Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The construction industry plays a significant role in climate change, and major research efforts have been dedicated over the past decades to mitigate this impact, with the goal of achieving zero-emission and efficient, resilient buildings by 2050. Faced with the limitations of the tools traditionally used for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of construction projects, new approaches are increasingly being proposed, particularly based on the rise of digital tools. Among these, 4D construction simulation offers a very promising potential. It involves linking a 3D model of a project with the project's activity schedule to visually simulate the construction stages over time. Several research studies have demonstrated the added value of 4D simulation for various purposes in the construction industry. In addition, recent research work has been dedicated to the use of 4D simulation to support environmental impact studies in construction. However, despite recent promising work, a substantial research effort is still required before 4D simulation can become an effective environmental impact assessment tool with a user-friendly interface for professionals, widely used in construction projects. The overall objective of this research program is to propose an efficient 4D simulation-based approach to support variant analysis as a means to enhance the environmental impact assessment of construction projects. The program focuses on the variant analysis stage in EIA, and involves: 1) formalizing and validating a structured approach based on 4D simulation for variant analysis that can be applied to various types of construction projects; 2) developing a tool that automates the comparison and selection of optimal variants based on environmental, economic, and social criteria; and 3) implementing the developed system in a collaborative immersive virtual reality environment to facilitate collaborative decision-making during environmental impact assessment follow-up meetings. Improving the analysis of project variants, as targeted by this research program, will greatly facilitate efforts to minimize and mitigate the environmental impacts of construction projects and help enhance their social acceptability. The program will also contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of construction projects and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.