SIMURG: A new model for the integrated assessment of sustainability (original) (raw)

SIMURG_CITIES: Meta-Analysis for KPI's of Layer-Based Approach in Sustainability Assessment

Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs, 2021

SIMURG_CITIES, is the research and development project that is developed under the main project named as SIMURG: “A performance-based and Sustainability-oriented Integration Model Using Relational database architecture to increase Global competitiveness of Turkish construction industry in industry 5.0 era”, is the relational database model that is currently being developed in a dissertation for performance-based development and assessment of sustainable and sophisticated solutions for the built environment. This study aims to analyze the key performance indicators (KPIs) at «Cities Level» for the smart city concept that is referred to as «Layers» in the master project. KPIs for the concept of a smart city is determined by using the meta-analysis technique. Hence, the three most reputable urban journals issued from 2017 through 2020 are reviewed in this study. In addition to this, models of smart city frameworks/assessment tools/KPIs are reviewed within the context of this paper; environment, economy and governance were found to have domain themes on the urban sustainability according to the literature review. Consequently, efficient and integrated urban management, environmental monitoring and management, public and social services of urban development and sustainability are found to be the most important dimensions in urban and regional planning. SIMURG_CITIES evaluation models for urban projects can use the findings of this paper.

The Evolution of the Sustainability Assessment Tool<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1">mml:mrowmml:msupmml:mrowmml:mtextSBToolmml:mrowmml:mtextPT: From Buildings to the Built En...

The Scientific World Journal, 2014

This paper analyses the current trends in sustainability assessment. After about 15 years from the launch of sustainability assessment tools, focused on buildings evaluation, the paradigm of sustainability assessment tools is changing from the building scale to the built environment scale. Currently European cities and cities around the world are concerned with sustainable development, as well as its evolution. Cities seek a way to adapt to contemporary changes, in order to meet the required needs and ensure population's well-being. Considering this, the new generations of sustainability assessment tools are being developed to be used to guide and help cities and urban areas to become more sustainable. Following the trend of the most important sustainability assessment tools, the sustainability assessment tool SBTool PT is also developing its version for assessing the sustainability of the built environment, namely, the urban planning projects and the urban regeneration projects, to be developed in Portugal, the SBTool PT-UP. The application of the methodology to three case studies will demonstrate its feasibility; at the same time this will identify the best practices which will serve as reference for new projects, thereby assisting the development of the tool.

An Integrated Sustainability Assessment Tool Framework

Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress on Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, 2017

Nowadays, the building industry has many harmful impacts on the environment; the society; and the economy. It possesses a huge share in energy consumption; material and non-renewable resources depletion and profoundly increases the global warming. Accordingly, governments and private sectors are recently concerned about controlling the undesirable consequences accompanying the construction of new buildings and the renovation of existing ones through different procedures and strategies. These practices are the primary concern of the sustainable buildings. The literature review reveals that there are many sustainability rating systems developed in the last few decades. However, each of them has its assessment attributes based on its local context. Besides, none of the rating systems propose a guide for the decision makers to select the best affordable rehabilitation alternatives which can upgrade the sustainability of their buildings. Accordingly, the primary target of this research is to establish an integrated sustainable rating and decision-making tool for sustainable existing buildings. Besides, the developed rating tool adapts according to the dynamic weighting scheme, which varies based on the importance of each of the assessment attributes taking into account the local context of each building. This study introduces a framework illustrating the different procedures and models established and integrated into the developed sustainability assessment tool. Moreover, the study highlights the limitations and the advantages of the proposed integrated assessment tool and how it is superior to many of the existing rating systems.

A model for integrated assessment of sustainable development

Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2005

The focus of the paper is on consideration of how to use indicators to monitor sustainable development in a relevant and useful manner. Integrated information on sustainable development of a company is very essential for decision-making since it is very difficult to evaluate the performance of the company on the ground of too many indicators. The objective of the work was to design a model for obtaining a composite sustainable development index (I CSD ) in order to track integrated information on economic, environmental, and social performance of the company with time. Normalized indicators were associated into three sustainability sub-indices and finally composed into an overall indicator of a company performance. This was applied by determining the impact of individual indicator to the overall sustainability of a company using the concept of analytic hierarchy process.

Integrated Urban Built Environment Sustainability Assessment

2014

Urban man-made assets have impacts not just on those who develop, build and operate them, but on people who may be quite remote from them. For example, the impact of a building on greenhouse gas emissions arising from fossil fuel use, pollution caused by travel to work patterns and employment opportunities provided by urban developments may be far removed from their immediate locality. There is a growing recognition of the need to internalize these external costs and benefits in accountancy frameworks, drawing on experiences in accounting for sustainable development. This desire, however, presents major challenges in identifying, evaluating and allocating the external environmental, social and economic costs and benefits of an urban environment. This paper reports on the development of an Urban Development Sustainability Assessment Model (UD-SAM) which allows decision makers to identify sustainability indicators (economic, environmental and social) and which may lead to more holistic evaluation of the sustainability impact of elements of the urban environment. The UD-SAM builds on a sustainability assessment model (SAM) developed originally in the oil industry. This paper describes how SAM has been tailored for the construction industry and urban sustainability assessment, and how a set of generic sustainable development indicators have been identified and validated by stakeholders.

