Search

The implementation of socially sustainable practices in suppliers situated in challenging institutional contexts is examined using institutional theory, both in terms of how institutional pressures affect implementation and what explains the decoupling of practices from the day-to-day reality. A multi-case study approach is employed based on seven apparel industry suppliers in Bangladesh. Cross-case analysis highlights the coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures on suppliers to implement socially sustainable practices. A key pressure identified that has not previously been highlighted in the literature is horizontal collaboration between buyers, which intensifies coercive pressure on suppliers and increases the consequences of non-compliance. The factors that contribute to decoupling are categorized into firm-, supply chain-, and environment-related factors. Further, six propositions are developed on how specific forms of institutional pressure can tackle particular decoupling factors to support implementation. The paper responds to recent calls for greater scrutiny of why and how firms decouple ethical practices and supports the development of the literature specifically on social sustainability, which lags behind that on environmental sustainability and has been largely focused on the Western buyer perspective. The findings have implications for the diffusion of ethical practices into supply chains, especially distant suppliers in very different and challenging institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sustainable construction ought to enhance the quality of social, economic and environmental practices by determining the current sustainability level and identifying the weak points and consequently improving them. Even though so many studies have been carried out the context of economic and environments in construction projects, less attention was always paid to the social aspect of the construction projects. In this article, a novel construction social sustainability performance evaluation is presented based on fuzzy logic to evaluate the current social sustainability status in associated construction. This study originally adds to the state-of-the-art literature on sustainable construction by articulating a proposal and applications of a new as fuzzy construction social sustainability index. Critical social sustainability attributes are collected from the literature review and expert's judgments to address main dimensions and enablers of construction projects. The proposed index is validated by both triangular fuzzy and crisp approaches, and the results showed that all approaches lead to the same conclusions. Fuzzy performance importance index is then obtained and ranked for all attributes to identify obstacles and challenges behind the social sustainable construction concept. The scientific value of the proposed model is determined by its proper contribution in computing the new index with trapezoidal fuzzy principles and identifying the obstacles of associated construction. Image 1 • We propose a new social sustainability index for construction industry. • We consider related social sustainability attributes, criteria and enablers. • A framework is proposed encapsulating all these attributes, criteria and enablers. • Utilization of proposed framework for solving an illustrative case explored. • Implications for theory and end-users are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problems of engineering design optimization are usually implemented in the particular literature to display the new constrained optimization algorithms success The environment of the business of the construction project tend to change rapidly and consciously throughout the world. Problem will raised due to the inability of the organizations to adjust and respond to new environment complexity. The author gather these information from the documents of the projects and construct the model to find the best solution, 5 projects with each projects has 3 problems and every problem has 10 possible solutions, the PSO tries to find the best solution. The results show that the PSO is considerably fast and find the best solution with high accuracy and it has been shown even that some problems have high effect but it didn't chosen because the constrain show high cost and long time therefor they become out of the selection. PSO proved to be powerful and accurate toll in solving the construction problems and it can be used as base for other problems in other area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the present work is to analyse the environmental impact assessment of the project consisting in the construction of the Tuchów bypass (Tarnów district of the Małopolska Region, Poland) as well as to verify the correctness of the report on the impact of the said project on the environment. The paper presents issues related to environmental impact assessment and a detailed analysis of the impact of the planned project on particular elements of the natural environment, including soil and water conditions, land surface, surface and underground water, atmospheric air, acoustic climate, as well as waste management. The conclusions are based on the results of the research and descriptive analysis. It has been demonstrated that the report on the impact of the Tuchów bypass road construction project on the environment has been prepared correctly, and the investment project in question will not have a negative impact on the environment or human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A process-based approach is used to examine the deployment of two neighbourhood-scale sustainability assessment systems and their tools in two European cities. It explores how these sustainability assessment systems and their tools are contextualized within a larger design and planning process by considering how stakeholders collaborate, how they set design problems, how they make decisions and how they propose design solutions in the early design phases. Specifically, using interviews conducted with key project actors in Malmö, Sweden, and Barcelona, Spain, this paper examines how the sustainability assessment systems in each respective case study were framed, and how this framing impacted upon the design process. A key finding is that how sustainability assessment systems are framed has just as significant an impact as the nature of the tools, especially on the processes entailed. Community participation can have a strong, positive impact on the design process and on outcomes. The case studies confirm that context and players cannot be divorced from tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One approach to decarbonising the cement and construction industry is to replace Portland cement systems with lower carbon alternatives that have suitable properties. We show that seven cementitious binders comprised of metakaolin, silica fume and nano-silica have improved thermal performance compared with Portland cement and we calculate the full CO 2 emissions associated with manufacture and transport of each binder for the first time. Due to their high porosity, the thermal conductivity of these novel cements is 58–90% lower than Portland cement, and we show that a thin layer (20 mm), up to 80% thinner than standard insulating materials, is enough to bring energy emissions in domestic construction into line with the UK 2013 Building Regulations. Carbon emissions in domestic construction can be reduced by c . 