Development of a visual whole life-cycle energy assessment framework for built environment

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) adopted the Kyoto protocol, establishing legally binding targets for the developed world countries that ratified the protocol. It aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an overall 5% below 1990 levels during the period between 2008 and 2012. Our review of current literature and research projects in the area of sustainability, energy and assessment applied to built environment identified gaps in current knowledge and tools. There is also a need to integrate sustainability within the whole life cycle of a building from design through construction to operation. This paper aims to give an overall review of the knowledge and technologies in the research area. We present a framework, methodologies and technologies that will facilitate the integration of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Whole Life Cycle Cost Assessment (WLCCA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using 3D and Building Information Model (BIM) technologies.