The Evolution of the Sustainability Assessment Tool : From Buildings to the Built Environment

The Scientific World Journal, 2014

This paper analyses the current trends in sustainability assessment. After about 15 years from the launch of sustainability assessment tools, focused on buildings evaluation, the paradigm of sustainability assessment tools is changing from the building scale to the built environment scale. Currently European cities and cities around the world are concerned with sustainable development, as well as its evolution. Cities seek a way to adapt to contemporary changes, in order to meet the required needs and ensure population's well-being. Considering this, the new generations of sustainability assessment tools are being developed to be used to guide and help cities and urban areas to become more sustainable. Following the trend of the most important sustainability assessment tools, the sustainability assessment tool SBTool PT is also developing its version for assessing the sustainability of the built environment, namely, the urban planning projects and the urban regeneration projects, to be developed in Portugal, the SBTool PT -UP. The application of the methodology to three case studies will demonstrate its feasibility; at the same time this will identify the best practices which will serve as reference for new projects, thereby assisting the development of the tool.

Multidimensional Sustainability Assessment for Megacities

Green Economy Reader: Lectures in Ecological Economics and Sustainability, 2017

Urban sustainability assessment is required for the purposes of establishing strategic directions for 'greening' our cities to reduce the environmental impact of their performance, improve employment and economic viability and enhance the quality of life. This chapter considers large world cities: London, New Sydney and Tokyo. To assess urban sustainability performance, we applied multi-criteria decision aid tools to compare the cities on the range of dimensions. The tools chosen for this assessment are ELECTRE III, NAIADE and APIS. The results have shown that Singapore dominates the sustainability rankings in most multi-criteria applications, showing particular strength in economic and environmental dimensions and a slightly less strong performance in the social dimension according to the APIS results. The chapter explores innovative sustainability strategy and new governance structures in Singapore and discusses the reasons for such success.

Building Sustainability Assessment throughout Multicriteria Decision Making

Journal of Construction Engineering, 2013

Opinion and choice influence sustainability concepts strongly. The building construction industry, especially in the case of building development, has been charged of promoting environmental impacts that range from excess use of resources to pollution generation. This paper present an application of the sustainability concept applied to buildings, as well as, a contribution to the development of practices, methodology and tools for evaluation of already existing school buildings. In order to achieve that, this study will detail how current systems to evaluate building performance operate, and how can we improve them. One uses the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multi-criteria method to investigate the relative importance of criteria, sub-criteria and families of indicators, used in the proposed system of technical characteristics applied to the local culture, and at the same time making viable the presentation of critical factors involved in the evaluation of the sustainability of these buildings. As a result of the application of this type of modeling, one obtained a system for the sustainability assessment and evaluation of existing school buildings in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in regard to environmental aspects and socio-economic perspectives.

A comprehensive model for quantifying the environmental and financial performance of cities

2018

Current models to quantify environmental performance in the built environment are flawed as they typically focus either on one scale of the built environment (e.g. buildings), on a limited range of environmental flows (e.g. energy), or a particular life cycle stage (typically building use). There is a need to develop a more comprehensive model to assess and improve the environmental performance of cities. This paper proposes a multi-scale, bottom-up, dynamic life cycle assessment model for the built environment. The model combines nested systems theory with life cycle assessment and dynamic modelling. It covers all scales of the built environment, from materials to cities. In particular, it considers material, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water and financial flows required to produce construction materials and replace them (embodied flows); operate buildings and infrastructure assets (operational flows); and for the mobility of building users (transport flows). Furthermore, the...

The Evolution of the Sustainability Assessment ToolSBToolPT: From Buildings to the Built Environment

The Scientific World Journal, 2014

This paper analyses the current trends in sustainability assessment. After about 15 years from the launch of sustainability assessment tools, focused on buildings evaluation, the paradigm of sustainability assessment tools is changing from the building scale to the built environment scale. Currently European cities and cities around the world are concerned with sustainable development, as well as its evolution. Cities seek a way to adapt to contemporary changes, in order to meet the required needs and ensure population’s well-being. Considering this, the new generations of sustainability assessment tools are being developed to be used to guide and help cities and urban areas to become more sustainable. Following the trend of the most important sustainability assessment tools, the sustainability assessment toolSBToolPTis also developing its version for assessing the sustainability of the built environment, namely, the urban planning projects and the urban regeneration projects, to be...