20–50% and these cementitious binders are able to be recycled, unlike traditional insulation materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, a large-scale construction project on rivers and riparian zones in South Korea, which is called the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, was launched. The officially announced purposes of this project included: (1) solving water shortages, (2) improving water quality, and (3) providing citizens with leisure facilities. However, adverse environmental consequences such as deterioration of water quality, mass death of aquatic life, and soil contamination have been consistently reported. The current study focuses on illuminating South Korean political economy contexts and analyzing stakeholders’ political and/or economic interests that shaped the project. We conclude that reinforced neoliberalism in South Korea after the Asian financial crisis in 1997 should be considered to understand the background of this project. Within the neoliberal contexts, we also argue that political and economic interests of three stakeholders—business, the state, and the public—were closely associated with the implementation of this project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Building production” technology, i.e. construction automation and robotics (CAR), is on a worldwide level increasingly recognized as stating a key element of the future of construction, although CAR up to date has never experienced large-scale real-world implementation. However, the recent significantly growing demand for sustainability has the potential to serve as the necessitated trigger for CAR's large-scale deployment. In that context, systematic guidance for the construction industry is however missing, and there have been limited attempts to thoroughly investigate the impacts of utilizing CAR with regard to the sustainability performance of construction and buildings. The research presented in this paper makes a first step to fill this research gap by reviewing and investigating the available CAR strategies and technologies and developing for the first time a consistent framework of indicators for assessing the sustainability performance of utilizing CAR for buildings. The overall goal of the research is to develop, through this framework, a robust and reliable assessment method that can be used in the industrial context to assess the sustainability of building construction projects that consider using CAR. Beyond the development of the indicator framework, the research plan adopting the V-Model approach foresees to translate the framework into an assessment method which will then in several iteration cycles be verified and validated in real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a decision support (DS) framework that incorporates weather-related factors for the purpose of estimating the duration of projects. Inclement weather can have a serious effect on construction projects, particularly with regard to duration and costs. The weather has an impact on human resource productivity, supplier effectiveness and material damage which can, in turn, affect the duration of a construction project. The proposed five-module framework integrates weather variables, project performance variables and duration of project activities. This framework uses expert knowledge about the importance of weather variables, pairwise comparisons of weather variables with respect to different performance criteria, and similarly, pairwise comparisons of performance variables with respect to project activities. A model based on this framework, using multivariate statistical techniques and an analytical network process (ANP), is developed to estimate the duration of project activities, taking into account the impact of weather. The proposed model is illustrated with data from a construction project from Iran. Validation of the model is provided by comparing the actual duration of an activity with the estimated duration, using the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening environmental management of construction projects is the key to control the production of new-pollution sources from the source to prevent damage to the ecological environment, and do a good job of environmental protection. Zhengzhou airport expansion project has obvious nature of social network, and management and structure complexity, social network analysis is an important method to analyze these organizational relationships and collaborative management. From the perspective of social network analysis and simulation tools, This paper focus on collaborative management mechanism based on BIM in the context of Zhengzhou airport expansion project, using network social relations project organization, the author constructs the game simulation model and analyzes cooperation network generation mechanism of Zhengzhou airport expansion project, set up the snowdrift game strategy update rules, establish the evolutionary game model of scale-free network model. By MATLAB simulation, the author analyzes the factors that influence the frequency of cooperation project index, reveals the role of network topology with different network models for participation in Zhengzhou airport expansion project cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable construction practice (SCP) can effectively improve the environmental and social performance of construction projects. However, HOPSCA is largely overlooked in previous studies on SCP. HOPSCA represents a new kind of urban complex, integrating various types of developments such as hotel, office, park, shopping mall, convention and apartment. This research aims to investigate critical factors