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 persisting in current demolition waste management (DWM) practices caused by inattentive and profit-driven decision-making due to the lack of tailored stringent legislation, monetary incentives, and benchmarking frameworks, this study aims to facilitate sustainability-oriented decision-making at the demolition planning stage. A practical Building Information Modelling (BIM)-based visual DWM planning system is designed, wherein the system seamlessly accommodates inventory analysis and Multi-Criteria Decision-Aiding (MCDA) algorithms into various interconnected modules. Moreover, this research proposes bespoke algorithms and colour coding schemes to quantify and visualise the recycling value of building components for augmenting the visual guidance of sustainable building design and selective demolition planning. Furthermore, a pilot case study demonstrates the system's applicability in a real-world demolition project. The findings unveil that improving the recycling rate substantially offsets carbon emissions and demolition waste disposal expenditures. The increment in beneficial impacts outweighs the additional energy consumption and costs for implementing sustainable DWM strategies based on the predefined geographical settings. This BIM-based system reforms the conventional demolition planning and DWM decision-making workflow by tackling technical barriers concerning data richness, interoperability, and result interpretation. It equips the users with intuitive visual design guidance and parallel scenario analysis when crafting sustainability-oriented DWM schemes. In summary, this research contributes to familiarising industry practitioners with sustainable DWM schematic design and circular economy principles. Moreover, it prompts the development of customised BIM libraries as repositories for updating and capitalising on DWM-related information that can be adapted to different regional contexts.