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Buildings worldwide account for over a third of carbon emissions, which have a tremendous impact on climate changes. Meanwhile, their contribution in Hong Kong is much higher, being up to 60%. Therefore, low carbon building (LCB) has been regarded as an effective approach to reducing carbon emissions worldwide especially in Hong Kong. There have also emerged a wide range of measures for achieving LCBs. However, the effective utilization of LCB measures faces the challenge of identifying and selecting those proven to be environmentally, technically, financially and socially sustainable in the long term. This challenge is particularly significant at the design stage of LCBs due to the limited or unknown design information. These problems may be well addressed by the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). However, the current body of knowledge of LCB has two limitations. Firstly, most of previous research did not categorize the possible LCB measures from a systematic perspective, which results in fragmented evaluation. Secondly, the MCDA method still has not been widely used for solving the decision-making problems regarding LCB thus lacking the supportive information for its effective utilization. In addressing these limitations, this research aims to develop a MCDA model for the selection of appropriate LCB measures for office buildings in Hong Kong. Office buildings are a great representative of commercial buildings which contribute more than 60% of the carbon emissions of the building sector in Hong Kong. This research was carried out through the combination of a critical literature review, a questionnaire survey, a project case study and personal interviews. The literature review was focused on examining the frameworks for identifying LCB measures and selecting decision criteria. A questionnaire survey was carried out with 355 BEAM Professionals in Hong Kong, which expanded and verified the results from the literature review. The case study was conducted with an office building project using building performance simulation (BPS) for further investigation. The interviews were semi-structured in nature, carried out with 10 construction experts in Hong Kong. Through the research 10 LCB measures and 6 decision criteria for the LCB measure selection were identified, which were mostly used or considered for office buildings in Hong Kong. The developed MCDA model contains 5 modules that help to structure the decision-making process. The relative importance of the 10 LCB measures was obtained by a general implementation with proper weighting method and MCDA method. The results demonstrate the importance of lighting and building envelope for low carbon office building design and the need for accurate data for informed decision-making. Software eQuest was used for evaluating the carbon reductions in the case study building, and Software Visual PROMETHEE was adopted for selecting the best alternative among the LCB measures investigated. The developed MCDA model should support design decision-making for selecting appropriate LCB measures for office building projects. Despite the adopted multi-criteria decision-making, building energy regulations and government incentives in favour of building carbon reductions were mostly expected for delivering LCBs in Hong Kong. ; published_or_final_version ; Civil Engineering ; Master ; Master of Philosophy

Each day we make decisions, draw conclusions or resolve problems. The environment in which we make decisions is complex and dynamic and yet it influences the whole process as much as one's knowledge, experience, etc. In these situations, the decision making analysis stands out which provides a logic base for defining possible alternatives and the choice of an optimal option from the possible solutions. The decision making analysis helps the decision maker to choose the optimal option in line with his knowledge, reasoning, beliefs and preferences. When there are several criteria the decision making is ambiguous and one needs to find the optimal or the most efficient solution. The multi-criteria decision making can be multi-purposeful. In case the alternatives are explicitly defined and quantified we are dealing with the multi-attribute decision making. The criteria values for the analyzed alternatives can be qualitative and quantitative; therefore, the qualitative ones have to be quantified. Deciding on the location is one of the key elements of logistics and of the importance of the decision making process used by the companies in order to determine where to locate the facility is a decision of crucial importance to all logistic elements and the entire business development of the company. Further on, the contemporary economic, competitive and technological conditions and the business environment comprise a dynamic category, so the currently optimal location may not be optimal in the future. Companies use qualitative and quantitative criteria while deciding on the location of the factory. When deciding on the location of the factory one conducts a detailed analysis due to the dynamic business environment. Constant changes in the environment influence business adjustments. On the contrary, the logistic facilities and their locations are static and are not subject to alteration in a short period of time and in such a way respond to the business environment changes. While making such a decision one needs to use new methodologies and contemporary tools as a decision making support in order to adequately respond to the business environment changes and secure the high quality decision making by taking into account quantitative and qualitative criteria which are important for making a decision on a choice of a location. From the very beginning, local self-governments, worldwide as well as in Serbia, had different roles in the economic development. Local self-governments usually dealt with administrative procedures with no active part in the economic development. By establishing legal grounds local self-governments started improving the business environment and providing support to the business community, but also actively attracting foreign direct investments which have proven to be the key activity of the local economic development. Identification and understanding of the industrial location decision making process within the companies has been identified as a crutial activity which the local self-governments can use in improving the business environment and recruitment of direct investments. On the basis on the prioritization of the quantitative and qualitative decision making criteria in the process of selection a location, local self-governments can improve their business environment if resources are being used optimally and in such a way they support the local economic development by assisting the business community and attracting direct investments. In this paper we established a model which, using the method for decision making in the case of optimization of the industrial location decision making, enables efficient use of the resources of local economic development. The model will enable the identification of criteria / determinant of locations that should be invested in order to promote local economic development, on the basis of a comparison of local governments and types of potential investors. Use of standard methods of multiattribute analysis gives the possibility of a subjective approach to the researcher who must determine in advance the criteria weights, while the application of the model presented in this paper avoids the subjectivity and objectifies the process of preference, a combination of criteria DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis,) and multiattribute analysis methods (AHP, ELECTRE, PROMETHEE, TOPSIS). Within the dissertation, survey conducted, analysed local governments (alternatives) in terms of fulfilling the criteria (location determinants), within which each local government alone determines the criteria weight based on survey of types of potential investors. A comparative analysis of the results of these studies, where other various methods for decision making can be also used, identified the best method, among selected that are the best known and most used, and the result of the dissertation will determine the importance of the location determinants, which will enable to policymakers in field of local economic development, investment promotion and improving business environment at all levels, through the use of the proposed model of efficient planning, the opportunity to efficiently and cost-effectively use the resources at their disposal.

This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, grant number BIA2017-85098-R and the Valencian Regional Government, grant number GV/2018//085 ; Montalbán-Domingo, L.; Aguilar-Morocho, M.; García-Segura, T.; Pellicer, E. (2020). Study of Social and Environmental Needs for the Selection of Sustainable Criteria in the Procurement of Public Works. Sustainability. 12(18):1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187756 ; S ; 1 ; 21 ; 12 ; 18 ; Xia, B., Chen, Q., Xu, Y., Li, M., & Jin, X. (2015). Design-Build Contractor Selection for Public Sustainable Buildings. Journal of Management in Engineering, 31(5), 04014070. doi:10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000295 ; Ruparathna, R., & Hewage, K. (2015). Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices, drivers and opportunities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 109, 305-314. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.007 ; Testa, F., Grappio, P., Gusmerotti, N. M., Iraldo, F., & Frey, M. (2015). Examining green public procurement using content analysis: existing difficulties for procurers and useful recommendations. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 18(1), 197-219. doi:10.1007/s10668-015-9634-1 ; Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 On Public Procurement and Repealing Directive 2004/18/EChttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0024&rid=1 ; Montalbán-Domingo, L., García-Segura, T., Sanz, M. A., & Pellicer, E. (2018). Social sustainability criteria in public-work procurement: An international perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 198, 1355-1371. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.083 ; Sourani, A., & Sohail, M. (2011). Barriers to addressing sustainable construction in public procurement strategies. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering Sustainability, 164(4), 229-237. doi:10.1680/ensu.2011.164.4.229 ; Ugwu, O. O., Kumaraswamy, M. M., Wong, A., & Ng, S. T. (2006). Sustainability appraisal in ...