Evaluation and minimization of life cycle environmental risk of concrete structures

Concrete is the second most widely consumed substance on Earth, after water. Total amount of concrete produced in 2000 in Japan was approximately 500 million ton, which amounted to almost 50% of resource consumption in construction industry and to 25% of total input resourcess in Japan. Various environmental burdens are produced in cement and concrete production, execution and demolition of concrete structures, recycling and disposal of concrete waste, etc. and these pose potential hazards for the environment and may result in monetary damages to industries. To establish sustainable concrete related industries, it is absolutely imperative to minimize the total environmental risk. This paper proposes a simulation system for resource flow based on multi-agent-system which contributes to investigate an optimum material flow of concrete materials, an optimum corporate strategy and an optimum political measure to minimize the total environmental risk.