International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment最新文献

Urban blight had its own rational and hierarchical function in the past. Nowadays it is featured with structural and functional shortage. Therefore, it has lost the capacity to meet the residents’ needs. Along with intensification of urban blight problems in cities, and downtowns in particular, which affects different aspects of urban life, many urban planners have shown special attention to such districts. Laleh-Zar neighborhood is an example of these neighborhoods, which on the one hand due to lack of urban equipment and infrastructures gives rise to urban blight and penetration of commercial and trans-regional land use in residential area. On the other hand, much of its residential units are transformed into business units, warehouses, workhouse particularly on the edge of the neighborhood. Given the expansion and intensity of problems, apparently, the most effective strategy to deal with the shortcomings and the problems is participation strategy. Besides, this study has used a strategic approach, which is one of the public plannings for both internal and external analyses. Therefore, it is a systematic approach, which can be helpful in decision making. The results showed that the capacity for participation of the study population was below proper level concerning the four aspects of financial, intellectual, instrumental, and physical aspects, although their tendency to participate was high. Moreover, correlation between participation capacity and intention for participation in renewing the structures had a significant relation with cultural and historical values at a confidence level of 99%.

Healthcare facilities throughout Europe are constantly changing to support efforts to provide efficient healthcare services with decreasing resources. Recent changes include larger and more specialist hospitals to achieve economies of scale. This approach has yet to be proven to sustainably respond to the demands, and efficiently satisfy the users’ needs. The evidence that supports larger healthcare facilities as more cost effective is limited and contradictory as wider sustainability issues need to be given greater consideration. This information paper presents the findings of a comprehensive literature review that addresses aspects that can lead to sustainable small healthcare facilities. It also establishes sustainable-related factors, including economics and energy efficiency, which could be employed to evaluate the viability of healthcare facilities. A typical small-scale facility provides a case study that contextualises these factors, captures their interdependencies, and explores the viability and sustainability of small hospitals. The findings from the work suggest that small facilities can be viable and more comprehensive research that provides a balanced view of economies of scale is required to support future healthcare design policies, where large and more specialised hospitals may no longer be environmentally, technologically, socially and economically sustainable.

In this paper is presented an approach for landfill leachate treatment using enhanced natural evaporation. Experimental set up considered using a greenhouse pilot prototype placed into the municipal landfill of Puebla city, México. The greenhouse was built with a basement surface enough to place 9 trays with leachate. Treatment follow up was done through the following parameters: air temperature inside and outside the greenhouse; leachate temperature at surface and middle liquid height. Results of the first set of experiments defined a minimal initial liquid height of 20% in respect to the tray height; the 2nd set allowed defining optimal evaporation rate conditions evaluated in respect of a tray placed outside, considered as reference of 100% efficiency (blank), obtained results showed that morning and night processes provided efficiencies up to 2 times the reference; otherwise, afternoon measurements showed similar temperature values inside and outside. In general collected data at winter season provided efficiencies between 82% and 147%, in periods of 24 h, it was observed that higher liquid reductions took place at North, and lower ones at the South positions. Based on these results it was proposed a 20 days experiment, using stagnant (E) and recharge (R) conditions referred to the blank (L), the R process showed greater efficiency (168%) than the stagnant one (158%). Leachate chemical characterization indicates that pH is highly stable; while total solids, chemical oxygen demand, sulfate and chloride exhibit an increase in concentration reaching values of 1.2–2.5 times the initial concentration, phosphate was the only parameter exhibiting a decreasing trend ending with 40% of its initial concentration.

Driven by a plethora of external and internal influences, the construction industry has independently embraced lean principles and green initiatives. Prima facie significant synergies have been reported between these two paradigms. It is foreseen that when tapped and adopted in unison, these paradigms may yield additional benefits for the construction projects. This synergy is investigated in this research. Further this study identifies and proposes Building Information Modelling (BIM) as an enabler for gaining lean and green project outcomes. The study uses crisp set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) method for exploring the causal combinations of different BIM capabilities and asserts that causal combinations of four BIM capabilities: MEP system modelling, energy and environment analysis, constructability analysis and structural analysis, when implemented on construction projects can lead to lean and green outcomes. With the help of sixteen cases it is shown that adoption of BIM leads to improved project outcomes especially ones targeting lean and green aspects.

