The construction sector requires a large amount of resources, which has a negative impact on the environment. There is therefore great potential for innovation to significantly improve sustainability in construction.
Public authorities, such as cities and municipalities, have a leading role to play in civil engineering during their construction projects and at the same time have a significant influence on resource efficiency. In the "RekoTi" project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), a resource plan for municipal civil engineering is being developed in collaboration between universities, municipalities, and construction companies. This is intended to enable local authorities to identify sustainability potential and increase the resource efficiency of their traffic areas, sewers, and bridges.
To support public authorities in the process and to concretize their options for action, the research consortium is developing a prototypical digital "resource plan for municipal civil engineering" ("RekoTi") over the project period of three years using the example of the city of Münster. The constellation of project partners has been chosen to ensure interdisciplinary cooperation, which will make it possible to identify deficits in existing procedures, develop optimization proposals and apply them on a trial system.
The resulting resource plan
- provides information on the type, location, quantity and, where applicable, quality of resources used as a basis for efficient material flow management,
- shows approaches on how material flows can be managed in the cycle and thus how material flow management can be improved,
- offers suggestions for alternative, resource-efficient construction processes and construction methods for existing infrastructure facilities,
- enables the integration of life cycle assessment data into decision-making processes,
- provides links to asset management systems,
- includes a digital solution (toolbox) based on building information modeling (BlM) and geographic information systems (GIS) and
- includes a guideline that shows the framework conditions and requirements using the example of the city of Münster and is intended to ensure transferability to other municipalities and public authorities.
The "RekoTi" project is thus intended to make a long-term contribution to sustainable resource conservation in public (municipal) civil engineering.