International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment最新文献

The physical form and pattern of built environment in a city is the outcome of prevalent planning and design standards and building regulations. Many common issues of built environment are the consequence of existing building regulations in that settlement as building regulations are borrowed from other cities and adopted from one place to another across the country. Building regulations are mostly specified for various uses and apply to the particular size of a plot in India, generally, irrespective of the shape and topography of the plot. As a result, often while complying with the provisions of one regulation will lead to noncompliance of provisions of other regulations. This further aggravates the problems of noncompliance with the existing building regulations and often results in unauthorized development and enormous environmental impacts. An attempt is made to understand different issues associated with building regulations of Shimla. Further, the effects of plot proportions on the compliance of building regulations are also studied in the case of Shimla, being the largest hilltop town of northern India on ecologically sensitive topography.

This paper presents three pozzolanic materials that were used to make quaternary binders, Granulated blast furnace slag, fly ash (PFA), metakaolin, and silica fume as partial replacement in quaternary binders with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to investigate the effect of standard consistency, initial and final setting times of quaternary paste. Experiments demonstrate that SF has greater influence on the standard consistency of the OPC–FA–SF–GGBS paste, as compare to FA and GGBs. Water requirement in the paste escalates, with increase in SF percentage level within the paste, owing to the high surface area. In case of GGBS, around 3–5% of reduction in water/binder ratio was recorded, whereas for SF, it was 10–12%. In quaternary OPC–FA–SF–GGBS pastes, increases in initial and final setting times at 5%, 7.5%, 10%, and 15% replacement of SF and GGBS were observed, whereas OPC–FA–SF–MK paste setting time shows an increase at 5% replacement of SF and MK with 20% and 70% replacement of FA and OPC, however, it starts decreasing between 7.5% and 15% replacement of SF and MK. The consistency of the quaternary binders increases with an increase in percentage of SF and MK. In general the effect of FA, SF, GGBS and MK reflects in the behavior of quaternary binders even though the performance of all three pozzolans behaves completely independent of each other.

When analyzing urban accessibility at a neighborhood scale, the pressure of parking is determinant to decide whether using a private car is an option for accessing local facilities or not. This paper intends to analyze the impact of different parking pressure characteristics in the estimation of local accessibility. Short trips to pharmacies, groceries, bakeries and primary schools were analyzed and a comparison of accessibility indicators for walking and car was made, considering four different parking scenarios. The methodology was applied to two different neighborhoods in the city of Lisbon, with significant differences in their urban planning and mobility patterns.

The results obtained show that, for a neighborhood with high walking accessibility, only a low parking pressure scenario would have better indicators when compared to the walking mode. The increase in 5 min in the time for the search for a parking place represents a decrease in the accessibility indicators in more than 20% and an elimination of the parking searching time plus a reduction of the distance to destination up to 25 m can increase accessibility up to 47%.

However, in areas more car-oriented, parking management can lead to significant reductions in car attractiveness. Only a high or very high pressure parking scenario would be less attractive than the walking mode. The parking policies could lead to a decrease in 80% of the car accessibility. Yet, this kind of measure would not represent a better overall accessibility to the neighborhood, contributing, however to a lower use of the motorized modes.

Million tons of waste glass is being generated annually all over the world. Once the glass becomes a waste it is disposed as landfills, which is unsustainable as this does not decompose in the environment. Glass is principally composed of silica. Use of milled (ground) waste glass in concrete as partial replacement of cement could be an important step toward development of sustainable (environmentally friendly, energy-efficient and economical) infrastructure systems. When waste glass is milled down to micro size particles, it is expected to undergo pozzolanic reactions with cement hydrates, forming secondary Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C–S–H). In this research chemical properties of both clear and colored glass were evaluated. Chemical analysis of glass and cement samples was determined using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique and found minor differences in composition between clear and colored glasses. Flow and compressive strength tests on mortar and concrete were carried out by adding 0–25% ground glass in which water to binder (cement + glass) ratio is kept the same for all replacement levels. With increase in glass addition mortar flow was slightly increased while a minor effect on concrete workability was noted. To evaluate the packing and pozzolanic effects, further tests were also conducted with same mix details and 1% super plasticizing admixture dose (by weight of cement) and generally found an increase in compressive strength of mortars with admixture. As with mortar, concrete cube samples were prepared and tested for strength (until 1 year curing). The compressive strength test results indicated that recycled glass mortar and concrete gave better strength compared to control samples. A 20% replacement of cement with waste glass was found convincing considering cost and the environment.

