Dynamic Network Analysis of the Risks of Mega Infrastructure Projects from a Sustainable Development Perspective

Mega infrastructure projects (MIPs) are exposed to numerous interdependent risks of various natures which pose difficulties in risk management. Thus far, the research on the risk interactions of MIPs has been focused on developing static risk networks within a single category of risks, at certain stages of the project. It is essential to...

Comparative Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of Alternative Technologies for the Removal of Emerging Contaminants from Urban Wastewater

Emerging contaminants (ECs) continue to threaten our fragile ecosystem, yet their mitigation remains limited by economic factors. Meanwhile, a relatively expensive material, Graphene Oxide (GO), has shown promise as a solution for EC removal following further development into three graphene-based materials (GBMs): Porous graphene adsorbent ...

Probabilistic life cycle cash flow forecasting with price uncertainty following a geometric Brownian motion

In the Netherlands, probabilistic life cycle cash flow forecasting for infrastructures has gained attention in the past decennium. Frequencies, volume and unit prices of life cycle activities are treated as uncertainty variables for which an expert-based triangular distribution is assumed. The current research observes the absence of time...

Origin and Development of Environmental Design

Buildings are characterised as some of the greatest consumers and pollutants of the planet. However, the genesis of environmental design, in the context of its modern meaning, as shown in this paper, is not so much based on initial requests to reduce the negative pressure on the environment, but more on the tendency to ensure the continuity of...

Realizing Product-Packaging Combinations in Circular Systems: Shaping the Research Agenda

Recent years have shown a shift in the focus of sustainable development from eco-efficiency (minimizing negative impacts) towards eco-effectiveness (optimizing positive impacts). Currently, a focus on circular models can be identified; Cradle to Cradle and circular economy are main examples of such models. However, the current number and...

Exergy and Sustainability: Insights into the Value of Exergy Analysis in Sustainability Assessment of Technological Systems

A major challenge in striving for a more sustainable society is the selection of technological systems. Given the capital intensity of industrial production plants, power generation systems and infrastructure, investment decisions create path dependencies for decades to come. It is difficult to know which technological system is preferable when...

Housing pathology: A new domain or a new name?

The term pathology has its origin in the medical science and is generally defined as the systematic study of diseases with the aim of understanding their causes, symp-toms and treatment. The term has been applied since in many different disciplines; in the context of the built environment being in particular building pathology, social and urban...

Assessing facade value - how clients make business cases in changing real estate markets

RELEVANCE: The value of any intervention in the built environment is most relevant for the stakeholders that are investing in it. For them all costs need to be balanced with benefits - not necessarily directly financial, but adding value to the performance of the accommodated organization. Business cases contain performance criteria like...

Housing pathology: A new domain or a new name?

The term pathology has its origin in the medical science and is generally defined as the systematic study of diseases with the aim of understanding their causes, symptoms and treatment. The term has been applied since in many different disciplines; in the context of the built environment being in particular building pathology, social and urban...

Housing Pathology

Housing pathology can be defined as a holistic approach to understand the nature and life cycle of residential buildings and their environment, in order to identify, investigate, and diagnose deficiencies, specify preventive measures and remedial interventions, and evaluate their effects. Though buildings can physically exist long after being...

Failure of Engineering Artifacts: A Life Cycle Approach

Failure is a central notion both in ethics of engineering and in engineering practice. Engineers devote considerable resources to assure their products will not fail and considerable progress has been made in the development of tools and methods for understanding and avoiding failure. Engineering ethics, on the other hand, is concerned with the...

Demolition in Europe: Volume, motives and research approach

What determines the life span of dwellings? Much is known about the initial phase of buildings. The vast majority of scientific knowledge is concentrated on the building initiative, the programming, design and in particular the construction. Knowledge about the utilization phase, including management, transformation and redesign is growing. But...

A statistical approach to the life cycle analysis of cumulus clouds selected in a virtual reality environment

In this study, a new method is developed to investigate the entire life cycle of shallow cumuli in large eddy simulations. Although trained observers have no problem in distinguishing the different life stages of a cloud, this process proves difficult to automate, because cloud-splitting and cloud-merging events complicate the distinction...

Environmental impact of thin-film GaInP/GaAs and multicrystalline silicon solar modules produced with solar electricity