This research focuses on a comparison of 20 external wall systems that are conventionally used in Spanish residential buildings, from a perspective based on the product and construction process stages of the life cycle assessment. The primary objective is to provide data that allow knowing the environmental behavior of walls built with materials and practices conventionally. This type of analysis will enable promoting the creation of regulations that encourage the use of combinations of materials that generate the most environmentally suitable result, and in turn, contribute to the strengthening of the embodied stages study of buildings and their elements. The results indicate that the greatest impact arises in the product stage (90.9%), followed by the transport stage (8.9%) and the construction process stage (<1%). Strategies (such as the use of large-format pieces and the controlled increase in thickness of the thermal insulation) can contribute to reducing the environmental impact; on the contrary, practices such as the use of small-format pieces and laminated plasterboard can increase the environmental burden. The prediction of the environmental behavior (simulation equation) allows these possible impacts to be studied in a fast and simplified way.
Currently, few studies have compared the variations in environmental impact throughout the different stages of the life cycle of urban construction elements; and of these, only a minority approach it from the perspective of favoring mobility on a human scale and reducing the space allocated to motorized traffic flow. This study, by means of quantitative data, shows the environmental implications associated with prioritizing the non-motorized mobility of a city's inhabitants during the design process of an urban construction element, the residential street (referring to the stages of the production and the construction process: the "cradle to handover" approach). An emerging methodology in urban themes was used in order to obtain the environmental analysis: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The results show that the increase in the human scale and the favoring of non-motorized mobility generate a lower environmental impact (considering the same uses of materials for the different zones of analysis). Additionally, it was possible to establish the influence that the specific use of materials employed in the construction of the streets may have, as well as the importance that an LCA acquires in the design of the urban environment.
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