Comprehensive assessment of embodied environmental impacts of buildings using normalized environmental impact factors

Hydropower offers significant value for global carbon peak and carbon neutrality. However, the construction of hydropower stations leads to significant changes in land use and cover structure in reservoir areas, which affect ecosystem services including carbon balance. Furthermore, the development and operation of hydropower project require vast investment. However, the reservoir ecosystem’s carbon storage and carbon emission reduction caused by hydropower could offer economic benefits when the official carbon market trading in China was launched in 2021. Therefore, it is necessary to assess comprehensively the changes in carbon storage and its value to the ecosystem in reservoir areas. The evaluation is of great importance for carbon loss reduction, land management, and hydropower development. This study provides a comprehensive and effective framework for evaluating changes in carbon storage and has its value to the reservoir ecosystem. It combines land utilization classification data obtained from remote sensing image interpretation and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) carbon storage model. Based on the case study of the Xiluodu reservoir area, they were evaluated from two aspects: physical quantity and value quantity. The results show that the carbon storage in the Xiluodu reservoir area increased by 8,504.42 Mg from 2000 to 2018. The spatial distribution of the carbon storage shows a trend of high in the north and west, but low in the south and east. The construction of hydropower stations and the rise of reservoir water level covered a large amount of land, which led to the loss of carbon storage in reservoir areas. By implementing soil and water conservation and vegetation protection policies, parts of the cultivated land and grassland were converted into forestland, which was the main source for increasing the ecosystem’s carbon storage. Moreover, carbon emission reduction was achieved by hydropower. In terms of the monetary value, the carbon storage value of the reservoir ecosystem increased to 19 million RMB during the construction period (2005–2015). The carbon storage value of the reservoir ecosystem increased to 611 million RMB during the operation period (2015–2018). The latter was greater than the maintenance cost of the hydropower station and exceeded the amortized cost of hydropower development, indicating the feasibility and economic benefits of hydropower development. These findings provide guidance for future hydropower development decisions in Jinsha River Basin and also others.

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“…The monetary values in this study were prices in 2000. The discount rate of the capital market was assumed to be 8% [ 28 , 42 ].…”

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment on Changes of Ecosystem Carbon Storage in Reservoir Area due to Hydroproject

Long

Zhou

2022

Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience

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“…For the safety management research of the component hoisting construction phase, most literature focuses on the layout and machinery. Scholars, such as Lu (2021) and Adrian (2015) [21][22][23][24][25][26], started with the hoisting construction process, then managed and controlled safety accidents from the perspective of the facility layout and design planning of the construction site. Although such research can plan accident areas through algorithms, it still cannot reduce the probability of accidents at the source.…”

Section: Safety Management In Hoisting Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of Occupational Safety Risks in Prefabricated Building Hoisting Construction Based on HFACS-PH and SEM

Song

Wang

Liu³

2022

IJERPH

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As the concern for environmental pollution and occupational safety caused by the construction industry is gradually increasing worldwide, the prefabricated building model has become a type of construction promoted by sustainable societies. In China, the management codes of prefabricated buildings are not mature enough and safety accidents occur frequently during the construction process. Therefore, how to analyze and determine the main factors that affect the safety of the construction of prefabricated buildings has become a problem to protect the lives and health of construction workers. In this study, we focused our research on the accident-prone component-hoisting construction phase. First, through the questionnaire and accident data, the traditional human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS) was improved into the HFACS–prefabricated building hoisting (PH) risk model. This study also established a comprehensive safety prevention and control system for the component-hoisting process of prefabricated buildings by combining the factor analysis of using structural equation modeling (SEM). The prevention and control measures to avoid the occurrence of prefabricated building component-hoisting accidents were also proposed from four aspects: external environment, organizational factors, prerequisites for triggering accidents, and unsafe leadership behaviors. The results showed the following: (1) For the external environment, occupational safety and health system standards should be established and safety supervision responsibilities should be implemented. (2) For organizational factors, safety management systems should be improved with more capital investment. (3) For unsafe leadership behaviors, safety education and training should be strengthened to ensure workers’ optimal physical and psychological states. (4) For the prerequisite of accidents, it is necessary to create a good hoisting work environment.

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“…As early as 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued Housing and Health Guidelines to provide recommendations on how residential buildings can ensure people's safety and health, including insufficient living space (i.e., crowding), low room temperature and heat insulation, indoor injury risk and air pollution, among which indoor air pollution has attracted great concern [3]. The dramatic development of building technology has greatly improved energy-saving and comfort properties [4], but on the other hand it also requires an increasing amount of synthetic building materials which can lead to indoor air pollution accumulation, and is harmful to human health [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building and Health: Mapping the Knowledge Development of Sick Building Syndrome

et al. 2022

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At present, with more and more attention paid to the impact of buildings on the health and well-being of occupants, sick building syndrome (SBS) has become a global concern. Since the introduction of SBS by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1983, thousands of research literatures have been published in this field. This paper systematically arranges knowledge development of SBS through bibliometric analysis, exploring the most influential countries, institutions, journals and scholars, as well as the main subject categories and keywords. Main path analysis (MPA) was used to list development trajectory under inheritance relationship of SBS knowledge, including symptom analysis, risk factors of SBS and the improved impact of ventilation on SBS and productivity. Furthermore, it is an emerging research trend to propose SBS solution in the building design stage.

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Comprehensive assessment of embodied environmental impacts of buildings using normalized environmental impact factors

Cited by 123 publications

References 69 publications

Assessment on Changes of Ecosystem Carbon Storage in Reservoir Area due to Hydroproject

Assessment on Changes of Ecosystem Carbon Storage in Reservoir Area due to Hydroproject

Study of Occupational Safety Risks in Prefabricated Building Hoisting Construction Based on HFACS-PH and SEM

Building and Health: Mapping the Knowledge Development of Sick Building Syndrome

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