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BIM-LCA Integration for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Urbanization Process

1
ArDiTec Research Group, Department of Architectural Constructions II, Higher Technical School of Building Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Seville, Spain
2
Datacomp, 30-532 Kraków, Poland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 4196; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104196
Received: 29 April 2020 / Revised: 14 May 2020 / Accepted: 18 May 2020 / Published: 20 May 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urbanism and Architecture)
The construction sector is one of the most polluting industries, generating between 30% and 40% of the worldwide environmental burden in terms of raw materials, direct and indirect energy consumption, waste, and CO2 emissions. Recent advances in computer science and data management have facilitated the evaluation of present and future impacts, thus improving the sustainability of architectural designs. Powerful software tools, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), allow environmental indicators to be incorporated into the construction elements that make up the project to evaluate it during the design stage. In this work, the state of the art of ecological indicator application through BIM platforms is studied. Barriers and uncertainties are also identified. Subsequently, a model is proposed to evaluate the environmental impact of an urbanization process or a project through several ecological indicators (carbon footprint, water footprint, and embodied energy). To perform this analysis, the most important aspect is to determine the quantities of each construction element and their clear decomposition into subelements, since both aspects add certainty to the analysis. For this purpose, construction cost databases are a good instrument for introducing environmental awareness. The reliability of LCA data, which can be obtained from generic databases or ecolabels such as environmental product declarations, becomes crucial. View Full-Text
Keywords: life cycle assessment; building information modelling; environmental product declaration; ecolabels; environmental impact assessment; urbanization life cycle assessment; building information modelling; environmental product declaration; ecolabels; environmental impact assessment; urbanization
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MDPI and ACS Style

Marrero, M.; Wojtasiewicz, M.; Martínez-Rocamora, A.; Solís-Guzmán, J.; Alba-Rodríguez, M.D. BIM-LCA Integration for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Urbanization Process. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4196. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104196

AMA Style

Marrero M, Wojtasiewicz M, Martínez-Rocamora A, Solís-Guzmán J, Alba-Rodríguez MD. BIM-LCA Integration for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Urbanization Process. Sustainability. 2020; 12(10):4196. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104196

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marrero, Madelyn, Maciej Wojtasiewicz, Alejandro Martínez-Rocamora, Jaime Solís-Guzmán, and M. D. Alba-Rodríguez 2020. "BIM-LCA Integration for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Urbanization Process" Sustainability 12, no. 10: 4196. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104196

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