Social sustainability indicators for school buildings in Surabaya

Abstract

School buildings are important for the education process. Surabaya, the second-largest city in Indonesia has many public-school buildings. As the buildings have a long project life cycle, the concept of sustainable development is relevant for this type of facility with regard to promote maximum benefit to the community. This paper aims to determine the criteria of social sustainability for the public-school buildings in Surabaya. The study first identified the variables based on literature. Then, a preliminary survey involving four experts was conducted to verify which variables should be used for the questionnaire survey. The variables were also analyzed using mean and standard deviation (SD). The study found 17 relevant indicators for measuring the social sustainability of school buildings in Surabaya. The five most relevant indicators are (1) the building is supported by users and the community; (2) the building is close to public transportation facilities; (3) the building can fulfill the needs of the local community; (4) the building can adapt to changes; and (5) the building is accessiblefor all people. The implementation of social aspects in construction projects is expected to deliver not only short-term, but also long-term project benefits to the community, as this aspect is closely related to community interests.