Significance of Green Infrastructure for Cities and Challenges for Construction Industry and Real Estate Sector

This research investigates the significance of green infrastructure for cities and the challenges faced by the construction industry and real estate sector. It analyzes the issues faced, benefits of green infrastructure, and ways to resolve problems. The research aims to identify different problems faced by both sectors in terms of infrastructure development and ways in which these problems can be resolved easily.

INVESTIGATING THE
SIGNIFICANCE OF GREEN
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CITIES
AND THE CHALLENGES FOR
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND
REAL ESTATE SECTOR

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background..................................................................................................................................1
Problem Statement.......................................................................................................................1
Aim..............................................................................................................................................1
Objectives....................................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
Overview......................................................................................................................................2
Theme 1 Issues or problems faced by real estate sector and construction industry in terms of
infrastructure development..........................................................................................................2
Theme 2 Benefits that development of green infrastructure can provide to cities......................3
Theme 3 Ways in which development of green infrastructure can resolve problems faced by
real estate sector and construction industries...............................................................................4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................5
Overview......................................................................................................................................5
Data Analysis...............................................................................................................................5
Research method..........................................................................................................................6
Research design...........................................................................................................................6
Research Approach......................................................................................................................6
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Data Collection............................................................................................................................7
Sampling......................................................................................................................................7
Ethical Consideration...................................................................................................................8
TIMELINE......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Background
Green infrastructure is one of the cost- effective approaches that help in reducing
negative impact upon environment. It can help in providing various kinds of community benefits
as well. It is profitable not only for construction industry but also for real estate sector (Thomé
and et.al., 2016). Today a greater number of organizations in both real estate sector and
construction industry are focusing more and more in developing green infrastructure especially
in cities because it can directly help them to reduce negative and adverse impact of construction
upon environment and can further help in reducing overall of construction (Nordman et. al.
2018). There are various kinds of issues that are being faced by construction and real estate
industry. Buildings developed emit high amount of greenhouse gases because of which its
sustainability decreases and has a negative impact upon environment. It is important for this
industry to have skilled labour because it directly impacts overall quality, strength and durability
of building. It is first issue because there are very less number of skilled labour that have brief
knowledge of green infrastructure due to which overall quality of construction can be reduced.
Shortage of skilled labour not only increases time period required for development but also
increases final cost of building. Other than shortage of skilled labour there are many other issues
that are faced by both the industries such as negative impact of construction on environment,
high cost of constructing, shortage of construction material and many more. Focusing upon these
issues can help them in providing environment friendly building in lower cost to people.
Problem Statement
It is important for both real estate sector and construction industry to focus upon
sustainable development of infrastructure as construction of buildings and other kinds of
infrastructure has negative impact upon environment (Akan, Dhavale and Sarkis, 2017).
Researcher have a keen interest in this topic because development of green infrastructure can not
only resolve environmental problems, but it can also help in provision of lower cost and eco-
friendly hones or buildings (Loganathan et al., 2017). This research aims to identify different
problems that are faced by both real estate sector and construction industry in terms of
infrastructure development and ways in which these problems can be resolved easily.
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Aim
To investigating the significance of green infrastructure for cities and the challenges for
construction industry and real estate sector.
Objectives
 To analyse different issues or problems real estate sector and construction industries are
facing in terms of infrastructure development.
 To identify benefits that development of green infrastructure can provide to cities.
 To evaluate ways in which development of green infrastructure can resolve real estate sector
and construction industries issues.
 To recommend ways in which real estate and construction industry can work together for
development of sustainable green infrastructure.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview
This literature review will focus upon identification of ways in which real estate sector and
construction industry can work together for increasing sustainable green infrastructure in cities.
For this, literature review will focus upon identification of problems faced by both the industries
in terms of infrastructure development, benefits that green infrastructure development can
provide, and ways in which development of green infrastructure can resolve problems faced by
both industries, will be focused upon in the literature review. According to Hsu and Chao (2020),
development of sustainable green infrastructure is one of the best initiatives towards some of the
main environmental issues like increasing carbon emission or carbon footprint. Other than this, it
helps construction industry organization in development of infrastructure at lower cost and helps
real estate’s organization in providing economic and eco-friendly houses to their customers.
