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Weekly Updates* refurbishment process financing;
* information systems, etc.
Stakeholders groups participating in public buildings refurbishment and their relations. There are many stakeholders participating in public buildings refurbishment decision making process:
* municipal technical personnel (usually named building administrators);
* municipal technical supervisors;
* buildings designers;
* contractors;
* buildings users;
* politicians;
* society.
Aforementioned groups are making refurbishment decisions; hereby their dissemination about sustainable refurbishment principles is very important. Also it is crucial to ensure this information to reach them. Different knowledge is needed to different stakeholders groups participating in the refurbishment process.
The part of above proposed model is illustrated by pollution maps case study.
4. CASE STUDY
In Brita in Pubs Project the pilot retrofit of 9 demonstration public buildings in the four participating European regions (North, Central, South, East) was implemented. In Lithuania the main building of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University was renovated.
In order to analyze environment pollution in refurbished buildings environment and to measure pollution influence on users' health, examples of pollution maps were created. The USA Environment Protection Agency (EPA) methodology was used for this purpose (US EPA, 2006). Air Quality Index (AQI) was calculated and basing on it the map of pollution impact on human health was developed.
The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 represents good air quality with little potential to affect public health, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.
An AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to the national air quality standard for the pollutant, which is the level EPA has set to protect public health. AQI values below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI values are above 100, air quality is considered to be unhealthy-at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher.
The purpose of the AQI is to help you understand what local air quality means to your health. To make it easier to understand, the AQI is divided into six categories (see Appendix 1).
The map of pollution impact on human health and mentioned methodology enable to decide what associated health effect might be due to concentration of pollutants and what kind of diseases it might cause. Analysing the map the most attention is paid to such diseases groups as heart and lung diseases. The pollution impact on human heath is different for individual groups of people. In the methodology there are mentioned four main groups, i.e. sensitive groups (people with respiratory, cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular diseases), adults, active children, older adults.
AQI index is calculated for particular pollutant in VGTU area (ozone, particular mates, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide). Values are illustrated in maps (see Figure 2 and 3).
Basing on the given maps there it is possible to state that the air quality in the zone of concern is good or moderate. Near the streets the pollution is bigger and carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide levels are reaching unsatisfactory levels. That means that people living and working in this territory are always on exposure of pollutants. So in this zone sensitive individuals might experience discomfort and respiratory symptoms. Also there is possible aggravation of heart or lung diseases in people with cardiopulmonary diseases and older people.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
Basing on the above proposed pollution maps it is possible to plan refurbishment measures efficiently in order to implement sustainable development principles in public buildings refurbishment.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Sustainable refurbishment is significant problem in current buildings stock, taking much scientists attention as well as European Commission initiatives. Sustainable refurbishment is widely discussed in the literature and various models and decision making tools proposed. In this article authors integrate sustainable development principles, decision making process and influencing factors into one unique conceptual sustainable refurbishment model.
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
Model involves macro and micro environment factors analysis, integrates participating in refurbishment stakeholders' decisions and needs. Accordingly to sustainable refurbishment principles refurbishment not only decreases energy consumption but also improves whole condition of the building: its exploitation, noise insulation conditions, exterior, and comfort; extends buildings life cycle, increases value of the building, reduces negative impact to environment and guarantees healthy living and working conditions.
Much attention is paid on decision making process. In order to design and implement buildings refurbishment basing on sustainable development principles it is necessary to follow these principles from idea till implementation. Furthermore, information character should change in dependence on decision making phase--one type of information is needed in the initial information collection stage and another at the end of decision implementation stage.
In order to demonstrate models' application possibilities following the healthcare principle, practical case study of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University main building pollution mapping is given. The map of pollution impact on human health enables to decide what associated health effect might be due to concentration of pollutants and what kind of diseases it might cause. Basing on the above proposed pollution maps it is possible to plan refurbishment measures efficiently in order to implement sustainable development principles in public buildings refurbishment.
Received 3 August 2007; accepted 7 December 2007
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