Development of simplified life cycle assessment methodology for construction materials and buildings outside of the European context through the use of geographic information systems

The global human population had been growing at an unprecedented rate for the last five decades and it is expected to keep this trend for the coming century. United Nations, estimates that the current world population of 7.6 billion will reach 9.5billion by the year 2050 and estimates a global human population of 10.9 billion by the year 2100. Furthermore, this growth had been mainly concentrated on urban areas, which had increased both the acquisition power and the demand for resources on those on those populations. From the environmental perspective, the magnitude of growth of cities have dramatically changed their material flows and the land use around them mainly thought the growth of buildings and infrastructures. The building sector is a multifaceted and decisive actor on this situation, providing benefits on both the global economic and social spheres but at the cost of environmental degradation. The advantages of this situation is that the building sector is financially strong, making it more apt for innovation and development. The challenge for the building sector is to use appropriated construction materials to maximize the economic, environmental and social benefits at a speed that allows it to achieve its main purpose. Consequently, it requires the further development of the existing assessment tools and the generation of data for those assessments for regions where the main urban development is occurring. The main objective of the present research was to develop an approach for the production of life cycle assessment data for conventional and bamboo-based constructive systems and their associated materials. These data were integrated on a geographic information system in order to allow for the characterization of the data to different countries worldwide. The data and characterization methodologies were tested on several case studies focusing on post-disaster reconstruction and social housing projects. The case studies considered the use of alternative construction materials like bamboo and soil stabilized blocks as well as conventional construction materials like bricks and concrete hollow blocks. These case studies focused on the environmental impacts from the production of buildings using these construction materials on different locations. Additional sustainability aspects were also studied, considering the potential job creation; cost; life span; and carbon crediting potential associated to the used of the construction materials. The findings from this research indicated that the appropriated selection and application of construction materials is one of the most important factors to consider on the sustainability of buildings. The results showed under different assessment conditions that sustainable buildings can be produced with a diversity of alternative and conventional construction materials. Moreover, the sustainability of a buildings is not directly correlated to its construction material but to the sustainable use of those materials. However, the use of bamboo as a construction material increases significantly the possibilities of producing sustainable buildings on a wide range of contexts. Furthermore, the results showed that the economic, environmental, and social benefits from the production and use of bamboo in construction can not only support the regenerative development of countries producing it but also it can offset the negative environmental impacts from the production and use of other construction materials.