The Budget as a Basis for Ecological Management of Urbanization Projects. Case Study in Seville, Spain

Abstract

Urbanization projects, understood as those supplying basic services for cities, such as drinking water, sewers, communication services, power, and lighting, are normally short-term extremely scattered actions, and it can be difficult to track their environmental impact. The present article’s main contribution is to employ the project budgets of public urbanization work to provide an instrument for environmental improvement, thereby helping public procurement, including sustainability criteria. Two urban projects in Seville, Spain are studied: the first substitutes existing services, and the second also includes gardens and playgrounds in the street margins. The methodology finds the construction elements that must be controlled in each project from the perspective of three indicators: carbon, water footprints, and embodied energy. The main impacts found are due to only four construction units: concrete, aggregates, asphalt, and ceramic pipes for the sewer system, that represent 70% or more of the total impact in all indicators studied. The public developer can focus procurement on those few elements in order to exert a lower impact and to significantly reduce the environmental burden of urbanization projects.

Life Cycle Assessment of Industrial Building Construction and Recovery Potential. Case Studies in Seville

“…In addition, the cost obtained in that study (800 €/m 2 ) was triple the results for the industrial case studies analyzed here. Ruiz-Perez et al [30], determined the carbon footprint of two urbanization projects during the renovation of a city street with gardens. Their footprint was 141.2 and 256.5 kgCO 2 eq/m 2 of street area, respectively.…”

“…Open data can be employed for LCA information, such as free access construction cost databases and EPDs, which can reduce the assessment costs. There are also opportunities to include other indicators, apart from the calculation of CO 2 emissions, and to identify those activities that actually control a variety of impacts [30].…”

Methodology for Improving the Sustainability of Industrial Buildings via Matrix of Combinations Water and Carbon Footprint Assessment

“…These resources use other indicators in addition to CF, such as the water footprint (WF). CF and WF indicators are favorable environmental indicators for public tenders and regulation development aiming to improve the sustainability of the life cycle of buildings, as they promote messages that are simple and understandable for the general public [12].…”