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Decision Support System for Selection of the Most Sustainable Structural Materials for a Multistory Building Construction
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- Author / Creator
- Alam Bhuiyan, Mohammad Masfiqul
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In recent years, the performance of the construction industry warns of its increased need for better resource efficiency, improved productivity, less waste and increased value through sustainable construction practices. Existing literature reveals that construction-related spending accounts for 13% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product, but its annual productivity growth has increased by 1% over the past 20 years. The core concept of sustainable construction is to maximize value and minimize harm by achieving a balance between social, economic, technical, and environmental aspects, commonly known as the pillars of sustainability. The selection of structural material plays a vital role in building construction since it is the backbone of any structure. Also, the process of producing structural consumes massive amounts of nonrenewable natural resources. Reinforced concrete, structural steel, reinforced masonry, and timber represent the most commonly used structural materials. The decision of selecting the structural material for any construction project is traditionally made based mainly on technical and economic considerations with little or no attention paid to social and environmental aspects. Furthermore, the majority of the available literature on the subject considered a single sustainability aspect, not considering all four sustainability pillars together. When all pillars of sustainability are considered, the process of decision-making becomes more difficult and complicated due to the involvement of a large number of factors influencing the decision. Industry experts have also noted an unfulfilled need for a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique that can integrate all stakeholders’ (project owner, designer and constructor) opinions into the selection process. Hence, this research developed a Decision Support System (DSS) involving MCDM techniques to aid in selecting the most sustainable structural material considering the four pillars of sustainability. A hybrid MCDM method combining AHP, decision matrix, TOPSIS and VIKOR in a Fuzzy environment is used to develop the DSS. Multiple sub-criteria were identified and evaluated through a literature review and expert opinions. A hypothetical 8-story building was considered for a case study to validate the developed DSS. Notable differences were found in the final ranking of the alternatives of each team due to the significant differences in weights assigned to each sub-criterion based on experts’ preferences. The developed DSS is designed to be generic in nature, can be used by any group of industry practitioners and is expected to enhance objectivity and consistency of the decision-making process as a step towards achieving sustainable construction.
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2022
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.