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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Sustainable Infrastructure
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frsc.2024.1439024

A Sustainability Assessment of the Modern Method of Construction in Saudi Arabia

Provisionally accepted
Kamel Almutairi Kamel Almutairi 1*Ramzi Alahmadi Ramzi Alahmadi 1Ahmed Halawani Ahmed Halawani 1Yasir Almutairi Yasir Almutairi 2Abduallah Alsehaimi Abduallah Alsehaimi 1
  • 1 Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia
  • 2 Other, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    By 2030, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is seeking to increase homeownership to 70%. This has led to a considerable investment in residential construction, with the Housing Ministry establishing a stimulus program to enhance the use of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). These technologies offer several benefits, including cost and time reduction, improved quality and productivity, and job creation. This study quantitatively analyzes the economic impacts of MMC adaptation on the Saudi economy using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model. It considers incentives to adopt MMC, its technological advancements, and the skills currently available in the Saudi labor market. Moreover, the embodied carbon emissions of MMC are calculated using the Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment Approach (IO-LCA); the detailed environmental emissions from the transportation phase, accounting for material reduction, are assessed using the COPERT model and compared to conventional construction. The results reveal an increase of 1.92% in Saudi GDP, along with improved welfare of $28.5 billion and a notable increase in the sectors related to construction. Job creation is demonstrated by an increase in the employment of unskilled and skilled labor by 2.02% and 1.5%, respectively. The paper concludes that MMC's total embodied carbon emissions were approximately 77 million metric tonnes CO2, while its transport-related emissions are less than conventional approaches.

    Keywords: CGE model, sustainability, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), COPERT model, transportation emissions, GTAP model

    Received: 13 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Almutairi, Alahmadi, Halawani, Almutairi and Alsehaimi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kamel Almutairi, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.