Use of Bim For WASTE MINIMISATION
Use of Bim For WASTE MINIMISATION
Use of Bim For WASTE MINIMISATION
ABSTRACT
It is widely acknowledged that the construction industry has a major impact on the environment, both
in terms of resource consumption and waste production. The construction industry is responsible for
producing a whole variety of different onsite wastes; the amount and type of which depends on factors
such as the stage of construction, type of construction work, direct or indirect stakeholders’ design
change contribution, and practices throughout the project lifecycle. A number of construction waste
minimisation (CWM) techniques and tools are currently available to assist contractors to divert waste
away from landfill. However, literature reveals that there are insufficient techniques and tools for
reducing construction waste during the design and procurement stages. The last few years saw the
emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques, which can be adopted to improve
sustainable construction performance. BIM is a maturing modelling philosophy, which has been
applied to several building-related functions such as visualising designs, automating quantity takeoffs,
checking compliance with regulations, and scheduling construction processes. Furthermore, BIM, as a
real-time interactive and collaborative communication system, has the potential to help project
stakeholders to collaboratively attain waste minimisation for sustainable construction and building
throughout design, construction and throughout the lifecycle by improving building construction
performance. Hence, this paper, which is part of an ongoing doctoral study, explores the potential
application of BIM to design out waste. An in-depth literature review was conducted to provide a
foundation for the doctoral study that aims to investigate the use of BIM as a potential platform for
building design waste minimisation. The paper explores construction waste origins and causes, current
waste reduction practices; examines current industry BIM practices and investigates BIM tools for
sustainable project construction and management; and identifies the knowledge gaps in existing
literature that pave the way for the subsequent data collection stages.
1. INTRODUCTION
Sustainability is becoming a major catalyst for change in the built environment owing to its ever
increasing energy consumption and material usage, which leads to waste and pollution. Waste
generated from construction and demolition (C&D) activities in the UK accounts for 32% of total
waste generation (WRAP 2011a). In addition, the last five years saw a striking increase in C&D waste
in the UK. Indeed, In C&D activities generated 90 million tonnes of physical waste in 2005 (Zakar
2008); while recent figures from WRAP (2011a) revealed that this has increased to 120 million tones.
Similarly, the current estimation of C&D waste disposed off to landfill is 40% (WRAP 2011a); whilst
it was 30% in 2005 (Edgar 2007). The UK Waste Strategy for England 2007 identified the
construction industry as a priority sector to move forward with the waste minimisation agenda (Defra
2007). Furthermore, the UK has set the ambitious target of zero construction waste to landfill by 2020
(WRAP 2011b). From a financial perspective, it has been estimated that the true cost of waste could as
Proceedings of the CIB W78-W102 2011: International Conference –Sophia Antipolis, France, 26-28 October
much as 10 times that of disposal (WRAP 2011a). Thus, the construction industry is under an ever-
increasing pressure to explore and develop effective and efficient techniques and tools to minimise its
escalating waste production. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to explore the extent of
the relationship between Building Information Modelling (BIM) and construction waste minimisation
(CWM). The review examined construction waste origins and causes, current waste reduction
practices; assessed current industry BIM practices, BIM tools for sustainable project construction and
management; and discussed the knowledge gaps in existing literature that pave the way for the
subsequent data collection stages of this ongoing research that will lead to the development of BIM
aided CWM framework.
There is a consensus in literature that a significant portion of waste is caused by problems which occur
in stages that precede production, and design stage is one of the major construction waste sources
(Keys et al. 2000, Osmani 2011). That said literature failed to identify a clear linkage or relationship
between consequences of amount of construction waste generated and their corresponding causes and
origins. Additionally, Agopyan et al. (1998) argued that the lack of knowledge of waste generators is a
noteworthy cause of waste. Furthermore, there are no forecasting comprehensive and reliable methods
and tools to predict and estimate the amount of constructed waste before projects start on site
(Formoso et al. 1999). Therefore, an accountable top-down dynamic relationship between main causes
and origins of construction waste and their respective amount of construction waste generated. This
was supported by Teo (2001) who acknowledged that there are limited construction waste reduction
methods that specifically address known causes and origins of waste. On the other hand, the analysis
of sources of waste indicated that a large quantity of material waste is due to flow activities, such as
material delivery, inventories, and internal transportation and handling (Formoso et al. 2002). The
transformational approach suggests that an independent control of each stage of production is required,
whereas flow processes’ approach suggests that a focus on the control of the total flow of production is
needed (Koskela 1999).
There is a consensus in literature that all construction stages directly or indirectly contribute to onsite
waste generation. However, the level and severity of waste production varied from stage to stages
depending on a number of variables that include type of procurement, project brief, stakeholders’
engagement and commitment, etc. That said, it is widely argued that waste reduction intervention
should focus on pre-construction stages, particularly design, where ‘virtual waste’ (simulated waste
generation during design stages), as opposed to ‘actual waste’ (physical onsite waste), could be
effectively identified, evaluated and reduced.
