Private Buildings Research Articles

Social and market acceptance of photovoltaic panels and heat pumps in Europe: A literature review and survey

This paper examines the main non-technical factors that influence social and market acceptance of solar photovoltaic panels and heat pumps in buildings. The paper discusses results from a literature review and a survey of European stakeholders. Statistical analysis results of survey data identify the most common barriers to adoption of renewables as: limited information about the technology, financial concerns, and sociodemographic factors. Survey results indicate variability in market and social acceptance of renewables between stakeholders and countries. The investment cost of the technologies is identified as a barrier to adoption for all countries. Legal and organizational issues are identified as barriers in Spain. Economic and legal barriers are identified as barriers in Latvia and Belgium. The respondents from Germany only identify investment cost as a barrier. Economic aspects are identified as the main barriers among public building owners and the general public. Businesspeople identified the largest number of barriers, including economic aspects, lack of information, trust, business models, and legal issues, while private building owners identified the least number of barriers, with concerns only related to economic aspects. Results of this study provide valuable information for policymaking focused on increasing the adoption of renewables in the building sector. Additionally, this study identifies the need to increase environmental awareness among citizens and increase the availability of information about technologies to stakeholders. Citizens should be informed about the recoupment of the investment costs of the technologies to offset the perception of high investment costs, long payback time, and lack of proper business models.

TENORM employed as inert material for house building: a model for evaluating the radon activity enhancement.

Radon exhalation from soil and ores is among the most dangerous risks for the public health care. The impact becomes even more powerful when technological enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) are used for public and private building. Here, webuilt a down-scaled model (a 1.0 m × 1.0 m × 0.5 m parallelepiped) of a dwelling, whose construction materials contain TENORM harvested in a site in Crotone (Italy). We observed an increase of the radon activity in the model when TENORM residues are employed, reaching a value around 120 Bq/m3, i.e. up to three times higher than the typical values of Crotone indoor environment, which ranges around 40 Bq/m3. These results have then been compared to a real use case. The correspondence found between the values of radon activity concentration in the model and in the use case suggests that estimating the radon concentration is a useful method to target TENORM presence inside buildings.

Thermal Storage for District Cooling—Implications for Renewable Energy Transition

The utilization of air conditioning in public and private buildings is continuously increasing globally and is one of the major factors fueling the growth of the global electricity demand. The higher utilization of renewable energy sources and the transition of the electricity-generating industry to renewable energy sources requires significant energy storage in order to avoid supply–demand mismatches. This storage-regeneration process entails dissipation, which leads to higher energy generation loads. Both the energy generation and the required storage may be reduced using thermal energy storage to provide domestic comfort in buildings. The development and utilization of thermal storage, achieved by chilled water, in a community of two thousand buildings located in the North Texas region are proven to have profound and beneficial effects on the necessary infrastructure to make this community independent of the grid and self-sufficient with renewable energy. The simulations show that both the necessary photovoltaics rating and the capacity of the electric energy storage system are significantly reduced when thermal storage with a chilled water system is used during the air conditioning season.

Influence of German Siedlungen and Bauhaus on Helsinki’s Prewar Housing Companies

The greatest achievement of the Bauhaus movement in terms of volume was the new approach to affordable housing, even though the movement itself contributed little in the way of building. Many of the Bauhaus teachers and students were involved during the 1920s and 1930s in new large-scale housing projects in Frankfurt, Berlin, and elsewhere in Germany, as originally required by the new Weimar constitution of 1919, which attempted to tackle the housing crisis via laws and new financing models. These new Siedlungen (subsidized housing estates) were made possible with earlier models of Baugenossenschaftenand Bauaktiengesellschaften, which acted as the main contractors and owners of the property and were partially subsidized by the city or the state. This form of cooperative building was naturally in line with Walter Gropius' manifest of 1919 and based also on cooperation between different parties.
 City of Helsinki did not have the resources to subsidize any kind of private building, though the housing crisis was certainly dire. However, the Finnish Asunto-osakeyhtiölaki (Liability Housing Companies Act, 1926) was partially developed for this purpose, to help build and maintain jointly owned real-estate properties. In short, a housing company is a normal joint-stock company that enables the stockowner to own a flat. This new system enabled both the stockowner and the company to borrow money, which in turn enabled the capital-poor lending banks to borrow from abroad. The law proved to be a success.
 The founders of these companies varied. The majority were normal developers who built to sell. Those in the minority included the state, cities, Finnish co-ops, and various ad hoc groups (usually according to profession, family, and so forth), such as railroad workers, bankers, professors, or officers. They hired their own supervisors, builders, and other experts, and, as can be expected, oversaw the work of the architect as well. In all cases, the city of Helsinki provided the master plan and sold or rented the land.
 This article sheds light on the influence of the Bauhaus movement and German architecture on housing in Helsinki using period’s professional press as data. The consensus has been that German influence came through Sweden. This paper is an inquiry into the role of direct German influence on Helsinki’s housing companies.

