Combined assessment of the environmental, economic and social impacts of structural solutions for residential construction

  1. E. Fraile-García 1
  2. J. Ferreiro-Cabello 2
  3. E. Sodupe-Ortega 1
  4. A. Sanz-Garcia 3
  1. 1 University of La Rioja, España
  2. 2 Qualiberica SL., Madrid, España
  3. 3 University of Helsinki, Finland
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Journal:
Informes de la construcción

ISSN: 0020-0883

Year of publication: 2015

Volume: 67

Issue: 539

Type: Article

DOI: 10.3989/IC.14.041 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Informes de la construcción

Institutional repository: lock_openOpen access Editor

Abstract

Sustainable development in construction is based on three fundamental pillars: economic, environmental and social. This type of approach aims to identify the best possible solutions for sustainably developing structures by conducting a joint evaluation of the impact on those three pillars. The proposed methodology incorporates metadata on the Spanish construction sector. First, a discrete database is generated with 360 alternatives covering a range of common solutions in residential building. A Pareto algorithm is utilized to select the optimal choices and the wide range of solutions is reduced to the 5 % of the initial group. The project manager is therefore provided with an objective assessment of suitable structural alternatives including the overall joint economic, social, and environmental impact. The results obtained demonstrate the importance and utility of the proposed methodology for sustainable construction.

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