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Sustainability
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Addressing Sustainable Development in the Digital Construction Age
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Addressing Sustainable Development in the Digital Construction Age

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 December 2020) | Viewed by 5843

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zaid Alwan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering and Enviroment, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8QH, UK
Interests: BIM and energy modelling; Building Performance Evaluation; energy modelling and sustainability analysis; zero carbon buildings
Dr. Anthony Higham

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of the Built Environment, University of Salford Manchester, Salford M5 4WT, United Kingdom
Interests: Social sustainability and business ethics, appraisal of social benefit at project and organisational levels; construction cost overruns

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The building sector is considered as a major energy consumer as well as a major culprit for the increasing presence of atmospheric carbon. Globally, almost 40% of energy consumption and carbon emissions comes from the construction and operation of buildings. Therefore, awareness on optimizing of energy consumption and carbon reduction in buildings has been increased over the last 10 years, examples of which include the climate strikes and UN developmental goals for mitigating actions of climate change.

At the same time, over the last decade, the building sector has been investing in digital tools and focusing on innovative processes, such as smart buildings and digital coordination methods. One such example, building information modelling (BIM), has seen significant growth within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, enabling to improve decision making and performance across the building and infrastructure lifecycle.

Incorporating digital analysis of energy and carbon analysis at stages of the design, construction and use would certainly provide many benefits, including giving more room to create alternative options which optimize the whole building life cycle energy consumption and create better building and infrastructure projects.

The rationale of this Special Issue can be summarized in the following question: What low-carbon, sustainable and other technologies should be implemented in the current and future digital construction age to help the AEC sector address the climate challenge facing our planet?

Contributions from different scientific backgrounds are welcome, such as building physics, architecture computer sciences, information management, information systems, knowledge management, and other related scientific areas. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Digital methods for accounting for the extraction of raw resources, process materials, assembly of product components, and transport as part of building life cycle analysis;
  • The black spot of sustainability analysis in embodied energy;
  • How to address the impact of material in the digital age;
  • Integrating IOT data analysis with BIM, optimizing the total carbon counting;
  • Role of higher education in addressing climate change and sustainability within the architecture and build environment disciplines;
  • The role of citizens and end users in optimizing energy consumption by further improving design and construction tools, such as digital representation and community energy action.

Further Reading

Mohamed, R.; Alwan, Z.; McIntyre, L. Bim for Sustainable Project Delivery. In Architectural Science Review. 2 Jan 2020.

Sustainability and Investment Appraisal for Housing Regeneration Projects. Structural Survey, 34, 150–167.

Higham, A.P.; Fortune, C.; Boothman, C. Paper Awarded: Emerald Literati Award for Excellence–Highly Commended Paper, 2017.

Alwan, Z.; Jones, P.; Holgate, P. Strategic sustainable development in the UK construction industry, through the Framework of Strategic Sustainable Development, Using Building Information Modelling, In: Journal of Cleaner Production, 12 Jan 2016.

Dr. Zaid Alwan
Dr. Anthony Higham
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • education and low carbon education
  • parametric modelling
  • sustainability in built environment education
  • BIM LCA analysis energy modelling

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1387 KiB  
Article
Embodied Carbon as a Material Selection Criterion: Insights from Sri Lankan Construction Sector
by Amalka Nawarathna, Muditha Siriwardana and Zaid Alwan
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2202; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042202 - 18 Feb 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2505
Abstract
The choice of materials is crucial in responding to the increasing embodied carbon (EC) impacts of buildings. Building professionals involved in material selection for construction projects have a vital role to play in this regard. This paper aimed to explore the extent to [...] Read more.
The choice of materials is crucial in responding to the increasing embodied carbon (EC) impacts of buildings. Building professionals involved in material selection for construction projects have a vital role to play in this regard. This paper aimed to explore the extent to which building professionals in Sri Lanka considered EC as a material selection criterion. A questionnaire survey was conducted among a sample of building professionals in Sri Lanka. The results indicated that the consideration of EC as a material selection criterion remained low among key professionals, such as architects, engineers, and sustainability managers, despite their reasonable influencing powers and knowledge of EC. Those respondents who had considered EC as a selection criterion said they had been primarily driven by green building rating systems and previous experience. Those respondents who had not considered EC during material selection commonly reported that they had been prevented from doing so by the lack of regulations and the lack of alternative low carbon materials. Respondents believed that the involvement of actors, such as the government, professional bodies, environmental organizations, activist groups, and the public, may be significant in promoting the greater consideration of EC during material selection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Addressing Sustainable Development in the Digital Construction Age)
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20 pages, 4208 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Effectiveness of Building Information Modeling in Developing Green Buildings from a Lifecycle Perspective
by Quan Wen, Zhongfu Li, Yifeng Peng and Baorong Guo
Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 9988; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239988 - 29 Nov 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2808
Abstract
Building information modeling (BIM) is an emerging technique in the construction industry. It is regarded as an effective approach for green building development; however, its effectiveness has not been sufficiently investigated from a lifecycle perspective. To bridge this research gap, this study investigates [...] Read more.
Building information modeling (BIM) is an emerging technique in the construction industry. It is regarded as an effective approach for green building development; however, its effectiveness has not been sufficiently investigated from a lifecycle perspective. To bridge this research gap, this study investigates BIM application value in different phases of a green building through a convolutional neural network (CNN) method. To begin with, an assessment framework was developed with the consideration of balancing the estimation accuracy and the data size. Then, the validity of the developed model was verified from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Finally, the effectiveness of BIM was tested using the proposed framework. Results showed that the overall score of the tested project was four in the five-point Likert scale, with an average relative error less than 1%. From a value-based perspective, it is revealed that the application value of BIM represented a descending order throughout the lifecycle of the tested project. In addition, it is found that the functional value obtained the highest score, whereas social value was at the bottom. The findings of this study can help decision makers to detect the weaknesses of BIM implementation during green building development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Addressing Sustainable Development in the Digital Construction Age)
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