Reliability-Oriented Design of a Solar-PV Deployments

Increasing restrictions on the emission of greenhouse gases by the standards and the European Union’s policy aims at increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix of the Member States. Subsequently, we observe a rapid increase in the installed capacity of the renewable energy sources. Renewable energy sources are currently the fastest growing sectors of energy generation, specifically the photovoltaic sector. In 2005, the total installed capacity in photovoltaic installations in the European Union was about 2.17 GW, while in 2019 it was already over 130 GW. Currently, due to many forms of incentive governmental measures the construction of photovoltaic installations is rapidly increasing with installations mounted on private houses and buildings. The article presents selected issues concerning the failure modes of photovoltaic installations and a comparative assessment of the estimated and the real measured electrical production of an operational photovoltaic installation. The Solar-PV power plant design approach proposed in the paper considers the failure modes to enhance the plant’s reliability.

War on Terror and Pak-Afghan Borderland

The US-led war on terror against Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network has brought gigantic socio-political and economic impacts on the overall population of Pashtuns of FATA and KP. The US drone strikes largely targeted the Pashtuns population in the tribal belt of Pakistan while the Pakistani security forces particularly conducted various operations in the Pashtuns areas, being a partner/ally of the get praise. In the war, thousands of innocent civilians, including children and women of the Pashtuns population, have been killed, injured and millions remained displaced. Infrastructure, including roads, public and private buildings, bridges, educational institutions, tourism, etc, in the Pashtuns' land, has been destroyed. This paper is an attempt to analyze the so-called war on terror and how it turned against the Pashtuns of FATA and KP. The suffering of the Pashtuns population as targeted by the US drone strikes, Pakistan security forces, and terrorists attacks have been examined in this paper.

Probabilistic risk analysis and building performance simulations – Building design optimisation and quantifying stakeholder consequences

A method for risk analysis and building performance simulations is developed to optimise the building design process and fulfil the design criteria. The aim is to support the decision-makers during the building design process by including uncertainties from the design phase, quantifying the probability of attaining the energy performance criteria and financial requirements. The method is meant to be used as a comparative study of optional building designs based on different stakeholder values and consequence models to quantify the economic consequences of failing to comply with energy requirements. A case study using single-family houses demonstrated the various applications of the method using two design options as examples for quantifying the probability of failure and the probability of a design option being more financially viable than the other. The energy performance was simulated based on fifteen stochastic parameters, and the cost evaluation was simulated using six stochastic parameters from three stakeholders with different values and two different consequence models. The results showed a difference between stakeholders in the case study; the cheaper option was more suitable for the property developer while the more expensive option was a better choice for the private building owner if a longer lifecycle was expected.