Theme 1 Issues or problems faced by real estate sector and construction industry in terms of
infrastructure development
According to Loganathan et. al. (2017), there are various kinds of problems that are faced
by construction industry in terms of infrastructure development. It is important for construction
industry to focus upon identifying ways in which problems faced by construction industry and
real estate can be resolved so that its after effect upon other industries like real estate sector can
be reduced. Rising cost of materials required in construction is one of the main issues which is
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being faced by this industry. Loganathan et. al. (2017), explains that in past five years cost of
construction material has increased by at least 5 percent. This increasing in cost is continuing to
increase year by year. Due to this, cost of material has become a problem area of this industry
because of which overall cost of final developed infrastructure has also increased. This further
create problems for real estate sector because increasing cost of infrastructure makes it difficult
for them to sell and retain their current customers due to increasing cost of final buildings or
infrastructures. Development of green infrastructure will directly reduce overall cost of final
buildings which will make it easier for real estate to sell final developed buildings in lower price.
As per the view of Jin and Zhang (2018), another problem faced by construction industry
in terms of infrastructure development is shortage of skilled labour and lower sustainability of
infrastructure. Buildings developed emit high amount of greenhouse gases because of which its
sustainability decreases and has a negative impact upon environment. It is important for this
industry to have skilled labour because it directly impacts overall quality, strength and durability
of building. Shortage of skilled labour not only increases time period required for development
but also increases final cost of building. It this increasing final completion cost creates problems
for real estate sector players as well because increase in final building cost reduces their profit
margin. It is a problem for real estate players because it is difficult for them to maintain high
customer satisfaction level and high profit margins due to increase in final cost. If they increase
their final price then it can create problems for them in maintaining satisfaction level of
customers and it can also create difficulties in retaining their customer base as well. In current
situation of Covid-19 finding skilled labour has become even more difficult for this industry
because of which final time and cost required for completion also increases. So, it can be said
that there are various kinds of barriers or issues that are faced by construction industry and if
these issues are not resolved then it can create problem for them.
Theme 2 Benefits that development of green infrastructure can provide to cities
As explained by Nordman et. al. (2018), there are various kinds of benefits that green
infrastructure development can provide to real estate sector and construction industry. One of the
main benefits that green infrastructure can provide to cities is that material used for development
of green buildings is cheap, durable, renewable and long lasting (Nordman et. al. 2018). Due to
renewable material like Timber used in this green construction, less water is required. Efficiency
and effectivity of raw materials used in green infrastructure development is quite high. Not only
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this, all the material which is required for construction can also be obtained from natural
resources. This benefit not only helps in increasing quality and durability of buildings but also
helps in reducing overall cost required for construction as well. Nordman et. al. (2018) further
elaborates that there are various other kinds of benefits that green infrastructure can provide to
cities. It can help in providing various kinds of environmental benefits to the cities. Emission of
air pollutants can also be reduced. It is a positive step towards environment so that increasing
rate of green house gases can be reduced. It can be said that their major benefit which green
infrastructure development provides to cities is economic and environmental benefits. It is less
costly as compared to other traditional construction. Waste produced by green infrastructure
development is also less whether it is in terms of wastage of harmful wastage or water wastage.
As elaborated by Alves et. al. (2018), there are various other benefits that development of green
infrastructure can provide to cities. It directly helps in taking an initiative towards environmental
issues like increasing pollution. Green infrastructure will help in reducing overall pollution as
well. Scarcity of water issue can also be resolved with the help of this because such kind of
infrastructure require less water.
Theme 3 Ways in which development of green infrastructure can resolve problems faced by real
estate sector and construction industries
Finewood, Matsler and Zivkovich (2019) Green infrastructure raises issue relating the cost,
performance so that industries focus on implement suitable approach itself. Lack of green
infrastructure is resulting in increasing overall pollution that can be resolved easily with the help
of green infrastructure. It can help in reducing carbon foot print of cities. It can benefit both real
estate sector and construction industries as there is a strong relationship between both of them.
First and the foremost relationship is that real estate sector is completely based on construction
industry because all the buildings developed or constructed by construction industry are sold to
customers though real estate sector. If there is requirement to renovate a building then also real
estate sector organizations need to ask construction organizations for the same.
According to Mell (2020), cost of material is rising within construction industries so that
enterprises have taken real estate regulatory act. It is considered as major step in dealing with
rising cost or price of material within green infrastructure. It beings more cost effective, efficient
and properly monitored process of business operations. It is important part of the process of
corporate manner in working for UK real estate. On the other hand, Real estate industry has been
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working on the problem of cost rising so that they have keep taken up with competition
commission. it was performed the necessary action which can handle hike in price of
construction materials. This is one of new processes in containing price of raw materials. A
major aspect of keeping project costs in control and implementing as solution to reduce cost of
materials, ensuring faster completion of project by saving on time.
