Web Based Construction

Web-based construction waste estimation system for building construction projects
Yashuai Li, Xueqing Zhang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Accepted 3 May 2013
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Construction waste
Decision support system
Estimation
Online analytical processing
Sustainable development
This paper proposes a web-based construction waste estimation system (WCWES) for building construction
projects incorporating the concepts of work breakdown structure, material quantity takeoff, material classi-
cation, material conversion ratios, material wastage levels, and the mass balance principle. The WCWES
integrates online data input modules and online analytical modules for the quantication of different kinds
of waste generated in the construction process at the project level. It facilitates accessibility, interfacing, con-
nectivity and information sharing of users in carrying out a wide range of construction waste estimation tasks
for sustainable construction waste management. A hypothetical building construction project is used to dem-
onstrate the application and usefulness of the WCWES.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Construction waste is a major source of municipal solid waste in
all the megacities around the world, frequently accounting for 10%
to 30% of the total waste landlled. For example, in Hong Kong, con-
struction waste consists of 30% to 40% of the total waste. In 2005, con-
struction waste delivered to landlls was 6556 ton/day, which was
37.08% of the total waste landlled (17,503 ton/day) [25]. In Chicago,
4,656,037 tons of construction waste was generated in 2007, ac-
counting for 60.71% of the total waste (7,669,097 tons) generated
that year [4]. The large amounts of construction waste are a big chal-
lenge to the sustainable development of many large cities in both de-
veloped and developing countries/regions.
Efcient construction waste management necessitates a systematic
approach supported by various decision making tools. One such tool is
a practical construction waste estimation system, which would be
quite useful for both the government and the construction industry in
accurately quantifying and effectively managing construction waste.
Fromthe perspective of the government, relevant authorities can estab-
lish appropriate policies, guidelines, strategies and codes of practice for
sustainable construction waste management based on informed esti-
mation of construction waste, for example, in the development of opti-
mal waste treatment facilities andinthe determinationof the right level
of waste charge. Fromthe perspective of the construction industry, con-
struction companies can take active waste prevention, reduction and
utilization plans within and across construction projects to deal with
the various kinds of estimated waste to be generated from different
projects.
A number of methods have been proposed to quantify construction
waste generation. These methods can be broadly divided into three
categories:
(1) The rst waste estimation method is to estimate the total waste
froma constructionproject as a percentage of the total amount of
construction materials consumed in this project. Through a sur-
vey of some construction projects, the average waste percentage
of the total amount of construction materials consumed in these
projects can be determined. This average percentage is then used
to estimate the total waste to be generated from other construc-
tion projects. For example, Bossink and Brouwers [1] analyzed
the total quantities of construction waste fromve housing pro-
jects from April 1993 to June 1994 and concluded that waste
from a construction project lies between 1% and 10% of the pur-
chased materials in the Netherlands.
(2) The second waste estimation method is based on some generic
project parameter/variable (e.g., the oor area of a building pro-
ject) to predict the total quantity of waste from a construction
project. In general, the total construction waste froma construc-
tion project is equal to the product of the quantity of this generic
variable and the waste per unit quantity of this generic variable.
For example, construction waste estimation models based on the
construction area of a project have been developed in Greece by
Fatta et al. [8] and Kourmpanis et al. [13], inSpain by Villoria Sez
[23] and in Thailand by Kofoworola and Gheewala [12]. Speci-
cally, in these models, the total amount of waste froma construc-
tion project is calculated by multiplying the total construction
area of this project by an estimated quantity of waste per unit
of the construction area. Besides the construction oor area, the
wastage level [14,19,21], structure type & function [9] and con-
struction stage [11] can also be utilized to estimate construction
Automation in Construction xxx (2013) xxxxxx
Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2358 8480.