Bi-objective optimization of multiple agro-industrial wastes supply to a cogeneration system promoting local circular bioeconomy

This research analyses and proposes an optimization model for the supply of biomass to a combined heat and power (CHP) system with a supply of different biomasses at a local level under Mediterranean conditions. The research aims to quantitatively assess whether it is economical and environmentally beneficial to transport various types of biomasses to the CHP plant, instead of landfilling, determining the biomass required according to the availability of power generation for each biomass of agricultural and agro-industrial origin. To do this, a representative case study has been developed in the Maule Region, Chile to supply power and heat to public, private, and residential buildings. The main biomasses analyzed are olive pomace, fruit pits and vineyard pruning. The results demonstrate that the supply of residual biomass to the CHP plant avoids the emission of CO2e generated by final disposal. Regarding the minimization of CO2e emissions, pruning residues are identified as the first supply option, due to their high heating value. Regarding cost minimization, olive pomace is identified as the first option, followed by fruit pits and pruning material. Furthermore, transport is not a major contributing cost or environmental factor when biomass sources are close to the CHP system, up to a maximum supply radius of 30 km. Finally, despite seasonality of agricultural biomass supply under Mediterranean conditions, it is feasible to adequately supply a small-scale CHP plant. However, this increases the storage costs involved. Other lignocellulosic biomasses could be used to optimize costs and environmental benefits.

Building Britannia: Pre-Flavian Private and Public Construction across Southern Britain

ABSTRACTExcavation of the Roman tilery at Little London, Pamber, Hampshire, has prompted a reassessment of the dating of relief-patterned tile, assigning the bulk of production to the Claudio-Neronian period rather than the late first to mid-/late second century. This material has been privileged for retention in excavation archives but can now be seen as a proxy for the manufacture of a much wider range of ceramic building material, typically discarded on site, which, in the case of products from Little London and pre-Flavian Minety (Wiltshire), travelled distances of up to 100 km. Redating implies more extensive public and private building in town and country south and east of the Fosse Way before the Flavian period than has previously been envisaged. While private building included the construction of bath-houses, heated rooms and the provision of roofing materials, public building, we suggest, provided tabernas et praetoria along the principal roads of the province. In the private sphere such building provides a possible context for Dio Cassius’ mention of the recall and confiscation of large loans made to Britons before the Boudican rebellion. Finally, consideration of fabric needs to be added to the criteria for retaining ceramic building material in excavation archives.

An exergy-based minimum carbon footprint model for optimum equipment oversizing and temperature peaking in low-temperature district heating systems

Total decarbonization strategies are facing technical and environmental challenges according to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, such as equipment oversizing versus temperature peaking by heat pumps to accommodate low-temperature renewable and waste energy sources. As a method of this paper, the Rational Exergy Management Model (REMM) derived fourteen metrics, aiming to minimize the CO2 emissions responsibility. Two case studies are presented. One of them is a fifth-generation district energy system concept with a 250 MW design heating load of 20,000 residence-equivalent apartments at a supply temperature of 35 °C. Results showed that two heat pumps in a cascade achieved a 23% higher exergy utilization rate with an optimum temperature peaking to 45 °C and 25% radiator oversizing. The second case study is concerned with the strategy of the Chinese government to substitute the domestic use of coal and wood with local wind turbines for electric heating to combat global warming. Five alternatives were considered; 1-Wind electricity to resistance heating, 2-Wind electricity to heat pumps, 3-Wind electricity to mini hydrogen fuel cells, 4-Wind electricity to hydrogen and micro-cogeneration, and 5-Hydrogen district systems with biogas, geothermal, and solar energy. Results showed that Case 1 has the maximum carbon footprint, whereas a custom-designed hydrogen house has the least footprint leading to about 90% CO2 emissions responsibility emanating from exergy destructions. The paper concludes that low-temperature heating either in district energy systems, in private buildings, or prosumers is both environmentally, economically, and technically feasible.

