Thematic evolution of Life Cycle Assessment in construction and demolition waste management: before and after ISO 14040 and the Paris Agreement

The rapid increase in construction and demolition waste (C&DW) poses significant environmental challenges, requiring innovative approaches for sustainable management. This study systematically explores these challenges through a text-mining analysis of 1,135 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies on C&DW management, spanning from January 1997 to July 2024, using the PRISMA framework. Total link strength (TLS), indicating the level of association between research topics, and occurrence (OCC), representing the frequency of thematic mentions, are employed to identify knowledge gaps and trends in sustainable construction waste management. Using co-occurrence analysis, the study identified four major clusters of research themes: sustainability assessment (TLS=484, OCC=729), material and waste management (TLS=169, OCC=193), construction materials like concrete (TLS=80, OCC=86), and life cycle cost analysis (TLS=14, OCC=14). The most frequent keywords included “environmental assessment”, “recycling”, and “circular economy”, indicating strong emphasis on environmental performance and resource efficiency. Central themes included recycled aggregate concrete, circular economy, life cycle cost, and environmental assessment. Thematic evolution analysis revealed a 1320% rise in publications after ISO 14040 (2006) standardized LCA, with research pivoting from methodological development to sustainability topics like green roofs, industrial ecology, and carbon emissions. The 2015 Paris Agreement prompted an interdisciplinary shift integrating circular economy, embodied carbon, digital tools like building information modeling (BIM), and life cycle costing. The most recent phase highlights the emergence of decarbonization, social LCA, and artificial intelligence as expanding areas of focus. This study provides actionable insights into the evolution of LCA in C&DW management, emphasizing recycled aggregate concrete and circular economy principles for decarbonization. It highlights digital tools like BIM and AI to enhance life cycle costing and sustainability, supporting policies for a circular construction economy.