E-mail address: zhangxq@ust.hk (X. Zhang).
AUTCON-01574; No of Pages 15
0926-5805/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.05.002
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Automation in Construction
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ aut con
Please cite this article as: Y. Li, X. Zhang, Web-based construction waste estimation systemfor building construction projects, Automation in Con-
struction (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.05.002
waste generation.
(3) The third waste estimation method is based on some
macro-level variables to predict the total construction waste
generated from an industry, region or country. One common
macro-level variable is the population size (Martnez Lage
2010) [16]. Other macro-level variables include construction
project permits [24] and construction material productions
[7,20]. Specically, Bruvoll and Ibenholt [3] and Ibenholt [10]
presented a multi-sectoral equilibriummodel that employs mac-
roeconomic variables such as real capital invested, labor used,
material input, energy consumption and purchase prices to fore-
cast waste generated in the Norwegian manufacturing industry.
In addition to these theoretical estimation methods, SMARTWaste
is utilized as a tool in construction waste management [2]. The
SMARTWaste system tends to improve contractors' waste manage-
ment strategy by means of dening their environmental and other
key performance indicators (EPIs and KPIs) and quantifying major
waste components' sources and management methods. This system
requires the user to input waste generation amount in order to gener-
ate the site waste management plan.
In viewof the fact that the construction industry is project-based,
this paper proposes a web-based construction waste estimate sys-
tem (WCWES) for building construction projects. As a supportive
platform, the WCWES integrates online data input modules and on-
line analytical modules for the quantication of different kinds of
waste generated in the construction process at the project level. Fur-
thermore, the WCWES facilitates accessibility, interfacing, connec-
tivity and information sharing of users in carrying out a wide range
of construction waste estimation tasks for sustainable construction
waste management.
2. Overall methodology of building project waste estimation
Zhang and Li [27] developed a quantitative construction waste
estimation model for building construction projects. The overall
methodology of this project-based waste estimation model is
shown in Fig. 1. Specically, this model integrates the following
concepts: work breakdown structure (WBS), material quantity
takeoff, material classication, material conversion ratios, material
wastage levels in each terminal work package and the mass balance
principle. The project-based waste estimation model is able to pre-
dict the various kinds of waste generated in each work package of a
building construction project. Details of this project-based con-
struction waste estimation model are discussed in the following
sections.
3. Construction waste estimation according to work packages
3.1. Construction waste from terminal work packages
Work packages at the lowest practical level of the WBS of a build-
ing project are referred to as terminal work packages. The quantity of
construction waste of a particular kind of material from a terminal
work package is a function of the quantity of this material used in
this terminal work package and the wastage level of this material
in this terminal work package. The wastage level is the percentage
of the quantity of a material used in a terminal work package that be-
comes waste. Basic procedures to estimate construction waste froma
terminal work package are discussed in the following:
Step 1: Develop the WBS of a building construction project
A building construction project can be broken down into
four hierarchical levels [26]: system, component, element
and sub-element. The sub-element is the terminal work package.
Specically,
(1) A systems of a building is denoted as W
s
, where s = 1, 2, , S,
and S is the total number of systems in this building.
(2) A component c in system s is denoted as W
c
s
, where c = 1, 2,
, C
s,
and C
s
is the total number of components in system s
of a building.
Fig. 1. A quantitative construction waste estimation model.
2 Y. Li, X. Zhang / Automation in Construction xxx (2013) xxxxxx
(3) An element e in component c of system s is denoted as W
e
sc
,
where e = 1, 2, , E
sc
, and E
sc
is the total number of elements
in component c of system s of a building.
(4) A sub-element d in element e of component c of system s is
denoted as W
d
sce
, where d = 1, 2, , D
sce
, and D
sce
is the
total number of sub-elements in element e of component c
of system s of a building.
Step 2: Conduct material quantity takeoff for each terminal work
package
Materials involved in the delivery of a work package can be
