Life-Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Buildings Subjected to Natural Hazards

With the occurrence of devastating natural disasters worldwide, even though initially used interchangeably with green or environmental development, sustainability has evolved to possess social and economic implications as well. Therefore, a complete sustainability assessment of any civil infrastructure requires an evaluation of its three major components: cost, and environmental and social impacts. Because the construction industry is a pioneer in the sustainability movement, the civil engineering community at large needs an integrated methodology for conducting sustainability assessment of civil infrastructure. This paper focuses on the environmental impact assessment component of sustainability within a comprehensive framework for conducting a life-cycle assessment of structures subjected to natural hazards. Although environmental emissions and waste generation in the initial manufacturing and construction phases make significant contributions to the total environmental impact, long-term structural performance (including damage resulting from natural hazards) plays an important role in the sustainability of a structure. The damage experienced by a structure in future natural hazards might substantially increase the total environmental impact because of repair activities. In this paper, a life-cycle environmental impact assessment methodology is proposed with specific emphasis on RC buildings subjected to earthquakes. The methodology is applied to a RC building, and the results confirm the importance of the lifecycle environmental impact assessment as an essential component of sustainability in the presence of seismic threats. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.