As per the view of Finewood, Matsler and Zivkovich (2019), another issue identified
related to the lack of skilled people which is directly slow down the shortage of sustainable
construction. In this way, Construction and real estate industry has been consider principle of
sustainability while implementing innovative idea to use available resource on the green
infrastructure development. Sometimes, it would be conducting a training session of their staff
members so that they can improve their own skills. So, as they can apply their own idea within
green infrastructure development. Construction and real estate industry are playing a significant
role in term of solution and contributor to maintain overall GDP. It is mainly focused on the
providing all essential infrastructure to improve quality of life. in case, if employee have failed to
achieve the specific effects on the development so that industry help for improving quality of
services.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Overview
Research methodology is one of the most important parts of research project because it
helps in identifying methods that are to be used for data collection and analysis for resolving
main research problem in an appropriate manner.
Data Analysis
It is a kind of process that helps the researcher in analysing data collected for extraction
of important and required data that can be used for answering main research questions and
achieving pre-defined research objectives in an appropriate and accurate manner. There are two
important types of data that can be used for analysis of information or data collected. First type
of analysis method is thematic analysis method (Gupta and Thakkar, 2018). This method is used
for analysis of non-numerical data by identifying common patterns or themes are repeating in
data collected continuously. This analysis method is mostly used with qualitative studies.
Whereas statistical data analysis method is used for analysis of numerical data with the help of
mathematical or statistical analysis method. In this methods charts, graphs or figures are used for
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analysis of numerical data and this method is mostly used with quantitative research studies. As
it is a qualitative research, thematic data analysis method will be used for analysis of primary
data collected.
Research method
For every research it is important to identify research method to be used because it helps in
answering main research questions in an appropriate manner. There are two main types of
research methods: qualitative and quantitative research methods. If a research consists of
collection of numerical data and analysis of data though mathematical or statistical method then
for this quantitative research method is used (Bluestein, 2018). If in a research non- numerical
data is required to be collected, then for such research qualitative research methods is used. It is
important for research select appropriate research method for achievement if main objectives of
research. For this research, research method that will be used is qualitative research method
because it will help analysing non-numerical data for understanding ways in which both real
estate sector and construction industry can enhance green infrastructure in cities. It will help
researcher in analyzing point of view of people working in real estate sector and construction
industries.
Research design
Research design helps in analysing components and elements of research in an
appropriate and coherent manner so that main objectives of research can be achieved in a proper
and effective manner. Casual, exploratory and descriptive are three important types of research
design that can be used within a research. Casual design helps in maintaining and studying cause
and effective relationship within a research (Bohari et. al., 2019). While exploratory helps in
exploring all the main elements and aspects of research for achievement of predefined objectives
of a research paper. Whereas, descriptive design is used within research for identification of
main research variables for resolving research problem in an appropriate manner. For this
dissertation exploratory research design will be used as this design will help in exploring
research questions in more appropriate manner for achievement of main objectives of the
dissertation.
Research Approach
Research approach can be defined as set of actions that helps researcher in answering
research questions in a logical and systematic manner. Inductive and deductive are two important
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research approaches that are mostly used within a research project. Inductive approach is used
when there is requirement of implementing new theories as a result observation at the end of the
research (Zhao and et.al., 2018). Whereas deductive approach is used for testing hypothesis for
testing existing theories. For this research, inductive research approach will be used as it is a
qualitative dissertation. This approach will easily help in identification of common themes for
data collected so that main research questions can be answered in an easy and effective manner.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy can be defined as a kind of framework which is used by researcher
for identification of different ways in which data about a phenomenon can be collected and
analysed. It helps researcher in identifying methods that can be used for methods for collection
of primary and secondary. There are main research philosophies that can be used within research
project, that are: first is interpretivism and second is positivism (Omotayo and Kulatunga, 2017).
Interpretivism philosophy is used to identify role of research within social world through facts.
This philosophy is majorly used in qualitative research. Whereas, positivism is a research
philosophy in which research focuses upon gaining factual knowledge with the help of
observation. It is mostly used in quantitative research studies. For this research, interpretivism
research philosophy will be used as it is qualitative research so it will help in integrating human
interest within the study for identification role of research in society.
Data Collection
Data collection helps in gathering important data or information that can be used by
researcher for answering research questions for achievement of main aim of the research. There
are two types of data that are mostly collected by researcher within a study. First is primary data
which is collected by the researcher for the first time with the help of survey, questionnaire,
observation, interview and though many other methods (Gupta and Thakkar, 2018). Second type
of data is secondary data. It is a kind of data that has already been published and can be collected
from different sources such as books, articles, research papers, journals, newspapers, online
portals and from nay other sources. For this dissertation both primary and secondary data will be
used. Secondary data will help in developing a base for the research. Whereas primary research
will help in understanding view point of people working in real estate sector and construction
industry for developing sustainable green infrastructure in cities. Primary data will be collected
with the help of questionnaire that will be asked to be filled by the respondents though survey.
