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Life Cycle Analysis of Building Materials

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Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies for Building and Environmental Applications

Abstract

The construction industry and building materials consume a large amount of resources and energy during its extraction, production, construction, throughout its use and even demolition process, hence causing high impacts to the natural environment. Apart from an increase in energy use, these impacts of materials range from ecological degradation, harm to human health and global warming. In order to reduce the impacts, an assessment and analysis of building materials is crucial prior to the design and construction of buildings to predict the risks and enable the decision makers to minimize those risks. This chapter gives an overview of the lifecycle approach in material selection and the assessment and analysis of materials used in the construction based on ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006. It also presents the results of the testing on life cycle assessment of common building materials adopted in mosque construction in Iraq based on five categories: global warming, ozone depletion, human toxicity, acidification and eutrophication. This study identifies the stages in which the materials have greater impact and give recommendation in reducing the overall impact of the materials used.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, George Town, 11800, Penang, Malaysia

    Muna Hanim Abdul Samad & Hafedh Abed Yahya

Authors
  1. Muna Hanim Abdul Samad
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  2. Hafedh Abed Yahya
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Correspondence to Muna Hanim Abdul Samad .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Mardiana Idayu Ahmad

  2. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Mazran Ismail

  3. Institute of Building Technology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Saffa Riffat

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Samad, M.H.A., Yahya, H.A. (2016). Life Cycle Analysis of Building Materials. In: Ahmad, M., Ismail, M., Riffat, S. (eds) Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies for Building and Environmental Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31840-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31840-0_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31838-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31840-0

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