This article discusses the impact of construction on the environment, including pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste generation. It also explores sustainable construction methods to reduce the negative impact on the environment.
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Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION Environmental Impact of Construction Name of the Student: Name of the University: Author Note:
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1ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION Introduction- Environmental impact is a fundamental issue and it generally indicates the issues that emanate from any activity that has the potential of affecting the environment. Environmental impact due to the construction industry, pollution occurring from usage of energy and material, and the impact of the pollution on the living being like the fauna and flora gets highlighted (Fewings2013). Impact of construction on environment- It is important to note that the climate change scientists have propounded that the earth is getting warmer day by day and human activity has played a major role in accelerating the entire process. The vital fact is that the construction industries contribute to the global emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. It has been seen that the construction project plays a major role in the emission of methane and carbon dioxide along with it waste products are generated that pollutes the air (Kuo and Lu 2013). One of the most harmful aspects of construction industry is that it employs the huge and heavy machines for the purpose of raw material extraction in the mining projects. In overall emission of the global carbon dioxide, cement industry contributes about 5 percent (Taylan et al. 2014). Also, the applications of electricity and fuel in the construction industry has contributed majorly to the global carbon emission. Fossil fuel is generally used to transport as well as extract minerals so that the materials can be processed. Fossil fuels are also used to power the several tools that are used at the construction sites (Taylan et al. 2014). The construction projects impact the environment by significantly affecting the nature and the local environment. At the construction sites, the sources of pollution which include the toxic chemicals, solvents, paints and fossil fuels. It is also important to highlight that minor spill of chemicals leads to the leaching of the chemicals into the waterways and the ground (Huang et al. 2013). This is turn harms the aquatic life, toxifies water sources. Even the condition of
2ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION pollution from the construction projects in the developing countries provides a grim picture. In the developing countries the presence of the stringent measures has led to the disposal of the polluting substances, waste products generated at the construction sites to the neighbouring places. This contributes to the build-up of wastes and it negatively impacts the environment followingthecompletionofaconstructionproject.Thecompletedbuildingsaffectthe environment more in comparison the construction projects. It has been seen that the operation of the buildings on a daily basis consumes about 40 percent of the energy that is used worldwide. There are projects that transport fossil fuel and it has been criticized that the construction of the pipelines leads to the oil spills over a large area and it sometimes goes undetected which cause major damage to the flora and fauna of the area (Zolfagharian et al. 2012). Sustainable construction methods- it is important to note that the removal or the reduction of the wastes that are generated from the construction projects involves an integrative effort of the different types of the stakeholders. While there are legislations that can effectively minimize the rate of waste generation and the degree of pollution. The effective utilization of the green building construction creates opportunities for many firms to limit the impact on the environment from the construction project. One of the promising way is to use green building material in the new construction projects (Kibert2016). Green construction materials can be used to reduce as well as eliminate the dependency on the mining of the raw materials that require fossil fuels for energy source. Green materials can be used as a recycled material in future projects that will further reduce the costs of the firms, and reduce the impact on the environment. Theconstructiondebriswhichisgeneratedattheconstructionsitescanbeeffectively streamlinedsothatthematerialscanbeefficientlyandquicklyrecycled(Madurwar, Ralegaonkar and Mandavgane 2013).
3ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION Conclusion- From the above discussion it can be concluded that the construction projects generate a lot of waste and it impacts the environment negatively. Also, it has been found that the completed construction project impacts the environment to a greater extent in comparison to the ongoing construction project. However, green materials can be used in the construction projects so that the used materials do not contribute to the environmental pollution.
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4ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION Reference Fewings, P., 2013.Construction project management: an integrated approach. Routledge. Huang, T., Shi, F., Tanikawa, H., Fei, J. and Han, J., 2013. Materials demand and environmental impact of buildings construction and demolition in China based on dynamic material flow analysis.Resources, Conservation and Recycling,72, pp.91-101. Kibert, C.J., 2016.Sustainable construction: green building design and delivery. John Wiley & Sons. Kuo, Y.C. and Lu, S.T., 2013. Using fuzzy multiple criteria decision making approach to enhance risk assessment for metropolitan construction projects.International Journal of Project Management,31(4), pp.602-614. Madurwar, M.V., Ralegaonkar, R.V. and Mandavgane, S.A., 2013. Application of agro-waste for sustainable construction materials: A review.Construction and Building Materials,38, pp.872- 878. Taylan, O., Bafail, A.O., Abdulaal, R.M. and Kabli, M.R., 2014. Construction projects selection and risk assessment by fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS methodologies.Applied Soft Computing, 17, pp.105-116. Zolfagharian,S.,Nourbakhsh,M.,Irizarry,J.,Ressang,A.andGheisari,M.,2012. Environmental impacts assessment on construction sites. InConstruction Research Congress 2012: Construction Challenges in a Flat World(pp. 1750-1759).