The Impact of Engineering Practices on a Sustainable Built Environment

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 1683

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26666, United Arab Emirates
Interests: construction and engineering management; organizational management; sustainability and sustainable developments; BIM; PPP/PFI; educational research; disaster and resilience management, and performance management

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Interests: adaptable buildings; stakeholder engagement; building information modelling; facilities information management

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 26666, United Arab Emirates
Interests: sustainability; engineering and organization management; data science; computer integrated modelling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In view of the global challenges that the world is currently facing, to save and protect our planet, creating smart and sustainable built and human environments is crucial and requires a multi-disciplinary approach that addresses the complex interactions between the built environment, natural systems, and human activities. We therefore invite you to submit to this Special Issue research papers that address critical issues; challenges that provoke solutions for smarter and more sustainable built and human environments; and strategies that promote environmental, social, and economic sustainability, under the following themes:

  • Smart and sustainable building: designing strategies and technologies to reduce energy consumption and to minimize waste in building construction and operation;
  • Circular economy in the built environment: applying circular economy principles to the reduction of waste and the promotion of reuse and recycling of building materials;
  • Smart and sustainable transportation: investigating the use of smart and sustainable transportation systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve air quality;
  • Green infrastructure: Investigating the effectiveness of green infrastructure in mitigating the impacts of climate change and improving urban biodiversity;
  • Sustainable urban planning: creating strategies for sustainable urban planning that prioritize equity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote social and economic sustainability;
  • Resilient infrastructure: studying the resilience of buildings and infrastructure to natural disasters and climate change, and developing strategies for adaptation and mitigation;
  • Smart city technologies: exploring the use of smart city technologies such as sensors, data analytics, and automation systems to improve the efficiency of urban systems and to promote sustainability;
  • Human behavior and sustainability: investigating the role of human behavior in promoting or hindering sustainable practices in the built environment, and developing strategies for promoting sustainable behaviors.

Prof. Dr. Vian Ahmed
Dr. Anupa Manewa
Dr. Sara Saboor
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable built environment
  • engineering management
  • sustainable management systems
  • sustainable practices
  • social sustainability
  • sustainable processes

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 13850 KiB  
Article
Daylighting Assessment of a Heritage Place of Instruction and Office Building in Alice, South Africa
by Ochuko K. Overen, Edson L. Meyer and Golden Makaka
Buildings 2023, 13(8), 1932; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13081932 - 29 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1099
Abstract
Mitigation of post-occupancy building energy consumption has resulted in the change of building design to utilise ambient weather factors for indoor thermal conditioning and lighting. This has increased the construction of new buildings with large glazing façades and reduced adaptive use of heritage [...] Read more.
Mitigation of post-occupancy building energy consumption has resulted in the change of building design to utilise ambient weather factors for indoor thermal conditioning and lighting. This has increased the construction of new buildings with large glazing façades and reduced adaptive use of heritage buildings as they are considered not designed to meet modern energy use requirements. This paper evaluates the daylighting performance of a heritage place of instruction and office building. A quantitative research approach based on building information simulation tools was adopted. Autodesk Revit 2021 and Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IESVE) 2021 were used in modelling and simulating the building daylighting performances. The building’s annual daylight performance analysed with climate-based daylight modelling shows that points in the analysed spaces were within the UDI300-2000 for more than 50% of the occupied period (07h00 to 17h00) in a year. The sDA300,50% was found to be 100% in most spaces, which is considered a favourable daylit space according to the Illuminance Engineering Society of North America (IESNA). Further, discomfort glare analysis revealed that the building daylight glare is imperceptible, with an average daylight glare probability of 21.2%. The 1:14 window–wall ratio contributes to the building daylighting relative to orientation without constituting visual discomfort. Overall, climate-based daylight modelling revealed that the building’s annual daylight level meets the IESNA requirements with an imperceptible daylight glare. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop