Sustainable Design & Construction: Aberdeen's Challenges & SWOT

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the sustainability challenges faced by Aberdeen in its design and construction sector. It critically appraises these challenges, including sustainable food models, biodiversity protection, and urban transport planning, while also examining current strategies and policies aimed at creating a sustainable city. The report delves into themes such as land use, infrastructure, and development patterns that impact the city's sustainability. Furthermore, it includes a SWOT analysis of three pioneering development plans: Freiberg, BEDZED, and Masdar, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Finally, the report outlines a future plan for neighborhood-scale development in Aberdeen, taking into account the city's sustainability challenges, future plans, and market needs, aiming to promote eco-friendly construction methods and improve the living conditions for future generations. Desklib provides access to this and similar solved assignments for students.

Sustainable Design and
Construction

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Critical appraisal of sustainability challenges faced by Aberdeen, overview of current
strategies and policies guiding towards a sustainable city. ...................................................3
SWOT analysis ......................................................................................................................6
Future plan for neighbourhood scale development..............................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
The construction industry is one of the fast growing and largest resource containing
industry. The industry has the largest consumer of the global resources and also contributes in
the environmental degradation to great extent (Jalaei, Jalaei and Mohammadi, 2020). With the
increasing problems in the environment such as pollution, changing climatic conditions, health
hazards and many more the construction businesses are required to become responsible for their
business to aid the sustainability in their actions. The aim of the construction businesses is to
build the beautiful world that could improve the living of the future generation with the
assistance of eco- friendly methods of construction. Working sustainably in the construction
business is very essential as it involves the meeting the needs of the increasing population in the
urban areas as well to support the rural areas by supporting the environment in the long term.
The present report is the future development strategy for the neighbourhood scale mixed. The
report will outline the critical analysis of the sustainability challenges faced by the Aberdeen.
Further there is the critical evaluation of the three developed cities using the SWOT framework.
In the end the future plan for the neighbourhood scale development of the Aberdeen is reflected
using the cities sustainability challenges, future plans and market needs.
MAIN BODY
Critical appraisal of sustainability challenges faced by Aberdeen, overview of current strategies
and policies guiding towards a sustainable city.
Sustainable challenges refers to the challenges that the country is facing in their
environment due to different activities. Many cities in the country currently thrive to follow a
sustainable approach in their activities however they still lack in few of those areas (Huang and
et. al., 2021). Though it is a beautiful city but it still faces few challenges in sustainability, few
of them are discussed below: A sustainable food model- This is one of the major challenge that is faced by the city as
the intensive food production harms the environment by depleting the soil and damaging
the ecosystems. This exploits the food as well as the availability of drinking water in the
city. This challenge is directly linked with the overexploitation that the human does to the
natural resources and they are required to change the model of food production in the city

in order to over come this challenge. Aberdeen is currently facing a challenge in inducing
a more plant based diet in their ingredients as the city will overcome this challenge it will
help them to reduce the CO2 emission and further save the energy that is required in the
production. A city must maintain its food model as the environment is dependent on the
food and biodegradable waste that the people generate in the city. Protecting biodiversity- The animal species is getting extinct day by day which poses a
challenge to the city as they are the one's who promote the approach of sustainability in
the environment (Sayfutdinova, 2020). The destruction of the natural habitats in
Aberdeen is one of the major challenge that the city is currently facing along with this the
poaching is another issues of the city that they must deal with it. The killing and poaching
of natural habitat can be reduced by applying the policies and methods to induce a
sustainable environment in the city. Biodiversity maintains the balance of the
environment by building a sustainability approach and there must be policies and rules in
the city which promotes saving of these natural habitat by ensuring that the right
approaches is followed in the city. Urban transport planning- Transport planning is one of the major challenge that is faced
by cities as this is one of the major source of CO2 which impact the sustainable approach
of the city. Well managing the transport facilities and services in the cities, they must
come up with a plan which supports the green environment and through which the city
can reduce its CO2 emission in the environment (Osuizugbo and et. al., 2020). CO2 is
one of the major component of that degrades the environment which further pushes the
environment towards the extent. If the city is able to well manage the traffic and vehicles
then this will help in promoting less pollution in the cities which will directly contribute
to a green environment. The organisation can further develop the planning of the roads
and transportation so that they develop such routes through which the traffic gets reduced
and the problem of over CO2 emission can be reduced.
Overview of the current strategies and policies guiding its approach towards a sustainable city: Promoting urban culture- Agriculture is such area which is generally related with rural
area but the promotion of agricultural activities in the urban areas help in the
sustainability approach of the city. Aberdeen's policy is to preserve the agricultural land
in the urban areas so that the CO2 emission of the vehicles that are transporting the