affecting the implementation of SCP in HOPSCA projects. A case study approach was employed to analyze a high-profile HOPSCA project that adopted various SCPs in China. The key project participants were interviewed, followed by critically reviewing related project documents in order to identify the critical factors for applying SCP. Interpretive structure modeling (ISM) and Matrice d’Impacts croises-multipication appliqué an classment (MICMAC) techniques were employed to explore the interactions among different factors and classify these factors according to their driving and dependence power. A total of 17 critical factors were identified as a useful checklist for implementing SCP in HOPSCA projects. A structural model was developed to reflect the interactions among various factors. Furthermore, a factor classification was achieved to formulate strategies for enhancing current SCP. These findings provide useful guidance for practitioners to adopt SCP in their HOPSCA projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nepal is a low-income country where the majority of people live in chronic poverty, with vulnerabilities exacerbated by various natural hazards (in particular earthquakes). Whilst Nepal has implemented comprehensive building codes and a Building Act, a major challenge exists as both the existing building stock is refurbished and the new stock is continuously added by the informal construction sector, without adherence to any building standards and codes. Such informal construction leaves urban areas highly vulnerable and with little resilience to any disaster. This situation is not unique to Nepal’s urban areas, as rapid urbanisation in many developing countries has similarly led to a boom in informal construction sectors and construction that has little regard for building codes and regulations. Based on a case study of Banepa’s 11 wards, this paper will discuss the informal construction stakeholders’ awareness of disaster risk reduction measures, and provide an overview of existing initiatives to engage the informal construction sector in appreciating the importance of hazard-resilient buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development and utilisation of urban underground space, new urban tunnels will inevitably affect the formation of nearby existing structures. Methods to minimise the environmental impact induced by tunnel construction have been a hot topic of research in recent years. Based on the approach of Shanghai’s 9th line to the existing 110 kV electric cable tunnel, many different cases involving two adjacent tunnels have been simulated to measure the influence induced by shield-driven curve tunnelling passing through an area with adverse geological conditions. To make up for the disadvantages of the traditional manual monitoring, an automatic monitoring feedback network was constructed to ensure the operational safety of existing tunnels and validate the applicability of numerical models. Both the numerical prediction and field test data showed that reasonable construction parameters for the shield, real-time monitoring feedback, and timely grouting are effective means to guarantee smooth construction. Both the empirical correlations and analysis demonstrated that the distance should be more than twice the diameter of the new tunnel to guarantee that the settlement of the existing tunnel is no more than 10 mm. The simulation predictions for surface settlement also matched the field measurements very well, except for the case where a low grouting volume of 2.2 m3 was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction and design practice of structures on high compressible and plasticity expansive clayey soil needs a treatment process to improve its overall performances during the phases of construction. Several methods are available to improve the properties of such soils to advance and meet the stability and serviceability requirements. Soil stabilization with different additives proved the improvement in the engineering properties of soils due to the solidification and recommend its effects to preferable for the construction applications. The use of naturally available additives for soil stabilization, indicates more environmental friendly by reducing its disposal. In this investigation a series of laboratory tests conducted to evaluate the influences of wood ash (WA) on the index properties, swelling characteristics of stabilized soils. This study were conducted by adding wood ash with two expansive soils in varying percentages of 3, 5 7, 9 and 11% and its compaction characteristics are also examined. The findings of this experimental investigation indicate that wood ash with the expansive soil decreased the index properties and the swelling characteristics with increase in additives contents, whereas the maximum dry density (MDD) of stabilized expansive soils increased with increasing additive proportions. The swelling characteristics were showed a reduction of around 50% compared to the untreated soils by the addition of 11% of wood ash. It was observed that the effect of wood ash of 7% with the soils, there is a reduction of volume changing behaviour of expansive clay and makes a cost-effective and sustainable environmental resource in construction activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving sustainability is becoming increasingly critical for measuring the overall success of infrastructure projects. Given the complexity of such projects, the successful management of sustainability-related targets requires joint efforts from the major stakeholders involved, including project clients, contractors, suppliers, and the general public. Nevertheless, these stakeholders often have different, and sometimes even conflicting, concerns regarding the achievement of project sustainabi [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction activities produce an enormous quantity of waste and consume massive amounts of energy. These activities have considerable environmental effects and have resulted in mounting demand to implement environmental practices (EP) at all levels in the construction industry. The present study investigates the determinants of EP implementation in construction projects and the impacts of such practices on the environmental and economic performance of construction firms. Data were gathered from a survey of 210 firms that were part of project teams in the Malaysian construction industry, and these data were analysed using the partial least squares technique. The results indicate that organizational support, customer pressure, and regulatory