Sustainable Design and Build

Building, Energy, Roads, Bridges, Water and Sewer Systems

Md. Faruque Hossain

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780128167229
• eBook ISBN: 9780128168882
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Sustainable Design and Build provides a complete reference for engineers and scientists who want to conduct sustainability research. The book begins with a rudimentary discussion of environmental pollution and energy that is followed by their applications for solving problems in construction processes and practices governing advanced building design, infrastructure and transportation, and water and sewage. Other topics include engineering invisible roads and bridges, smart building technology, building information modeling, energy modeling, resilience in urban and rural development, engineering invisible roads and bridges, zero emission vehicles and flying transportation technology. This book presents a valuable guide to sustainable design and construction processes and methods. - Covers the latest research in the utilization of renewable energy and the implementation in construction and building system design - Includes a detailed discussion on combined technology applications of energy, gas and water - Covers advanced methods and technologies for constructing sustainable transportation systems, including roads, bridges, tunnels and hardscapes

Chapter One

Introduction

Abstract

The concept sustainable design and build (SDB) is the advancement of science and engineering principles performed by scientists, consultants, architects, engineers, construction managers, policymakers, and investors to secure a more ecologically balanced planet Earth. The exercise of SDB is the practical implementation of sustainability tools in all sectors which are environmentally friendly and resource-efficient throughout their life cycle to maximize the achievement of economic value, its net contribution to environmental functions, and its social equity to build a resilience community. Necessarily, SDB needs to be practiced by implementing cutting-edge metrics and tools to enhance the sustainability through the world primarily focusing on five major sectors: (1) environment, (2) energy, (3) building, (4) infrastructure and transportation, and (5) water. Simply put, SDB can be defined as the combined method to implement and manage green performance on planning, designing, and constructing of all sectors of environment, energy, building, infrastructure, water by conducting advanced research and environmentally friendly technology application for building a better environment on Earth.

Keywords

Advanced building design technology; Environmental sustainability; Renewable and sustainable energy technology; Sustainable infrastructure and transportation engineering; Water resource management

1.1. Environment

Sustainability, within the environmental sector, means that the biological systems must remain productive and diverse for an indefinite period of time. One example of biological systems that are considered sustainable is long-lived and healthy ecosystem. Generally, sustainability can be defined as the durability of processes and systems including the interrelated domains of culture and politics, economics, and ecology to acquire healthy environments that will support human survival and that of other creatures of planet Earth [1,2]. Consequently, in preserving the natural resources, sustainability encounters social challenge that involves ethical consumerism, individual and local lifestyle, urban transportation and planning, as well as national and international laws. While sustainable development must be adopted as the holistic method to acquiring a greener and cleaner planet Earth, it is essential to view sustainability as the target goal of humanity to confirm an equilibrium ecosystem [3,4]. As a result, it is essential for sustainability to be majorly concerned with the commitment of policymakers, investors, engineers, architects, and scientists to administer and promote necessary planetary environmental resources essential in securing resilience and attain sustainability of these important resources for benefits of forthcoming generations [5,6].

