Life-cycle Assessment of Resiliency and Sustainability of Buildings

一座典型的建筑必须使用几十年，其日常运作所消耗的能源才会超过其最初建造时所蕴含的能源。因此，如何建造一座可持续建筑与如何在其生命周期内运行同样重要。不幸的是，建筑施工的环境影响直到最近才被设计顾问考虑到，并通过所使用的材料制造过程中消耗的能源来量化。由于只考虑材料的“摇篮”，而不考虑“从摇篮到坟墓”的环境影响，这些评估未能量化美国建筑实践的真正影响。此外，尽管灾后修复对环境有重大影响，但每栋建筑都有特定的脆弱性，其对可持续性的影响之前没有被考虑过。该项目将开发一个综合的生命周期分析，以回应可持续性和复原力之间的复杂关系。这项研究将有助于美国建筑行业实现真正最佳性能的设计。这样做将促进减少环境影响和更好地管理自然资源的全球使命。此外，该项目采用了成熟的建模环境、现实世界的案例研究和私营部门的合作伙伴关系，将有助于有效地转化为美国的设计实践。该项目的教育交叉机会将确保未来的设计专业人员能够通过利用这项研究的成果来增强我们建筑环境的弹性和可持续性，从而更好地传承这一遗产。该项目将制定一项综合生命周期评估，在环境影响的多个方面，捕捉多灾害复原力和可持续性之间的依赖关系。计算效率评估将利用(i)模拟驱动的方法，（ii）基于样本的工具，（iii）软计算技术，以及（iv）新的环境影响工具集，这些工具集将挖掘公开可用的数据，以量化建筑物的运行和隐含能源。通过对实际建筑的敏感性分析，框架将揭示哪些设计方面真正推动了环境影响，以及考虑寿命暴露如何影响环境影响。通过让实践工程师和建筑师直接参与研究工作，进一步促进了这种新发现的理解的转移。

A typical building must be in use for decades before the energy expended in its daily operations surpasses the energy embodied within its initial construction. Thus, how a sustainable building is constructed is as important as how it is operated over its lifetime. Unfortunately, the environmental impact of building construction has only recently been considered by design consultants, quantified by the energy expended in the manufacture of the materials employed. By considering only the materials' 'cradle' and not the 'cradle-to-grave' environmental impact, these evaluations fail to quantify the true impact of US building construction practices. In addition, each building has specific vulnerabilities, whose implications for sustainability has not been previously considered, despite the significant environmental impact of repairs after a disaster. This project will develop an integrated life-cycle analysis that responds to the complex relationship between sustainability and resilience. This research will help the US building industry realize designs with truly optimal performance. Doing so will advance the global mandate to reduce environmental impact and better steward of natural resources. Moreover, this project's adoption of established modeling environments, real world case studies, and private sector partnerships will aid in the effective translation to US design practice. The project's educational crossover opportunities will ensure that future design professionals are well equipped to further this legacy by using the outcomes of this research to enhance resilience and sustainability of our built environment. This project will develop an integrated life-cycle assessment capturing the dependencies between multi-hazard resilience and sustainability, across the multiple contributing dimensions of environmental impact. The computationally efficient assessment will take advantage of (i) simulation-driven approaches, (ii) sample-based tools, (iii) soft-computing techniques, and (iv) new environmental impact toolsets that will mine publically available data to quantify the building's operational and embodied energy. Through sensitivity analyses on actual buildings, the framework will reveal which design aspects truly drive environmental impact and how this is affected by the consideration of lifetime exposure. The transfer of this newfound understanding is further facilitated by engaging practicing engineers and architects directly in the research effort.