generally classied into four categories: construction
materials, packaging materials, extracted materials, and tar-
get building elements. Construction materials are those ma-
terials that are used to form the target building elements.
Packaging materials refer to those that package construction
materials. Extracted materials mainly mean soil excavated
in the construction process. Target building elements mean
the designed elements of a building to be built.
Without loss of generality, it is assumed that there are I kinds of
construction materials, G kinds of packaging materials, J kinds
of extracted materials and K kinds of target building elements
in the delivery of a terminal work package. The quantities of
Fig. 2. Architecture of the web-based construction waste estimation system.
Fig. 3. Registration.
the i-th construction material, g-th packaging material, j-th
extracted material and k-th target building element in terminal
work package W
d
sce
are denoted asQ
MU
iW
sce
d
, Q
PU
gW
sce
d
, Q
EU
jW
sce
d
andQ
TU
kW
sce
d
respectively. In the superscript of Q
MU
iW
sce
d
, the rst letter Mmeans
construction materials (i.e., M will be changed to P for pack-
aging materials, to E for extracted materials, or to T for target
building elements); the second letter U indicates the unit of
measurement (i.e., U will be changed to V if the material is
measured in volume or to W if the material is measured by
weight). Taking the concrete used in the terminal work package
wall foundation as an example, it is assumed that the quantity
of concrete used in the work package is 665.8 m
3
.
Step 3: Convert the units of different materials to a common one
In the construction practice, the quantities of different
materials are measured in different units. For the conve-
nience of comparison and analysis, different measurements
may be converted to a common unit using conversion ra-
tios. In this paper, weight in kilogram is used as the com-
mon measurement unit. Thus, the weight of the x-th
material in terminal work package Wd
sce
is
Q
XW
xW
sce
d
Q
XU
xW
sce
d
C
XW
x
; X M; P; E; T f g
x
1; ; I if X M
1; ; G if X P
1; ; J if X E
1; ; K if X T
8
>
>
<
>
>
:
1
where X = the material category, withX = M, P, E and T mean-
ing construction material, packaging material, extracted
Fig. 4. Account management.
Fig. 5. Functions of the web-based construction waste estimation system.
material and target building element respectively; Q
MW
iW
sce
d
= the
weight of the i-th construction material in Wd
sce
, Q
PW
gW
sce
d
= the
weight of the g-th packaging material in Wd
sce
, Q
EW
jW
sce
d
= the
weight of the j-th extracted material in Wd
sce
, Q
PW
kW
sce
d
= the
weight of the k-th building element in Wd
sce
; Cx
XW
= the conver-
sion ratio of the x-th material of category X, that is, Ci
MW
, Cg
PW
,
Cj
EW
and Ck
TW
are the conversion ratios of the i-th construction
material, g-th packaging material, j-th extracted material and
k-th target building element from a particular measurement
unit to weight. For instance, given that the conversion ratio of
concrete fromcubic meter to weight is 2300, the weight of con-
crete used in wall foundation is 1,531,340 kg.
Step 4: Estimate construction waste from each terminal work package
Construction waste from the x-th material is expressed as
R
XW
xW
sce
d
Q
XW
xW
sce
d
L
X
xW
sce
d
2
where R
XW
xW
sce
d
= the weight of waste of the x-th material of cat-
egory X from terminal work package Wd
sce
and L
X
xW
sce
d
= the
wastage level of the x-th material of category X in terminal
work package Wd
sce
. For example, if the wastage level of con-
crete in the terminal work package wall foundation is 1.5%,
the quantity of concrete waste from the work package is the
multiplication of the weight of concrete (1,531,340 kg) by the
wastage level (1.5%), that is, 2297 kg.
Step 5: Estimate the total construction waste from each terminal work
package
The total construction waste from terminal work package Wd
sce
is equal to the summation of the waste of construction mate-
rials, packaging materials, extracted materials and target build-
ing elements from this package, that is
R
AW
W
sce
d
X
I
i1
R
MW
iW
sce
d
X
G
g1
R
PW
gW
sce
d
X
J
j1
R
EW
jW
sce
d
X
K
k1
R
TW
kW
sce
d
3
whereR
AW
W
sce
d
= the total construction waste fromterminal work
package Wd
sce
.
3.2. Construction waste from higher levels of work packages
Once construction waste of the four material categories (i.e., con-
struction materials, packaging materials, extracted materials and
target building elements) from each terminal work package is esti-
mated, construction waste from a higher level work package can be
determined by rolling up the quantities of the corresponding kind
of waste from the work packages immediately below the higher
level package.
Construction waste froman element W
e
sc
(i.e., element e of compo-
nent c of system s of a project) can be expressed as
R
XW
xW
sc
e

