A quantitative approach to construction pollution control based on resource levelling

Abstract

A quantitative approach for construction pollution control that is based on construction resource levelling is presented. The parameters of construction pollution index (CPI) and hazard magnitude (hi) are treated as a pseudo resource and integrated with a project’s construction schedule. When the level of pollution for site operations exceeds the permissible limit identified by a regulatory body, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) enhanced levelling technique is used to re‐schedule project activities so that the level of pollution can be re‐distributed and thus reduced. The GA enhanced resource levelling technique is demonstrated using 20 on‐site construction activities in a project. Experimental results indicate that the proposed GA enhanced resource levelling method performs better than the traditional resource levelling method used in MS Project©. The proposed method is an effective tool that can be used by project managers to reduce the level of pollution at a particular period of time; when other control methods fail.