IMPROVEMENT OF THE HYDROECOLOGICAL CONDITION OF TEREMNIVSKY PONDS

The article is devoted to the assessment of the current hydroecological condition of Teremnivsky ponds, the factors influencing it, the connection with the hydroecological condition of the Sapalaivka river. The history of research of hydroecological condition of Teremnivsky ponds, features of physical and geographical conditions of locality and anthropogenic influence on ecosystem of ponds are analyzed. The reservoirs are located in the Teremnivskyi district, where low-rise private buildings and a few of industrial enterprises predominate. Ponds and their shores are a place of rest and recreation of local population. It has swimming and sunbathing beaches, shopping and catering facilities. The shores of the ponds are currently insufficiently landscaped and have poor sanitation. The reservoir is a typical floodplain pond in the valley of the river Sapalaivka. Built in the 60's. XX century Recently, the ecological and sanitary condition of ponds has deteriorated, which makes it difficult to use them for recreational purposes. This is largely due to the poor ecological condition of the Sapalaivka river. Teremnivsky ponds in the summer are characterized by eutrophication - the enrichment of reservoirs with nutrients, which is accompanied by increased productivity of the reservoir. Much of the surface of the reservoir is covered with a film of duckweed and other algae. Poor sanitation of the reservoir banks also contributes to eutrophication. Shores are not removed from fallen leaves, household waste. It all gets into the stakes and pollutes them. It is determined that the hydroecological condition of Teremnivsky ponds is most affected by: chemical composition of water, microbiological water pollution, eutrophication of the reservoir in summer, sanitary condition of the reservoir banks, ecological condition of the Sapalaivka river, where the reservoir was created. It is established that the content of certain chemical pollutants in the water of Teremnivsky ponds exceeds their maximum permissible concentration in reservoirs for fishery use. Such water pollution is caused by the ingress of surface runoff from the city, sewage from latrine pits and garbage from the population. Thus, the hydroecological and sanitary condition of Teremnivsky ponds today is unsatisfactory and requires optimization. Previously implemented measures of local environmental programs are analyzed. In 2012-17, on the initiative of the Department of Ecology of the Lutsk City Council, measures were taken to improve the hydroecological condition of the Sapalaivka River. At present, a significant amount of urgent work has been done, and the project is still far from complete. In 2013-2014, landscaping with elements of revitalization of the valley of the Sapalaivka River was carried out. A set of measures for the completion and successful implementation of the project to improve the hydro-ecological condition of Teremnivsky ponds is proposed. It includes: cleaning and tidying up the water area and the surrounding area; technical measures (treatment of surface runoff from the city and prevention of contaminated wastewater; bioremediation measures (treatment of ponds from pollutants already in the water, improving the sanitary condition of water and combating eutrophication of the reservoir).
 Key words: ponds, hydroecological condition of ponds, factors determining the hydroecological condition of ponds, measures to improve the hydroecological condition of ponds.

Assessment of green public procurement specifications in government institutions: Case study in Central Java, Indonesia

The construction industry has always been the biggest contributor to environmental damage. With the emergence of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and Mayor Regulation Number 24 of 2019 concerning green buildings and Presidential Regulation in Indonesia concerning the importance of green industry products in the procurement process led to the emergence of urgency for the construction sector to create a focus on green. One focus that needs to be considered because contributing a large role in the construction process from beginning to end is the procurement process. The problem that occurs is that there is no awareness from Project Manager in Central Java is regarding environmental aspects in making procurement specifications. This is evident because the consideration of certification of Environmental Impact Assessment, and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation has not yet been taken into consideration in the specification of Project Manager considerations. As a result, government buildings have 46% lower energy efficiency compared to private buildings. With the DEMATEL method, it was found that the criteria “lowest bid value”, “Reducing the use of hazardous materials”, “Minimizing energy consumption”, “Minimizing energy loss”, “Clarifying environmentally friendly fuels”, “Impact on the environment during and after construction”, “Work procedures”; “Supervision”, and “Frequency of failure” is a criterion that is considered to influence other criteria is greater and can be an urgency for the government of Central Java.