X
D
sce
d1
R
XW
xW
sce
d
4
Table 1
Work packages of the substructure system of ABC Building.
Code Work package name Work package type
W
1
Substructure System
W
1
1
Foundation Component
W
1
11
Standard foundation Element
W
1
111
Wall foundation Sub-element
W
2
111
Column foundation & pile caps Sub-element
W
3
111
Perimeter drainage & insulation Sub-element
W
2
11
Special foundation Element
W
1
112
Pile foundation Sub-element
W
2
112
Grade beam Sub-element
W
3
11
Slab on grade Element
W
1
113
Standard slab on grade Sub-element
W
2
1
Basement construction Component
W
1
12
Basement excavation Element
W
1
121
Excavation for basement Sub-element
W
2
121
Structural back ll & compacting Sub-element
W
2
12
Basement walls Element
W
1
122
Basement wall construction Sub-element
Table 2
Material quantities in sub-elements.
Code Construction material Packaging
material
Extracted material Target building element
Concrete
(m
3
)
Steel
(t)
Formwork
(m
2
)
Sand
(t)
SBS
a
(m
2
)
PP
b
(unit)
Brown
paper
(unit)
Soil
(m
3
)
Wall foundation
(m
3
)
Column
(RC)
(m
3
)
Insulation
(m
2
)
Pile
(RC)
(m
3
)
Beam
(RC)
(m
3
)
Slab
(RC)
(m
3
)
Basement
cave
(unit)
Basement
wall (RC)
(m
3
)
W
1
111
665.8 26.3 457 30 660
W
2
111
215 83.6 1290 80 216
W
3
111
69.41 223.59 651 66 520
W
1
112
666 632 666
W
2
112
404 133.3 2870 180 403
W
1
113
491 80.38 4100 250 495
W
1
121
4810 1
W
2
121
962
W
1
122
70 34.8 478 30 73
Note:
a
Styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) waterproof membrane.
b
Polypropylene (PP) bag.
Table 3
Conversion ratios of various materials.
Material name Measurement Weight ratio (kg) Volume ratio (m
3
)
Concrete/pile m
3
2300 1
Steel t 1000 0.128
Formwork m
2
23.4 0.018
Sand m
3
1500 1
SBS
a
m
2
3.5 0.005
Soil m
3
1800 1
Polypropylene (PP) bag unit 1.15 0.002
Brown paper bag Unit 0.314 0.015
Note:
a
where R
XW
iW
sc
e
= the quantity of waste of the i-th material of category X
from element e of component c of system s of a project. For example,
the concrete waste from the component standard foundation di-
rectly above the sub-element wall foundation includes the concrete
waste generated from the sub-element wall foundation.
The total quantity of waste fromelement e of component c of system
s of a project is
R
AW
W
sc
e

