An integrated environmental and health performance quantification model for pre-occupancy phase of buildings in China

To comprehensively pre-evaluate the damages to both the environment and human health due to construction activities in China, this paper presents an integrated building environmental and health performance (EHP) assessment model based on the Building Environmental Performance Analysis System (BEPAS) and the Building Health Impact Analysis System (BHIAS) models and offers a new inventory data estimation method. The new model follows the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework and the inventory analysis step involves bill of quantity (BOQ) data collection, consumption data formation, and environmental profile transformation. The consumption data are derived from engineering drawings and quotas to conduct the assessment before construction for pre-evaluation. The new model classifies building impacts into three safeguard areas: ecosystems, natural resources and human health. Thus, this model considers environmental impacts as well as damage to human wellbeing. The monetization approach, distance-to-target method and panel method are considered as optional weighting approaches. Finally, nine residential buildings of different structural types are taken as case studies to test the operability of the integrated model through application. The results indicate that the new model can effectively pre-evaluate building EHP and the structure type significantly affects the performance of residential buildings.     

Airborne enzyme measurements to detect indoor mould exposure

Mould in buildings constitutes a threat to health. Present methods to determine the moulds comprise counting of spores or determination of viable moulds which give imprecise measures of total mould cell biomass. Analysis of ergosterol and β-glucan as markers of mould cell biomass is expensive and cumbersome. To evaluate if airborne enzyme activity was related to mould in buildings air samples were taken using an impinger technique or cellulose filters in 386 rooms in 141 buildings. The samples were analysed for the activity of N-acetylhexosaminidase (NAHA) and expressed as enzyme units per m(3) (EU per m(3)). The highest value found in a building was used for the classification of the building and was related to the results from the subsequent technical inspection. In buildings without mould damage, the NAHA activity was generally below 20 EU per m(3). In buildings with mould damage, almost all the buildings had activities above 20 EU per m(3) (specificity 85%). At 30 EU per m(3) the specificity was 100%. Measurements of airborne enzyme activity have a high sensitivity and specificity to identify buildings with mould problems. The method can be used in the investigations of building related symptoms or for home exposure characteristics when investigating diseases such as asthma that can be related to mould exposure.     

Monitoring particulate matter levels and climate conditions in a Greek sheep and goat livestock building

Atmospheric pollutants from livestock operations influence air quality inside livestock buildings and the air exhausted from them. The climate that prevails inside the building affects human and animal health and welfare, as well as productivity, while emissions from the building contribute to environmental pollution. The aim of this study was to examine the variation of two climatic parameters (namely temperature and relative humidity) and the levels of particulate matter of different sizes (PM10-PM2.5-PM1), as well as the relationships between them, inside a typical Greek naturally ventilated livestock building that hosts mainly sheep. The concentration of particles was recorded during a 45-day period (27/11-10/1), while temperature and relative humidity were observed during an almost 1-year period. The analysis revealed that the variation of outdoor weather conditions significantly influenced the indoor environment, as temperature and relative humidity inside the building varied in accordance to the outside climate conditions. Temperature remained higher indoors than outdoors during the winter and extremely low values were not recorded inside the building. However, the tolerable relative humidity levels recommended by the International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR) were fulfilled only in 47% of the hours during the almost 1-year period that was examined. This fact indicates that although temperature was satisfactorily controlled, the control of relative humidity was deficient. The concentration of particulate matter was increased during the cold winter days due to poor ventilation. The maximum daily average value of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 concentration equaled to 363, 61 and 30?μg/m(3) respectively. The concentration of the coarse particles was strongly influenced by the farming activities that were daily taking place in the building, the dust resuspension being considered as the dominant source. A significant part of the fine particles were secondary, which the production of could be attributed to an increase in relative humidity levels. It is concluded that measures have to be adopted in order to achieve sufficient ventilation and to reduce particulate matter levels.     

Developing an automated BIM-based life cycle assessment approach for modularly designed high-rise buildings

Modular construction has attracted increasing attention due to its energy and environmental benefits. Digital technologies such as building information modelling (BIM) have also been explored to generate and manage data through the lifecycle of buildings. Although research has been performed in the area of integrating BIM and modular construction, BIM-based automated lifecycle assessment (LCA) of prefabricated buildings remains unexplored. This study therefore aims to develop a BIM-based LCA method for prefabricated buildings incorporating different assessment levels with unique system boundaries and functional units. The developed approach can support automated assessments through all lifecycle phases of a prefabricated building. It is achieved through an automated process of creating parameters to merge LCA data into the building model, systematic zoning, model setup and impact estimation. This approach is applied to evaluate the energy and environmental performances of a case building in Hong Kong. The case study validated the efficiency of the developed BIM-based LCA method in providing a systematic and detailed assessment of modularly designed buildings. This study extends the knowledge in automated BIM-based LCA by addressing specific characteristics of prefabrication and promotes the incorporation of comprehensive and detailed LCA data into BIM models for improved design robustness and holistic performances of buildings. This validated approach will enhance the willingness of designers to apply LCA during the design stages for minimizing the energy and environmental impacts of both new and renovated buildings with prefabrication.     

