Solutions for Climate Change Challenges of the Built Environment

This book will develop an appreciation of the diverse, complex and current themes of the climate change debate across the built environment continuum. A multi-disciplinary perspective is provided through contributions from physical, environmental, social, economic and political scientists. This strategic view on built environment issues will be useful to researchers as well as policy experts and construction practitioners wanting a holistic view. The book will form a collated volume of edited chapters following six related themes, provided by eminent specialists from both academic and professional backgrounds. The main context for the contributions will be the developed world but the discussion will be widened to incorporate regional issues. The first part of the book sets the social, economic, political and natural science contexts within which the current debate on climate change is driven from a built environment perspective. The main purpose is to define the scope, principal themes, contradictions, consensuses and trends in the current climate change debate and place these in a built environment context.This will set the scene as well as the boundaries for the remaining discussions. Part 2 concentrates on the negative outputs of the built environment, how these contribute to climate change and how these can be empirically captured. It covers the valuation of urban and natural environments in a broad sense and the role of measurement and valuation in policy formulation. This section also provides specific examples of impact measurement studies to illustrate the complexity of such evaluations. Then follows an examination of the connection between the range of activities that precede development within the built environment and link these to the phenomena of climate change. This part looks at the consequences of socio-economic phenomena such as urbanisation and land preparation for development. It also examines the consequences of modern methods of land use planning, preparation and built environment design. Having dealt with pre-development issues, Part 4 investigates the unique contributions that built environment development activities and land uses in particular make to climate change.This part looks at the influence that existing technology in the development of materials of construction continue to exert on growing climate change problems. It reports current and ongoing research findings on climate friendlier and more sustainable materials for construction. It also explores the climate change consequences of current methods and processes of construction and property development. Building and civil engineering design issues and their consequences will also form a major theme in this part, so too will be the environmental and economic issues surrounding green buildings. Part 5 is concerned with existing methodologies of managing and maintaining built facilities. This part explores ways in which scientific methods of managing energy and other utilities in built facilities can be integrated into traditional methods of facilities management to reduce potential adverse consequences of existing facilities on climate change. The concluding part of the book examines the principal methods and proposals for dealing and coping with the impacts of climate change in the built environment.It also focuses on the lessons that can be drawn from the discussions to inform future policy and strategic decision-making. Part 6 also examines the peculiar implications that the current state of climate change would have for the different regions of the world.