Unit 1 - Phase 1 - Contextualization of the Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Engineering Career

National Open and Distance University – UNAD

Neiby Polanco Barragan; Code: 1.125.551.809

Group 358032_27

Author's Note
Environmental Impact Assessment
Teacher: Gilberto Cortes
Environmental Engineering Training Program – School ECAPMA
Yopal, February 2021
Abstract- “Sustainable construction—The role of environmental assessment tools”
The construction industry for years has generated irreversible damage to the environment and
increasingly compromises existing natural resources, leaving few alternatives for future
generations, in part due to the strategies of state administrations, which only seek to locate
economic resources in projects with low-cost margins in order to hide their true destinations.
The environmental building assessment method seeks a constituent relationship between building
construction and the environment. However, this interaction is not always evident, due to the fact
that the environmental evaluation of buildings presents limitations that can stop and hinder its
usefulness and future effectiveness during the evaluation of environmental performance. It is
recommended to consider environmental issues in the early phases of a construction project, long
before the end of the design stage as it may not be as efficient; it is recommended to use
environmental building assessment methods as soon as possible to allow a cooperation between
design management and evaluation.
The method of assessing buildings environmentally can be implemented for existing buildings,
however its usefulness may be in doubt, since to carry out the remodeling of a building that
complies with environmental parameters can be a very extensive, expensive and a slow process, a
situation that must be improved to ensure a sustainable future. Building environmental assessment
methods are not as useful when selecting the optimal project options, as their role is, above all, to
assess the building design against current environmental parameters.
When selecting a project, it is essential to consider environmental issues from the beginning of the
project evaluation in order to avoid modifications that generate costs and do-overs and, at the same
time, to minimize environmental damage, guaranteeing a maximum return of natural resources and
a reduction of repair costs. Currently, in construction projects, environmental evaluation methods
are employed at the end of the design stage. At this stage it is too late to consider the environmental
problems that may arise during the course of the project; it is recommended that the evaluation be
carried out during the identification and preparation stages of the project.
In a construction project there is a very important stage that is viability, in which the financial
aspects involved in the construction of a building are evaluated and must be considered in the
environmental evaluation of the project with the objective that it is profitable to build and that it is
friendly to the environment. On many occasions, a project that is environmentally sound can be
discarded in the selection process because the investment to be made can exceed the budget, which
is why it is essential that when applying the environmental evaluation method these factors be
included in order to guarantee that damage to the environment will be avoided and that the
consumption of water, energy, soil and materials will be fair and recovered in a limited time.

However, to apply an environmental evaluation method in a project requires an easy-to-use system

that has the ability to make regional variations, since in general international ecological
construction tools such as GBTool are very complex for evaluators and make it difficult to make
regional changes and adjustments. Although GBTool was created to overcome the deficiencies of
the existing environmental assessment tools of buildings around the world, nevertheless it
continues to have flaws, the same as other tools, especially in the change of scoring weights when
evaluating buildings in that country.
On the other hand, the incorporation of environmental criteria in an environmental evaluation
method is quite complete due to the complexity of the environmental problems that can arise in a
construction project. Consequently, other aspects such as financial and social consideration are
included. When conducting a high-scale environmental assessment, complications may arise due
to the large amount of detailed information, that is, a balance must be struck between the
comprehensiveness and ease of use of the building environmental assessment tool, one which
seeks an effective and efficient result.
The evaluation of the environmental performance of a building project requires quantitative and
qualitative criteria. For example, when it comes to the consumption of energy and water,
quantitative criteria are applied, while for the impacts on the ecological value of the site, qualitative
criteria are applied. At present, environmental problems are generally only evaluated using
qualitative criteria, emphasizing the compliance or not with environmental regulations. While it is
not possible to measure and evaluate the environmental performance of a building project with
quantitative criteria, there is a risk of largely losing the veracity of the environmental assessment,
leaving few alternatives for remediation of existing environmental impacts.
An important factor in the environmental assessment of buildings is weighting, which basically
determines the overall performance score in the environmental domain. The default weights
currently in use globally can potentially be modified; consequently, results can be manipulated
and altered to improve overall scores for the purpose of approval. However, regional and local
differences must be considered, which is why it is encouraged to modify the weighting
coefficients, which do not have a theoretical basis that facilitates alignment with the existing
environmental evaluation methods of buildings. The system for obtaining the weighting is very
basic and the absence of an easy-to-use methodological framework has prevented environmental
assessment methods from achieving sustainability objectives in the construction industry.
The measurement scales used in building environmental assessment methods often assign their
own points to environmental criteria. It is understood that as of yet, there is no logical or common
basis for awarding the maximum number of points in each criterion, so it is not an easy task to
define this parameter in the existing evaluation tools.
Finally, we can conclude that the use of one-dimensional models as an evaluation technique to
help decision-making is no longer so appropriate: a much more advanced model is required that
allows evaluators to handle multidimensional data matrices since achieving sustainable
development in a project involves using multiple criteria that facilitate decision making in the
project.
The purpose of environmental building assessment methods is to significantly consider the
environmental damage that a construction project can cause and to establish sustainable ecological
development; however, despite their implementation, they cannot consider the environmental
effects in a single tool and therefore do not allow for a general assessment of sustainable
development. The evaluation methods to date are very limited and the lack of consideration of a
weighting system prevents the acceptance of the environmental building assessment methods in
the construction sector.

References
Ding, G. (2008). Sustainable construction—The role of environmental assessment tools. Revista
ELSEVIER, pág. 451. Recuperado de https://www-sciencedirect-
com.bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/science/article/pii/S0301479706004270#aep-section-id126.
David Sánchez Ramos. (2014). MÉTODOS DE EVALUACIÓN DE IMPACTO AMBIENTAL.
30/11/2020, de UCLM - Universidad de Castilla - La Mancha Sitio web:
http://blog.uclm.es/davidsanchezramos/files/2013/12/6_MEIA_I-resumen.pdf.