Measuring strategies and monitoring of the indoor environment

This paper presents key elements on which to base the design of a strategy for a particular indoor environment measurement task. Starting from a general strategy for responding to occupant complaints and conducting epidemiological and intervention studies the paper concentrates on selected key elements, with focus on air contaminants. Strategies for grouping of occupants with the purpose of exposure assessment should aim at optimising exposure contrast between groups, and grouping according to buildings may not be the proper choice. Occupant exposure can be measured by personal sampling or constructed from measured concentrations in microenvironments and activity patterns. The cause of temporal and spatial variability is discussed and guidance is given on the number of samples needed to detect a given change in true concentration level. The sick building syndrome (SBS) is defined as those situations where a high proportion of building occupants are complaining about mucous membrane or skin irritation, general symptoms. When investigating SBS, questionnaires should be used to collect structured information from occupants on perception of environmental conditions, psychosocial factors and symptoms. There is as yet no consensus on choice of length of reference period for reporting symptoms and for estimating exposure. Finally, methods for identifying and quantification of sources of air contaminants are discussed, including lab-scale or full-scale simulation, on-site measurement of source emission, air monitoring, surface sampling, and modelling.     

The changes of densities and patterns of roads and rural buildings: a case study on Dongzhi Yuan of the Loess Plateau, China

Roads and buildings are considered as primary causes of rural landscape changes. In this study, linear regression models were used to analyze the dynamic influences of environmental factors and variables on roads and rural buildings from 1979 to 2005 in Dongzhi Yuan (tableland) of the Loess Plateau, China. The relationship between roads and rural buildings and their effects on Dongzhi Yuan are discussed also. The results showed that three environmental factors (topography, land cover, and development level) explained roads better than rural buildings referring densities and patterns. The environmental variables significantly related to roads have decreased, whereas those related to rural buildings have increased over time. Among these significant variables, percent of farmland mostly determined the densities and patterns of both roads and rural buildings. There was significant correlation between roads and rural buildings in terms of density and pattern. In addition, roads and rural buildings have increased greatly in gully areas of this region. Therefore, more attention should be paid to planning of roads and rural buildings in Dongzhi Yuan.     

Numerical Model Inter-comparison for Wind Flow and Turbulence Around Single-Block Buildings

Wind flow and turbulence within the urban canopy layer can influence the heating and ventilation of buildings, affecting the health and comfort of pedestrians, commuters and building occupants. In addition, the predictive capability of pollutant dispersion models is heavily dependent on wind flow models. For that reason, well-validated microscale models are needed for the simulation of wind fields within built-up urban microenvironments. To address this need, an inter-comparison study of several such models was carried out within the European research network ATREUS. This work was conducted as part of an evaluation study for microscale numerical models, so they could be further implemented to provide reliable wind fields for building energy simulation and pollutant dispersion codes. Four computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models (CHENSI, MIMO, VADIS and FLUENT) were applied to reduced-scale single-block buildings, for which quality-assured and fully documented experimental data were obtained. Simulated wind and turbulence fields around two surface-mounted cubes of different dimensions and wall roughness were compared against experimental data produced in the wind tunnels of the Meteorological Institute of Hamburg University under different inflow and boundary conditions. The models reproduced reasonably well the general flow patterns around the single-block buildings, although over-predictions of the turbulent kinetic energy were observed near stagnation points in the upwind impingement region. Certain discrepancies between the CFD models were also identified and interpreted. Finally, some general recommendations for CFD model evaluation and use in environmental applications are presented.     