Environmental resiliency, and thus environmental sustainability, is usually measured by occurrences or junctures where the mixing of naturally befalling regenerative forces, such as biomass, vegetation, atmosphere, soil, water, and solar energy, intermingle with their underlying forces into the environment. Human activities are the major drivers to destructing the systems of the Earth as well as its biophysical mechanism [7–9]. Therefore, the impact of a community on the environment is instigated by a single person or the available population, which in turn relies on complex ways on exactly what natural resources are being utilized, whether those natural resources are renewable, as well as the human activity scale in comparison to the ecosystems' carrying capacity. Accordingly, the resource consumption pattern by a population of individuals within all sectors is generating adversative effect on biodiversity, conservation biology, environmental science, and Earth science. Progressively, the biodiversity loss within the environment mainly from the habitat fragmentation and loss generated by human land appropriation for agriculture, forestry, and development as natural capital is rapidly changing all over the globe [10,11]. As a result, this change in land use plays a major part to the operations of the changes in the biosphere in relative magnitudes of land devoted to grassland, woodland, forest, agriculture, and urbanization. All of which have significant impact on global nitrogen, carbon, and water biogeochemical cycles. Basically, product consumption at all scales via the consumption chain, beginning with the economic sectors' impact via national economies to the international economies and with the impacts of personal spending patterns and lifestyle choices via demands of resources of particular services and goods, is seriously impacting on the environment [12,13]. To maintain the resource consumption, resource productivity, as well as resource intensity, it is necessary to investigate the pattern of consumption that is associated with resources to the economic, social, and environmental effects at the context or scale. The initial world scientific evaluation on the effects of production and consumption was published in 2010 by the international Resource Panel of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which recognized the priority actions for both developing and developed countries [14–16]. The findings of the study indicated that consumption by household associated with energy-using, food, shelter, and mobility products is the major cause of life cycle effects of consumption and generating limited level of the existing natural resources. As a result, to safeguard these natural resources through the implementation of basic principles of complex ecological issues and formulation of operational solutions, it is necessary to undertake advanced research to encounter challenges generated internationally through increasing urbanization, ecological degradation, and population growth.

1.2. Energy

The global atmosphere is now getting seriously dangerous as increment of all aspects of the carbon cycle into the atmosphere has become the major crisis throughout the world due to the usage of conventional energy [17,18]. Air toxicants such as volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide as well as airborne pollutant substances that generate acid rain and photochemical smog, air pollution and the deadly chlorofluorocarbon are causing severe effects on the Earth's atmosphere and environment [19,20]. Therefore, sustainable energy is an urgent demand to serve the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Whereas renewable energy refers to the energy that is naturally refilled on a human being's timescale, sustainable energy is the energy whose usage will not jeopardize the system within which it is implemented to an extent of being unfit to offer the needs for the coming days. The principle of sustainability encompasses having the four interrelated domains: (1) culture, (2) politics, (3) economics, and (4) ecology. Technologies promote sustainable energy including renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, bioenergy, tidal power, and technologies designed to improve energy efficiency.

Significant advancement is being carried out in transition of energy from fossil fuels to environmentally sustainable systems, and finally to the point where 100% renewable energy is being supported by several studies. As a result, changes that need to be made on the present-day conventional energy consumption will not only be on how energy is supplied but also on how it is used, and it is important to reduce the volume of energy needed to deliver different goods and/or services. Stabilizing and decreasing the emissions of CO₂ simply requires energy efficiency and renewable energy to remain as the “twin pillars” of environmental sustainability. Based on the current historical examination, the growth rate in demand of energy has generally overtaken the rate of enhancements in energy efficiency [21–23]. This is because of the ongoing population and economic growth. Consequently, aggregate use of energy as well as correlated emissions of carbon have constantly increased, which ultimately causes deadly climate changes. In consequence, supplies of renewable and sustainable (clean) energy are an exigent demand to alleviate global energy demand and mitigate climate change crisis. Therefore, clean and renewable energy (and energy efficiency) are no longer niche sectors that are promoted only by governments and environmentalists but also by private sector by increasing the levels of investment for confirming a clean and green Earth.

So, to finally achieve a clean world, it is essential to look after the sustainable and renewable energy sector through application technology, carrying out advanced research, as well as via commercial application. Essentially, much focus must be directed toward renewable power system planning, design and building, and sustainable application of energy within all sectors of infrastructure and building to approve sustainable energy system construction and design, and control.

1.3. Building

All over the world, buildings have been identified to consume very large portions of natural resources including water and energy. In the present day, buildings are responsible for 40% of the worldwide CO₂ emissions, ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Preface
• Chapter One. Introduction
• Chapter Two. Environment
• Chapter Three. Energy
• Chapter Four. Advanced Building Design
• Chapter Five. Infrastructure and Transportation
• Chapter Six. Water
• Chapter Seven. Best Management Practices
• Index