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Abstract
The environmental performance characterisits of roofing systems are considered to be of importance in relation to the overal environmental effects produced by contemporay buildings. the environmental impact of premature roof system failures together with the continual replacement of roofing materials, components and products is considered to be sufficiently large to merit investigation. Each material and component used within the 48 separate contemporary roofing systems that are avialble to satisfy the accepted roofing function have associated environmental impacts. The impact is produced by the extraction of raw materials; production and manufacture, transportation, installation, in-use performance and finally disposal. In order to ensure that buildings of the future are trly sustainable, it is important to examine and to understand the nature of the influence that roofing systems have upon the overall environmental performance of contemporary building developments. Life cycle anlayses undertaken to establish the environmental performance and characteristics of materials and compoents such that optimal systems can be identified are very complex and require the detailed analysis of life cycle data which are frequently difficult and expensive to acquire. Therefore, since all buildings will inevitably have a negative impact upon the environment, it is considered important to investigate which buildings sub-systems, of which the roof sytem is but one, have significanlty large influences upon the total environmental load imposed by buildings, such that expensive detailed investigations will be focused upon th eoptimisation of those overall system which are likely to produce the largest reductions in the overall environmental impact of buildings. This paper hypotehesises that, on an priori basis, the influence of the roofing system upon the environmental performance of a complete building system will be large; the aim is to test this hypothesis. To this end a provisional research method has been developed and is forwarded with the aim of testing the hypothesis and thereby measuring the impact of the roofing system upon the overal environmental performance of contemporary buildings. Research is presently ongoing to determine how the proposed approach may be best implemented and to define appropriate measurement systems for the variables that have been incorporated.
The environmental performance characterisits of roofing systems are considered to be of importance in relation to the overal environmental effects produced by contemporay buildings. the environmental impact of premature roof system failures together with the continual replacement of roofing materials, components and products is considered to be sufficiently large to merit investigation. Each material and component used within the 48 separate contemporary roofing systems that are avialble to satisfy the accepted roofing function have associated environmental impacts. The impact is produced by the extraction of raw materials; production and manufacture, transportation, installation, in-use performance and finally disposal. In order to ensure that buildings of the future are trly sustainable, it is important to examine and to understand the nature of the influence that roofing systems have upon the overall environmental performance of contemporary building developments. Life cycle anlayses undertaken to establish the environmental performance and characteristics of materials and compoents such that optimal systems can be identified are very complex and require the detailed analysis of life cycle data which are frequently difficult and expensive to acquire. Therefore, since all buildings will inevitably have a negative impact upon the environment, it is considered important to investigate which buildings sub-systems, of which the roof sytem is but one, have significanlty large influences upon the total environmental load imposed by buildings, such that expensive detailed investigations will be focused upon th eoptimisation of those overall system which are likely to produce the largest reductions in the overall environmental impact of buildings. This paper hypotehesises that, on an priori basis, the influence of the roofing system upon the environmental performance of a complete building system will be large; the aim is to test this hypothesis. To this end a provisional research method has been developed and is forwarded with the aim of testing the hypothesis and thereby measuring the impact of the roofing system upon the overal environmental performance of contemporary buildings. Research is presently ongoing to determine how the proposed approach may be best implemented and to define appropriate measurement systems for the variables that have been incorporated.
Date
6/1998
6/1998
Author(s)
S Allwinkle; A Brown
S Allwinkle; A Brown
Page(s)
80-92
80-92
Keyword(s)
environmental performance; roofing system; causal path modelling
environmental performance; roofing system; causal path modelling