vegetables and fruits can be reduced. Apart from this the land that is used for the
agricultural purpose in the cities helps in promoting the green environment. Reducing and managing food waste- The global food supply of around 70% is
consumed by the urban areas and hence the policy is to minimize the wastage of the food
is further promote in the city (Gherghel and et. al., 2020). Generally the food waste that is
caused by these cities is increasing and this is due to the poor food planning, bad
packaging, improper storage of the food and further the cultural practices that are
followed in the city. The waste food is not getting recycled which is generating problems
in the environment and further pushing the city apart from their sustainable approach. Reconnecting cities with surrounding rural areas- The urban areas do not function
properly if they are not well connected with the rural areas. The rural regions that are
near Aberdeen is a major reason due to which the the dependence of the city increases on
the nearby areas. Aberdeen is majorly dependent on the neighbourhood rural areas as the
sustainability of the nearby rural areas directly effects the city.
Themes that impact the sustainability of the city:
Land use and density- The use of the pattern in which the land is used in the city is one of the
major area that decides the traffic pattern and further the build structure of the city. There must
be a strong plan that supports the built structure of the city and the land that is there in the city
must be used wisely as it directly contributes to the part of the sustainability plan of the city
(Abdulahaad, 2020). Further the usage of land in the right areas promote the concept of
development in the city and these developments helps the cities in several types of uses that are
intertwined. The organisation will manage the land density that the city is currently built on, that
is the number of units of the land area that is given for a particular project. This is one of the
major component which is directly related to the infrastructure of the city.
Infrastructure of the city- The infrastructure of the city in which the several types of services are
designed and developed is one of the areas that directly promotes the sustainability of the city.
The different areas such as clean water, electricity, CO2 emission and sewage systems are
dependent on the infrastructure which is directly related with the sustainable approach of the
city. Infrastructure should be in a such way that it should support the policies and plans of the
city that they have developed during their while making plan of the city. Aberdeen lacks in the

infrastructure that needs to be developed by the organisation so that it can directly contribute to
the sustainability in the environment of the city.
Development pattern- The city currently lacks in terms of the development pattern that is being
followed by the developers while building the whole city. Aberdeen lacks in the land
segmentation areas where they have not properly allotted the land for forests and such green
areas which is effecting the environment of the city. Further there are a lot of major mistakes in
the approach that is being followed by the developers and hence the organisation must overcome
these mistakes and challenges so that the above listed problems in the city can be addressed.
SWOT analysis
This is described as a tool which is used by the companies to evaluate their strengths and
weakness so that they could improve them for future business operations. This tool also helps in
examining opportunities and threats organisations could face in their journey (Ibrahem,
Abouelmagd and Amer, 2021). In context to that SWOT analysis of three pioneering
development plan that includes Freiberg, BEDZED and Masdar has been explained below in
detail:
SWOT analysis of Freiberg
STRENGTHS WEAKNESS
 The main strengths that this project has
is that it was built on former French
military base as a sustainable model
district. It has been recognised as one
of the pioneer urban developments.
 Another achievement of this project is
that it has developed diverse range of
housing along with cooperative groups
and private promotions.
 The installation photovoltaic panels and
solar energy has also been used while
designing this project.
 The project also implemented
 The main issue that this project faced is
that although some housing initiators
were committed to internal diversity,
while the residents of the city were very
uniform that includes young and middle
class students.
 The another problem this city project
faced is that people with low income
level were disappeared when
anticipated grants and subsidies got
abolished (Saridaki and Haugbølle,
2020).

ecological treatment for water under
which around 80% of water from
rainfall is filtered onto natural land.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 The opportunities that this project could
experience is that it is committed to
provide sustainable mobility and to
renewable energies. The project has a
400Km network of bicycle lanes and
essential tram network for giving
sustainable mobility.
 The project is aim to develop a new
concept of mobility that is based on the
thought of “car-free-city” which will
provide alternatives kinds of mobility.
 The project could also use an
opportunity of restoring warehouses in
old barracks to develop a hall for
students.
 The project could face a threat of its
rapid urbanisations. For designing these
cities there are requirements of
resources such as water, food and
energy which needs to be meet. The
scarcity or unavailability of these
resources could become greatest threat
for the project.
SWOT analysis of BEDZED
STRENGTHS WEAKNESS
 This city project had fully integrated
solar photovoltaic in windows that have
dual aims in order to generate
electricity and giving shading (Leng,
Wang and Liu, 2020).
 The project also embodied carbon
dioxide in producing of PV panels
which is only of 259 tonnes.
 The project had implemented glass
laminates that are not much efficient
kinds of solar PV technology.
 The electric cars used in this project are
not significant enough to utilize all the
generated electric power by PV cells.
The electricity supply from solar
photovoltaic were not connected to the

energy consumption of buildings. The
energy generated were only used for
lightning streets.
 The installation of wires of
photovoltaic cells was very costly .
 The passive solar designs were not
results into overheating in summer
season.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 The Feed-in Tariff mechanism is now
presently develop a regular revenues
stream from this project.
 This project of BEDZED provides
educational value for not only to
visitors but also to people who are
living in the city. It makes them
understand how electricity is being
generated and hence they could become
more cautious about its usage.
 The capital funding for solar
technologies is now available but is
replaced by Feed-In tariff.
 Potential that this project provide for
development would not be approved by
the planning committee and is unable to
move forward (Goel, Ganesh and Kaur,
2020).

