scholarly journals Assessing Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Impacts of Building Construction Solutions with BIM

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8914
Author(s):  
José Pedro Carvalho ◽  
Fernanda Schmitd Villaschi ◽  
Luís Bragança
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Functional Performance ◽  
Building Construction ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Need To Evaluate ◽  
High Performance Buildings ◽  
Building Life Cycle

Worldwide authorities are increasingly concerned about construction’s efficiency and sustainability, leading to the development of high-performance buildings. However, such facts have shifted a significant percentage of the building life cycle environmental impacts from the operation to the product and construction phases. Thus, the need to evaluate and select more sustainable materials and construction solutions arises, to also minimize impacts from these stages. To evaluate those impacts, LCA and LCC analysis are usually applied to assess the building impacts and costs, through the different life cycle stages. Despite the usefulness of LCA and LCC methods during the project phase, they are usually evaluated in the project later stages. It is too complex and time-consuming to gather and process all the required data during the project early stages. With the recent deployment of BIM, the opportunity to automate and shift LCA and LCC analysis to project early stages stands out. Facing the research gap, this study aims to develop a BIM-based decision-making tool for designers to evaluate the environmental, economic, and functional performance of different building construction solutions. To do so, 18 different simulation scenarios have been created in Autodesk Revit with different combinations of external walls, roofs, and floors. Then, a framework was developed in Dynamo to automatically characterize the building elements life cycle environmental impacts and costs, as well as to automate the LCA and LCC analysis during the project early stages. The outcomes can significantly reduce the required time, errors and efforts when performing LCA and LCC analysis, providing designers with real time decision support data and making an important contribution to the use of BIM for sustainability purposes.

scholarly journals Cnidome and Morphological Features of Pelagia noctiluca (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa) Throughout the Different Life Cycle Stages

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ainara Ballesteros ◽  
Carina Östman ◽  
Andreu Santín ◽  
Macarena Marambio ◽  
Mridvika Narda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Pelagia Noctiluca ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Advanced Stages ◽  
Stage 1

Pelagia noctiluca is considered the most important jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea, due to its abundance and the severity of its stings. Despite its importance in marine ecosystems and the health problems caused by its massive arrival in coastal areas, little is known about its early life stages and its cnidome has never been described. This study of the morphological and anatomical features throughout the life cycle identifies four early stages: two ephyra and two metaephyra stages. Ephyra stage 1, newly developed from a planula, has no velar canals, gastric filaments or nematocyst batteries. Ephyra stage 2, has velar canals, a cruciform-shaped manubrium and gastric filaments. Metaephyra stage 3 has eight tentacle buds and nematocyst clusters for the first time. Lastly, in metaephyra stage 4, the eight primary tentacles grow nearly simultaneously, with no secondary tentacles. Complete nematocyst battery patterns gradually develop throughout the later life stages. Four nematocyst types are identified: a-isorhiza, A-isorhiza, O-isorhiza and eurytele. Of these, a-isorhiza and eurytele are the most important throughout the entire life cycle, while A-isorhiza and O-isorhiza have a more important role in advanced stages. All nematocysts show a positive correlation between increasing capsule volumes and increasing body diameter of the ephyrae, metaephyrae, young medusae and adult medusae. In the early stages, the volumes of euryteles in the gastric filaments are larger than those in the exumbrella, indicating that the capsule volume is critical in the absence of marginal tentacles, specialized for feeding. This study provides updated information, the most extensive description to date, including high-resolution photographs and schematic drawings of all the developmental stages in the life cycle of P. noctiluca. Additionally, the first cnidome characterization is provided for each stage to facilitate accurate identification of this species when collected in the water column, and to raise awareness of the potential for human envenomation.

scholarly journals Importance of building services in ecological building assessments

2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 03061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Lambertz ◽  
Sebastian Theißen ◽  
Jannick Höper ◽  
Reinhard Wimmer
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Simplified Approach ◽  
Ecological Requirements ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Building Life Cycle

The new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2018 and the GebäudeEnergieGesetz (GEG) tightened the requirements for energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources in buildings at EU and national levels. Environmental impacts from manufacturing, dismantling and recycling of buildings are not taken into account. Green Building Certification Systems, such as the DGNB or BNB systems, are therefore the only ones that (voluntarily) set holistic, ecological requirements for buildings. Based on a Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment, the entire building life cycle and its environmental effects are evaluated. While building services in this context are usually only included in such a simplified approach, the full scope of the produced environmental impacts are underestimated and misjudged for the reduction of emissions and other environmental impacts. This publication uses the results of a life cycle assessment of a typical office building (in Germany) to show the amount of influence building services have on environmental impacts of buildings. Furthermore the study shows an approach how the very high pro-curement and calculation effort of LCA can be reduced by linking the Building Information Modelling (BIM) Method and LCA models to enable a significantly more efficient and easier calculation process, es-pecially for building services.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Thinking in the Use of Natural Resources

