Eksteen, B and Bate, G (2002) The effects of construction on the environment: A case study. In: Greenwood, D (ed.) Proceedings of 18th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2002, Northumbria, UK.
Abstract
Environmental issues and concerns have recently gained importance world wide. Concerns mainly focus on atmospheric emissions; environmental deterioration; depletion of natural resources; energy issues; sustainability, in various contexts; environmental conservation versus development; the effects of the above mentioned and other factors on ecological systems; and the economic implications of environmental issues and concerns. Construction is a change agent, its nature being to alter the environment, beneficially in some respects and detrimentally in others. Construction is also an economic activity, providing facilities, while consuming energy and other resources. Tensions thus exist between construction and developmental processes vis-à-vis environmental and conservation issues. This paper reviews South African legislative and regulatory mechanisms and other construction-related issues concerning environmental conservation, reports on a survey on conservation and environmental issues and examines the recent development of a tourism and leisure project. Monitoring of construction processes to comply with environmental conservation mechanisms is described, and the interaction between development, construction and the environment is shown. Some lessons can be learned and proposals for the future are made.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction; conservation; development; environment; pollution |
| Index terms: | pollution, case study, environmental issue, proposal, deterioration, survey, natural resource, construction process, tourism, depletion, monitoring, conservation, interaction, agent, economic activity |
| Subjects: | environmental health, behavioral psychology, industry analysis, building construction, economic analysis, material degradation and durability, project planning, environmental resource management, environmental policy, control systems, practitioner, environmental issues, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Site Management, Research Practice, Project Management, Construction Materials, Business Strategy, Sustainability, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here