The construction industry is the largest contributor of waste in the EU, and research shows that a high sorting rate does not automatically entail a high recycling rate. The purpose of this study is, through a multiple case study, to provide better understanding of the waste flows and the prerequisites on the logistical operations within new build construction projects, considering the variation over time (construction phases). Waste data from five projects were analyzed. Results show that amount and mix of waste varieties vary considerably during a project, which has to be effectively managed by the waste logistics system.

Construction logistics (CL) is assumed to represent 20-35% of total urban freight traffic and account for a sig- nificant share of environmental nuisances. However, methodologies used so far make abstraction of travelled vehicle-kilometres (vkm), hence inadequately determining the true environmental impact of off-site CL activities. In turn, the lack of baseline assessments renders the development of sector-specific transport policies difficult. In Belgium, the use of On-Board Units shows promising results to answer this research gap. This paper presents a methodological approach to derive CL vkm on vehicle and trip level, based on algorithmic (R) and geospatial (GIS) analyses of GPS data from all HGV driving in or through the territory of Belgium, which serves as input to conduct a city-wide environmental impact assessment in terms of external costs. The proposed methodology was deployed on 66 large construction sites in the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR) active between 2020-2022, during the month of September 2021. Subsequently, results were translated to monetary terms to capture the generated environmental and mobility impacts. With its 968,041.96 monthly driven vkm, CL represents 26.40% of total HGV traffic in the BCR. This share generates €45,631.85 of external costs per workday, totaling €1,003,900.61 per month. Particular attention is paid to local air pollution (NOx, PM) and global emitted pollutants (GHG; CO2- eq.) which account for €55,123.07 and €80,409.95 per month of damage costs, respectively. To mitigate these damage costs and meet environmental goals, governments should pay increasing attention to urban construction transport by stimulating CL setups or developing emission-free public procurement procedures. The results of this study can serve as baseline for future policy recommendations and scenario evaluations.

Multi-actor multi-criteria analysis is a group decision-making framework that allows multiple stakeholder groups to be involved in the decision-making process, facilitating the understanding of the points of consensus and conflict among the stakeholder groups. Carefully selecting suitable criteria is important as they illustrate the possibly divergent priorities of the respective stakeholder group, and overlooking important criteria can lead to erroneous outcomes. Furthermore, the number of criteria needs specific consideration, as a too large number poses problems for human cognition, but a too small number inaccurately represents the stakeholder's interest. In stakeholder groups with many members, such as those representing citizens, defining a criteria set is likely to be even more complicated. Currently, there is no formal guideline to assist facilitators in defining these criteria sets. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for criteria preprocessing with stakeholder involvement that includes a guideline for firstly selecting criteria into a tentative list and secondly selecting the final criteria set. It provides a procedure on how to determine criteria considering the priorities of stake- holder groups with regard to the context. As a final step, we propose a mathematical model for selecting a number of criteria that are both cognitively manageable and rep- resentative for the participants' priorities. Based on the principles of the Pareto analy- sis, as well as the cognitive judgment theory “magic number seven plus or minus two”, a recommendation list of the criteria is generated. It prevents key criteria from being omitted while at the same time limiting the overall number of criteria. This framework is applied to a social decision-making case for construction logistics, and the results are compared with the conventional approach of criteria definition.

Currently, over 96% of the urban population is exposed to exceeding air pollution concentrations. Freight transport daily engenders €61,604 of air pollution health costs in the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR), of which 60% is incurred by vulnerable population segments. The construction sector is responsible for 26.40% of truck traffic in the BCR. This paper examines the exposure effects when off-site construction logistics flows are redirected around air pollution hotspots. Consequently, alternative routing scenarios are computed, and its emission dispersed assuming a Gaussian relation. Concentrations are then associated to spatiotemporal receptor densities. The health impact is monetized using hospital exposure-response functions. While overall emissions increase across all scenarios, health costs are mitigated up to 25.53% by rerouting existing flows. This study suggests to decouple policies from absolute transport emissions and focus on its health impact, considering spatiotemporal dynamics of both emissions and receptors.

