Forbes, D; Smith, S D and Horner, M (2009) Risk and its analysis in the sustainability assessment of the built environment. In: Dainty, A R J (ed.) Proceedings of 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK.
Abstract
How to build sustainably is arguably the pre-eminent question of our time. The construction industry and the built environment which it creates have a substantial impact on a range of sustainability issues. Sustainability assessment exists to measure the impacts of sustainability. However, the existing range of assessment methods frequently fails to take risk in the process or the outcome into account. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to present a generic approach to estimating risks in sustainability assessment for the built environment. This approach defines generic cases of the probability and consequence for risks in sustainability assessment. An outcome matrix has been created to define the severity of each risk based on the associated probability and consequence. Appropriate responses are proposed to then manage the risks. Using the context of sustainability assessment for housing, the specific risks associated with the Ecohomes assessment method are explored. This research demonstrates through applying risk analysis that there are unacceptably severe risks associated with the weighting mechanism, regional differences, fixed parameters and thresholds, the range of coverage of the indicators and the heavy data requirement. However, the analysis demonstrates that there are a number of in-built mechanisms which make Ecohomes resistant to specific risks, and there are also some risks which may not be severe for specific problem situations. The application of risk estimation allows novel insights into the sustainability assessment process and is transferable to other sustainability assessment methods for the built environment.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | BREEAM; ecohomes; risk analysis; sustainability assessment |
| Index terms: | housing, estimating, risk analysis, construction industry, built environment, estimation, BREEAM accreditation, sustainability assessment |
| Subjects: | environmental hazards, infrastructure and transport systems, industry analysis, sustainability assessment, financial and cost management, environmental policy, construction type |
| Topics: | Urban Studies, Research Practice, Cost Management, Construction Technology, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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