Cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment of traditional gravel ballasted, white reflective, and vegetative roofs: A Lebanese case study

Bachawati, Makram El; Manneh, Rima; Belarbi, Rafik; Dandres, Thomas; Nassab, C.; Zakhem, Henri El

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.07.170

Cited by 44 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The choice of materials with minimized environmental implications plays a dominant role in their sustainable profile. Sustainable and local material choices are needed in order to have more environmentally friendly GRs and VGS [103,115,[118][119][120][121][122][123][124].…”

Section: Life-cycle Inventory: Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tables S2 and S3 (in Supplementary Material) present lists of GRs and VGS materials whose inputs have been previously calculated, with information on their unit quantities and life cycle phases. These values are taken from previously published LCA studies, dealing respectively with GRs [57,103,[119][120][121]125,126] and VGS [56,[115][116][117][118]122,127].…”

Section: Life-cycle Inventory: Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Closing Water Cycles in the Built Environment through Nature-Based Solutions: The Contribution of Vertical Greening Systems and Green Roofs

Pearlmutter

Pucher

Calheiros

et al. 2021

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Water in the city is typically exploited in a linear process, in which most of it is polluted, treated, and discharged; during this process, valuable nutrients are lost in the treatment process instead of being cycled back and used in urban agriculture or green space. The purpose of this paper is to advance a new paradigm to close water cycles in cities via the implementation of nature-based solutions units (NBS_u), with a particular focus on building greening elements, such as green roofs (GRs) and vertical greening systems (VGS). The hypothesis is that such “circular systems” can provide substantial ecosystem services and minimize environmental degradation. Our method is twofold: we first examine these systems from a life-cycle point of view, assessing not only the inputs of conventional and alternative materials, but the ongoing input of water that is required for irrigation. Secondly, the evapotranspiration performance of VGS in Copenhagen, Berlin, Lisbon, Rome, Istanbul, and Tel Aviv, cities with different climatic, architectural, and sociocultural contexts have been simulated using a verticalized ET0 approach, assessing rainwater runoff and greywater as irrigation resources. The water cycling performance of VGS in the mentioned cities would be sufficient at recycling 44% (Lisbon) to 100% (Berlin, Istanbul) of all accruing rainwater roof–runoff, if water shortages in dry months are bridged by greywater. Then, 27–53% of the greywater accruing in a building could be managed on its greened surface. In conclusion, we address the gaps in the current knowledge and policies identified in the different stages of analyses, such as the lack of comprehensive life cycle assessment studies that quantify the complete “water footprint” of building greening systems.

show abstract

Section: Life-cycle Inventory: Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Life-cycle Inventory: Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Closing Water Cycles in the Built Environment through Nature-Based Solutions: The Contribution of Vertical Greening Systems and Green Roofs

Pearlmutter

Pucher

Calheiros

et al. 2021

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Most of the LCA research of buildings has mainly focused on the efficiency and associated emissions of the operational phase; however, research interest is shifting to the construction phase due to energy-efficient operations [15]. Not only full life cycle (cradle-to-grave) assessment, but also cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-installation assessments of buildings, contribute to clarifying directions for environmentally conscious design [10,16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Impacts of Building Construction Using Cross-laminated Timber Panel Construction Method: A Case of the Research Building in Kyushu, Japan