Every year, over 364,200 people in Europe die prematurely due to the effects of air pollution, in which the transportation sector plays an important role. In Brussels, freight transport generates €61,604 of air pollution health costs daily. Research has shown that dynamic spatiotemporal modeling of both emission sources and exposed people (using mobile phone data) renders more accurate impact results when analyzed in microenvi- ronments. However, mobile data underrepresent population segments that are more sensitive to the effects of air pollution, such as toddlers, children and elderly individuals. This paper examined the link between vulnerable people aged 0–3, 3–18 and >65 years and freight transport-related air pollution concentrations in the Brussels- Capital Region (BCR). To this end, dynamic tailpipe emissions and their spatiotemporal dispersion were calcu- lated using output from the Transport Agent-Based Model (TRABAM) on a daily basis. Population densities were calculated as a function of the residences’ occupancy rate and school/class size and opening hours. The effects of exposure were then evaluated using age- and sex-differentiated exposure-response functions and monetized using local hospital cost factors. Data were compiled for 2021. A strong overlap between people’s presence at the institutions’ locations was noticed with a peak in (freight) transportation movements in the city. The results showed that €37,000 [€34,517.47–€40,047.13] of freight transport-related air pollution health costs were incurred daily by vulnerable population segments. While these vulnerable groups made up 25.34% of the total BCR population, they incurred 60% [56.03%–65.01%] of the engendered transportation air pollution costs. The results were then geographically analyzed to identify 465 traffic-related air pollution hotspots across the terri- tory, which accounted for €36,000 [€33,677.85–€39,101.31] of total costs. The latter can be used in future studies to assess sector-specific freight transportation policies, which should take into consideration spatio- temporal population densities on the local level.

While transport is inevitable in our economy and daily lives, it also engenders negative effects on the society and environment. The effects of air pollution are responsible for more than 364,200 premature deaths in Europe each year. Most urban areas still exceed the NOx and PM WHO air quality guidelines, of which a large share of pollutants is attributable to freight transport. The construction sector forms no exception, as it intrinsically strongly relies on off-site logistics activities, i.e. transports to and from sites. Although construction works lead to an urban economic uptake on the long-haul, the environmental nuisances from construction logistic (CL) activities during the works have so far been overlooked. This thesis focuses on the air quality impact of off-site construction transport, covering four main parts. First, as there is a lack of knowledge within cities on how to set construction transport demands and how to involve actors in these processes, a stakeholder framework is presented. Next, I identify the available and required transport data (and digitization possibilities) to assess the sector’s environmental impact, such as On-Board Units. Secondly, impact assessments were conducted across various construction supply chain implementations, on single-site, city-wide and national level. Hence, a methodological approach to derive construction-related vehicles from Heavy-Goods Vehicle (HGV) traffic based on algorithmic and geospatial analyses is proposed. Results indicate that construction transport represents 26.40% of total HGV traffic in the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR), generating €45,631.85 of external costs per workday, and 17.58% in Belgium (or €1.45mio per day). Subsequently, the framework was deployed to assess the transport performance of the multimodal Brussels Construction Consolidation Centre. The use of this setup can mitigate external costs by up to 59% compared to business-as-usual operations, most notably on congestion and climate change costs. However, improvements are necessary to tackle local emissions, attributable to less performant -yet ubiquitous- vessel engines. Air pollution damage costs also remain high on city level analyses, with CL inflicting €55,123.07 per month (or €2,505.59 per workday) in the BCR. A fortiori, with the growing concern on urban air quality, this raises the question of where, when and by whom the most exposure costs are inflicted. So far, the geo-temporal link between the emitting freight vehicle and its receptor densities was considered static. The third part introduces a dynamic impact-pathway approach, highlighting that PM & NO2 source impacts engender €61.604 of health costs in the BCR each day. Large differences were found on the local level compared to the traditional static approach, indicating that the proposed dynamic methodology should be used for micro-scale analyses (on link, building or neighborhood level). Striking is that vulnerable population segments such as toddlers, school children and elderly, who are more sensible to the effects of air pollution, incur 60.28% of the total health costs, although these segments represent only a quarter of the BCR population. Moreover, a strong overlap was found between the receptor’s presence (in particular children) and peak freight traffic movements. The fourth part investigates the exposure effects when off-site construction transport flows are spatiotemporally rerouted around air pollution hotspots. Although an increase in emissions is observed due to higher travelled distances and slower driving speeds, results show that the inflicted health costs can be mitigated up to 25.53%. Conclusively, this study suggests to decouple policies from absolute transport emissions and focus on the actual health impact, considering the spatiotemporal relationship of both emissions and receptors. Although tailoring a one-size-fits-all construction logistic plan can initially prove to be difficult due to the unique character of each construction site’s supply chain, the conducted studies also show that this individual complexity can be overcome by overall better integrated urban transport planning, and can ultimately lead to significant sustainability benefits.