pressure have a positive impact on implementing EP in construction projects and that implementing EP has a positive effect on the environmental and economic performance of construction firms. The research results provide valuable information for understanding the determinants and outcomes of EP and are particularly critical for improved assessments of the effectiveness of EP investments to reduce the negative environmental impacts of construction activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is considered among the largest consumers of natural resources (non-renewable materials, fossil fuels, water...). It is also an important source of generation of solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to its negative impacts on the environment, most construction projects are characterized by the non-respect of the triptych (Cost, Time, Quality) and a high accident rate compared to other sectors. Lean construction (LC) is a new production philosophy which has the potential of bringing innovative improvements in the construction sector. It is a systemic approach to meeting customer expectations by maximizing added value and reducing all forms of waste. Based on international standards (AFNOR, GRI, UNEP, ISO 26000...) and recent researches published in the most reliable databases, this study aims at exploring the concept of sustainable development in the context of the construction industry and examines how the LC tools (Prefabrication, Value Stream Mapping, Poka-Yoke, visual Management, and 5S) can have an impact on the three dimensions of sustainable development (environment, economy, society). This work brings a new reflection by constructing an interaction matrix between the Lean Construction tools and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Engineering Geology / Gongcheng Dizhi Xuebao is the property of Journal of Engineering Geology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The amount of energy needed for buildings to provide comfortable thermal conditions will eventually become unsustainable. Climate-responsive architecture offers possible solutions to this challenge. Vernacular buildings, in contrast to modern buildings, are more responsive to the environment and are built according to principles developed over many generations. In the Gilan region, located in northern Iran on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, the climate plays a fundamental role in the diversity and formation of vernacular residential buildings. Climatic factors such as sunlight, wind, excessive rain, and high humidity have significant effects on the form and elements of vernacular houses. This paper studies the strategies used to respond to climatic factors in Gilan and also identifies and classifies architectural elements created in response to those strategies. In order to achieve this aim, it identifies Gilan's climatic and bioclimatic factors and then investigates methods used to respond to them in the construction of vernacular houses. The climate-responsive approaches used in vernacular architecture are important for modeling an integration between passive and active design strategies. Climate-responsive architecture can improve comfort and use less energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is considered as one of the most dynamic sectors that have upstream and downstream economic links and has been growing rapidly in the last few decades. On the other hand, it is considered as one of the main sources of greenhouse gases where construction projects represent a huge portion of sources producing carbon dioxide gases (CO 2 ). Furthermore, greenhouse gases (GHG) are one of construction emissions that should be investigated to calculate the overall emissions. Therefore, estimating construction emissions is very important in order to keep emissions at an acceptable level. This paper presents a building information modeling (BIM)-based model that enables the estimation of six types of emissions including: greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide, particular matter, eutrophication particles, ozone depleting particles and smog. As such, the total direct and indirect emissions can be calculated where these emissions are produced from construction activities during the overall project life cycle phases which are: manufacturing phase, transportation phase, construction phase, operation phase, maintenance phase, and deconstruction/demolition phase. The methods of calculating direct and indirect emissions are extensively described in the paper. A case study is presented to illustrate the use of the proposed BIM-based model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In green buildings design and construction, evaluating the sustainable effects of site location and transportation to the ecosystem and human life is a critical and difficult task. Works regarding these matters require experience, time, labor, and manual calculations. In recent years, many studies have been conducted to enhance the application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in green building certifications. However, the application of BIM to site location and transportation analysis is usually considered impractical due to the lack of a powerful map application in present BIM products. The aim of this research is to develop a framework for the integration of BIM and Web Map Service (WMS) technologies for location and transportation analysis in green building certifications. Using Autodesk Revit API and Google Maps API as the development tools, this research converts the integration model into the BIM-integrated plugin in Autodesk Revit. The plugin is used to streamline the certification process of site location and transportation analysis in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), one of the most popular and globally recognized green building standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental effects of construction equipment emissions have been studied in previous research. Total emissions for construction activities and projects were previously calculated for various transportation projects as well as for other project types. This paper focuses on how contractors can use different equipment combinations and make project schedule adjustments to reduce total emissions from construction projects. It presents a newly developed optimization model that companies can use to select a fleet for a particular project to achieve the reductions. The model can be used to minimize total equipment cost and total emissions, or to minimize total equipment cost while