X
I
i1
R
MW
iW
sc
e

X
G
g1
R
PW
gW
sc
e

X
J
j1
R
EW
jW
sc
e

X
K
k1
R
TW
kW
sc
e
5
where R
AW
W
sc
e
= the total quantity of waste of construction materials,
packaging materials, extracted materials and target building elements
from element e of component c of system s of a project.
Construction waste from a component W
c
s
, a system W
s
and a pro-
ject W can be expressed as
R
XW
xW
s
c

X
E
sc
e1
R
XW
xW
sc
e
6
R
XW
xW
s

X
C
s
c1
R
XW
xW
s
c
R
XW
xW

X
S
s1
R
XW
xW
s
whereR
XW
xW
s
c
, R
XW
xW
s
and R
xW
XW
= the quantity of waste of the x-th material
of category X from component c, system s and a project respectively.
The total construction waste froma component, systemor project is
expressed as
R
AW
W
s
c

X
I
i1
R
MW
iW
s
c

X
G
g1
R
PW
gW
s
c

X
J
j1
R
EW
jW
s
c

X
K
k1
R
TW
kW
s
c
R
AW
W
s

X
I
i1
R
MW
iW
s

X
G
g1
R
PW
gW
s

X
J
j1
R
EW
jW
s

X
K
k1
R
TW
kW
s
R
AW
W

X
I
i1
R
MW
iW

X
G
g1
R
PW
gW

X
J
j1
R
EW
jW

X
K
k1
R
TW
kW
7
where R
AW
W
s
c
, R
AW
W
s
and R
W
AW
= the total quantity of waste of construction
materials, packaging materials, extracted materials and target building
elements from component c, system s and a project respectively.
4. Web-based construction waste estimation system
4.1. General architecture of the system
To facilitate the application in the construction industry, the con-
struction waste estimation system is computerized and web-enabled.
Users can access to this systemthrough a web browser, for example, in-
ternet explorer. Fig. 2 shows the general architecture of this web-based
construction waste estimation system (WCWES) and the data ow
among the three major components of the WCWES (i.e., web browser,
web server and application logic, and database server).
4.2. Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting
and traversing information resources on the world wide web through
the http protocol. The web browser displays user interfaces in the
form of active server pages (ASP). By manipulating ASP web pages,
http requests are sent to the web server through the web browser.
Then, these requests are handled and corresponding responses are
sent back. Users can input data and retrieve analytical results through
relevant interfaces.
4.3. Web server and application logic
Once receiving an http request from the web browser, the web
server deals with this request and then propagates back a response
to the web browser. The continuous interactions between users and
the WCWES necessitate effective management of the application
logic and its various modules. In this regard, the organized application
logic integrates account modules, data input modules and analytical
modules. Through account modules, users can register, set and change
password, and update the user prole. Data input modules include
modules for material management, project management, WBS man-
agement and material quantity takeoff. These modules allowusers to
input/modify/delete material, project, WBS and material quantity
takeoff information in the database. Analytical modules enable on-
line analytical processing (OLAP) of various construction waste
data and provide analytical results from various perspectives, for ex-
ample, according to work packages, waste streams and waste origin
categories.
4.4. Database
The database stores the input data and the results of various analy-
ses for each project using a relational database management system.
Table 4
Wastage levels of materials in each terminal work package.
Code Construction material Packaging material Extracted material Target building element
Concrete Steel Formwork Sand SBS
a
PP
b
Brown paper Soil Wall foundation Column Insulation Pile Beam Slab Basement cave Basement wall
W
1
111
1.5%
c
0.8%
d
33.3% 100%
c
0%
W
2
111
4.5%
c
0.8%
d
33.3% 100%
c
0%
W
3
111
1.5%
c
2%
c
20%
c
100%
c
0%
W
1
112
1%
c
100%
c
5%
W
2
112
4.5%
c
0.8%
d
33.3% 100%
c
0%
W
1
113
1.5%
c
0.8%
d
33.3% 100%
c
0%
W
1
121
80%
c
W
2
121
1%
c
W
1
122
1.5%
c
0.8%
d
33.3% 100%
c
0%
Note:
a
b
Polypropylene (PP) bag.
c
Obtained through personal interviews.
d
The wastage level is extracted from Poon et al. [19].
Adopting Microsoft SQL Server 2008, the database contains a number of
tables, views, functions, and stored procedures.
4.5. Security system and rewall
The WCWES also incorporates a security system and rewall in
order to protect the WCWES and user information. The security system
denes user access rights and levels of authorities. Fig. 3 shows a
screenshot of the registration interface. A user can access the WCWES
through the registered username and password. As shown in Fig. 4 of
the account management interface, a registered user can manage his/
her account by changing password, updating prole, applying a role,
tracking application process, downloading the systemmanual, and log-
ging out. Changing password and updating prole allow a user to
change the corresponding user information. Three roles are dened in
the WCWES, that is, administrator, VIP user, and common user. A user
can track its application status through the tracking application pro-
cess function. The system manual provides step-by-step procedures
