The Role of Multi-criteria Decision Techniques for Sustainable Construction of Chinese Residential Buildings

The increasing urbanization in China has created a high demand for housing and other infrastructure. Meeting this demand has huge resource implications with potentially harmful effects on the environment. A sustainable approach to construction is therefore a way forward to ensure that the competing needs for housing, economic development and protection of the environment can be achieved. This paper reports on the early stages of a research into sustainable construction in China. The aim is to explore how multi-decision techniques can be used to assess the sustainability of different structural systems (e.g. loadbearing bricks, concrete and steel frame construction) for residential building construction. The concept of sustainable construction is defined and various criteria for achieving it are identified. A review of various multi-criteria decision techniques is provided and a conceptual framework for an evaluation system for assessing different structural systems in the context of the residential building process in China is proposed. It is expected that this framework will provided the basis for a more detailed study to validate and test its effectiveness in making credible decisions on the choice of building systems for sustainable construction in China. The paper concludes with an outline of how this detailed research will be conducted.