Ökobau.dat 3.0–Quo Vadis?

Johannes Gantner, Katrin Lenz, Rafael Horn, Petra von Both, Sebastian Ebertshäuser
2018 Buildings  
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the standard method for the quantification of environmental impacts within the construction sector, relying on available generic LCA databases. New developments, such as the increased influence of the building construction for LCA and the forthcoming of building information modeling (BIM), implicate new requirements on multiscale levels of development and complexity for LCA construction databases. At the example of the German "Ökobau.dat", one of the leading LCA
more » ... nstruction databases, this publication discusses whether the database is able to meet these requirements. The analysis shows the strengths of the Ökobau.dat with regard to standardization conformity (EN 15804, ILCD), data provision in machine-readable XML format, and the provision of an application programming interface. Shortcomings include incorrect linking of building life cycle inventory data with environmental information, incorrect documentation of functional units, missing generic datasets, the modeling of energy use data or the lack of a uniform structuring, or material classification. The authors propose solutions such as the provision of appropriate functional units, the implementation of a top-down approach to investigate the completeness of data based on existing nomenclatures or the extension with an appropriate material classification. This would allow for future viability and adaptability of Ökobau.dat for digital LCA.
doi:10.3390/buildings8090129 fatcat:27dpfg5elzhi3iinmuqfhfsun4