on how to use the WCWES.
5. Input functions of the WCWES
5.1. Hypothetical project for WCWES demonstration
Fig. 5 is a screenshot of the overall interface of the WCWES once
a user logs into the system. This interface displays the various func-
tions of the WCWES. The major input functions include material
management, project management, WBS management and
a) Add a material
b) Update material information
Fig. 6. Material management.
material quantity management. A hypothetical construction pro-
ject, ABC Building, is used as an example to demonstrate the appli-
cation of the various functions of the WCWES. To save space, this
paper only discusses the waste estimation of one of the systems,
i.e., the substructure, in the WBS of the ABC Building. Table 1
shows the information of the various components, elements and
sub-elements of the substructure. Table 2 shows the quantities of
different materials in volume (m
3
) and weight (kg) in each
sub-element. Table 3 shows the conversion ratio of various mate-
rials from different measurement units used in practice to weight
(kg) and volume (m
3
). Table 4 shows the wastage levels of various
materials in different sub-elements.
5.2. Material management
As discussed in the previous section, materials involved in the
construction process are broadly classied into four categories: con-
struction materials, packaging materials, extracted materials, and
target building elements. Users can identify the kinds of materials
involved in a project under concern and the material category to
which each kind of materials belong, and estimate the quantity of
each kind of materials through a quantity takeoff process. The infor-
mation of each kind of materials can then be input into the material
repository. General material information includes material name,
brand, specication, description, measurement unit, weight ratio,
and volume ratio. Furthermore, packaging materials come together
with construction materials and thus it is necessary to build the
relationship between packaging materials and construction mate-
rials. A screenshot of adding a material to the material repository
is shown in Fig. 6(a).
Users can maintain the existing material repository through the
Edit, Delete and Drilldown functions as shown in Fig. 6(b). In
this gure, each row represents a material and a popup editor will
appear if the Edit button is clicked. For example, the Edit button
of concrete is red in Fig. 6(b). In the interface of Fig. 6(b), changing
the information and clicking Update, the material information will
be updated. A material will be deleted if its Delete button is
clicked. In addition, as packaging materials are dependent on specif-
ic construction materials, a Drilldown button appears before each
construction material. The details of packaging materials of a con-
struction material will be displayed if its Drilldown button is
clicked. For example, as shown in Fig. 6(b), polypropylene (PP)
bags are used for packaging formworks.
5.3. Project management
General project information includes project name, contract amount,
number of stories, total construction area, construction start date,
construction completion date, construction structure type, and a
brief description of the project. In the interface as shown in Fig. 5,
clicking Add a newproject, a windowas shown in Fig. 7 will appear
for the user to add a new project. When the information is input,
click Add Project and the information of the new project will be
saved to the database. To manage a project's prole, click Manage
Fig. 7. Adding a new project.
projects in the interface as shown in Fig. 5 and all projects of a user
will be displayed as shown in Fig. 8. The user can select a particular
project and manage its prole. The project information can be mod-
ied or updated through the Edit function or the project can be de-
leted by clicking the Delete button.
5.4. WBS management
WBS information includes work package name, start date, comple-
tion date, quantity of work, unit of work, and construction method.
Clicking Manage work packages in the interface as shown in Fig. 5,
an interface as shown in Fig. 9 will appear for the user to select a pro-
ject and to develop its WBS. Clicking a particular project, for example,
the ABC Building, an interface on work breakdown structure
development as illustrated in Fig. 10 will appear. In this interface,
there are three buttons for WBS development. Clicking the New but-
ton will create a new work package or a child work package for an
existing work package; clicking the Edit button, the information of
an existing work package can be modied and updated; and clicking
the Delete button will delete an existing work package.
5.5. Material quantity management
Material quantity information is associated with each terminal work
package and includes material type, material name, material quantity
and wastage level. Clicking Manage quantity takeoff in the interface
as shown in Fig. 5, an interface as shown in Fig. 9 will appear for the
user to select a project and to manage its material quantity information.
