Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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Awareness and knowledge are the main factors to intensify the sustainability
movement (Zainul Abidin, 2010). The Malaysian government, professional bodies
and private organizations have started several programs in order to enhance the
awareness and knowledge of construction practitioners, and also to promote the
application of sustainable principles within construction projects (Zainul Abidin,
2010). Unfortunately, the sustainability movement is a new concept for the
construction industry in Malaysia and there is no comprehensive reference to inform
construction practitioners of the riskiest environmental impacts due to the
construction process. This study aimed at prioritizing the most frequent
environmental impacts, in order of their impact level, by investigating their frequency
and consequences of occurrence.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CONSTRUCTION
Enhancing the identification of the major environmental impacts of
construction processes will help to improve the effectiveness of environmental
management systems. Furthermore, prediction of the correlated environmental
impacts of construction before the construction stage, will lead to improvements in
the environmental performance of construction projects and sites. The determination
of major environmental impacts will assist to consider a range of on-site measures in
order to mitigate them (Gangolells et al., 2011). The environmental impacts across
construction processes consists of ecosystems impact, natural resources impact, and
public impact (Li et al., 2010).
Ecosystems Impact: The accumulated amount of adverse environmental
impacts like waste, noise, dust, and hazardous emissions still occur during the
construction process which cause serious damages to humans and ecosystems (Chen
et al., 2004). With the rise in the number of construction of new buildings, the
ecosystems impact of construction has become an important issue.
Natural Resources: Various natural resources namely energy, land,
materials and water are used during the typical construction process (Shen et
al., 2005). Moreover, several construction equipment operations involve consumption
of natural resources, such as electricity and/or diesel fuel. The building industry is
responsible for using a high volume of natural resources and generation a great
amount of pollution as a result of energy consumption during extraction and
transportation of raw materials (Li et al., 2010; Morel et al., 2001).
Public Impact: Most construction projects are located in a densely populated
area. Thus, people who live at or close to construction sites are prone to harmful
effects on their health because of dust, vibration and noise due to certain construction
activities such as excavation (Li et al., 2010).
A thorough literature review, including (Gangolells et al., 2009; Gangolells et
al., 2011; Li et al., 2010; Shen et al., 2005; Tam et al., 2006), was performed in order
to develop greater understanding of environmental impacts. The environmental
impacts can be developed to the further subcategory. A list of 26 subcategories of
environmental impacts was identified through the previous research (Gangolells et al.,
2011; Li et al., 2010; Shen et al., 2005). Figure 1 provides the hierarchy of
environmental performance subcategories as environmental impacts across
construction process.
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Severity
Description
Frequency
Insignificant
Minimal impact
Never
Minor
Short-term impact
Unlikely
Moderate
Significant impact
Possible
Major
Likely
Catastrophic
Always
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series of impacts that could result in damage to the environment. The severity of the
consequences is defined as the extent of damage that could result from an impact on
the environment.
Risk can be assessed and presented, using matrices, by estimating
probabilities and consequences in a qualitative manner or with quantitative values
(Ayyub, 2003). A risk matrix has been used to rank various risks in order of
importance (Jeong et al., 2010). A risk matrix is a table that includes several
categories of probability, frequency, or likelihood for its rows (or columns) and
several categories of severity, consequences, or impact for its columns (or rows) as
shown in Table 2 (Cox, 2008). Table 2 demonstrates that risk will increase if either
probability or severity rise, or both rise concurrently.
Table 2: Risk Matrix (Jeong et al., 2010)
Level of
Description
Consequence
1
Insignificant
2
Minor
3
Moderate
4
Major
5
Catastrophic
Level of
Description
Frequency
1
Never
2
Unlikely
=
3
Possible
4
Likely
5
Always
Probability
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5
4
3
2
1
5 10 15 20 25
4 8 12 16 20
3 6 9 12 15
2 4 6 8 10
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
Consequence
(1)
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1754
FOCa
Environmental Impacts
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Operations with
Vegetation
Removal
Emission of
Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOC)
and CFC
Generation of Inert
Waste
Operation with
High Potential Soil
Erosion
Public
Impact
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SDb
SEVc
(FOC)
SD
ILd
Priority
(SEV)
3.23
1.3
3.08
1.16
9.96
Priority
10
3.3
1.06
0.94
9.9
Priority
11
3.3
0.67
2.92
1.08
9.63
Priority
13
3.2
0.92
0.82
9.6
Priority
14
Water pollution
3.27
0.8
2.93
0.96
Waste generation
3.27
1.1
2.83
1.11
Dust Generation
2.91
0.83
3.17
1.03
Inert water
3.17
1.19
2.64
1.21
Chemical Pollution
2.75
1.14
1.04
Landscape
Alteration
2.79
0.89
2.69
0.95
Toxic generation
3.08
2.36
1.36
2.58
1.08
2.22
1.09
3.31
1.03
3.07
1.14
2.77
1.09
Waterborne
2.64
1.03
Toxicities
Green House Gas
2.73
1.19
Emission
Total Impact Level
Site Hygiene
3.25
1.14
Condition
Public Health
3.14
1.29
Effects
Social Disruption
2.77
1.17
Priority
15
Priority
9.26
17
Priority
9.21
18
Priority
8.35
20
Priority
8.25
21
Priority
7.5
23
Priority
7.29
24
Priority
6.81
25
Priority
6.06
26
165.69
Priority
10.75
5
Priority
9.65
12
Priority
7.67
22
28.07
9.58
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Environmental Impacts
12%
21%
Na tura l Resources
Impa ct
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Ecosystem Impa ct
Public Impa ct
67%
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1758
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Peters S., Thomassen Y., Fechter-Rink E., Kromhout H. (2009). "Personal exposure
to inhalable cement dust among construction workers". Journal of
Environmental Monitoring 11:17480.
Shen L.-Y., Lu W.-S., Yao H., Wu D.-H. (2005). "A computer-based scoring method
for measuring the environmental performance of construction activities".
Automation in Construction 14:297-309.
Tam V.W.Y., Tam C.M., Zeng S.X., Chan K.K. (2006). "Environmental performance
measurement indicators in construction". Building and Environment 41:164173.
Tse Y., Raymond V. (2001). "The implementation of EMS in construction firms: case
study in Hong Kong". Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and
Management 3:94 -177.
Zainul Abidin N. (2010). "Investigating the awareness and application of sustainable
construction concept by Malaysian developers". Habitat International 34:421426.
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