Analyzing the benefits and challenges of Building Information Modelling and Life Cycle Assessment integration

The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry involves the large quantities of material and energy consumption. Previous studies show that the AEC industry consumes about 40% of primary energy utilization and contributes up to more than half of global GHG emissions. With the aim of decreasing these negative impacts of AEC industry on the natural environment, the integrated use of advanced technological instruments has been increasing in the last decade. One of the promising technological instrument integrations is the collaborative use Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which is able to decrease negative impacts of AEC industry on natural environment in an effective and efficient manner. The objective of this MS thesis is to identify, classify and prioritize the benefits and challenges of the integrated use of Building Information Modelling and Life Cycle Assessment in the AEC industry. In order to achieve research objectives of this thesis, a comprehensive literature review, semi-structured interviews with experts and Delphi method were performed. The interrater agreement and significance-level statistics were conducted for analyzing and validating the consensus among the Delphi method participants. Results of this study provide twenty-two types of benefits and seven types of challenges for the integrated use of BIM and LCA in the AEC industry. The contributions of this thesis are a comprehensive identification, classification and prioritization of the integrated use of BIM and LCA. The results of this study may contribute to extend utilization of BIM-LCA integration in the AEC industry.