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J. Koroneos ◽  
Ch. Achillas ◽  
N. Moussiopoulos ◽  
E.A. Nanaki
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Full Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Sustainable Consumption And Production

The continuous increase of production and consumption of material in the developed world and the increase of the standard of living of the developing countries leads to the increase of the use of natural resources and the degradation of the environment. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is essential to sustainable consumption and production which will impact the use of limited resources. LCT is the process of taking into account in decision making both the resources consumed and the environmental and health pressures associated with the full life cycle of a product. It includes the extraction of resources, production, use, re-use, transport, recycling, and the ultimate waste disposal to provide goods and services and it helps in avoiding shifting the burdens among various life stages of a resource processing. It is important to use the life cycle thinking in analysing products because they may have different environmental impacts at different life cycle stages. It is important to note that some products have very high environmental impacts during the extraction and processing of their original natural resource but they may have minor environmental impacts when they are recycled. A good example is aluminium. The objective of this work is to analyze the importance of the life cycle thinking concept, and show its direct linkage to sustainability.

scholarly journals Cytokinin Detection during the Dictyostelium discoideum Life Cycle: Profiles Are Dynamic and Affect Cell Growth and Spore Germination

Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Aoki ◽  
Anna Kisiala ◽  
Shaojun Li ◽  
Naomi Stock ◽  
Craig Brunetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Dictyostelium Discoideum ◽  
Spore Germination ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Metabolomics Data ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Cycle Growth ◽  
And Function ◽  
Exogenous Treatment

Cytokinins (CKs) are a family of evolutionarily conserved growth regulating hormones. While CKs are well-characterized in plant systems, these N6-substituted adenine derivatives are found in a variety of organisms beyond plants, including bacteria, fungi, mammals, and the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. Within Dictyostelium, CKs have only been studied in the late developmental stages of the life cycle, where they promote spore encapsulation and dormancy. In this study, we used ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-positive electrospray ionization-high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-(ESI+)-HRMS/MS) to profile CKs during the Dictyostelium life cycle: growth, aggregation, mound, slug, fruiting body, and germination. Comprehensive profiling revealed that Dictyostelium produces 6 CK forms (cis-Zeatin (cZ), discadenine (DA), N6-isopentenyladenine (iP), N6-isopentenyladenine-9-riboside (iPR), N6-isopentenyladenine-9-riboside-5′ phosphate (iPRP), and 2-methylthio-N6-isopentenyladenine (2MeSiP)) in varying abundance across the sampled life cycle stages, thus laying the foundation for the CK biosynthesis pathway to be defined in this organism. Interestingly, iP-type CKs were the most dominant CK analytes detected during growth and aggregation. Exogenous treatment of AX3 cells with various CK types revealed that iP was the only CK to promote the proliferation of cells in culture. In support of previous studies, metabolomics data revealed that DA is one of the most significantly upregulated small molecules during Dictyostelium development, and our data indicates that total CK levels are highest during germination. While much remains to be explored in Dictyostelium, this research offers new insight into the nature of CK biosynthesis, secretion, and function during Dictyostelium growth, development, and spore germination.

scholarly journals Assessment of environmental impacts and costs during life cycle stages of selected family houses

2021 ◽  
Vol 900 (1) ◽  
pp. 012017
Author(s):  
E Kridlova Burdova ◽  
S Vilcekova
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Family House

Abstract According to the European Green Deal, climate change and environmental degradation pose an existential threat to Europe and the world. Therefore, Europe needs a new “green” strategy to transform the EU into a modern and competitive, resource-intensive economy, with zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As a result, economic growth will be decoupled from resource use. The ever-increasing requirements for the urban environment to be carbon neutral lead to the rising needs for buildings from three dimensions of sustainability. It is well known that the construction and operation of buildings are the primary consumers of energy and material resources and significant polluters of the environment during all stages of their life cycle. This paper deals with analysing environmental impacts and life cycle cost of two family houses located in Kosice, eastern Slovakia. The total greenhouse gas emissions for family house 1 generates 45.89% more CO2 emissions during its life cycle. Discounted life cycle cost of a family house 1 is 74.33% higher and nominal even 77.22% higher than the nominal life cycle cost of a family house 2.

scholarly journals Whole building life cycle environmental impacts and costs: A sensitivity study of design and service decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 106316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaclav Hasik ◽  
Maximilian Ororbia ◽  
Gordon P. Warn ◽  
Melissa M. Bilec
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
Building Life Cycle
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