The Development of an Integrated Bim-Based Visual Demolition Waste Management Planning System for Sustainability-Oriented Decision-Making

In light of the suboptimal resource efficiency persistent in the current demolition waste management (DWM) practices due to uninformed decision-making, this study develops a BIM-based visual DWM planning system equipped with inventory analysis and multi-criteria decision-aiding (MCDA) modules to enable sustainability-oriented decision-making. The system can appraise and prioritize different DWM schemes’ performance against four predefined sustainability indicators by accommodating the inventory analysis and MCDA functions into a BIM-based platform. Thus, it streamlines the calculation of multifaceted impacts arising from DWM procedures and interprets the assessment results into commensurable sustainability scores. With that in mind, this paper tailors the BIM-based visual DWM planning framework aligning with the circular economy principles. Moreover, this paper elucidates the workflow of prioritizing sustainable DWM schemes and visualizing building elements’ recycling values by developing and connecting interactive functional modules within the BIM environment to streamline the data exchange. Finally, a Revit-based prototype system was developed to empower sustainability-oriented decision-making for DWM. Further, a pilot case study was conducted to demonstrate the usefulness of this novel system in facilitating sustainability-oriented decision-making for a real-world demolition project. The case study verified the applicability of the BIM-based visual DWM planning system in assessing and optimizing the sustainability performance of various DWM schemes as well as distinguishing high-value recyclable components. The development of the system tackles issues concerning data richness, interoperability, and result interpretation that detach DWM from the conventional design workflow. In summary, this research contributes to promoting sustainability-oriented DWM schematic design with the aid of BIM-based applications