Evaluation of the environmental impact caused by construction materials frequently presents such obstacles as the mismatch between the construction project location and where the LCA database was ...made, lack of transparency, and/or the unsuitability of the data to the building project conditions, thereby making it necessary to establish a state-of-the-art review for researchers in order to facilitate selection between the wide variety of databases available.
A review of existent LCA databases containing data for building materials has been performed. A list of features and criteria for their evaluation is developed, and subsequently applied in order to compare the various databases. Their methodology, documentation, data quality and comprehensiveness are thereby analysed. Despite the existence of a considerable number of databases, only a few contain data on construction materials. Some projects have been abandoned and several more can be considered incomplete. However, GaBi Database and Ecoinvent stand out for their integrity, usability and dedicated resources.
A starting point in the selection of an LCA database for construction materials is provided. With all the information gathered herein, researchers are equipped to make a well-founded choice, and the selection process is certainly improved.
Accurate building construction cost prediction is critical, especially for sustainable projects (i.e., green buildings). Green building construction contracts are relatively new to the construction ...industry, where stakeholders have limited experience in contract cost estimation. Unlike conventional building construction, green buildings are designed to utilize new technologies to reduce their operations’ environmental and societal impacts. Consequently, green buildings’ construction bidding and awarding processes have become more complicated due to difficulties forecasting the initial construction costs and setting integrated selection criteria for the winning bidders. Thus, robust green building cost prediction modeling is essential to provide stakeholders with an initial construction cost benchmark to enhance decision-making. The current study presents machine learning-based algorithms, including extreme gradient boosting (XGBOOST), deep neural network (DNN), and random forest (RF), to predict green building costs. The proposed models are designed to consider the influence of soft and hard cost-related attributes. Evaluation metrics (i.e., MAE, MSE, MAPE, and R2) are applied to evaluate and compare the developed algorithms’ accuracy. XGBOOST provided the highest accuracy of 0.96 compared to 0.91 for the DNN, followed by RF with an accuracy of 0.87. The proposed machine learning models can be utilized as a decision support tool for construction project managers and practitioners to advance automation as a coherent field of research within the green construction industry.
Under the background of carbon neutrality, green development is the theme of today's times. The construction industry is an important part of the green development plan, and it is of great ...significance to study its green financing efficiency. Based on this, this paper uses the four-stage DEA model to explore the green financing efficiency of listed construction companies from 2019 to 2020. The conclusion shows that: firstly, the green financing efficiency of listed construction companies is low, and the demand for green financing has not been met. It is necessary to strengthen the support of green finance to meet the needs of its expansion. Secondly, the efficiency of green financing is significantly and complexly affected by external influencing factors. It is necessary to dialectically treat external influencing factors such as local industry development support, financial development level, and the number of patent authorizations. Thirdly, among the internal influencing factors, the proportion of independent directors has a significant positive impact on the green financing efficiency of listed construction companies, and the proportion of R&D investment has a significant negative impact. Listed construction companies need to increase the proportion of independent directors and control the proportion of R&D investment.
•Estimated relationship between industrial carbon emissions and development.•Analyzed industrial carbon emission spatiotemporal patterns of Guangdong.•City-scale industrial carbon emissions includes ...those from cement process.•SDE method revealed the dynamics of the carbon spatial distribution.
Research on the dynamic distribution characteristics of carbon emissions and their evolution patterns is of importance to unify carbon reduction targets. This study aimed to measure the industrial carbon emissions by energy consumption and the cement production process in Guangdong from 2005–2015, and it empirically analyzed the distribution dynamics and evolution of the inter-regional carbon emissions. It concludes that, there was significant spatial non-equilibrium in the industrial carbon emissions, the carbon intensity in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) was less than that of the peripheral cities, and the results showed that the overall gap in the spatial distribution of the industrial carbon emissions showed an expanding trend with its evolution to the east. Among them, Northern Guangdong showed a downward trend. The carbon emissions of the PRD were greatly reduced with the external strong radiation. The carbon emission reduction policies should be tailored to local conditions according to the development levels.
Biodegradable colourimetric films incorporating anthocyanins which can respond to food spoilage is a novel and green development in packaging field. However, when it comes to commercial applications, ...these biodegradable matrices lack sufficient mechanical strength and water resistivity. Hence nanomaterials are being incorporated into the matrix to improve its properties. The aim of this work was to develop intelligent starch based biopolymer film by incorporating carbon dot (CD) and anthocyanin extracted from clitoria ternatea flower (CTE). The starch/CD/CTE film (SED) was prepared by solution casting technique and characterised as novel, high sensitive, pH indicator film having the potential to monitor the freshness of packed pork. SEM, FTIR and XRD analysis showed homogenous distribution of CD and CTE in starch matrix. SED films exhibited highest mechanical, barrier, thermal and antioxidant properties due to synergistic effect of CD and CTE. Besides, SED films exhibited colour variations in different pH due to the presence of anthocyanin in CTE. Hence SED film was used as a low cost visual indicator for monitoring freshness of packed pork sample. The film showed visual colour changes from purple to green as storage time increased. This study shows that food grade ingredients can be used to prepare active smart films which can in turn be used to monitor the freshness of food product like pork.
