Environmental Science in Building

Chapter 1
The Environment
A. Basic Term
1. Natural environment is the entire environment without human presence or
interfaces, including climate, mountain, hills, rivers and lakes, rock and soil, trees
and plants.
2. Built environment is formed by the buildings and other structure that human
construct in the natural environment including water and drainage system,
transportation system, power system, communication system and etc.
3. Sustainability is the general idea of meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the need of the future.
4. Green or sustainable building is deliberately designed to minimize the impact on
the environment and to maximize efficiency in the use of resources such as
materials, water, and energy over the lifecycle of the building.
B. Connection between Environments
The built environment responds to the local natural environment. Climate is major
factor determining the features of the building, together with the availability of building
materials and skills. In addition, local traditional and international architecture styles
are also influences the types of building found across the world.

Figure 1. Parts of the environment

The interaction between natural and built environment have effect that cause concern
about:

Consumption of non-replenish able resource such as fossil fuel

Consumption of resources without replenishment such as hardwood forests
Harmful changes in local habitat such as deforestation
Harm full changes in global habitat such as climate change.

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Table 1.1 Example of environment connection

Natural environment
features
Hot and dry climates

Warm,
climate
Cold climate

humid

Snowfalls
High Winds
Forest
Loose
stone
quarries
Clay soil

or

Earthquake zones

Built environment features

Light colored surface
Roof overhands to provide shade
Opening for breezes
Courtyard to trap the cooler air
Lightweight materials
Buildings on stilts for ventilation
Naturally sheltered sites
High insulation
Tightly sealed construction
Strong roof for load
Sloping roofs for discharging snow
Naturally sheltered sites
Low sunken buildings
Timbers as construction materials
Stone as construction material
Mud brick or adobe construction
Fired brick as construction material
Low rise flexible construction
Reinforced concrete structures
Avoidance of unsecured masonry

C. BUILT ENVIRONMENT

1.
2.
3.
4.

Building types are varied and include houses, schools, shops, etc. and they are designed
to people living or working inside. The book is focusing on factors or features of
buildings that affect human comfort.
A building has four major stages:
Design
Specify what we want and how best to do it
Construction
During the stage the building is made, requiring resource of land, material, energy and
having an impact on the natural environment
Performance
The stage when the building provides the benefit to the occupants but required
arrangement for energy supplies, water supplies and also water disposal.
Disposal
This stage is when the building is disassembled and its material and fittings are recycle
or disposal with minimum impact on the environment.

Building Design
Building Construction
Building Performance over
Building
lifetime
recycling and disposal
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Figure 1.2 Major Stages in the life of a building

D. CLIMATE

Climate is weather variation in a one specific place over a period of time.

Directly or indirectly, climate has an influence on all human activity, traditional
social characteristic (such as type of food grown, clothes worn, leisure activities
and the building design)
The climate in a specific place will also varied by the graphical latitude, season of
the year, altitude and topography, effect of water and atmospheric circulation

Latitude
The geographical latitude of a place on the earth is a measure of its position above or
below the equator and is usually measured by angles in degree. For note, the intensity of
solar radiation decreases as latitude increase.
The solar radiation and heating effect received from the sun is strongest when it strikes
the Earth surface straight on, at an angle of 90o to the surface.
Season of the Year
The intensity of solar radiation is varies with the season of the year. The orbit of the
earth around the sun is slightly elliptical and the axis of the Earth is tilt by 23.5 with
respect to the plane that passes through the sun and the equator. The tilt will cause
changes in radiation, length of the day and climate between summer and winter.

Figure 1.3 Motion of Earth around the sun

Altitude and Topography

The height of a place above the sea level affect its climate because the temperature of
the air decrease with the altitude. The air temperature drops by 6.5oC for each 1000m
increase in altitude

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The surface feature of the Earth or topography also influence the local climate by
affecting the formation of wind, cloud and rain. For example as humid air from an
ocean sweeps up the slope of a mountain range the air cools, forms cloud and causing
rain or snow to fall. As the wind blows down the leeward slopes on the other side of the
mountain the air usually warms and clouds tend to disappear.
Effect of water
Ocean and large lakes affect climates by reducing the extreme of air temperature at
place nearby and downwind of them, because the mass of water absorb heat. The air
temperature over the ocean and in place near ocean have smaller variation in air
temperature than at place at the same altitude but well inland.
Atmospheric circulation
Atmospheric circulation means large scale movement of the air. The movement of the
large mases of air in the atmosphere influence climate by producing wind that distribute
heat and moisture. Global belts of wind such as trade wind circle the earth and shift
north and south as the season of the year changes. In the spring they move towards the
poles and in the autumns they shift toward the equator.

Figure 1.4 Trade Wind

E.CLIMATE TYPE
For the purpose of studying the effect of the climate upon building and human comfort,
the four general climate types describe in Table 1.2

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Table 1.2 Climate types

F. ENVIRONMENT AROUND BUILDING

The following general features of local natural environment are important to our choices
of site for building and towns:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Availability of drinking water

Drainage of ground
Safety from flooding
Shelter from prevailing weather
Orientation of the sun as appropriate

G. CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming is an increase in the earth`s average atmospheric temperature that
causes corresponding changes in the climate and that may result from the greenhouse
effect. The effect of global warming for example are:
Melting the polar ice causing raising the sea level and disappearance the land
Increase in severity off storm and flooding
Change in rainfall pattern
Changes in pattern of snowfall, etc.

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Greenhouses Gases
Greenhouse gases are those that have a large influence on the greenhouses effect. Some
significant greenhouse gases:
a. Water vapor H2O: occurs naturally from the water of the world, not including
cloud and accounts for most of the greenhouse effect of the earth
b. Carbon Dioxide CO2; produce by burning of fossil fuel and forest and by all
organic decay. Chimney, motor vehicles exhaust and forest fires are major
sources
c. Methane CH4; the main component of natural gas supplies, produce by decay of
organic matter and also by the digestion of sheep and cattle
d. Nitrogen Oxide NOx. The variation oxide of nitrogen, which are mainly produce
by motor vehicle emission.
e. Chlorofluorocarbons CFCs; Families of chemical compound manufactured for
use in refrigerator and spray cans and for insulation.
Greenhouse gas emission agreement
Kyoto protocol is an agreement made between countries to reduce their emission of
carbon dioxide and five others greenhouse gases.
Environmental comfort

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The physical comfort of the humans greatly depends upon the following physical
factors; temperature, quality of air, lighting environment and acoustic environment.

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