Construction Material Flow Intelligence (CMFI): A Project-Level Framework Integrating Material Stocks, Waste Flows, and Decision Support for Sustainable Building Delivery

Construction projects generate substantial material waste and embodied carbon losses, yet no integrating framework currently transforms routine project documentation into stage-specific decision signals during building delivery. This paper proposes Construction Material Flow Intelligence (CMFI), a project-level decision-support framework that applies mass-balance principles within a four-layer processing architecture to convert standard procurement records, delivery logs, installation data, and waste records into six performance indicators and structured operational signals. CMFI operates at the project-stage-material scale and produces three classes of output: procurement-adjustment signals, waste reduction triggers, and storage optimisation recommendations. An illustrative application to a five-storey commercial building across five material categories and three construction stages demonstrates that CMFI generates seven decision signals and identifies approximately 27.2 tCO2e of avoidable embodied carbon loss from routine project documentation, without bespoke sensing infrastructure. Component sensitivity analysis confirms that waste classification, stage-based tracking, and embodied carbon integration are each load-bearing elements of the framework. CMFI addresses the gap between aggregate material flow analysis and project-level operational management by shifting construction material monitoring from retrospective waste reporting to stage-resolved sustainability intelligence. Limitations include the use of illustrative rather than empirical data, single-period stage accounting, and uncalibrated trigger thresholds; empirical validation and digital implementation are identified as priority future directions.