20][21][22][23]31,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] are the most used method for integrating smart city in immersive technology, followed by literature reviews [6,7,9,19,31,39,[50][51][52][53][54], interviews [8,20,22,36,37,[43][44][45][46], questionnaires [8,20,22,36,37,[43]…”

“…Additionally, applications involving lifecycle assessment are green building index, sustainable building design, and facility management, for which the technologies used are VR and XR. [45] 2022 Case studies, Questionnaire, Interviews Vázquez-Rowe et al [40] 2021 Case studies Allam et al [39] 2021 Literature review, Case studies Khoshdelnezamiha et al [52] 2021 Literature review Chew et al [31] 2020 Literature review, Case studies Kamari et al [22] 2020 Case studies, Questionnaire, Interviews Anand et al [51] 2017 Literature review Shahrokni et al [36] 2015 Case studies, Questionnaire, Interviews The main application areas in the design stage are linked to building sustainability [12,19,25,45,55,56], BIM risk management, and assessment [22,43]. During the design and construction stage, the use of BIM-based co-design by designers and contractors maximizes project delivery improvements and collaborative efficiency, particularly in BIM risk management and assessment.…”

Urban Metabolism: Definition of an Integrated Framework to Assess and Plan Cities and Territories

“…On the other hand, LCA is retained as a powerful technique for calculating both input and output flow of materials and energy over the course of their life cycle. Moreover, it is gaining importance within business models and, more generally, as decision supporting tool for the transition towards Circular Economy (CE) at various levels (Le Téno and Mareschal 1998;Ghisellini and Ulgiati 2020;Vázquez-Rowe et al 2021;Hannouf et al 2021) and addressing the complexity of metabolic processes and systems (Peponi et al 2022).…”

BIM and Automation in Complex Building Assessment

“…These tools simplify the LCA method, and moreover, they evaluate other aspects of the building quality: social, economic, and local. As a result, complex quality assessments can be processed [36,39]. In the reality of the Czech AEC market, the mentioned complex quality assessment methodologies are commonly used.…”