Despite the fact that completion of construction projects has a direct positive impact on the growth of national and local economics as well as humans' wellbeing, construction projects, especially in the urban areas, generate serious environmental nuisances for the adjacent residents and have unintentional adverse impacts on their surrounding environment. Construction causative adverse impacts on the neighbouring communities are known as the social costs. This study aims to present a state-of-the-art overview of social costs in construction industry in terms of definition, consideration, classification and quantification. Furthermore, a definition for social costs in construction projects will be presented as well as a summarization of more recent researches.
Without any doubt, one of the most worldwide challenging and controversial issues in the current century is the energy problem. In most countries, the increase of energy consumption, especially in building, has made energy saving and efficiency strategies important target for energy policies. In general, there are many ways to save energy. The most common method of economizing is within culturalization. For such purpose, building energy management system (BEMS) is considered as the latest idea of energy. Having a dynamic environment, smart buildings are affordable by the integration of four main elements: systems, structure, service, management, and the relationship between them. Intelligent buildings provide these benefits through intelligent control systems. In this paper, while introducing the energy management in buildings, it studies their applications and also their effects on management and optimization of energy consumption. The office building in San Francisco, USA with 66,943 ft2 area is considered as a case study for this research. Energy consumption is reduced 50 percent by implementing BMS in this building.
Over the last few years, the use of nanomaterials in the construction industry has grown prominently. Nanomaterials can considerably modify the properties of construction materials and even improve their performance. Despite their merits, considerable research has reported that nanomaterials pose a potential risk to human health. For this reason, it is important to fully comprehend the effects of nanomaterials on human health and the environment throughout all phases of their life cycle, including manufacturing, construction use, and recycling, in order to ensure their responsible usage. This research reviews the use of nanomaterials to enhance the properties of conventional construction materials as well as the possible adverse exposure scenarios for humans and the environment. Moreover, the potential risks and negative biological effects of these materials on human health are debated. This study serves to raise awareness of the potential hazards of nanomaterials, especially on human health and the environment.
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