limiting (capping) emissions for one or more of six pollutants. When the model was applied to example construction projects, the predicted reductions in emissions were significant, ranging from 25 to 85% depending on the pollutant. When the model was used to minimize cost, a reduction of 63% of the total equipment cost was achieved from the minimum-emissions solution. The lower-cost solution also resulted in a 43% reduction in project duration from the minimum-emission solution. The major contribution of this paper is the development of a decision model that can be used to select construction equipment fleets to reduce emissions production or equipment cost. The model can be customized to take into consideration the equipment fleet available for each activity and can be developed in concert with preliminary activity scheduling to look at daily emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research to examine the effectiveness of environmental management plans (EMP) in addressing the environmental impacts of construction projects in India. Topics covered include a number of major environmental indicators highlighted in the EMPs and analyzed in terms of procedural effectiveness and substantive effectiveness, including solid waste management, rain-water harvesting and energy conservation.

Roads and developed land can alter hydrologic pathways, cause erosion, and increase pollution to nearby waters. Best management practices (BMPs) are commonly used to reduce adverse effects of post-construction runoff. This study is focused on providing performance and cost information for optimally selecting the BMPs for retaining post-construction stormwater on site. The performance of BMPs was simulated numerically using an idealized catchment in an urban setting environment. The cost of construction and maintenance of these BMPs were based on unit price. The considered BMPs were bioswale, infiltration trench, and vegetated filter strip. The effects of vegetated covers such as turf or prairie grass on stormwater runoff reduction of linear projects with and without BMPs were also evaluated. Finally, based on construction cost, maintenance costs, and performance of BMPs, recommendations are made to help decision makers in implementing the optimal BMP to control stormwater runoff for highways in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing amount of construction projects in congested urban areas nowadays, a great number of noise pollutions cause a series of adverse impacts and nuisances to human beings and wild lives. Environment noise made by construction equipment is the major source of the construction site noise. However, limited studies have been focus on controlling construction noise, and there is a need for further analyzing and evaluating the construction noise for minimizing the impacts to the environment. Through the study on two types of typical construction equipment (jack hammer and pile driver), this study described and analyzed the potential improvement for noise control during the construction process using the two equipment. Moreover, policies and regulations about the construction noise and the impacts of construction noise are discussed in this paper. Through the optimization of construction equipment and construction process, construction noise pollution from the two equipment can be controlled. This study can provide an important reference for the reduction of construction noise, especially for developing countries with extensive construction in the urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marching toward legitimacy, living walls are slowly being vetted. Establishing living walls as a viable constructive system will require filling gaps in our knowledge by taking advantage of the lessons learned from recently built projects. Growing plants on a vertical surface gives the appearance of natural simplicity. However, achieving a successful living wall is a complex problem with many factors. These include: ensuring an appropriate support structure, maintaining the proper amount of water, oxygen, nutrients and pH levels, choosing plants which can survive seasonal climatic changes, and establishing the appropriate lighting conditions; not to mention affordability, sustainability and longevity. Satisfying these complex needs - mastering all of these factors - will be essential for living wall systems to mature beyond their use as vanity projects and gain acceptance by the construction industry. This article aims to aid those considering living walls and dispel some of the mystery surrounding them by studying precedents and addressing their commonly cited criticisms: living walls are too expensive and unsustainable, too complicated and prone to failure, and too decorative and superficial to the buildings they serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative element fate of any activity may not fall to zero because of the turbulent environment in which these activities are carried out, always prevents this. Environment that makes each building unique, that is, provides the main basis of the project. When we are talking about complex construction, the share of the creative component becomes very significant. First and foremost, this is explained by the duration of the construction work, during which time to happen risk events. The article analyses the processes of construction from the point of view of their conformity to the concept of project activities. It is shown that with increasing degree of difficulty of construction or time of the last share of creative activities in the overall project grows. In recent times more and more widespread work on re-engineering complex systems, for example, building constructions. This means repair of the building, but not a simple repair with restoration of the original, incorporated in the design of building elements and their interfaces, and partial or full replacement of items that fail or are outdated, new ones require first, a new design of their structures and production technologies, as well as the design of the accessories for the installation and technology is reshaping the object. Combining the two above-mentioned factors of growth of the share of creative activities during the project management of the re-engineering of building structures: complexity and construction time, received a cognitive model of such growth. Introduced the concept of "reengineering in construction" as a combination of the processes of adjustment and worn or completion of unfinished buildings. It is proved that any re-engineering in construction is the project