The relation between Level of Development, Information Exchanges, and Life Cycle Analysisin BIM-based projects

Introduction – The building industry is evolving, this urges for innovative methodologies to facilitate the construction processes including the information exchanges between these to accomplish a sustainable future. In addition, new requirements are being set by the Swedish government and other national authorities with the objective of reducing the climate impact caused by the construction industry, which is responsible for a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions. A helpful tool to estimate the total carbon dioxide emission value is the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) which depends on the Information Exchanges (IE) and the Level of Development (LOD) in BIM (Building Information Modelling) based projects to achieve a reliable result. Therefore, this research aims to find a better understanding of the relation between LOD, IE and LCA in BIM-based projects. Method – This research is based on an authentic ongoing construction project (casestudy), an assembled theoretical framework based on knowledge of the different subjects: LOD, BIM, LCA and IEs. And how previous researchers have faced similar issues. Also, on various thorough document analysis (BIM model and EIs) obtained from the case study. The mentioned above forms a support basis for this paper. Results – Two different BIM models were used to perform two LCA-simulations. One formed with LOD 200 provided a generic presentation of the studied element, which in this case was the model’s exterior walls. While the other model with LOD 300 generated a complex presentation of the model’s exterior walls. The simulation generated a comparative data showing that the Low LOD model had a climate impact value of 248 000 kg CO2. On the other hand, the High LOD model generated a climate impact value of 137 850 kg CO2, resulting in a 45% difference. The results presents that a lower carbon dioxide emission was caused when utilizing a higher LOD which contains more complex and specific information. The results argue for that a BIM model with the adequate amount of LOD is crucial for obtaining more reliable results when performing an LCA. Analysis – The results obtained from the LCA-simulations enhance the theories about the importance of LOD when performing an LCA. Higher LOD in a model generates more reliable results. Moreover, using a BIM software and an LCA plugin as tools facilitate the various IEs in a project. Discussion – The approach was limited to explore the environmental impact of one construction element, exterior walls, and its different LOD. Also, only the stage A1-A3 was analysed. However, trustworthy results were obtained due to the use of reliable data and research methods