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Japan, there has been an increase in the number of buildings built using cross-laminated timber (CLT) in order to utilize the abundant forest resources in the country. However, no studies have evaluated the environmental impact of the construction of CLT buildings in Japan. This study evaluates the environmental impacts from the start of construction to the completion of a real CLT building in Kumamoto city, Kyushu region, southern Japan. We investigated the input of the materials and energy used in the construction of the building. The environmental impact categories evaluated include climate change, ozone layer depletion, eutrophication, acidification, and photochemical oxidation. We found that the concrete used for the foundations, and the cement-based soil stabilizer used for ground reinforcement accounted for 42% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The construction site was previously used as a seedbed field, necessitating ground reinforcement. Furthermore, the large foundations were designed in order to raise the low height of the wooden structure from the ground level. Developing and applying methods with lower environmental impacts for ground reinforcement and building foundations is recommended. In addition, we found that by using biomass-derived electricity in CLT manufacturing, the environmental impacts of CLT manufacturing could be reduced, thus reducing the environmental impacts of the entire building. The biogenic carbon fixed in the wooden parts during the building usage accounted for 32% of the total GHG emissions of the building construction. Since this biogenic carbon will be released to the atmosphere at the end-of-life stage of the building, a long-term usage of the CLT buildings and/or reuse of the CLT is recommended.

show abstract

“…In particular, from an energetic perspective, the use of VRs can be very efficient, especially in summertime when VRs could reduce temperature fluctuations through the direct shading of plant canopy and cool the ambient air by consuming solar heat gain for transpiration and photosynthesis processes [1]. Moreover, VRs have an aesthetic appeal [2] and can mitigate noise pollution [3]. There are two main types of VRs: Intensive Green Roof (IGR) with a substrate >20 cm and Extensive Green Roof (EGR) with a substrate <20 cm [4].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the winter season, HDD is 6.97 for TGBR mockup compared to 5.82 for EGR16 mockup while for the summer season, CDD is 7.03 for TGBR mockup compared to 5.59 for EGR16 mockup. As a result, EGR16 could save 0.24 US$/1m2 /day during winter season and 0.30 US$/1m 2 /day during summer season compared to TGBR. From another perspective, El Bachawati et al (2016) showed that for 45 years, TGBR and EGR16 cost 115.17 USD/1m 2 and 70.36 USD/1m 2 respectively [11].The money savings during winter and summer seasons for TGBR and EGR16 mockups was elaborated based on the total cost (construction, maintenance, and energy) of each mockup.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal and economic performance of extensive green roof during typical Lebanese winter and summer days

Koura¹,

Bachawati²,

Belarbi³

et al. 2017

Fifth International Conference on Advances in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering - ACSEE 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The main objective of this research is to determine and compare, using real-time monitoring, the thermal performance of a Traditional Gravel Ballasted Roof (TGBR) mockup and an Extensive Green Roof (EGR) mockup during typical Lebanese winter and summer days. For this purpose, temperature profile of a TGBR mockup was experimentally assessed and compared to the one of an EGR mockup using a 70 cm x 70 cm roof mockups installed on the rooftop of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. The internal temperature was measured for the different roof layers using a total of 7 cross-calibrated thermocouples while air temperature was monitored at 110 cm height using a waterproof temperature sensor. Temperature measurements were recorded every minute. Findings revealed that EGR protect the roof membrane from high temperature fluctuations due to thermal phenomena such as evapotranspiration and solar shading. Moreover, results confirmed that EGR mitigate the temperature fluctuations by 7.61% and 22.66% during typical Lebanese winter and summer days respectively. Outcomes of this study also verify the passive cooling effect of EGRs during hot summer days and during cold winter days. Therefore, EGRs are very efficient in countries with short winter season and long warm/sunny days such as Lebanon. From an economical perspective, EGRs are more cost effective than TGBRs (contributing to an approximate money saving of 73.72 USD during the winter season and 75.52 USD during the summer season).

show abstract

Cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment of traditional gravel ballasted, white reflective, and vegetative roofs: A Lebanese case study

Cited by 44 publications

References 26 publications

Closing Water Cycles in the Built Environment through Nature-Based Solutions: The Contribution of Vertical Greening Systems and Green Roofs

Closing Water Cycles in the Built Environment through Nature-Based Solutions: The Contribution of Vertical Greening Systems and Green Roofs

Environmental Impacts of Building Construction Using Cross-laminated Timber Panel Construction Method: A Case of the Research Building in Kyushu, Japan

Thermal and economic performance of extensive green roof during typical Lebanese winter and summer days

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About