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Special Issue "2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure"

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 13872

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Víctor Yepes

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Guest Editor

Institute of Concrete Science and Technology (ICITECH), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 València, Spain
Interests: multiobjective optimization; structures optimization; lifecycle assessment; social sustainability of infrastructures; reliability-based maintenance optimization; optimization and decision-making under uncertainty
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Moacir Kripka

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Guest Editor

Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Program (PPGEng), University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo 99052-900, Brazil
Interests: structural analysis; optimization; building; engineering optimization; civil engineering; linear programming; mathematical programming; heuristics; structural optimization; concrete; combinatorial optimization; structural engineering; multiobjective optimization; reinforced concrete; optimization methods; discrete optimization; optimization theory; simulated annealing; optimization software
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the 2nd edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure. The recently established Sustainable Development Goals call for a paradigm shift in the way buildings and infrastructures are conceived. The construction industry is a main source of environmental impacts, given its great material consumption and energy demands. It is also a major contributor to the economic growth of regions through the provision of useful infrastructure and generation of employment, among others. Conventional approaches underlying current building design practices fall short of covering the relevant environmental and social implications derived from inappropriate design, construction, and planning. The development of adequate sustainable design strategies is therefore becoming extremely relevant with regard to the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Goals for Sustainable Development.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Buildings.

Prof. Dr. Víctor Yepes
Prof. Dr. Moacir Kripka
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable design and construction
life cycle assessment
sustainability in decision making
green buildings
sustainable maintenance
resilient structures
sustainable materials
social life cycle assessment
sustainable management of infrastructures
multiobjective optimization for sustainable development

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3751 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Objective Optimization Applied to the Design of Sustainable Pedestrian Bridges

Fernando Luiz Tres Junior

Víctor Yepes

Guilherme Fleith de Medeiros

and

Moacir Kripka

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 3190; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043190 - 11 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1411

Abstract

The demand for more sustainable structures has been shown as a growing tendency, and engineers can use optimization techniques to aid in the design and sizing stage, achieving solutions that minimize its cost and environmental and social impacts. In pedestrian bridges, which are subjected to human-induced vibrations, it is also important to ensure the users’ comfort, besides the security verifications. In this context, the objective of this paper is to perform a multi-objective optimization of a steel-concrete composite pedestrian bridge, minimizing cost, carbon dioxide emissions, and vertical acceleration caused by human walking. For this, the Multi-Objective Harmony Search (MOHS) was applied to obtain non-dominated solutions and compose a Pareto Front. Two scenarios were considered with different unit emissions obtained from a life cycle assessment in the literature. Results show that by increasing 15% the structure cost, the vertical acceleration is reduced from 2.5 to 1.0 m/s². For both scenarios, the optimal ratio for the web height and total span (L_e) lies between L_e/20 and L_e/16. The web height, the concrete strength, and the slab thickness were the design variables with more influence on the value of the vertical acceleration. The Pareto-optimal solutions were considerably sensitive to the parameters varied in each scenario, changing concrete consumption and dimensions of the welded steel I-beam, evidencing the importance of carrying out a sensitivity analysis in optimization problems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure)

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16 pages, 816 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Knowledge Sharing Capability in Innovative Behavior: A SEM Approach from Graduate Students’ Insights

Víctor Yepes

and

Salvador López

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(2), 1284; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021284 - 10 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1172

Abstract

The capability to share knowledge is considered one of the most relevant components of knowledge management. Moreover, there is little empirical evidence indicating how future human resources in the construction industry value the richness of knowledge sharing and the richness of their innovative behavior. The purposes of this study are (1) to determine which facilitators, from the point of view of master’s degree students related to engineering and construction management in Spain, most substantially influence knowledge sharing capability; (2) to test whether knowledge sharing capability (KS) positively influences innovative behavior (IB); and (3) demonstrating whether organizational innovation climate (OIC) is a factor that moderates the relationship between KS and IB. In this research, we have proposed a theoretical model and empirically tested the model in a sample of 253 master’s degree students in public universities in Spain. The findings support the proposed model, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) evaluation suggests that, among all the facilitators of KS, information and communication technologies (ICT) stand out among the other facilitators and have a more significant influence on KS. Furthermore, the research found a direct correlation between KS and IB and causal links between OIC and IB. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure)

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17 pages, 2472 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Life Cycle Assessment of Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Husnain Haider

Sulaiman Yousef AlMarshod

Saleem S. AlSaleem

Ahmed AbdelMonteleb M. Ali

Majed Alinizzi

Mohammad T. Alresheedi

and

Md. Shafiquzzaman

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(12), 7382; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127382 - 16 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3308

Abstract

Extensive construction augmenting the infrastructure and real estate projects underpin Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 of sustainable cities. A part of this struggle involves the transformation of the existing infrastructure together with new construction, which generates a large amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW). In the absence of a structured life cycle assessment (LCA) framework, the waste management companies are planning future scenarios (phased expansions of material recovery facilities to improve the recycling rate) primarily on economic grounds. This study assesses the environmental impacts of the existing and planned CDW management practices of the Saudi Investment Recycling Company in Riyadh City by dint of LCA. Impact 2002+ performs life cycle impact assessment of the base case (45% recycling), four treatments (61, 76, 88, and 100% recycling), and zero waste scenarios. The study demonstrates the benefits of current CDW (mixed soil, concrete blocks, clay bricks, glazed tiles, and asphalt) recycling in terms of avoided impacts of non-renewable energy, global warming, carcinogens, non-carcinogens, and respiratory inorganics potentially generated by landfilling. For the treatment scenario of 100% recycling, CDW conversion into a wide range of aggregates (0–50 mm) can replace 10–100% virgin aggregates in backfilling, precast concrete manufacturing, encasements and beddings of water mains and sewers, manholes construction, non-load bearing walls, and farm-to-market roads. To achieve long-term economic and environmental sustainability, municipalities need to improve source segregation, handling, and storage practices to enhance the existing (45%) recycling rate to 100% in the next five years and approach the zero-waste scenario by 2030. The findings of the present study motivate the generators for source reduction as well as encourage the recycling companies and concerned organizations in the continuous performance improvement of the CDW management systems across Saudi Arabia on environmental grounds, as an addition to the perceived economic benefits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure)

