Background of Abu Dhabi’s architectural planning and development
Discuss About The Sustainable Sources Construction Development.
Abu Dhabi is the capital of United Arab Emirates and is known as the second largest city in UAE in terms of population. The architectural planning of Abu Dhabi was performed by Katsuhiko Takahashi under the guidance of Sheikh Zayed initially for a population of 40000 people only (Inglesi-Lotz 2016). The density of population in Abu Dhabi actually varies as in the central area of the city the population is greater than the downtown areas. Abu Dhabi is known for numerous skyscrapers like Etihad Towers, Hilton Hotel; headquarter of the national bank of Abu Dhabi and many more (Albino, Berardi and Dangelico 2015). It has been seen that the development of the tall buildings are being encouraged in the Abu Dhabi Plan 2030 that leads to construction of numerous skyscrapers which are actually going to be the expansion of the city’s central business district (Leigh and Blakely 2016). The purpose of this research work is to determine how using sustainable resources for construction purposes are beneficial and its subsequent effect on the economy of the country.
Being the most fragmented and largest industry, construction industry faces various challenges persuading sustainability. It is seen that construction industry of Abu Dhabi consumes more than 40% of all the resources and thus generates various environmental issues (Brown et al. 2015). These issues can be negated if the leaders of construction industry take the responsibility of using sustainable resources and plans work activities. The purpose of this research paper is to highlight the concept of sustainable development in construction industry and to determine how it can effect on the economy of the country. Sustainable construction can be referred to as an investment for the future as by conservation of energy, natural resources by recycling and minimizing the pollution and wastes of the industry, the development will be much friendly for the environment (De Jong et al. 2015). In Abu Dhabi, promotion of sustainable construction has become an integral part of the government’s policy and that is for the best interests of the environment and the nation’s future. There are numerous benefits of using sustainable resources for developing the construction industry and some of those are enhancing the quality of lives and customer satisfaction, supporting social and natural environments, maximizing the efficient use of resources and many more (Inglesi-Lotz 2016). In this regard, it can be said that sustainable construction exhibits one way of looking at the complex issues related to sustainability and their subsequent application in the construction industry.
Challenges faced by the construction industry persuading sustainability
The aim of the research is to explore how using sustainable resources in construction industry can have an impact in the industry and how it can effect on the economy of UAE focusing on the real estate industry of Abu Dhabi.
The objective of the research work is to discuss the outcomes of using sustainable resources in construction industry and how it can impact on the economy of the country.
This research proposal consists five chapters and the first one refers to the introductory one. Apart from this aims and objectives of the research along with research questions are provided. Detailed discussion on the topic is incorporated in the literature review section. The research methodology section describes how the research will be conducted by the researcher and thus appropriate philosophy, strategy, sampling technique, technique of data analysis has been provided in this section.
The construction industry creates a dichotomy between the challenges of the environment and the industry’s role as an economic driver it presents if the sustainable development is to be attained. It is seen that the building constructions generally consumes more than 40% of the gravel, raw stones and sand which is produced globally and more than 20% of timber which negatively impacts on the environment significantly (Kalmykova et al. 2016). From the perspective of environmental impact of this industry, it can definitely be said that construction sector has a major negative impact on the environment and this needs to be fixed immediately for the best interests of the environment and for betterment of human lives (Charter and Tischner 2017). In the land of UAE and especially in Abu Dhabi various initiatives has been taken for using sustainable development of construction industry by identifying the sustainable materials for erecting buildings and utilizing low technology methods that can result in a more affordable and sustainable construction adhering to the standards of comfort present in today’s world. In this regard, it can be said that adoption of green construction materials that have minimal burden is appropriate in the sustainable development of construction industry. Thus, the construction related contribution to environmental issues can be seen as large and vital.
It is a matter of fact that there is an urgent requirement of latest technologies and innovative technology to optimize application of low impact materials for construction industry and along with that it is also important to mention that currently the leaders of construction industry in Abu Dhabi are using numerous latest technologies to lower the environmental loads due to construction industry (Edson, Henning and Sankaran 2016). Utilizing latest technologies in construction industry have originated from earlier influx of activism regarding sustainable housing and development which was prompted by the environmental movement that took place in the 70s.
Benefits of sustainable resources for developing construction industry
To mitigate the effects of the buildings with their life cycle, Green Building (GB) has become a new philosophy of construction industry that pushed the application of environment friendly materials and implementation of numerous techniques and strategies in order to lower the wastage and to save the resources for the best interests of mankind. It seems that the savings are done in the operation and maintenance of green buildings are actually beneficial for the environment as those can be allocated for different purposes (Hammersley 2017). It is a matter of fact that the managements of various construction companies should look into this matter and do the same with an intention to help the environment to thrive. It can be achieved by having high level of insulation and illumination system in the construction sites and by appropriate selection of building materials. One of the major benefits of green buildings are related with the indoor environmental quality advancements which are decreased health costs and increase in the productivity of the residents of the green buildings. While erecting a green building using sustainable materials it actually helps the workers as they would not get exposed to harmful elements and that can effectively increase the productivity of the workforce that can help the business organization to flourish (Kalmykova et al. 2016). The fundamental advantages of green buildings are involved with the good indoor environmental quality and the satisfaction of the builders along with the people who will reside there. Due to the onetime costs that are relatively greater than the building cost of a regular building can sometimes force the builders to think otherwise and somehow restrained erecting green buildings becoming popular worldwide. It can be said that a careful process of designing the buildings and careful choice of the building materials can actually promote green buildings at least in the market of UAE and especially in Abu Dhabi.
