Development of regionally specific green building design & assessment standards for the Qinghai-Tibet plateau region of China

Abstract

Establishment of regionally specific green building (GB) standards has been proved to be an effective way to promote GB development in different regions. China released its first national Evaluation Standard for Green Building (GB 50378) in 2006. Since then, regionally specific GB standards have quickly been established in its different provinces/cities. However, such standards were not established in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau region until about ten years later, which made it the last region in the country to possess its own regionally specific GB standards. Supported by research funds from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development of Qinghai province and Tibet autonomous region respectively, the research group of this paper studied on how to develop regionally specific GB design and assessment standards for the Qinghai-Tibet plateau region. Literature review, field investigations, questionnaire surveys, group interviews and case studies were conducted to clarify regionally specific conditions and needs, based on comprehensive analysis of which, sub-zones were established and specific provisions were established or customized to suit regionally specific conditions. Main results, experiences and lessons learnt from the research are introduced and discussed, further researches in the relevant field are also recommended.