Fig. 8. Project prole management.
Fig. 9. Project selection for work package management.
Clicking a particular project, for example, the ABC Building, an interface
as illustrated in Fig. 11 will appear. This interface presents the WBS of
the ABC Building and terminal work packages are color-highlighted.
Clicking a terminal work package, the material quantity information
of this terminal work package will be shown (Fig. 11). Users can update
the information of existing materials in this terminal work package or
add new materials and the corresponding information by clicking
Add Material.
6. Online analytical processing
6.1. Multi-dimensional OLAP analysis
The OLAP function of the WCWES can response swiftly to multi-
dimensional queries as illustrated in Fig. 12, for example, from the di-
mensions of work package, waste origin category and waste stream
individually or a combination of them. OLAP results would provide a
Fig. 10. Work breakdown structure development.
Fig. 11. Material quantity takeoff. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
strong support for decision making in waste management, for exam-
ple, in tracking the origin of a waste stream, identifying the category
of waste, and determining the most signicant waste stream in a
work package or in a project. In this regard, details are discussed in
the Sections 6.2 to 6.4.
6.2. Tracking origins of waste streams
Clicking the OLAP in the interface as shown in Fig. 5, an interface as
shown in Fig. 13(a) will appear. In this interface, users can drag each of
the three dimensions (i.e., work package, waste origin and waste
stream) to each of the three areas (i.e., rowarea, column area and lter
area) that are shown in red rectangles in Fig. 13(a). In the screenshot of
Fig. 13(a), the three dimensions are located in the lter area. Fig. 13(a)
will change to Fig. 13(b) if the waste origin dimension and the waste
stream dimension are dragged from the lter area to the row area.
In the interface as shown in Fig. 13(a), dragging the two dimen-
sions, Waste Origin and Waste Stream, to the rowarea as indicated
by the blue arrows in Fig. 13(a), (b) will appear, in which work pack-
ages that generate a particular kind of waste will be shown. The
WCWES could also provide various kinds of outputs on the basis of
the OLAP analysis results. The document types include pdf, excel, txt,
and html and the exported document could either be saved or opened
in the web browser.
Clicking the All waste by waste stream in the interface as shown in
Fig. 5, a pie chart as shown in Fig. 14(a) will be drawn, which indicates
the distribution of different construction waste streams in the project.
Clicking a particular kind of waste in Fig. 14(a), for example, concrete,
a graphic presentation as shown in Fig. 14(b) will appear, indicating
Fig. 12. Multiple dimensions of OLAP analysis.
a) OLAP analysis panel
b) OLAP analysis by waste origincategory and waste stream
Fig. 13. OLAP analysis. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
all work packages that generate the waste of concrete and the amount
of concrete waste in each work package. The charts can be opened in
the web browser as shown in Fig. 14(a), printed, or saved in different
types of documents. In addition, the format and palette can also be
changed to suit different presentation purposes.
6.3. Distribution of construction waste across four categories
Clicking All waste by origin category in the interface as shown in
Fig. 5, the distribution of construction waste across the four material
categories (i.e., construction materials, packaging materials, extracted
a) Construction waste by stream (unit: kg)
b) Concrete waste by work package (unit: kg)
Fig. 14. Waste distribution by stream.
materials, and target building elements) will be generated, for example,
by a pie chart as shown in Fig. 15(a). In Fig. 15(a), clicking a material
category, for example, construction materials, a graphic presentation
as shown in Fig. 15(b) will appear, indicating all waste streams in the
category of construction materials and the distribution of these waste
streams.
a) Construction waste by waste origin category (unit: kg)
b) Waste streams from construction materials (unit: kg)
Fig. 15. Waste distribution by waste origin category.
6.4. Identication of the most signicant waste streams
It is useful in waste management to identify the most signicant
kinds of waste from a work package or a project. This can be done
through the interface shown in Fig. 13(a) by dragging the waste stream
dimension fromthe lter area to the rowarea. This action will generate
a table as shown in Fig. 16, which presents the weights and volumes of
various kinds of construction waste in a descending order of weight
(the sorted sign appears after the column title Waste Weight (Kilo-
gram)). Right clicking Waste volume, the sorting option will appear.
Clicking the sorting function, the various kinds of waste can be sorted
according to waste volume, for example, from the largest volume to
the smallest volume. Moreover, the sorting order can be changed by
clicking the sort order sign in Fig. 16. In this way, the most signicant
