Simulating effects of management measures on the improvement of the environmental performance of construction waste management

Construction waste management (CWM) can affect society from an economic perspective, a social perspective and an environmental perspective. It is found from existing literature that scant attention has been paid to take account of the dynamics nature of the CWM system and interactions among major variables in the system when evaluating its environmental performance. Therefore, in order to fill the research gap, we develop a model for evaluating the environmental performance of CWM by using a system dynamics approach; particular focus is given to the dynamic interrelations among major variables in the CWM system and how the dynamics interactions can influence the environmental performance of CWM. The application of the proposed model is demonstrated based on a real case from the construction industry of China. The simulation results not only provide valuable information on how to improve the environmental performance of CWM in the studied project, but also help build confidence in the dynamic model in general so that it can be adopted to simulate, evaluate, and subsequently improve the environmental performance of CWM in construction projects.

► We develop a SD model for evaluating the environmental performance of CWM. ► Focus is placed on dynamic interrelations among major variables in CWM. ► With the model, the environmental performance of CWM can be dynamically simulated.