A quantitative approach to construction pollution control based on resource levelling

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.