重庆市住宅楼环境电磁辐射的初步测量与分析

初步探测重庆市住宅楼环境电磁辐射的现状及其影响因素,为建立人居环境电磁场特征数据库提供依据。按照国家标准的要求和方法,在重庆市选择4个典型居住小区,分别测量各小区住宅楼不同楼层电梯门口或楼梯间以及各住宅楼楼顶的电磁辐射水平,结果表明,本次横断面调查中,在1MHz～40GHz频段,各栋楼的综合场强为17.13～17.18V/m,已接近GB 8702-88《电磁辐射防护规定》的公众照射导出限值,各楼层间差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)。在5～1000Hz频段,各栋楼楼内综合场强分布差异无统计学意义(P>0.05),而临近高压线的住宅楼楼顶综合场强明显高于其他小区楼顶以及同一栋楼其他楼层的综合场强(P<0.05),并且该楼各楼层的磁场强度明显高于其他住宅楼(P<0.05)。所测住宅楼的环境电磁辐射水平未超出国家相应标准限制,不同楼层电磁辐射水平与极低频辐射源的分布有关。     

Flow Field and Pollution Dispersion in a Central London Street

Urban pollution due to roadways is perceived as a major obstacle to implementing low-energy ventilation design strategies in urban non-domestic buildings. As part of a project to evaluate the use of a computational fluid flow model as an environmental design tool for urban buildings, this paper seeks to address the impact of pollution from roadways on buildings in areas of restricted topography and assess dominant influencing factors and other requirements for testing the flow model predictions. Vertical profiles of carbon monoxide (CO) and temperature at the facade of a building in a Central London street, in addition to above-roof wind speed and direction, were measured over a period of three months. The street has a height-to-width (h/W) ratio of 0.6 and is of asymmetric horizontal alignment. The air flows in the area surrounding the building were modelled using a computational fluid flow model for two orthogonal wind directions. CO concentrations were calculated from the steady-state flow field in order to place point measurements in the context of the flow field, identify persistent features in the measured data attributable to the flow structure and, by comparison with measurements, identify further testing requirements.Some qualitative and quantitative agreement between measured and modelled data was obtained. Measured CO levels at the building facade and vertical variations of CO were small, as predicted by the model. A wake-interference type flow was predicted by the model for wind speeds >2ms-1 with formation of a vortex cell occurring for roof-level wind speeds >5ms-1 for the cross-wind direction, which was reflected in the measured CO levels and facade gradients. A direction-dependent inverse relationship was noted, both in the model and measurements, between above-roof wind speed and facade CO levels although statistical correlations in the time series were poor. CO concentrations at the facade were found to increase with height frequently, as well as decrease, especially for parallel winds. It is expected that mechanical turbulence due to vehicles was largely responsible. In comparison, thermal stratification appeared to play only a minor role in controlling vertical mixing in the street, under low wind speed conditions.     

Effects of environmental conditions on historical buildings: lichens and NOx gases

Environmental conditions affect human life in various ways. One of the domains of environmental conditions is buildings, and amongst them, a major and important group is the historical buildings. To keep this inheritance alive, one needs to determine the effects of environmental conditions. In this work, effects of lichens and NOx on 7 historical buildings in Erzurum were investigated. Historical buildings are readily available for lichen growth, which takes a long time, and this growth was investigated as a sample of environmental effect that occurs through long periods of time. NOx, main source of which is traffic in Erzurum, were considered as the environmental effect of daily life.     

A critical review of building environmental assessment tools

Since the field of environmental assessment tools for buildings is vast, the aim of this study is to clarify that field by analysing and categorising existing tools. The differences between the tools are discussed and the current situation within the tools is critically analysed. However, the comparison of the tools is difficult, if not impossible. For example, the tools are designed for assessing different types of buildings, and they emphasise different phases of the life cycle. In addition to environmental aspects, sustainable building includes economic and social aspects. The shift from green building to sustainable building and the future requirements are challenging for building environmental assessment tools. Furthermore, the benefits of using the tools should be analysed — how the tools and their results have affected decision making?     

Stochastic landslide vulnerability modeling in space and time in a part of the northern Himalayas, India

Little is known about the quantitative vulnerability analysis to landslides as not many attempts have been made to assess it comprehensively. This study assesses the spatio-temporal vulnerability of elements at risk to landslides in a stochastic framework. The study includes buildings, persons inside buildings, and traffic as elements at risk to landslides. Building vulnerability is the expected damage and depends on the position of a building with respect to the landslide hazard at a given time. Population and vehicle vulnerability are the expected death toll in a building and vehicle damage in space and time respectively. The study was carried out in a road corridor in the Indian Himalayas that is highly susceptible to landslides. Results showed that 26% of the buildings fall in the high and very high vulnerability categories. Population vulnerability inside buildings showed a value >0.75 during 0800 to 1000 hours and 1600 to 1800 hours in more buildings that other times of the day. It was also observed in the study region that the vulnerability of vehicle is above 0.6 in half of the road stretches during 0800 hours to 1000 hours and 1600 to 1800 hours due to high traffic density on the road section. From this study, we conclude that the vulnerability of an element at risk to landslide is a space and time event, and can be quantified using stochastic modeling. Therefore, the stochastic vulnerability modeling forms the basis for a quantitative landslide risk analysis and assessment.     