A big challenge in sustainable projects is selection of appropriate construction method and is considered to be the decisive factor for its success. Many environment friendly prefabricated elements are entering into the market at an increasing pace. This has increased the workload and inquisitiveness of the stakeholders who will need information about their environmental, technical and esthetic aspects. The use of prefabrication in sustainable construction is advantageous but appropriate decision criteria and their weightage for applicability assessments for a project from every stakeholder’s perspective is found to be deficient. Decisions to use prefabricated elements are still largely based on anecdotal evidence or cost-based evaluation rather than holistic sustainable performance. But authenticated information is seldom available and suitability within the project requirements is always debatable. Environmental decisions, being closely coupled with society’s built-in uncertainties and risks, are uncertain since ecological systems as well as social systems change in the future. Thus the selection of a suitable construction method has been perceived as a multi-criteria decision-making problem highly intensive in knowledge with partial information and uncertainty. This knowledge or perception base from the minds of experts has to be collected and processed for a decision. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation method using analytic hierarchy process by Saaty has been adopted to provide an analytical tool to evaluate the applicability of prefabricated or on-site construction method.

The worldwide demand for new concrete buildings is increasing at a rapid pace to keep up with urban development. Despite the need, concrete production and its use have a number of environmental consequences. The production of concrete creates a substantial need for water that directly causes a burden on the already scare natural resource. In United Arab Emirates the majority of the water used for concrete production is obtained through desalination of the seawater. Desalination of seawater produces highly saline wastewater commonly known as reject brine or concentrated brine that has numerous negative environmental effects. The production of cement, the primary ingredient in the production of concrete is responsible for the generation of nearly 5% of the global carbon dioxide that is a potent greenhouse gas.

With the intent of reducing the carbon footprint of concrete production, a study was carried out to determine the effect of using reject brine as the source of water and the use of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) as a replacement for cement. Concrete samples having three different cement contents were prepared with normal tap water and reject brine. Results showed that the use of GGBS and reject brine improved the strength of concrete produced by 16.5%. Replacing 50% of the cement with GGBS and using reject brine as the source of water has a potential for reducing 176 kg CO₂ and 1.7–3.4 kg of CO₂ equivalents per one cubic meter of concrete, respectively. The use of the waste reject brine can potentially save USD 170–340 per cubic meter of concrete produced.

Cities can be seen as systems of organized complexity formed by interrelated and highly dynamic sub-systems. This paper reflects on the interactions and tensions between socio-ecological and/or socio-technical sub-systems in cities and their capacity to either improve or block urban processes. In this context, spatial heterogeneity could enhance or hinder the performance and resilience of critical urban sub-systems such as transport and energy. The consequence of this interaction might be detrimental to environmental quality (air and acoustic) and the livability of urban areas. This rationale may improve political and expert decision-making processes toward sustainable, resilient and livable cities.

Significant changes in the conventional weather pattern experienced globally have sparked enormous concerns to environmental stakeholders. Having been established that the main driver of change in our Climate is the result of anthropogenic activities which contribute to the global increase in concentration of Green House Gases (GHG), there is therefore need for effective sensitization and public awareness regarding our actions and how they contribute to the issue of Climate Change experienced globally. For this reason an effective framework needs to be designed for this purpose, hence the objective of this research.

As an effective model for Public enlightenment should be one that will: enable all stakeholders gain easy access to each other to achieve efficient dissemination of information; take into consideration the geopolitical and socioeconomic nature of the region in concern; be sustainable; flexible and adaptable, this research adopted the Integrative Literature Based Research Methodology by analysing articles of renowned authors and organizations published between 1995 and 2016 to gain supportive ideas that are vital towards the design of an effective model for public enlightenment and participation in resolving Climate Change. A model fulfilling the afore mentioned qualities was designed and reviewed for its practicability and effectiveness.

The importance of local knowledge and traditional practices is now recognized by disaster risk reduction specialists, particularly in the aftermath of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004. However, these frequently used practices by local populations are not yet recognized by all actors involved in disaster prevention. This research seeks to identify local traditional practices which are connected to hydro-meteorological phenomena and climate change in the coastal areas of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Rio Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. The identification process requires observation, documentation, validation and categorization of local traditional knowledge. The traditional practices (mainly by fishermen as well as some farmers) examined specifically among the coastal populations relate to their habitat, natural resources, and fishing practices. Recognizing and valuing traditional knowledge will help improve resilience to the impact of disasters and the effects of climate change among coastal populations.

The hedonic pricing model (HPM) technique has been widely adopted for property price appraisal by scholars and professionals in different real estate markets around the world. Despite its popularity in this research domain, the trend of the application of HPM in Nigeria, being the largest economy in Africa, is unknown and has not been documented. This study, therefore, aims to critically review the extant literature of the HPM property price appraisal related articles published in Nigeria. Papers published in this research area were retrieved from online databases and search engines. The authors’ contributions, authors’ affiliations, the focused study areas and the annual publication trend of the articles were reviewed. The first application of HPM in Nigeria was recorded in 1986. Thereafter, there have been fluctuations in the number of annual publications. However, there have been a considerable number of articles published since 2010. The authors have largely focused on the Lagos metropolis property market as a study area. It was also found that most of the authors were university scholars and on the other side, real estate professionals have not contributed significantly to this research topic. In order to achieve a sustainable real estate practice in Nigeria, the gap between theory and practice should be bridged.