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Sampling
Sampling can be defined as a kind of method which is used by researcher for selection of
a specific sample population who can participate within study for collection of primary data. It is
one of the most important method which is required to be selected as it helps in making research
easy and manageable. Not only this, it further helps in reducing time and cost required for
completing the research (Gupta and Thakkar, 2018). It is important select a sample population
because it is extremely difficult to collect data from entire target population as well as it is time
consuming. Selection of sample from target population helps in easily collecting required
primary data. In order to select respondents participating within the research, simple random
sampling method will be used for selection of 15 participants who will be participating within
the dissertation. All the 15 selected respondents will either be contractors working in
construction industry or real estate agents working real estate sector.
Ethical Consideration
It is another important part of research project which is required to be adhered by the
researcher. Ethical considerations that will be adhered by the researcher in this research project
are as follows:
 All the sources from where secondary data has been collected have been cited property and
references of cited sources will be provided by the researcher at the end of the research.
 All the respondents well be provided with basic and required information about the research
paper and then they will be asked for their written informed consent. None of them will be
forced to participate within study and if they want to back out from this study then they will
be free to do so.
TIMELINE
This research proposal has been divided into sub task. In this research timeline time
required for completion of research proposal has been identified. Time required for this research
proposal is 4 weeks
1st Week 2nd week 3rd week 4th week
Title selection
Introduction
Aim and
objectives
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Literature
review
Research
methodology
Proposal
Submission
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akan, M.Ö.A., Dhavale, D.G. and Sarkis, J., 2017. Greenhouse gas emissions in the construction
industry: An analysis and evaluation of a concrete supply chain. Journal of cleaner
production. 167. pp.1195-1207.
Alves, A., Patiño Gómez, J., Vojinovic, Z., Sánchez, A. and Weesakul, S., 2018. Combining co-
benefits and stakeholders perceptions into green infrastructure selection for flood risk
reduction. Environments, 5(2), p.29.
Bluestein, S.A., 2018. Demystifying the Construction of a Qualitative Research Methodology:
An Approachable Text for Doctoral Students. The Qualitative Report. 23(9). pp.2181-
2183.
Bohari, A.A.M., Bidin, Z.A., Rais, S.L.A. and Saferi, M.M., 2019, November. Exploratory
Research as the way forward towards a green procurement practices for the construction
industry; Research Methodology. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental
Science (Vol. 385, No. 1, p. 012054). IOP Publishing.
Finewood, M.H., Matsler, A.M. and Zivkovich, J., 2019. Green infrastructure and the hidden
politics of urban stormwater governance in a postindustrial city. Annals of the American
Association of Geographers. 109(3). pp.909-925.
Gupta, V.K. and Thakkar, J.J., 2018. A quantitative risk assessment methodology for
construction project. Sādhanā. 43(7). p.116.
Hsu, K.W. and Chao, J.C., 2020. Economic Valuation of Green Infrastructure Investments in
Urban Renewal: The Case of the Station District in Taichung,
Taiwan. Environments. 7(8). p.56.
Jin, C. and Zhang, Z., 2018, November. Regarding the role of oil & gas industry on social
infrastructure development in Azerbaijan and the solution of ecological problems.
In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 189, No. 5, p.
052004). IOP Publishing.
Loganathan, S., Srinath, P., Kumaraswamy, M., Kalidindi, S. and Varghese, K., 2017.
Identifying and addressing critical issues in the Indian construction industry:
Perspectives of large building construction clients. Journal of Construction in
Developing Countries, 22, pp.121-144.
Mell, I., 2020. The impact of austerity on funding green infrastructure: A DPSIR evaluation of
the Liverpool Green & Open Space Review (LG&OSR), UK. Land Use Policy. 91.
p.104284.
Nordman, E.E., Isely, E., Isely, P. and Denning, R., 2018. Benefit-cost analysis of stormwater
green infrastructure practices for Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 200, pp.501-510.
Omotayo, T. and Kulatunga, U., 2017. The research methodology for the development of a
kaizen costing framework suitable for indigenous construction firms in Lagos, Nigeria.
Thomé, A.M.T., and et.al., 2016. Sustainable infrastructure: A review and a research
agenda. Journal of environmental management,.184. pp.143-156.
Zhao, D., Valdes-Vasquez, R., Simmons, D.R. and Parrish, K., 2018, January. Assessing the
Graduate Education in Research Methodology on Sustainability. In Construction
Research Congress 2018 (pp. 108-117).
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