Impact of the heritage building façade in small-scale public spaces on human activity: Based on spatial analysis

The quality of human life has been increasingly a significant concern, where the public space environment is one of the critical influential factors. The location with historic buildings has been an attractive destination for people to enjoy outdoor activities. Moreover, the building façade, being the boundary element of the public space, plays an important role in deciding human outdoor activities. Whilst many studies focus on building materials, structure, energy consumption and human attitude towards building façade in public spaces, limited studies have been conducted to analyse the influence of the small-scale public space historic building facade on human outdoor activities. Therefore, this study aims to explore whether the façade of historical buildings in small-scale public spaces causes people to aggregate. This study was conducted in the Donglu campus of Yunnan University, Kunming, China. A comprehensive analysis of façade characteristics (e.g. age, structure, materials) of historical buildings, combined with the questionnaire survey data of facade preference of buildings was conducted in this campus in May 6–12, 2019. The method of spatial statistical analysis was adopted to analyse the relationship between historical building façade and human behaviour. The results show that human preference exhibited an aggregation phenomenon, demonstrating that the human behaviour could be influenced by the façade characteristics of historical buildings. The peculiar building façade (e.g. Huize Hall, Zhigong Hall) could attract more human attention, in which architectural style and decoration played a vital role. Nevertheless, the historic building's long history and cultural inherence also affected human preferences. Such results help to improve the protection and use of historical buildings in public spaces, enhance the understanding of impacts about historical buildings on human behaviour, and provide a reference for new building façade design with the consideration of human outdoor activities.     

Enhancing public building energy efficiency using the response surface method: An optimal design approach

Today, energy problems are becoming increasingly serious. The direct energy consumption of buildings accounts for 20% of the total energy consumption in a country. There are difficulties in continuing the mode of high energy consumption in the traditional construction industry. Therefore, the future of construction is in the development of green buildings. In the life cycle of a building, the consumption during the construction phase accounts for only approximately 20% of the total energy consumption. Most of the consumption occurs during buildings operations, such as lighting, heating, air conditioning and the running of various electrical appliances. Therefore, this paper focuses on the energy consumed during the building operation period with the aim of optimizing relevant design parameters to reduce total energy consumption. The West Twelfth Teaching Building (WTTB) of Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) is used as a prototype, and Design Builder is used to establish a model of energy consumption and validate the reliability of the model based on the data obtained from the investigation. Based on this model, the study takes the perspective of energy conservation to analyze ten factors that may affect the energy consumption of the building: the heat transfer coefficient of the roof, the amount of fresh air, the heat transfer coefficient of interior walls, the heat transfer coefficient of the floors, the interior temperature, the energy efficiency ratio of the air conditioner, the thickness of the outer wall insulation, the ratio of windows to walls, the natural ventilation starting temperature and the solar heat gain coefficient of the outer windows. Those factors are then ranked according to their energy-saving potential through partial factorial design tests. The six factors with the most potential for energy savings are selected and divided into 2 groups to conduct a response surface optimization analysis of three factors at three levels. The best level of each factor and the optimal combination of all factors are obtained to reduce building energy consumption to the greatest possible extent and to provide a reference for teaching buildings and similar public buildings (PBs) in achieving the goal of “green building.”     

Organophosphate and phthalate esters in indoor air: a comparison between multi-storey buildings with high and low prevalence of sick building symptoms

An extensive study has been conducted on the prevalence of organophosphorous flame retardants/plasticizers and phthalate ester plasticizers in indoor air. The targeted substances were measured in 45 multi-storey apartment buildings in Stockholm, Sweden. The apartment buildings were classified as high or low risk with regard to the reporting of sick building symptoms (SBS) within the project Healthy Sustainable Houses in Stockholm (3H). Air samples were taken from two to four apartments per building (in total 169 apartments) to facilitate comparison within and between buildings. Association with building characteristics has been examined as well as association with specific sources by combining chemical analysis and exploratory uni- and multivariate data analysis. The study contributes to the overall perspective of levels of organophosphate and phthalate ester in indoor air enabling comparison with other studies. The results indicated little or no difference in the concentrations of the target substances between the two risk classifications of the buildings. The differences between the apartments sampled within (intra) buildings were greater than the differences between (inter) buildings. The concentrations measured in air ranged up to 1200 ng m(-3) for organophosphate esters and up to 11?000 ng m(-3) for phthalate esters. Results in terms of sources were discerned e.g. PVC flooring is a major source of benzylbutyl phthalate in indoor air.     

