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PhD Dissertation Final Oral Defense (May 2022)
Title of dissertation: Project Controls for Sustainable Construction Projects
Name of Candidate: Sareh Rajabi, PhD in Engineering-Engineering Systems Management
Name of supervisor: Dr. Sameh El-Sayegh and Dr. Lotfi Romdhane
Abstract
Several researches investigated the integration of sustainability in construction. However, there is a gap in addressing the performance measurement and evaluation during the construction phase. Traditional project performance evaluation methods, such as Earned Value Management (EVM), are used to assess time and cost performance. However, EVM does not address the performance assessment of sustainability objectives. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop a new project controls method for sustainable construction projects through integrating time, cost and sustainability. The proposed methods enhance planning and controlling sustainable construction projects in terms of time, cost and sustainability. Twenty-two sustainability indicators were identified based on a comprehensive review of related literature. A survey was then sent to construction professionals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Thirty-one respondents evaluated the importance of indicators using pair-wise comparison using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results highlighted that the use of renewable energy indicator was ranked as the most important with a global weight of 0.164 (environmental group). The construction site safety indicator was the most important, with a global weight of 0.093, in the socio-economic group. Three time-cost-sustainability optimization models are then developed. Model A introduces sustainability as a constraint, where the cost of the project is minimized while ensuring a minimum value of sustainability for the project. In Model B, the objective function is formulated as a combination of the cost of the project and the equivalent cost of sustainability. These two optimization problems were solved using Linear Programming (LP) and Genetic Algorithms (GA). For Model C, the problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem, where the objective is to find the best compromise that minimizes the cost of the project while ensuring the highest value of sustainability. A case study is presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed models. A Sustainable Earned Value Management (SEVM) model was developed to monitor the attainment of sustainability objectives in construction projects in addition to the traditional objectives. The research is valuable as it encourages contractors to consider sustainability as a key objective resulting in more sustainable construction industry.
Keywords: Sustainable construction, sustainability indicators, sustainability value, optimization, time-cost-sustainability trade-off, earned value management