Buildings & Cities (Jun 2023)
Decision-making analysis for Pittsburgh’s deconstruction pilot using AHP and GIS
Abstract
Deconstruction—the systematic disassembly of reusable and recyclable components and materials—is being actively promoted in a growing number of US cities to reduce the enormous amount of construction demolition waste sent to landfill. Research has highlighted local and regionally specific criteria influencing the decision on deconstruction, but it remains unclear how to decide which city-owned condemned properties in Pittsburgh should be considered for the new deconstruction pilot program. Therefore, this study establishes a prioritization model to distinguish the relative importance of factors using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). According to local experts, the four most impactful criteria are the environmental impact, economic impact, resources and type of properties. Fourteen factors within these criteria are selected for detailed comparison. The relative importance of these factors is then used to weight spatial map overlays to classify condemned properties into four deconstruction value categories. As a result, this study offers a new methodology to evaluate potential deconstruction projects by weighting the criteria most valued by decision-makers in Pittsburgh, which could be altered and expanded to fit the values of other cities. Practice relevance A robust decision-making process involving experts, local stakeholders and city officials is created for the selection of buildings to be deconstructed rather than demolished. The decision process is based on a comprehensive analysis of environmental, economic, resource and building-type criteria. A clear process is also established for the identification of the advantages and limitations of the approach. This provides a prioritization of potential deconstruction locations based on experts’ subjective judgements and an objective dataset, concluding that the highest value of deconstruction should be first considered by decision-makers. This pilot project provides a proof of concept of the group decision-making process. City-owned condemned buildings in Pittsburgh were divided into four categories with different deconstruction values by the combination of AHP and geographic information systems (GIS) analysis. The relationship and consistency between the condemned properties in each category and the deconstruction value are considered in detail.
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