•Starch and carbon dots were used to prepare smart biopolymer matrix.•Casting method was used to prepare smart biopolymer based films.•Clitoria ternatea anthocyanin was used as pH indicator.•The film showed good mechanical strength, water barrier and antioxidant activity.•The smart film was used to monitor the spoilage of pork.
A unique nanostructured electrocatalyst based on copper oxide (CuO) and Co-Ni layered double hydroxides (LDHs) was synthesized using an electrodeposition method. The optimized CuO/Co-Ni-LDHs ...composite exhibited improved non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing performance for glucose.
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The leaf-shaped copper oxide (CuO) was first fabricated by a direct precipitation method. Then, the flake-shaped Co-Ni layered double hydroxides (CoNi-LDHs) were grown on the leaf-shaped CuO by using an electrodeposition method to form a unique nanostructured electrocatalyst. Due to the unique structural and compositional advantages, CoNi-LDHs wrapped around the leaf-shaped CuO exhibited good electrocatalytic characteristics. The optimized CuO/CoNi-LDHs exhibited improved non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing performance for glucose, with a reliable linear range (0.1 μM–0.384 mM) and a low limit of detection (0.065 µM, S/N = 3). The utilization of the CuO/CoNi-LDHs sensor for glucose detection in human serum was also corroborated, implying promising potential for glucose monitoring. Results demonstrated that the developed sensor provides new horizons for facile and sensitive glucose detection.
Complex systems are characterized by many independent components whose low-level actions produce collective high-level results. Predicting high-level results given low-level rules is a key open ...challenge; the inverse problem, finding low-level rules that give specific outcomes. We present a multi-agent construction system inspired by mound-building termites, solving such an inverse problem. A user specifies a desired structure, and the system automatically generates low-level rules for independent climbing robots that guarantee production of that structure. Robots use only local sensing and coordinate their activity via the shared environment. We demonstrate the approach via a physical realization with three autonomous climbing robots limited to onboard sensing. This work advances the aim of engineering complex systems that achieve specific human-designed goals.
Although a large number of studies on Building Information Modeling (BIM) have been conducted in the past decade, a lack of consensus remains among researchers and practitioners regarding the ...applications of BIM for the development of green buildings, the activity of making buildings in a way that protects the natural environment. As the usefulness of BIM has been widely recognized in the building and construction industry, there is an urgent need to establish an up-to-date synthesis on the nexus between BIM and green buildings. After an in-depth review of hundreds of journal articles published from 1999 to 2016 and 12 widely used types of BIM software, this study provides a holistic understanding and critical reflection on the nexus between BIM and green buildings, which is systematically illustrated by a “Green BIM Triangle” taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy indicates that the nexus between BIM and green buildings needs to be understood based on three dimensions, namely project phases, green attributes and BIM attributes. Following the proposed taxonomy, this paper systematically illustrated 1) the applications of BIM in supporting the design, construction, operation, and retrofitting processes of green buildings; 2) the various functions of BIM for green building analyses such as energy, emissions, and ventilation analysis; 3) the applications of BIM in supporting green building assessments (GBA); and 4) research gaps and future research directions in this area. Through critical review and synthesis of BIM and green buildings based on evidence from both academic research and industrial practices, this paper provides important guidance for building researchers and practitioners to better align BIM development with green building development in the future.
•Reviewed over 400 research articles and 14 software programs on green BIM•Proposed a taxonomy to demonstrate research landscape of green BIM•Summarized the applications of BIM in supporting green building lifecycle process•Discussed key BIM-supported functions for green building performance analysis•Analyzed the use of BIM for green building assessments (GBA)
Robotic technologies for building construction represent a significant departure from conventional construction approaches. The use of robots is likely to bring a host of opportunities that transform ...the way we design and construct buildings. To gain an improved understanding of the trend and trajectory of research on robotics application for on-site building construction, this paper provides a systematic review of 52 articles identified through the PRISMA protocol and meta-analysis. The results show that robotic technologies for on-site construction is a growing application field, where additive manufacturing (AM), automated installation system, automated robotic assembly system, autonomous robotic assembly, and robotic bricklaying seem to be most studied and have a potential to influence the development of robotics research in building construction. While most research discussed single construction activities related to vertical reinforced concrete (RC) elements, masonry walls, steel beams, curtain walls, gypsum boards, and floor tiles, only a few papers proposed an integrated robotized construction site. It is suggested that the building construction industry and research organizations could benefit from the current product and work processes that can be improved by taking some measures through innovative construction materials, improved robotics hardware, and more advanced engineering design to streamline construction workflows to achieve a complete on-site robotic system.
•A systematic review of 52 articles identified through the PRISMA protocol.•Most research focused on single construction activities.•Only a few papers suggested an integrated robotized construction site.•Degree of innovation and difficulty in implementation-linear relationship.•A need to develop an integrated robotic system for on-site building construction.
