Impact of Sustainability on Design and Construction of Civil Engineering Infrastructure

Volume 3 - Issue 5

Oyedele OA*

Received: February 24, 2020;   Published: March 13, 2020

DOI: 10.32474/TCEIA.2020.03.000174

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Buildings and their construction together account for 36 percent of global energy use and 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions annually. Globally, the embodied carbon of buildings account for about 11 percent of emissions. The design and construction of civil engineering infrastructures are impacting global warming and climate change and the world is facing a big challenge in the form of environmental degradation occasioned mainly by global warming due to ozone layer depletion, fauna loss, deforestation and pollution. A new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report cautioned that unless global greenhouse gas emissions fall by 7.6 per cent yearly between 2020 and 2030, the world will miss the opportunity to get on track towards the 1.5o temperature goal of the Paris Agreement on the eve of a year that nations are due to strengthen their Paris climate pledges. Civil Engineering designers and contractors are now concerned more than before about the implications of climatic changes taking place globally due to environmental mismanagement in the form of desertification, pollution, construction on inappropriate sites, non-renewable energy consumption, high-density habitation, improper waste management, bush-burning, over-usage of cement, steel and concrete etc. They have resolved to embark on sustainable design and specify sustainable materials for construction. Sustainable construction is now the vogue with sustainable infrastructures having an edge over unsustainable ones in the real estate market. Sustainability is impacting the design and construction of civil engineering infrastructure and that is the discussion in this paper.

Keywords: Civil engineering infrastructure; Deforestation; Green building; Sustainability; Sustainable development

Abstract| Introduction| Review of Literature| Conclusion| References|