Rapid development and transformation are the main causes for declining urban natural landscapes as well as its physical and environmental qualities. Currently, rehabilitation and preservation actions cause tough pressures to cities, which lead to serious damages on urban natural landscapes. These fragmentations, particularly in historical heritage cities, cause the riverscapes to lose their sustainability qualities. People’s sense of attachment, satisfaction, and social bonding with riverscapes are also being deteriorated. This subject has become one of the most challenging issues for the Malaysian government and its local authorities. This research aimed to establish the sustainable riverscape rehabilitation strategy framework for Malaysia’s historical heritage cities from the urban design and planning perspectives. The research methodology was designed in two phases. Phase one has developed the sustainable riverscape rehabilitation strategy framework for Malaysia’s historical heritage cities by applying the goal-oriented method. The second phase has validated the framework application using the Grounded Group Decision Making (GGDM) method. For validation, the feasibility study shows the expert input has reached more than 70% saturation for all feasibility assessment factors, except technical aspects of the factor project potential for extension, which has received 45% saturation. This strategy framework involves sustainability domains; social benefits, environmental quality, and economic growth. Moreover, this strategy framework formulates a sustainable riverscape rehabilitation index score for promoting riverscape preservation. It integrates the Malaysian government, stakeholders, and public participations in riverscape rehabilitation activities.

The overarching objective of social housing is to meet housing needs, particularly those of the vulnerable households – low and middle income earners. However, there is evidence to show that social housing is not adequately supported to achieve sustainable goals despite its significance for addressing the housing crisis. The aim of this study is to determine the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for achieving Sustainable Social Housing (SSH) from economic, environmental and social perspectives for meeting housing needs. The document content analysis approach involving relevant literature resources was used for generating the success factors (SFs) for achieving SSH. Findings from this approach were refined before using them in preparing a questionnaire used to gather data from housing authorities (public) and private non-profit social housing organisations in England and they were asked to rank the criticality level of the identified success factors. The data gathered through the relevant documents and respondents were analysed respectively with NVivo and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Findings revealed some of the CSFs for achieving SSH for meeting housing needs as: adequate funding and provision, affordability, efficient economic planning, appropriate construction technology, environmental protection, use of environmental friendly materials, effective land use planning, appropriate design, security of lives and property, provision of social services and ensuring social cohesion. The paper recommends the use of efficient sustainable development (SD) strategies and legal and institutional frameworks for monitoring and evaluating the delivery of SSH. The Government must embark on effective housing programmes for ensuring adequate provision of social housing that is sustainable for meeting housing needs in the short and long-run. There is need for the Government to regularly provide financial supports to social housing providers and users for addressing the housing crisis.

This paper suggests a type of quantitative research method with the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and EcoTect tools for a sustainable urban design project. This paper is part of a funded research study and was completed in 2010. This study is part of the larger project for planning and development of Cao Fei Dian eco-city development in North-Eastern China; one of the first eco-city development projects in the first batch of pilot eco-cities in China. The research programme addresses the main aspects of good practice in terms of eco-design and sustainability. These aspects include wind flow analysis around buildings, insolation analysis of open spaces, pollutant dispersion in water systems and noise control on urban highways. This study aims to explore a range of research methods in order to enhance the performance of integrated design with a comprehensive planning stage. The integration in evaluation across professions and subject boundaries is emphasised to identify the key gaps between sustainability and design. The main method of this study is the application of CFD and EcoTect tools for environmental performance of a larger urban area than the common use for architectural interventions or immediate outdoor spaces of a project. This study suggests an integrated urban design model with the application of computational tools (i.e. CFD and EcoTect in here) and how these could inform, from a technical dimension, a more comprehensive approach to executing best practice in design and planning. The paper concludes by suggesting an integrated model of urban design to achieve urban sustainability.

This study discusses the future directions of effective Design for Deconstruction (DfD) using BIM-based approach to design coordination. After a review of extant literatures on existing DfD practices and tools, it became evident that none of the tools is BIM compliant and that BIM implementation has been ignored for end-of-life activities. To understand how BIM could be employed for DfD and to identify essential functionalities for a BIM-based deconstruction tool, Focus Group Interviews (FGIs) were conducted with professionals who have utilised BIM on their projects. The interview transcripts of the FGIs were analysed using descriptive interpretive analysis to identify common themes based on the experiences of the participants. The themes highlight functionalities of BIM in driving effective DfD process, which include improved collaboration among stakeholders, visualisation of deconstruction process, identification of recoverable materials, deconstruction plan development, performance analysis and simulation of end-of-life alternatives, improved building lifecycle management, and interoperability with existing BIM software. The results provide the needed technological support for developing tools for BIM compliant DfD tools.