activities. Provisions are tested in a real reengineering of industrial buildings with a positive technical and economic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among all construction activities, demolition normally generates the largest proportion of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, to which requires more importance being attached for effective management. Previous studies have attempted to understand demolition waste generation (DWG) but the understanding remains relatively insufficient, largely due to the erratic and poor quality data available. This research aims to identify factors impacting DWG by making use of a big dataset which has recently become available as a result of C&D waste management practices in Hong Kong. Using big data analytics, it is confirmed that DWG, demolition cost, and duration of conducting the demolition work are dependent on each other. It is also found that geographical location, building usage, and the public-private nature of a building project also have a significant impact on DWG in the Hong Kong context. Based on the correlations between DWG and these identified factors, stakeholders may introduce proper managerial or policy interventions to effectively minimize DWG. For example, public policy-makers may formulate more tailor-made regulations to attach more importance to the locations, usages and public-private nature, which have more potentials for demolition waste minimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction management in China has embraced a new practice encompassing the evaluation criteria of green construction. Thus, greenhouse gas emissions produced during the construction period should not be overlooked anymore. The greenhouse gas emissions from construction projects are evaluated based on life cycle assessment theory, and on green construction evaluation and management techniques. A procedure for assessing the greenhouse gas emissions from construction projects is developed using the unit construction process, and by classifying and integrating the different components of construction projects. A segregation-integration method was established for calculating the greenhouse gas emissions of construction project. A mathematical model and framework to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions from construction projects have been established. The energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for earthwork, foundation work, masonry, and reinforced concrete during construction are calculated based on the example of a commercial building in a large-scale residential complex in the Pingshan New District of Shenzhen City. The greenhouse gas emissions were calculated as equivalent carbon dioxide emissions. High-rise buildings and villas have the highest unit carbon emissions of 54.51 kg/m 2 , and account for 84% of the carbon dioxide emissions produced during the construction of the residential community. The unit carbon emissions for construction of the entire residential community are approximately 54.18 kg/m 2 . The scientific value of this paper is that the carbon emissions during the construction stage of a residential community were quantitatively assessed. The unit carbon emissions of the buildings during construction can be used to calculate unit energy consumption of buildings during construction, which should be useful in realising energy savings, and can therefore provide management guidance for reducing energy consumption during the life cycle of building, especially consumption during construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low carbon construction is an important operation management goal because greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction has become a global concern. Major construction resources that contribute GHG, such as equipment and labour, are being targeted to achieve this goal. The GHG emissions produced by the resources vary with their operating conditions. It is commendable to provide a statistical GHG emission estimation method that models the transitory nature of resource states at micro-scale of construction operations. This paper proposes a computational method called Stochastic Carbon Emission Estimation (SCE2) that measures the variability of GHG emissions. It creates construction operation models consisting of atomic work tasks, utilizes hourly equipment fuel consumption and hourly labourer respiratory rates that change according to their operating conditions classified into five categories, and identifies an optimal resource combination by trading off eco-economic performance metrics such as the amount of GHG emissions, operation completion time, operation completion cost, and productivity. The study is of value to researchers because SCE2fill in a gap to eco-economic operation modelling and analysis tool which considers operating conditions at micro-scale of construction operation having many stochastic work tasks. This study is also relevance to practitioners because it allows project managers to achieve eco-economic goals while honouring predefined constraints associated with time and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ambiente & Sociedade is the property of Nepam Unicamp and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Coastal ecosystem management typically relies on subjective interpretation of scientific understanding, with limited methods for explicitly incorporating process knowledge into decisions that must meet multiple, potentially competing stakeholder objectives. Conversely, the scientific community lacks methods for identifying which advancements in system understanding would have the highest value to decision-makers. A case in point is barrier island restoration, where decision-makers lack tools to objectively use system understanding to determine how to optimally use limited contingency funds when project construction in this dynamic environment does not proceed as expected. In this study, collaborative structured decision-making (SDM) was evaluated as an approach to incorporate process understanding into mid-construction decisions and to identify priority gaps in knowledge from a management perspective. The focus was a barrier island restoration project at Ship Island, Mississippi, where sand will be used to close an extensive breach that currently divides the island. SDM was used to estimate damage that may occur during construction, and guide repair decisions within the confines of limited availability of sand and funding to minimize adverse impacts to project objectives. Sand was identified as more limiting