The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries are the producers of the most significant waste stream in the European Union. Known EU initiatives propose to deal with the issue of construction and demolition waste (CDW) according to the principles of a circular economy: the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle). CDW is generated during the whole life cycle of construction. The lack of information about the quantity of CDW during the design phase of building needed for sustainable design of construction was identified as a research gap. The aim of our research is to quantify construction and demolition waste during the construction design phase in a circular economy. The proposed method is based on the generation rate calculation method. This paper describes the proposed methodology for quantifying selected types of construction waste: excavated soil, concrete, and masonry. This information is essential from the point of view of a sustainable circular economy. The main contributions of the paper were identified during the decision-making process of sustainable building design, during the audit of CDW management, and during building information modelling as a support tool for CDW management. As early as the construction design phase, there is the possibility of choosing technologies, construction processes, and materials that have a higher degree of circularity in the economy.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs), also known as drone technology, is used for different types of application in the civil engineering. Drones as a tools that increase communication between construction participants, improves site safety, uses topographic measurements of large areas, with using principles of aerial photogrammetry is possible to create buildings aerial surveying, bridges, roads, highways, saves project time and costs, etc. The use of UAVs in the civil engineering can brings many benefits; creating real-time aerial images from the building objects, overviews reveal assets and challenges, as well as the broad lay of the land, operators can share the imaging with personnel on site, in headquarters and with sub-contractors, planners can meet virtually to discuss project timing, equipment needs and challenges presented by the terrain. The aim of this contribution is to create a general overview of the use of UAVs in the civil engineering. The contribution also contains types of UAVs used for construction purposes, their advantages and also disadvantages.

The issue of sustainability has long been the subject of interest in architecture engineering and the construction sector. All three aspects of sustainability—economic, environmental, and social—can be affected through appropriate construction waste management. Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is one of the largest worldwide waste streams, therefore, it is given great attention by all stakeholders (investors, contractors, authorities, etc.). Research studies show that one of the main barriers to insufficient CDW recovery is inadequate policies and legal frameworks to manage CDW. It is also one of European Union’s (EU) environmental priorities. The aim of the article was to confirm the economic potential of construction and demolition waste audit processing through a case study. A pre-demolition waste audit was processed for an unused shopping center building in the town Snina in Slovakia. Subsequently, a comparison of economic parameters (waste disposal costs and transport costs) of the recommended CDW management was performed. This comparison confirmed the economic benefits of environmentally friendly construction waste management methods according to the waste audit results, which would also increase the sustainability of construction projects. Additionally, the cost parameters of selected waste disposal methods could be another dimension of building information modeling.

Intensive agriculture requires increasing application of fertilizers in order to sustain food production. Improper use of these substances in combination with increasing seawater intrusion results in long-term and nonpoint soil and groundwater contamination. In this work, a 3-D groundwater and solute transport numerical model was created to simulate the effect of excessive fertilizers application along the Bahr El Baqar drain system, in the eastern Nile Delta, Egypt. The geotechnical properties of the soils, hydrologic parameters, and unconfined compressive strength were determined at different sites and used as input parameters for the model. Model results showed that silty clay soils are able to contain the contaminations and preserve the groundwater quality. Nevertheless, sandy soils primarily located at the beginning of the Bahr El Baqar drain allow leakage of fertilizers to the groundwater. Thus, fertilizer application should be properly managed in the top sandy layers to protect the groundwater and soil, as increasing aquifer by excess irrigation water increased the groundwater contamination in confined layers due to the high value of cumulative salt for the current situation while the unconfined zone decreased groundwater and soil contamination. A mass transport 3-D multi-species (MT3D) model was set to identify the optimal measure to tackle soil and groundwater contamination along the Bahr El-Baqar drain system. A potential increase of the abstraction rates in the study area has a positive impact in reducing the transfer of fertilizer contamination to groundwater while it has a negative impact for soil contamination. The scenario analysis further indicated that the installation of a drainage network decreases the groundwater and soil contamination. Both solutions are potentially effective for protection against nonpoint contamination along the Bahr El Baqar drain system. However, a more sustainable management approach of fertilizer application is needed to adequately protect the receptors located further downstream in the Nile Delta.