Optimal BIM and LCA integration approach for embodied environmental impact assessment

It has been widely acknowledged that applications of building information modeling (BIM) can facilitate the effectiveness of embodied environmental impact assessment of buildings. Various approaches for integrating BIM software and life cycle assessment (LCA) tools have been developed in recent years. However, limited research has been conducted in defining appropriate BIM-LCA integration approaches for embodied environmental impact assessment. To address this issue, this research develops a way of selecting the optimal BIM-LCA integration approach that incorporates the needs of different scenarios for the performance of the integration approach. Three scenarios of environmental impact assessment are designed to demonstrate the application of the proposed way, including 1) environmental impact assessment in early design stage, 2) environmental impact assessment in the detailed design stage, and 3) environmental impact assessment in construction design stage. The demonstration results indicate that the method of “using visual programming languages” is the optimal BIM-LCA integration approach for assessing environmental impacts in the early and construction design stages. The methods of “adopting LCA plugin for BIM-software” and “using visual programming languages” are the optimal approaches for environmental assessment in the scenario of detailed design stages. This research assists LCA practitioners in selecting optimal BIM-LCA integration approaches in different scenarios and further promotes the applications of BIM-LCA integration approaches during the whole design process of a building.