Hi guys,
I never would have imagined posting this, but I have a hard time coming up with novel ideas for my PhD (which I have to submit this week and stick by it for the next 3 years). As part of my project, I'll be conducting a life cycle assessment for around 8 buildings using Simapro. I've read numerous papers and tried to find a knowledge gap, however, I failed to find one. There're already standards for LCA for buildings. It has been my main focus in the past 5 weeks to learn dynamic life cycle assessment. But this has been challenging since I have a background in civil engineering, am doing LCA for 8 buildings in different countries and have to complete it in 3 years.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Abdul
I would suggest you to find out some research gaps prevail in LCA of buildings. For this, I recommend you to have a deep literature review on minimum of 30 research papers similar to your research scope.
Shuraik Kader Thank you for your reply. I've been doing that already with no luck!
My Advice: Perform NDT testing on all the buildings...This is will give you an rough idea of the input materials … Align your LCA by focusing on the influence of these materials on the overall costs and environmental impacts....
Regards
Ashfaq
Mohammed Ashfaq Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do testing as these buildings are outside the UK. I only have data to perform LCA.
What about cost analysis as recommended by this paper
https://www.mdpi.com/1481420
You should give us more informations about the 8 buildings you will be studying. About their specificity. Otherwise, I would suggest to look about the use of Building Information Modeling on the whole Life Cycle process. It's very trendy aspect in the field of buildings.
You can also interview and/or ask your question to operationnal such as property developper to know what are their needs. Send an email to David ERNEST (Innovation Director at Vinci Facilities) he might be willing to help you.
Kiprotich Kiptum I do appreciate your reply. As a part of my project, I'll have to do a cost analysis. Also, my buildings are in Europe and rating buildings with LCA has been investigated. So, no novelty there for me!
Great paper though! Thank you again!
Achim Ernest the buildings are distributed across different countries in Europe. They've been retrofitted and the data will be collected and handed over to me. I'll have to use SimaPro (a part of the project) and do a cost analysis.
The BIM-LCA topic is a hot one, that's for sure. Despite reading many papers, I do not seem to find any gaps in my knowledge. There's a Dynamic LCA knowledge gap, however, it's fairly complicated and has not been standardised yet. In addition, dynamic variables are complicated and will be challenging to deal with heterogeneous buildings.
With a civil engineering background, I prefer to stick to static LCA.
I don't mind contacting David. Would it be possible to send me his email privately?
Thank you!
Rüter S (2011) Projection of Net‐Emissions from Harvested Wood Products in European Countries for the Period 2013‐2020. Arbeitsbericht aus dem Institut für Holztechnologie und Holzbiologie, Nr. 1
Rüter S, Werner F, Forsell N et al. (2016) ClimWood2030, Climate benefits of material substitution by forest biomass and harvested wood products : Perspective 2030 - Final Report. Braunschweig, Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 142 S., Thünen Rep 42
Churkina G, Organschi A, Reyer CPO et al. (2020) Buildings as a global carbon sink. In: Nature Sustainability 3:269-276
Hafner A, Schäfer S (2017) Comparative LCA study of different timber and mineral buildings and calculation method for substitution factors on building level. In: Journal of Cleaner Production 167:630-642
Kuittinen, Matti; Zernicke, Caya; Slabik, Simon; Hafner, Annette
How can carbon be stored in the built environment? ARCHITECTURAL SCIENCE REVIEW DOI: 10.1080/00038628.2021.1896471
Lippke B, Oneil E, Harrison R et al. (2011) Life cycle impacts of forest management and wood utilization on carbon mitigation : knowns and unknowns. In: Carbon Management 2(3):303–333
Best regards
Roland Irslinger
Really, its depend on your branch and your interesting,...
Check study the effect of sudden collapse on building..
Roland Irslinger Excellent Recommendations. I went through some of them (that's why it took me some time to get back to you!). Needless to say, I have to find a niche within LCA in buildings. The layout of the project has been already placed for me, so I don't have an option to go out of the LCA's realm!
Thank you for your reply and the papers you shared with me. Hugely appreciated!
Hussam Ali Mohammed Very true! As I said, can't go out of LCA subject (unfortunately).
Thank you, Hussam!
I don't know the types of buildings you have chosen for your study. But I will suggest to select a particular type of building of different locations in UK and find out the parameters responsible for LCA.
Yiu can read article in the area especially the conclusion
Also you can read books shared by organization may be développement organisations to see their vision and where they want to go.
This will help you to have a broad idea on the innovations in the sector. By this you could find one of the best topic that will bring value to your communityand even propulsé yourself in your carreer...
Thanks
Conference Paper Environmental assessment methods and tools at the district s...
check this article. it can help you
Dear Abdul, I am sending you the original paper by HAFNER et al. There you will find a lot of details, but in German.
Roland