Okon, BB; (2013) Sustainable Building Services Systems Management. Doctoral thesis (PhD), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The rapid expansion in the construction industry worldwide has placed more pressure on the available natural resources, as the various construction activities and the services they require, increasingly draw on supplies of water and energy. The provision of these utilities and their continual maintenance activites within a building, promote human daily sustenance, and economic development generally, but the exploitation of these resources, their environmental impact, socio-economic implications, and sustainability, all necessitate proper management. Indeed, sustainability has now become the cornerstone for effective building services infrastructure and building construction management. It is against this backdrop that this study, which focuses on building services infrastructure and construction activities management, is set. The study aims to integrate the sustainability agenda in this context as a basis for achieving sustainable development goals. Increasingly, building services infrastructure processes and the interdisciplinary engineering fields cannot operate optimally without the incorporation of the sustainability agenda as a core management consideration. In pursuit of its aims, the study has employed various theoretical propositions, suitable methods, and frameworks, all aimed at addressing the sustainability issues as a way forward. The current technologies and management techniques related to building management do already offer sustainable and good quality service delivery, but the findings from this study have yielded value added contributions capable of promoting greater success in the drive for sustainability, by employing the sustainable engineering infrastructure (SEI) model, sustainability index matrix (SIM), and partial differential equation techniques. The SEI model was used in evaluating building services infrastructure characteristics within the UK and Nigeria in the study phases I– IV, and the outcomes are presented. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costs (LCC) methods were also applied to examine building services infrastructure systems and their performance in the study phase V. The LCA phase in this study considered ten environmental impacts during the construction, operation (use), maintenance, and the end-of-life phases of six buildings. The LCC technique appraised the use of construction materials, water, energy, and utilities to avoid duplication that leads to unnecessary costs in the aforementioned phases of buildings. The results of the different analyses are presented. Energy and utilities usage, together with carbon footprint management evaluation in both the healthcare and education sectors in the UK are also shown in the study phase VI. In appraising these scenarios, the partial differential equation method was adopted, generating results for the healthcare and education sectors of 0.74 and 0.62 respectively, which expresses a good degree of reliability of performance within these two particular contexts. In phase VII of the study, interviews with experts from academia and industry have corroborated the evidence secured from other phases of the research. There is also a novel discovery in this study, in its use of the SIM function which is able to provide a corresponding sustainability index result for buildings/facilities performance in respect of critical and strategic management decisions. The SIM has defined the sustainability index from probability theory within the limits of 0 ≤ Suv ≤ 1 for any given system function. The SIM and SEI models have been applied within some phases in this study based on the acquired data and the results are indicated. Additionally, there is a proposed algorithmic project life cycle framework with an allowance for either on/offsite recycling processes in managing building infrastructure challenges. In its scope, the study focuses on buildings (facilities) only, since the non-integration of sustainability ethics represents the major challenge undermining the building services infrastructure success. With this focus in mind, this study has delivered improved knowledge and understanding of the proper applications and management of building services infrastructure systems. This has been underpinned by the three themes of sustainable development for the present and future generations.

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