A multi-objective decision-support model for selecting environmentally conscious highway construction methods

Abstract

The construction industry has a considerable share in overall resource and energy consumption. Consequently, decision-makers try to achieve environmentally conscious construction by integrating environmental objectives into the selection of construction elements. Due to the complexity of construction projects, it is a known challenge to provide an effective mechanism to select the most feasible construction methods. Thus, it is crucial to learn the interdependency between various resource alternatives, such as material and equipment type, under various project conditions like unavailability of resources. An analytic network process (ANP) was used in this study to construct a decision model for selecting the most feasible construction method. Data collected via interviews with highway construction experts were used to model the dependency between decision parameters, such as project conditions and resource performance indicators. The proposed ANP model output the relative importance weights of decision parameters so that they can be used to identify environmentally conscious construction methods. The proposed mechanism is a valuable asset for construction decision-makers especially when their ability to select construction methods is limited by project constraints. Although the model was tested in a highway project in this paper, it can be further extended to benefit building construction and sustainable decision-making problems.

Keywords:

• sustainable construction
• analytic network process
• highway construction
• construction methods
• multi-criteria decision-making

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gulbin Ozcan-Deniz

Gulbin OZCAN-DENIZ. He is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management department in Milwaukee School of Engineering. She has been teaching construction management topics such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), sustainable construction, project scheduling and estimating. She has published several technical articles in the areas including risk management, simulation and decision-making in construction, life cycle assessment, and sustainable construction methods. Her research interests include sustainable design and development, life cycle assessment and cost, simulation of construction operations, and decision-making techniques.

Yimin Zhu

Yimin ZHU. He is a Professor at the Department of Construction Management at Louisiana State University. His research was funded by various agencies including the General Services Administration (GSA), Electric International (EI), the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). He has published more than 80 technical articles and reports on topics including computing and applications in construction, building energy simulation, life cycle cost and life cycle assessment. His areas of expertise are Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and building energy modelling.