Investigation of key criteria influencing the sustainability of residential buildings in tropical climate

Abstract

Introduction: The need for sustainable cities and societies is well established and it is recognized as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable buildings are the key elements in the fabric of sustainable cities. The efforts made in the building sector to accomplish the SDGs is widely accepted in the form of building rating systems and assessment systems, primarily focussing the environmental dimension, but the social and economic dimensions have gained less attention. In this context, developing countries are accustomed to many studies incorporating the three dimensions of sustainability. However, region-specific assessment systems and studies hardly exist especially in a country like India with diverse climatic conditions. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the key criteria influencing the environmental, social and economic sustainability with specific focus to residential buildings in the tropical climatic region of India. Methods: A comprehensive review of the existing Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS) and published literature was performed to establish the initial pool of criteria. Additionally, a questionnaire survey was conducted among experts from various domains to record the importance of each criterion towards sustainability of residential buildings in the tropical climate. The data collected through the questionnaire survey was analyzed and the degree of importance of each criterion was derived using Fuzzy TOPSIS. Further, Pareto analysis was used to arrive at the key criteria. Results: This study has evaluated the importance of each criterion towards sustainability and has proposed a comprehensive framework for assessing the sustainability of residential buildings in tropical climate incorporating the three dimensions of sustainability. The proposed framework would help the state and national governments to streamline the activities in the building sector towards achieving sustainability. Conclusions: The study concludes that a combination of Fuzzy TOPSIS and Pareto analysis is an effective method to define key criteria influencing sustainability. The findings of this study can be helpful to practitioners, researchers and academicians to achieve building sustainability in the tropical climate.