SWOT analysis of Masdar
STRENGTHS WEAKNESS
 Masdar City is one of the emerging
global clean technology which aims to
become most sustainable city of world
powered by renewable energy.
 The biggest advantage that this city is
that it is environmental friendly. The
community offers sustainable living to
its residents (El Dimeery and et. al.,
2021). The houses in the city has been
designed with traditional Arabic
architecture with modern technology.
The villas in the city has solar panel
roofs.
 The another strength of this project is
that it provides special opportunities for
property investors. It is considered as
fourth best area for buying property.
 It is also considered as free zone area
where people not could only buy
properties but can establish their
business to benefit from tax cuts.
 The city is considered as self sufficient
neighbourhood which has school,
universities, clinic and supermarkets
(Ekasanti, Dewi and Putra, 2021).
 One of the major attraction of this city
is its Masdar Park which is built over
2,500 square meters. The park also has
various facilities for children, dining
 The construction of the project is fully
based on the design of the year 2015-
2016.
 The company also face major
disadvantage of lack of easy access to
public transport. In order to reach
public transport people have to use car
to reach the community.

options and is designed with
sustainable and solar-powered benches.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 The ongoing construction generates an
opportunity for residents and visitors to
experience greater number of facilities
or services and also creates a chance of
jobs in the city.
 The people living in the city could ride
e-scooters or rent electric vehicles to
move around the city. The city has
developed a pedestrian-friendly area.
The project is also constructing bus and
rail stops and also a metro station
which will also attract more people to
live in the city.
 The economy of United Arab Emirates
(UAE) is majorly depends upon oil and
energy which is implemented in
projects such as ski slopes, acclimatised
beaches and an ice parks in the desert.
 Due to this the government of UAE
initiates to develop cities in deserts.
The UAE wants to invest more in
greener energy simultaneously
developing nre services or facilities for
people living in the country.
Future plan for neighbourhood scale development
Aberdeen is the new location of the Scotland and is a port city where the two rivers Dee
and Don rivers meet the North Sea. The sustainable challenges faced by the city in its density,
infrastructure, governance has been evaluated above which has ignited the company based in
Glasgow to develop its new portfolio in new international market of Aberdeen. For which the
Future plan for neighbourhood scale development plan using sustainability principles is the best
way of internationalization.
Creating well- designed sustainable and futuristic neighbourhood is widely accepted by the
government of the developing countries. Producing the future plan of the Neighbourhood
Development Plan provide the lifelong opportunity to the community to be more involved in
shaping their environment and place they live (Zhu, Zhu and Dewancker, 2020).
The neighbourhood development plan is the plan that set the vision for a location and the
planning policies f or the usage and the development of the land within the parish. One such plan
is chosen or adopted for the Aberdeen city. The development of the Neighbourhood development

plan of the Aberdeen will help the community to play great role in the shaping the future of the
area. The plan is for creating the sustainable and eco-developed city using the strengths and
opportunities of the Bedzed. The future plan for neighbourhood scale development of the
Aberdeen is:
Nature of site sought
There are different nature of sight sought such as greenfield and brownfield. In urban
planning of the cities there are different terminologies used by the different company for the
different potential building and construction plots. For the present sustainable city development
plan the GREENFIELD SITE has been chosen as such sites has never been built upon
previously. This is the type of site which is generally an agriculture land which is undeveloped in
the city area. Therefore, the developers of the plan have decided to ripe the urban sustainable city
development on such site sought. This beneficial as this will mitigate the sustainable challenge of
the food producing for sustainable agriculture on blank canvas land that is not polluted (Li,
Wang, and Tan, 2020).
Potential locations in the city
In the Aberdeen city there will be many urban locations such as Dyce, Bankhead,
AshTown where there can be development of the infrastructure like city centre, inner city,
suburban. These will be developed in order to meet the needs of the market to gain the financial
aids with such places. This is basically a business model which will help the construction of the
sustainable Aberdeen a commercially viable place for the citizens in order meet the needs of the
market. By using the strengths of the city’s like Bedzed (South London) for the future plan of
neighbourhood scale development the locations will have clean technology, renewable energy,
photovoltaic windows and other sustainably aided technology.
Infrastructure: The infrastructure for the new sustainable city will be designed sustainably and
this will include the generation of electricity through hydraulic power as the city is port city and
contains huge water resources. There will electricity based parking system, usage of electric cars.
Degree of engagement with sustainability principles
The degree of engagement of the sustainability principles is very high as the city is focused to
build a city that has all its operations, function that contribute towards the environment. The city
has the zero carbon emission policy for which the city is car free city. The city has infrastructure
that is developed form the sustainable raw materials and also during the whole construction there

is zero wastage. All the principles of sustainability will help in vanishing the sustainable
challenges and also by this the future goals will be set for the upcoming generation to protect that
city wisely (Negash and et. al., 2021).
Business model
As the business is planning all this for commercial viability but there is another motive to
create the sustainability development of the company for long term growth. Therefore it is
suggested to the company to follow the bundling business model in which company can bundle
up its ideas and resources with the other firm of the particular international market. This will
make the firm stronger, gain better insight for the city and its needs of the market. Thus, making
it easy and commercially viable to implement the the plan.