Development of a comprehensive multi-criteria decision support system for assessing the environmental and cost impacts of buildings
Sustainable Cities and Society, vol.147, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Volume: 147
- Publication Date: 2026
- Doi Number: 10.1016/j.scs.2026.107521
- Journal Name: Sustainable Cities and Society
- Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Compendex, Geobase, INSPEC
- Keywords: Environmental impact mitigation, Life cycle assessment, Multi-criteria decision system, Sensitivity analysis, Sustainable design
- Inonu University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
This study presents a multi-criteria decision support system developed to comprehensively assess environmental and cost impacts at the early design stage of buildings. The framework integrates eight criteria: global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, abiotic depletion-elements, abiotic depletion–fossil resources, and cost. Analyses cover the production, installation, and use phases of the building life cycle. The methodology operates at the work-item level by generating alternative material scenarios and aims to identify the criterion and life-cycle stage that provide the highest environmental improvement with minimal design revisions. In addition to embodied impacts, the framework accounts for relative effects of material substitutions on operational heating energy through envelope changes. Its applicability is demonstrated through two case studies: a university building and an apartment building. The results indicate that design renewals based on the cost and acidification criteria yield the highest improvements in terms of embodied environmental impacts. However, when operational-phase environmental impacts associated with natural gas consumption are also taken into account, eutrophication emerges as the most effective design criterion in terms of overall environmental improvement. Furthermore, the findings show that environmental impacts are driven by a limited number of high-impact work items and that modifying more than five work items does not necessarily lead to greater improvements. Sensitivity and robustness analyses confirm the system's stability under variations in criterion weights. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by offering a life-cycle-based, multi-criteria, and practically applicable decision-support framework for early-stage sustainable building design.