Building Information Modeling for Sustainable Design - Dissertation Example

Building construction is one of the oldest human activities on the earth. The proverb “necessity is the mother of invention” probably evoked in human talent for creating a controlled environment in order to moderate the effects of climate. Human beings constructed shelters to adapt themselves to a wide variety of climates (Encyclopedia of Britannica, n.d.). This is how emerged a new activity, which is called building construction. Centuries of development have established three principal characteristics of building construction; design, material, and comfort. The history of the evolution of building construction has marked a number of trends that are associated with these characteristics. Among them are searching for increasing durability of building materials, a quest for providing greater height and span to the construction, implementation of innovative approaches to increase the degrees of control over the interior environment of the building as well as the use of more robust machinery in construction (Encyclopedia of Britannica, n.d.).

At the same time, this process also created a broad range of building products that are categorized according to the building types and markets. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the USA this industry in 2002 consisted of 223,114 establishments representing more than $531 billion in annual revenues. It is no doubt that this complex process provides countless benefit to the society, however; at the same, it uses a vast amount of resources. Loss of agricultural land to the building is 80% (Dixon, 2010). The total land area in the USA is 2.3 billion acres; the urban land area from 1945 to 2002 quadrupled against twofold population growth over the same period (the United States Energy Protection Agency, 2009). During the time of 1997 to 2002, rural land use for residential purposes increased by 29% (the United States Energy Protection Agency, 2009); no other industry uses more material worldwide than the construction industry (Ahmed, 2010). Per the Australian Bureau of statistics building and construction industries use 55% of timber, 27% of plastic products, and 12% of iron and steel (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003). The building construction industry on one side consumes enormous natural resources, and on the other side, it gives to nature heat and pollution, construction waste, solid waste, sewage, and surface drainage. According to EPA (the United States Energy Protection Agency, 2009), buildings in the United States produce 38.9% of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions; 20.8% from the residential sector and 18.1% from the commercial sector. According to the study of the department of Environmental Engineering Sciences of the University of Florida, the building construction industry contributes to 50% of climate change gasses (Dixon, 2010).

Though statistical information given in the above paragraphs relates more to the USA, building construction’s impact on the environment is a worldwide problem. Construction changes the natural environment bringing changes in various areas. Recent flooding evidenced in the UK, Italy, Germany, Cambodia, and India demonstrates the significant impact of construction on the hydrological system.