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21 pages, 2132 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of Brazilian Social Interest Housing Projects Considering Sustainability

Paulo Cezar Vitorio Junior

Víctor Yepes

and

Moacir Kripka

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(10), 6213; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19106213 - 20 May 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1617

Abstract

Considering the importance of the development of new housing projects, the purpose of this research is to provide a model oriented to the identification of the most sustainable alternative in single-family housing projects of social interest from the perspective of life cycle thinking (LCT) and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP). A ceramic masonry project and a concrete masonry project were evaluated. In the environmental dimension, the results showed that the ceramic masonry project had more significant environmental impacts and greater damage to human health and the availability of resources and ecosystems. In the social dimension, it was found that there are discrepancies between the salaries in the construction supply chain and that the concrete masonry project had better social characteristics than the ceramic masonry project. The economic dimension revealed that the concrete masonry project was more attractive. Relating the environmental, social, and economic dimensions’ results, through the combination of LCT and AHP, it was found that the concrete masonry project presented a combination of more sustainable characteristics than the ceramic masonry project in the majority of the results. Among the implications of the study carried out here is the advancement of sustainability applied to the construction sector. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure)

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20 pages, 1656 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Driving Factors of Public Participation in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Projects—A Case Study of China

and

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5192; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095192 - 25 Apr 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1887

Abstract

Public participation is an important procedure of the environmental impact assessment. Effective public participation is essential to the Public–Private Partnership (PPP) projects as such projects usually exert tremendous impacts on the environment and society. However, in literature, there are few studies investigating the driving factors of public participation in PPP projects, especially in the context of China. To bridge this research gap, this study proposed a theoretical model, which incorporates contextual factors (i.e., perceived benefit and perceived risk) into the classical Theory of Planned Behavior model, to explore the determinants. The initial proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling. Analysis results indicated that attitude towards behavior, subjective norm, perceived risk and perceived behavioral control were the four significant driving factors of public participation in PPP projects, whereas perceived benefit had limited impact. Furthermore, this study evaluated eight public participation approaches in PPP projects. Results revealed that the public were more willing to participate in public decisions through the internet platform, followed by the information disclosure or consultation provided by the government. The research findings derived in this study can provide valuable reference for the government to promulgate proper policies to attract more public participation in PPP projects. Moreover, the research idea and methods used in this study can be popularized in other countries to enhance the public participation in PPP projects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure)

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23 pages, 2990 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Do Government Policies Promote Green Housing Diffusion in China? A Complex Network Game Context

Xia Cao

Tianjiao Zhao

and

Zeyu Xing

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2238; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042238 - 16 Feb 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1668

Abstract

To reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution in the construction industry, many countries have focused on the development of green housing (GH), which is a type of green building for residential use. In China, the local governments have introduced various incentive policies to encourage the development of GH; however, its scale is still small and unevenly distributed. This implies a necessity to optimize the policies that apply to the GH incentive. To promote GH diffusion, we built an evolutionary game model on a complex network to analyze the impacts of government policies on GH pricing and demand and the profits of real estate enterprises developing GH. By implementing simulations, we further explored the incentive effect and operational mechanism of the government policies. The results show that the subsidy policy, the preferential policy for GH, and the restriction policy for ordinary housing can effectively promote the diffusion of GH to 0.6752, 0.506, and 0.5137 respectively. Meanwhile, the incentive effect of the enterprise subsidy policy and GH preferential policy gradually decreases with the increase in policy strength. In terms of the demand side, the consumer subsidy policy could promote GH diffusion to 0.7097. If the subsidy is below 120 CNY/m², the effect of the consumer subsidy policy is less powerful than that of the enterprises subsidy policy; conversely, the former is slightly more effective than the latter. The outcome of the study has managerial implications on governmental decision-making, especially on the strategy design of incentive policies for GH. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure)

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Other

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17 pages, 5121 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

Influence of Traffic-Induced Vibrations on Humans and Residential Building—A Case Study

and

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5441; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095441 - 29 Apr 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 1659

Abstract

The case study presents an assessment of the traffic-induced vibrations on humans and residential buildings, which is important for sustainable development. The analyzed residential building had several cracks in the walls. Control gypsum tapes were applied to all cracks in the building and additional elements near the road to determine the propagation of the damage. To determine the harmfulness of vibrations for humans, vibration acceleration measurements linked to road traffic inside the analyzed building were carried out. The vibration velocities inside the object were set based on the integration of the obtained accelerations. The experimental field investigation was carried out in places where humans commonly stayed (on the first floor) at the points where the vibrations are transmitted from the construction to humans. The study involved a time history analysis, a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis, and Root Mean Square (RMS) acceleration and velocity in a one-third octave bands spectrum. Based on the conducted experimental tests, it can be pointed out that the received velocity values in the tested building, caused by the passage of various vehicles, were below the permissible levels. However, it was noticed that the distance between the building and the fence had an important role in damping vibrations emitted by passing vehicles. The presented case study may be of use to other researchers who will be involved in similar cases and want to include sustainable infrastructure development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2nd Edition of Trends in Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure)

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