Assessment of high-rise building technology from an environmental perspective | |
| Author | Theeravuth Leelasithorn |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.SM-97-02 |
| Subject(s) | Tall buildings Technology assessment Environmental impact analysis |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Rapid economic development in Asian countries has led to considerable demand for urban space. Meeting the demand through vertical expansion involving the construction of high-rise buildings (HRBs) for both housing and business purposees is much more attractive compared to horizontal expansion, which is very expensive and time consuming. However, such expansion appears to create a host of problems involving environmental, resource consumption, and safety aspects. Different objectives and priorities of the main stakeholders involved in HRB, namely: owners; developers; architects; engineers; contractors; and the end users are major causes for such problems. Thus, it is necessary to develop a concept of environmental compatibility for HRBs in order to balance the requirements of economic expansion and environmental conservation. This study is a preliminary attempt to develop a model to assess the environmental compatibility of HRB technologies so that environmental aspects may be explicitly considered in planning HRBs. The model has been developed through the delineation of assessment factors (generic technologies or performances), each of which is interpreted in terms of specific technological alternatives. A scoring scheme has been developed to rate each technological alternative and the weights reflecting relative importance of the assessment factors are obtained from expert opinion through the use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Based on the ratings and the weightages, a scheme for developing environmental compatibility indexes for both new and existing HRBs are then formulated. For a new HRB, the index is the weighted average of the environmental compatibility of construction and service utility technologies while the index for an existing HRB is that of service utility technologies and service performances. Case studies of two HRBs, a new and an existing one, in Bangkok have been carried out to demonstrate the utility of the proposed model. It is then shown how information generated through the application of the model can be used for improving the environmental compatibility of HRBs. Firstly the information generated can be used to prioritize technologies and performances that need upgrading with respect to environmental compatibility. It is shown that such prioritization has to be done taking into consideration the rationale for the employment of desired technologies and performances, and constraints likely to be faced in their implementation. Secondly, possible schemes are suggested for using the generated information to introduce environmental compatibility enhancing policies and interventions. Lastly, suggestions are also made with respect to cooperative arrangements that are needed between government, support institutes, and the construction sector to actively use the proposed model for enhancing the environmental compatibility of HRBs. |
| Year | 1997 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management (SOM) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Publication code=SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Ramanathan, K.;Sharif, Nawaz; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Gupta, Jyoti P.;Chongrak Polprasert;Spigai, Joseph J. |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1997 |