Visualizing Interdependencies among Sustainability Criteria to Support Multicriteria Decision-making Processes in Building Design

Abstract

It becomes increasingly challenging to follow decision-making processes while designing sustainable buildings as various sustainability criteria must be operationalized to maintain the optimal integral building performance over its whole life-cycle. Because it is difficult to manage the numerous interdependencies between sustainability criteria as well as their relationships to “traditional” design criteria such as cost, decision-makers are forced to gain in-depth knowledge about the impact of their actions by applying a decision-making process that relies on multiple criteria. In this paper, we introduce a systemic and stepwise management approach based on the literature that can be taken to visualize interdependencies between various building design criteria. This may help decision-makers reduce risk during the management process. Therefore, we present the results of a causal loop investigation. We used causal loop investigations founded on a selection of sustainability evaluation criteria among various building design criteria to identify possible conflicts and identify synergies regarding these sustainability criteria. As a result, we have developed a methodology that - can be used to visualize relevant interdependencies among sustainability criteria in building design, depending on the quality levels of the expected functional and technical equivalents.