than funds, and unrepaired major breaching would negatively impact objectives. Repairing minor damage immediately was determined to be generally more cost effective (depending on the longshore extent) than risking more damage to a weakened project. Key gaps in process-understanding relative to project management were identified as the relationship of island width to breach formation; the amounts of sand lost during breaching, lowering, or narrowing of the berm; the potential for minor breaches to self-heal versus developing into a major breach; and the relationship between upstream nourishment and resiliency of the berm to storms. This application is a prototype for using structured decision-making in support of engineering projects in dynamic environments where mid-construction decisions may arise; highlights uncertainty about barrier island physical processes that limit the ability to make robust decisions; and demonstrates the potential for direct incorporation of process-based models in a formal adaptive management decision framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change mitigation and adaptation can be perceived as neglected in environmental impact assessment (EIA). In the light of amendments to the European Union EIA Directive (2014), we developed a novel criteria-based review package to assess climate change mitigation and adaptation as documented in environmental statements, and applied this to a sample of 10 transport developments from England. Justifications relating to climate policy, climate science, the effect of climate change on the development and its vulnerability to climate risks were well explained in most projects. Many projects lacked detail of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and their benefits, whilst evidence of commitment to mitigation and adaptation or to post-decision monitoring was poor or non-existent; reportedly due to costs, time constraints and absence of mandatory requirements. It is recommended that to improve the effectiveness of the consideration of climate change mitigation and adaptation in EIA, the production of guidelines, change of behaviour of EIA practitioners, more holistic consideration of climate change issues, rigorous post-decision monitoring and use of climate change terminology are more widely adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Paris Agreement of December 2015 signifies global unity to limit global warming to well below 2°C (above pre-industrial levels) and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1·5°C. The global community now agrees that anthropogenic climate change is unequivocal. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global average combined land and surface temperature has increased by 0·78°C. Although the magnitude of change in mean temperatures is relatively small, attendant extreme weather events have been shown to have increased in frequency, and are projected to increase in the future. The potential impacts of climate change on railway infrastructure and operations have not been fully assessed in the literature. The projected urban growth in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore has led to the necessity to establish a high-speed rail (HSR) system between the two. However, the existing railway network in the region has been significantly affected by severe weather conditions such as rainfall, lightning, wind and very high temperatures. This research addresses a knowledge gap regarding the potential impacts of climate change on future rail projects in the region, and points out the vulnerabilities that may lead to impaired operations and system failures. These insights are intended to inform the holistic consideration of climate change impacts in the design stage of HSR systems in Malaysia and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many studies in developed countries on the practice of EIA have been conducted, there is a lack of similar attention in Hong Kong. This gap in knowledge is addressed in this study which summarises and records the current practice and lessons learned from priority projects. In the case of Hong Kong, this lack of understanding is important, since a significant number of infrastructure projects with applications pending for environmental approvals were delayed, awaiting the court ruling of the judicial review. In this research, the EIA system and practices in Hong Kong were comprehensively reviewed by a comparison study between Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore. Then field work of interviews with professionals and focus group meetings with Green Groups were conducted to seek opinions of interviewees and members about the mechanism of EIA. Recommendations on aspects of EIA systems are provided at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and energy problems have reached a globally dangerous point in recent years. Taking into consideration of these problems in building design could help to develop sustainable perspectives on built environment. There have been various traditional architectural solutions regarding bioclimatic conditions of settlement. Traditional architecture in different climatic zones prove that choosing appropriate values for energy efficient design parameters shows results in low energy buildings. This study aims to investigate the effect of settlement pattern, building form and envelope alternatives on cooling loads in Yazd as the representative city of the hot and dry climate zone of Iran by means of Design Builder V.3 building energy simulation software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the environmental impact of particular structures may be helpful for selecting building materials, with regard to the environmental performance of buildings in the early project phase. This paper focused on the environmental evaluation of building foundation materials used in eight masonry residential buildings. Environmental evaluation was based on calculation of the embodied energy, the global warming potential, and the acidification potential of building foundations. One kilogramme of built-in foundation materials was responsible for emissions of 0.092 kg of greenhouse gases expressed by carbon dioxide (CO2) and for 0.3 g of acidification gases represented by sulphur dioxide (SO2). Embodied energy was calculated as equal to 1.14 MJ per one kilogramme of foundation materials and 832.2 MJ/m² per building floor area. The foundation materials of houses contributed to the total environmental impact of the whole buildings by, on average, 15.0%, 22.8%, and 13.3% for embodied energy, global