2.2 CURRENT WASTE MINIMISATION PRACTICES
Numerous studies have been conducted through all stages of construction project lifecycle to examine
and assess current CWM approaches, techniques and tools of CWM; these are summarized in Table 1,
Table 2 and Table 3 respectively The primary reference used for project protocol in terms of lifecycle
stages is the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Plan of Work (RIBA 2011), which contains
the following project stages: A) Appraisal; B) Design Brief; C) Concept; D) Design Development; E)
Technical Design; F) Production Information; G) Tender Documentation; H) Tender Action; J)
Mobilisation; K) Construction to Practical Completion; L) Post Practical Completion.
The current CWM approaches, techniques and tools focus on separate project stages with
overwhelming endeavours to manage waste onsite. However, limited effort is invested to concentrate
on pre-construction waste generation related to supply chain management issues and procurement,
design and tender stages. These offer substantial waste reduction opportunities on McKechnie’s (2007)
waste reduction opportunity curve. More recently, BRE (2011) called for the development of online
CWM techniques and tools. Yet, there are no research studies on integrated e-waste minimisation or
IT related approaches, techniques and tools across all life cycle stages of construction projects. These
would particularly be suited to design out waste, since 33% of construction waste might be directly
influenced by inappropriate design decision making and design changes (Innes 2004), which
contribute to more than 50% of the total onsite waste production in construction projects (Faniran and
Caban 1998).
BIM applications in construction projects such as Beck Technology DProfiler and Carlson (CVE) are
being used for economic assessments (cost estimating and income forecasting) of project substantive
feasibility in the preparation stages. However, there is a lack of BIM tools to help satisfy the client’s
business requirement; identify potential solutions for feasibility studies; and outline project feasibility
requirements.
Furthermore, BIM applications are predominantly used for decision making, and lean or sustainable
building construction and performance analysis, such as energy and water analysis are used in pre-
construction stages.
Although there are several BIM tools available for construction and post-occupancy stages, such as
Tekla Structures (precast/prefabricate solution), StructureWorks (precast solution), Navisworks
JetStream v5 (combining and reviewing 3D models), and PP Manager (linkage between CAD, factory
and the ERP software); these are mainly used for prefabrication and construction management
purposes in the construction stage.
Hence, the existing construction- related BIM applications are used contribute to:
• lower net information costs and risks;
• quick first response in early stage of design to make building safer;
• efficient monitoring lower operation cost;
• better views of facilities for better decision makings;
• reduced project cost and risks; and
• better building environmental performance
The integrated information management associated with BIM for construction information would
enable modelling, communication, collaboration and integration of sustainable design and construction
requirements and actions across all project lifecycle. This would also improve decision making
support and other project-related processes by optimising horizontal, vertical, and temporal integration
of data and information management to enhance the value added for all project shareholders (Ilal
2007). Further, by adopting BIM technology, integrated project delivery (IPD) (AIA 2007) fosters a
great degree of communication and promotes intense collaboration among the project team to enhance
profitable, effective, and efficient project management (Hardin 2009). Therefore, integrated
information management, integrated design, and IPD enhanced BIM solution can contribute to an
efficient approach for managing sustainable construction.
BIM includes transactions at the data; information and knowledge semantic levels and falls within
knowledge visualisation; a merger between information visualisation; and visual cognition and
communication. (Eppler and Burkhard 2005). Knowledge, players and every component of project
concerned will have the opportunity to contribute to managing sustainable construction as a whole;
and influence others as individual by using BIM in the form of an integrated information,
communication, and collaboration (IICC) platform. The IICC BIM platform for managing sustainable
construction is shown as Figure 1. Design; decision making; sustainable performance monitoring; and
analysis/simulation are four main application categories of IICC BIM platform for facilitating
sustainable construction management.
Although, BIM offers promising methods for energy and resource efficiency, yet BIM methods at
present do not consider a way forward for construction waste minimisation.
Indeed, current BIM techniques and tools have been successfully used to enhance planning and
construction relate issues during Preparation, Design and Pre-Construction stages; including
improvement of sustainable project performance such as energy and resource efficiency. Although, it
is widely accepted that BIM can help reduce waste-related costs and materials in construction projects
(Nisbet and Dinesen 2010, Krygiel and Nies 2008, AIA 2007); at present there are no techniques and
tools available that explore BIM as a platform to facilitate CWM. Hence this paper, which is part of an
ongoing doctoral study, aims to develop a BIM aided CWM framework. The key objective is to
improve sustainable construction waste minimisation by using BIM at the very early stages of design.
The subsequent stages of this research will include simulating construction waste (virtual waste)
through 3D building information (figure 2).
5. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has explored the potential to improve CWM through BIM systems in construction through
a critical review of literature, by examining waste origins and causes, current waste reduction practice,
and current BIM practices; and examining existing BIM applications that are currently applied to
evaluate sustainable project construction and management. The most significant finding that stems
from this paper is that although there was an emphasis on the need to explore the use of BIM for
CWM; there are no previous attempts to adopt BIM as a vehicle to reduce construction waste. Hence,
this research sets out to develop a BIM framework to aid CWM. The next stages of this research will
involve designers, contractors and BIM experts to explore the most appropriate approach to adopt BIM
as potential platform for CWM; select and customise a suitable BIM software; and develop and
validate a BIM aided CWM in a live project.
Figure 2: the IICC BIM platform and conceptual construction waste material input-output
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