waste streams can be found automatically.
7. Discussion
7.1. Wastage levels of various materials in different construction
processes
The wastage level refers to the percentage of a material that be-
comes waste in a construction process. A variety of factors inuence
construction waste generation. Chen et al. [6] pointed out that material
management, design coordination and labors' attitude affect construc-
tion waste generation. Huang et al. [9] listed a number of factors that in-
uence construction waste generation in building projects, including
structural type, functional type, region, building above ground, height
underground and total oor area. Poon et al. [19] summarized wastage
levels of a number of materials in the public housing projects of Hong
Kong and further investigated the waste reduction potential through
prefabrication [18]. Wastage levels used in the paper are obtained
through interviews of project managers and secondary resources in-
cluding journal papers [19].
Inaddition, a number of newtechnologies andconstructionmethods
have been used to control construction waste in the construction pro-
cess, for example, bar-code [6], radio-frequency identication (RFID)
[15] and prefabricated elements [17]. These technologies and methods
tend to reduce the wastage levels of materials in specic construction
processes. For example, prefabrication could avoid the plastering
waste and signicantly reduce concreting and rebar xing waste [22].
7.2. Level of detail of the WBS
The level of detail of terminal work packages depends on the con-
tractors' knowledge on the construction process and their ability to
control these processes. Therefore, the work breakdown structures
vary signicantly due to a number of factors, including scale of pro-
ject, design of project and construction methods. The standard build-
ing classication systems provide a means to develop a practical
WBS for building projects. This paper adopts the widely accepted
standard classication system, Uniformat II, which breaks a building
project into four hierarchical levels: system, component, element
and sub-element regardless of their design specications, materials
used and/or construction method/technology applied [5]. The
WCWES supports any level of detail of the WBS and allows users to
dene their work breakdown structures.
7.3. Validation of the WCWES
In the process of developing the WCWES, experts and practitioners
from relevant government departments, construction companies, and
consulting companies have been involved for their comments and sug-
gestions on the various issues related to the WCWES and for the valida-
tion of this system. In addition, several workshops and seminars have
been given to introduce the WCWES. Comments and suggestions are
also solicited in these workshops and seminars. The WCWES has been
improved consequently taking into consideration of the comments
and suggestions collected from different occasions.
8. Conclusions
Construction waste is a major source of municipal solid waste and
the large amounts of waste have been a high pressure on the sustainable
development of many cities around the globe. There is a need to im-
prove the waste management performance in the construction industry
in order to create a sustainable built environment. In this regard, accu-
rate estimation of various kinds of waste in the construction process is
one of the key issues in effective construction waste management.
The WCWES developed in this study provides an online waste esti-
mation platform for building construction projects. With user-friendly
interfaces, the WCWES integrates data input modules and online ana-
lytical modules. Data input modules include material management,
project management, WBS management and material quantity takeoff.
The online analytical modules allowanalysis of construction waste from
three dimensions: waste origin, waste stream and work package. The
WCWES is able to track the origins of construction waste streams, iden-
tify construction waste categories, and determine the most signicant
construction waste streams. Analytical results can be presented in
both graphical and non-graphical formats for easy understanding and
effective communication.
Fig. 16. Sorting waste streams.
The WCWES facilitates accessibility, interfacing, connectivity and in-
formation sharing of users in carrying out a wide range of construction
waste estimation tasks. The application of the WCWES in a hypothetical
building constructionproject has demonstrated its workability and use-
fulness. The WCWES would facilitate both the government and the con-
struction industry in quantifying and managing construction waste.
Acknowledgments
This study is sponsored by the Environment and Conservation
Fund (Grant Number: ECF Project 16/2010) of the Government of
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
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Web-based construction waste estimation system for building construction projects

Yashuai Li, Xueqing Zhang

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