Study on an Environmental Impact Assessment of a Construction Process Based on the Life Cycle Assessment Approach

To achieve a precise and convenient assessment for the environmental impacts of the construction process, a construction process environmental impact assessment model - which was based on a life-cycle assessment (LCA) - was built. The scope of assessment was defined and a convenient assessment approach was proposed which used the data on materials and equipment inputs available from construction plans. Societal willingness-to-pay (WTP) was employed as the valuation method. The environmental impact of the construction process on a residence community in Beijing was assessed. The results showed that:(1)the depletion of fossil energy and carbon dioxide emission mainly come from transportation and construction machinery, atmospheric suspended matter mainly comes from the construction dust, and solid waste mainly comes from the construction process and the embodied waste solid of revolving and auxiliary materials; (2) the proportion of water depletion, timber depletion and solid waste in construction process in embodied process are, respectively, 72%, 61% and 54%; and (3) the dominant environmental impacts of the construction process mainly include:solid waste, global warming, acidification, water depletion and atmospheric suspended matter.