Application of fuzzy BWM-CoCoSo to time–cost–environmental impact trade-off construction project scheduling problem

The economic growth and the development of construction industry in several countries have had detrimental impacts on environment and natural ecosystems. Therefore, environmental impact assessment studies of construction projects have received more attention from governments and organizations. In other words, minimizing environmental impacts have been taken into consideration along with other common project goals. This study aims to identify and evaluate the environmental impacts of construction projects and ultimately determine the most favorable implementation modes of activities so that each project activity is executed with the least possible cost, duration, and environmental effects. The environmental consequences of projects are identified in three biological, physicochemical, and socioeconomic environments. Also, the positive and negative environmental impacts are assessed using the Leopold matrix method. Then, the importance weights of the project objectives including cost, time, negative environmental impacts, and positive environmental impacts are calculated using the fuzzy BWM method. Finally, the various modes of executing each activity are prioritized and ranked by using the fuzzy CoCoSo technique regarding the weighted objectives. The activity execution mode with the highest ranking indicates the best possible implementation mode of that given activity according to cost, time and positive environmental impacts as well as negative environmental impacts. The proposed method is implemented in a remote rural water supply construction project for efficiency evaluation. This study directs project managers to identify and assess the environmental consequences and impacts of construction projects in addition to considering the other two common project objectives.