Urban areas pay increasing attention to new construction and infrastructure works, mainly due to the rapid global rise in urbanisation. In the long run, these works have a positive correlation with the economic and social attractiveness of cities. Construction strongly relies on lo- gistics activities, which cannot be neglected in the environmental equation. An important aspect in tackling the negative effects of construction logistics (CL) lies in understanding the source and mit- igation potential of the impacts incurred. However, currently, limited robust impact assessments are available for this sector. Given the lack of these rigorous assessments, it is difficult to evaluate the environmental criteria concerned, especially when comparing innovative CL solutions. In this paper, we present a holistic sustainability assessment framework designed for CL activities based on life cycle approaches, which covers four main iterative steps: (1) goal and scope definition, (2) data identification and availability, (3) scenario and setup evaluation and (4) environmental impact assessment. To measure both the off-site and on-site CL impact, two distinct and complementary methodologies are used: External Cost Calculations and Life Cycle Assessment. The framework was implemented on a pilot case in the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium). It provides a holistic view of CL impacts for policy evaluations and implementations on the project, portfolio or city level. The results show that off-site zero-emission construction vehicles are the way forward if cities want to achieve environmental goals by 2035. However, market readiness for high-capacity vehicles must be considered. Otherwise, the positive effects on air pollution, climate change and noise are offset by a saturation of the road transport network and its associated congestion and infrastructure dam- age costs.

Purpose: The environmental logistics impact is significant in urban areas, characterised by high receptor den- sities, less accessible sites and limited storage space. With the aim to reduce negative externalities generated by urban construction transport and improve the use of existing inland waterway transport (IWT) infrastructure, the City of Brussels has implemented a water-bound Construction Consolidation Centre ((BCCC). While the concept of a CCC has been implemented in different European cities, limited impact studies are available. This paper assesses the environmental off-site road and IWT’s transport performance of the multimodal BCCC case. Design/methodology/approach: The sustainability impact is evaluated using economic external cost calculations, contextualised with transport planning indicators. Subsequently, findings are compared to business-as-usual (BAU) operations without a CCC as part of a scenario evaluation, for the 24 large construction sites supplied through the CCC between Sep-2019 and Dec-2020.

Findings: Improvements in the IWT sector are necessary to tackle local emissions (NOx, PM) which rise signifi- cantly compared to BAU (+257 %), mainly attributable to less performant -yet ubiquitous- vessel engines and their long running life. In contrast, other externalities decrease, most noticeably on congestion costs (-91 %), climate change (-66 %), noise (-79 %) and infrastructure costs (-60 %). Overall, €49,404.67 of external costs are saved annually, a 58.72 % reduction compared to BAU. Additionally, improvements are observed on transport planning and efficiency, with 73 % timely deliveries and 93.32 % delivery compliance, hence respecting the Just- In-Time and Just-In-Place principles.

Research limitations/implications: Promising results are shown to incentivize industry and policy makers for adopting a CCC in light of alleviating the impact of urban construction logistics (CL), if the overall external costs and mobility impacts are considered. Results should be further compared to other logistic solutions to evaluate complementary measures, including more differentiated scenario evaluations.

Practical implications: Although IWT alleviates road network use, air pollution from vessels should be addressed. An IWT-CCC can offer decision-makers a transport planning solution to decrease urban nuisances and increase resource efficiency use, if specific IWT-CCC and CL applicability requirements are considered. Originality/value: This paper adds knowledge to the sector’s impact mitigation potential using IWT-CCC, offering insights for decisional support and policy recommendations.

Although construction logistics activities are the source of significant environmental nuisances, they are often overlooked. Limited knowledge is available about the true vehicle-kilometres (vkm) associated with the large number of vehicles in the sector. Furthermore, current studies are insufficiently robust to determine the share of construction logistics in total freight transport and its environmental effects. Countries like Belgium and the Netherlands have organized simultaneous holiday periods for the construction sector. This period is driven by the sector itself to avoid delays (within teams and between related companies). The scheme is well-respected despite the regional aspect, as 88% of the construction sector is adhering to it. Consequently, the comparison of the freight transport activities – be it traffic counts or GPS data – could be made between the organized holiday period and a reference period. This paper proposes a macro-level analysis to determine (1) the share, (2) the fleet composition and (3) the environmental impact of construction logistics within Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) traffic. This is done using On-Board Unit (GPS) data, covering almost all road vehicles with a gross weight of >3,5t on the entire territory of Belgium. This analysis is conducted over reference periods of 4 years (2016-2019). This allows to quantify the influence of the HGV construction logistics fleet on Belgian traffic, for which an external costs analysis (air pollution, accidents, climate change, congestion, loss of habitat, infrastructure, noise and well-to-tank costs) is conducted. Results show that these vehicles, largely construction-related, represent approximately 17.58% of total HGV traffic, or 14.86% of total daily active HGVs. Overall, these transports generate €1.45mio daily external costs, a share which represents 15.33% of total HGV external costs in Belgium. These figures should be considered lower bounds.