Advanced Real-Time Pollutant Monitoring Systems for Automatic Environmental Management of Construction Projects Focusing on Field Applicability

Abstract

To minimize damage to people due to pollutants generated from construction work, it is essential to manage environmental performance by maintaining pollutant emissions below regulation standard levels. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a “MOnitoring for Noise, Vibration, and Dust (MONVID)” and evaluate its applicability to construction sites. To do this, two MONVID prototypes with different characteristics were developed considering influential criteria. A field experiment for quantitative evaluation was conducted together with conventional measuring instruments (CMIs), and a questionnaire survey for qualitative evaluation was conducted to determine an appropriate monitoring system. As a result of quantitative evaluation, compared to the monitoring data of CMIs, the reliability class of the MONVIDs I and II were verified with accuracy level (above an “acceptable”). The economic feasibility of MONVID I ($6,531.5) and MONVID II ($6,663.2) were higher than that of CMIs ($8,122.3). This indicates that if MONVID I is applied to a construction site instead of CMIs, it can reduce the cost by 19.6%. In the qualitative evaluation, MONVID II was superior to CMIs and MONVID I in all influential criteria except for reliability (weight: 0.297, ranking: 1) and economic feasibility (weight: 0.107, ranking: 3). Lastly, based on the results of the overall rating, MONVID II (49.4%) was determined as an optimal real-time monitoring system. In conclusion, as a significant study for effectively applying the first developed MONVID to the actual field, the scientific results of this study have proven its field applicability. This study can significantly contribute to managing pollutants using the MONVID instead of CMIs, predicting the civil complaints in advance, and helping make policy decisions related to construction environmental pollutants.