warming potential, and acidification potential, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings consume a significant proportion of the world's resources, mostly in the form of materials usage. In addition, with the ongoing efforts focusing on reducing the operational energy consumption of buildings, the embodied emissions of buildings are expected to increase in proportion in the future. With the increasing focus placed on the embodied emissions of buildings, organizations in the construction industry will face requirements to report information regarding the embodied emissions of buildings. However, in order to obtain the embodied emission of buildings, tremendous efforts have to be placed as the process is data intensive. In order to overcome this challenge, a streamlined technique is proposed to minimize the efforts required by practitioner to obtain the embodied carbon footprint. The proposed technique comprises a probabilistic model of emission factor estimators used to estimate the required embodied emissions. Based on the four projects presented as case study for the proposed technique, the practitioner would be required to manually match the appropriate emission factors to the activity data for between 12 and 21% of the data points. This is in contrast to the current traditional technique, which requires the manual matching of 100% of data points. The resultant deviation of the computed embodied carbon footprint from the proposed technique and the current technique was between −0.25% and +3.65%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provisions of the planning approval for the Gotthard Base Tunnel required more than 1, 000 environmental measures for the Amsteg and Erstfeld sections, arranged in 80 detail projects. The environmental aspect was also of great significance for the client. Therefore AlpTransit Gotthard AG provided sufficient resources to be able to implement the project successfully from the environmental point of view. The article is concentrated on selected aspects and explains their special features. The integration of environmental monitoring into the local construction supervision team; soil protection and cultivation; the problem of nitrite in the site wastewater; and dust and noise emissions are dealt with in detail, along with the ecological opportunities of a large construction site. A description of the usual conditions and measures affecting a tunnel site is intentionally omitted. Die Plangenehmigungsverfügungen zum Gotthard-Basistunnel sahen für die Teilabschnitte Amsteg und Erstfeld mehr als 1.000 Umweltmaßnahmen vor, die in 80 Detailprojekten eingeordnet waren. Der Umweltaspekt war auch für die Bauherrschaft von hoher Bedeutung. Daher setzte die AlpTransit Gotthard AG genügend Ressourcen zur Verfügung, um das Projekt auch aus Umweltsicht erfolgreich umsetzen zu können. Der Beitrag konzentriert sich auf ausgewählte Aspekte und zeigt deren Besonderheiten auf. Im Einzelnen werden die Integration der Umweltbaubegleitung in die örtliche Bauleitung, der Bodenschutz und die Rekultivierung, die Nitritproblematik im Baustellenabwasser, Staub- und Lärmemissionen sowie die ökologische Chancen einer Großbaustelle behandelt. Auf eine Darstellung der üblichen Auflagen und Maßnahmen bei einer Tunnelbaustelle wird bewusst verzichtet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme weather significantly impacts construction schedules and costs and can be a source of schedule delays and budget overruns. A multi-objective optimization model, presented herein for the scheduling of construction projects under extreme weather conditions, can generate optimal/near optimal schedules that minimize the time and cost of construction projects in extreme weather regions. The model computations are organized as follows: (1) a scheduling module for developing practical schedules for construction projects, (2) a cost module for computing total project cost, and (3) a multi-objective module for determining optimal/near optimal trade-offs between project time and cost. Two practical examples of the effects of extreme weather on construction time and direct cost are provided, the first of which shows the impact of extreme weather on construction time and cost, and the second of which demonstrates the ability of the model to generate and visually present the optimal trade-offs between the duration and costs of construction projects under extreme weather conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, sustainable regeneration has been recognised as being of major economic and social concern in the world. In the UK for instance, government has initiated a number of policies and evaluation methods to deal with some of the environmental problems associated with regeneration projects. However, the post construction evaluation of these projects has often resulted in them being seen as not achieving their set objectives. Attempts aimed at evaluating the impact of sustainability by built environment practitioners have primarily been limited to their assessment of the projects' potential environmental impacts, with the associated socio-economic impacts being neglected. There has not been any well-defined built environment research that has been able to deal holistically with the broader issues of sustainability in terms of benefits/impacts of the regeneration projects to the communities concerned. The findings of an exploratory study that adopted a semi-structured interview approach for data collection, to explore the knowledge and understanding of fifteen practitioners who are often involved in the delivery of these projects are presented. The findings reveal a lack of knowledge and understanding of sustainability as well as structured mechanism/practices for evaluating the socio-economic sustainability factors in relation to regeneration projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel approach to assess and evaluate environmental impacts associated with a technical construction project is presented using the case study of a dam construction. The proposed methodology consists of a stepwise procedure that includes impact assessment, impact ranking, impact analysis, and mapping the final impact score using GIS as the decision-making support system. This approach could be very beneficial, especially when collection of in situ data may be time consuming or difficult to obtain. Our quick, low-cost, assessment of expected impacts could help managers obtain a preliminary visual image of the forthcoming impacts before a project's construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]