It is a matter of fact that application of attractive environment friendly and stable building materials are the chief ingredients of any high performance green building effort and it can also be said that using healthy and natural building materials contributes significantly to the well-being of the occupants of the building and they will have a feeling of connection with the bounty of real natural environment. New models building materials have various Environmental effects due to pollutant release is depletion of natural resources and Habitat destruction that can be say that this will take place during the acquisition and extraction of the raw materials for production and manufacturing processes of the buildings or green buildings. In addition to that, some building materials can significantly harm human health by exposing the workers of the real estate industry and the occupants of the buildings to hazardous and toxic chemicals. These have been used in the process of electing the buildings and subsequently selection and recognition of environment friendly materials for using in constructions in the free building. However, sustainable resources are the opportunity to restrain search human health and environmental impacts which is financially beneficial for the environment as well as for the humankind (Leigh and Blakely 2016). These resources are utilized to manufacture construction materials which affects the environment by depleting the natural resources releasing pollutants to land water atmosphere and by consuming excessive energy and that is why nowadays the construction managers are using environment friendly resources in order to decrease the order of hazardous toxic annotating elements that adversely affects the human health in the process of rating buildings and the various stages of the Constructions.
Impact of sustainable resources on the economy of UAE
It is seen that the evolution of the building materials from collecting the raw materials to their final disposal provides a better idea of the long-term costs of those materials and these costs beard not only by the clients but also by the management of the construction companies and the occupants and of course by the environment itself (Albino,Berardi and Dangelico2015). The life cycle of the building materials can be organized into three particular stages which are pre building, building and the post building, which can be said that these pages parallel the lifecycle phases of the construction itself. In this context it is worthwhile to mention that assessment of the building materials impact on the environment at each and every phase is estimated cost benefit analysis over the lifetime of a building rather than merely accounting the costs of the initial construction phase. In the pre building phase that explains the delivery process and the production process of the building materials and that does not include the point of installation. This phase is involved finding the raw materials in environment and this particular stage involved the manufacturing and the procurement process itself (Ghisellini, Cialani and Ulgiati 2016). The understanding of the beginning of the used materials is important to an understanding of their collective impact on the environment when indicated in a specific type of a building. The building stage often refers to the useful life of the building materials and in this stage the materials assembly into a structure gets initiated that involves the repair and maintenance of those materials that goes all over the lifetime of those as an integral part of the building. The main issue arises in the post building phase and it can be said that the green buildings are generally seen to have contributing to the environment and as well as for the humankind too. The primary costs are a bit remains on the higher end, but the recurring costs are actually in the moderate range.
The green buildings enormously contribute to the economy of the United Arab Emirates and specially give a boost to the economy of Abu Dhabi. Green buildings consume lesser energy, also the green buildings creates huge job opportunities. The initial operational costs are in the lower end. Therefore these three reasons are enough to see how green construction has been contributing to the GDP of UAE. Therefore the final aspect of green economic contribution to the economy of the nation can be addressed to the countless environmental benefits of the green construction that lowers the governmental maintenance costs to a significant amount.
Objective and aims of the research
For this particular research work post positivism philosophy has been chosen in order to perform the whole research with crosschecked validated information and data. For this particular topic, the research work has to be conducted depending on the practical along with the theoretical perspective of the reality (Hammersley 2017). It is seen that post positive and aspect of the research philosophy can help the researcher in dealing with advanced thinking of the topic of the study and this philosophy can also facilitate the researcher to complete the whole research work by taking help of cross check data and real practically collected data.
For this particular research work, deductive approach should be chosen as this particular approach will help to conduct the research work appropriately by using previous established models and theories in this particular field. Deductive approach of the research work will enormously help the researcher to go through the previous theories and models and also will help the researcher to carry on the research work with collecting new data from various primary sources, thus it can be said that this particular approach of the research will be appropriate for this case.
It is to be noted that descriptive purpose of the research helps to conduct the study with more explanation along with exploration, by emphasizing more on detailed information related to the topic. Following this purpose the researcher can surely describe and explain the whole research by having more information related to the topic of the research(Nardi 2018). Therefore it can be said that inarguably descriptive purpose of the research will be appropriate for this case to find out how using sustainable building materials can help the economy and contribute to the environment.
For this particular topic of the research the researcher will have to conduct the whole operation by collecting relevant information from various secondary sources. The resources include websites, magazines, books, published journals and many more. Along with that, necessary information from primary sources will be collected as well. For this purpose, people from the construction industry of Abu Dhabi will be interviewed. 10 general employees of the construction industry who are familiar with the green building projects will be provided questionnaires for surveying and 10 project managers of construction sites will be interviewed to gather necessary information relevant to the topic of the research.
For this research work, the researcher will gather primary data all information by interviewing and serving respondents and along with that the researcher will collect information relevant to the topic of the research from various secondary sources like journals, books, websites, published articles etc.
Discussion on the outcomes of using sustainable resources in construction industry
10 employees will be provided questionnaires and 10 project managers will be interviewed.
For this particular research work, the collected data will be analyzed in two types. All the collected data will be analyzed in both quantitative and qualitative manner.
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References
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