Modeling the environmental sustainability of timber structures: A case study

A revival in timber buildings and the appreciation of their positive physical and mechanical properties can be explained by the unique environmental credentials of timber products and their versatility. Heightened public awareness of sustainability in the construction sector places timber among the most preferential sustainable materials. There is plenty of previous research on sustainability assessments for complete buildings, although far less on the sustainability assessment of specific parts of the buildings, such as the case of timber structures. The objective of this study is to present an evaluation model, based on MIVES methodology, specifically designed for timber structures, which can be used to enhance the environmental sustainability and to reduce the impacts that are generated, in those areas where it has been awarded a lower score. The application of the model to the largest multi-storey residential timber building in south-western Europe clearly shows that changes to the material, such as its background and environmental certification, generate significant changes to the overall results of the assessment. A sensitivity analysis is then used to verify the analysis of the results and both the validity and the stability of the proposed model.     

Comparison of two dynamic measurement methods of odor and odorant emission rates from freshly dewatered biosolids

Odor and odorant emission rates from freshly dewatered biosolids in a dewatering building of a Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) are measured using the EPA flux chamber and wind tunnel methods. Experimental results are compared statistically to test whether the two methods result in similar emission rates when experiments are performed under field conditions. To the best of our knowledge the literature is void of studies comparing the two methods indoors. In this paper the two methods are compared indoors where the wind velocity and air exchange rate are pertinent field conditions and can be measured. The difference between emission rates of odor and hydrogen sulfide measured with the two methods is not statistically significant (P values: 0.505 for odor, 0.130 for H(2)S). It is concluded that both methods can be used to estimate source emissions but selection of the most effective or efficient method depends on prevailing environmental conditions. The wind tunnel is appropriate for outdoor environments where wind effects on source emissions are more pronounced than indoors. The EPA flux chamber depends on the air exchange rate of the chamber, which simulates corresponding conditions of the indoor environment under investigation and is recommended for estimation of indoor pollution sources.     

Comparative analysis of methods for integrating various environmental impacts as a single index in life cycle assessment

Previous studies have proposed several methods for integrating characterized environmental impacts as a single index in life cycle assessment. Each of them, however, may lead to different results. This study presents internal and external normalization methods, weighting factors proposed by panel methods, and a monetary valuation based on an endpoint life cycle impact assessment method as the integration methods. Furthermore, this study investigates the differences among the integration methods and identifies the causes of the differences through a case study in which five elementary school buildings were used. As a result, when using internal normalization with weighting factors, the weighting factors had a significant influence on the total environmental impacts whereas the normalization had little influence on the total environmental impacts. When using external normalization with weighting factors, the normalization had more significant influence on the total environmental impacts than weighing factors. Due to such differences, the ranking of the five buildings varied depending on the integration methods. The ranking calculated by the monetary valuation method was significantly different from that calculated by the normalization and weighting process. The results aid decision makers in understanding the differences among these integration methods, and, finally, help them select the method most appropriate for the goal at hand.     

Healthcare Building Sustainability Assessment tool - Sustainable Effective Design criteria in the Portuguese context

Tools and methods to improve current practices and quality in the healthcare building sector are necessary to support decision-making at different building life cycle phases. Furthermore, Healthcare Building Sustainability Assessment (HBSA) Methods are based on criteria organised into different levels, such as categories and indicators. These criteria highlight aspects of significant importance when designing and operating a sustainable healthcare building. To bring more objectivity to the sustainability assessments, the standardisation bodies (CEN and ISO) proposed core indicators that should be used in the evaluation of the environmental, societal and economic performances of buildings. Nevertheless, relying on state of the art analysis, it is possible to conclude that there are aspects of major importance for the operation of healthcare buildings that are not considered in the HBSA methods.Thus, the aim of this paper is to discuss the context of sustainability assessment methods in the field of healthcare buildings and to present a proposal for the incorporation of Sustainable-Effective Design (SED) criteria in a new HBSA method. The used research method is innovative since in the development of the list of sustainability criteria it considers the opinion of main healthcare buildings' stakeholders, the existing healthcare assessment methods and the ISO and CEN standardisation works in the field of the methods to assess the sustainability of construction works. As a result, the proposed method is composed of fifty-two sustainability indicators that cover the different dimensions of the sustainability concept to support decision making during the design of a new or retrofitted healthcare building in urban areas.