CONSERVATION OF OUTDOOR SCULPTURE

There are sculptures and monuments in the public areas, the gardens of public and private buildings and private residences in the cities that we live in. These works of art face severe pressure due to rays of the sun, heat, humidity, gases that can easily transform into acids after interacting with water (such as CO2, SO2, NOx), solid particles carried over by birds and wind and human activities. Thus, they can be damaged due to these different pressure sources. Preventive conservation is a good solution for conservation the works of art. However, the deteriorations that occur in outdoor sculptures due to environmental impacts may be so intense that they preventive conservation applications may not be sufficient. In such cases, it is necessary to apply active conservation methods. Therefore, the conservation of outdoor works of art may be possible only by applying active and preventive conservation in coordination as part of the long-range maintenance plan. Information will be provided in our study on long-range maintenance planning that should be carried out for conserving outdoor sculptures, stages of preventive conservation, fundamental preventive conservation suggestions and primary active conservation methods. In addition, discussions will also be carried out regarding who should apply the preventive and active conservation methods in order to ensure that the works carried out for the conservation of the works of art are successful. Keywords: Preventive conservation, active conservation, long-range maintenance plan, condition survey

Integration of Satellite InSAR with a Wireless Network of Geotechnical Sensors for Slope Monitoring in Urban Areas: The Pariana Landslide Case (Massa, Italy)

Slow to extremely slow landslides in urban areas may cause severe damage to buildings and infrastructure that can lead to the evacuation of local populations in case of slope accelerations. Monitoring the spatial and temporal evolution of this type of natural hazard represents a major concern for the public authorities in charge of risk management. Pariana, a village with 400 residents located in the Apuan Alps (Massa, Tuscany, Italy), is an example of urban settlement where the population has long been forced to live with considerable slope instability. In the last 30 years, due to the slope movements associated with a slow-moving landslide that has affected a significant portion of the built-up area, several buildings have been damaged, including a school and the provincial road crossing the unstable area, leading to the need for an installation of a slope monitoring system with early warning capabilities, in parallel with the implementation of mitigation works. In this paper, we show how satellite multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (MT-InSAR) data can be effectively used when coupled with a wireless sensor network made of several bar extensometers and a borehole inclinometer. In fact, thanks to their wide area coverage and opportunistic nature, satellite InSAR data allow one to clearly identify the spatial distribution of surface movements and their long-term temporal evolution. On the other hand, geotechnical sensors installed on specific elements at risk (e.g., private buildings, retaining walls, etc.), and collected through Wi-Fi dataloggers, provide near real-time data that can be used to identify sudden accelerations in slope movements, subsequently triggering alarms. The integration of those two-monitoring systems has been tested and assessed in Pariana. Results show how a hybrid slope monitoring program based on the two different technologies can be used to effectively monitor slow-moving landslides and to identify sudden accelerations and activate a response plan.

A Legionnaires' Disease Cluster in a Private Building in Italy.

Legionnaires’ disease (LD) is a severe pneumonia caused by bacteria belonging to the genus Legionella. This is a major public health concern and infections are steadily increasing worldwide. Several sources of infection have been identified, but they have not always been linked to human isolates by molecular match. The well-known Legionella contamination of private homes has rarely been associated with the acquisition of the disease, although some patients never left their homes during the incubation period. This study demonstrated by genomic matching between clinical and environmental Legionella isolates that the source of an LD cluster was a private building. Monoclonal antibodies and sequence-based typing were used to type the isolates, and the results clearly demonstrated the molecular relationship between the strains highlighting the risk of contracting LD at home. To contain this risk, the new European directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption has introduced for the first time Legionella as a microbiological parameter to be investigated in domestic water systems. This should lead to a greater attention to prevention and control measures for domestic Legionella contamination and, consequently, to a possible reduction in community acquired LD cases.

Urban Shopping Malls and Sustainability Approaches in Chilean Cities: Relations between Environmental Impacts of Buildings and Greenwashing Branding Discourses

This article seeks to discuss the recent discrepancies between the environmental effects of large retail buildings located in urban centers and the media and corporate discourses that these retailers have on the environment and sustainability to the public and to local authorities. By using mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative data analysis of two of the biggest shopping centers in Santiago de Chile, this exploratory research seeks to inaugurate an interdisciplinary academic discussion on the relevance of comparing the media discourses about sustainability issued by urban developers and the physical effects that massive private buildings create in their surroundings. By using the retail resilience theoretical framework, this research seeks to understand the disruption in retail systems, both from socio-economic and environmental indicators. Comparing the environmentally sensitive discourses promoted by Chilean retailers in advertising campaigns and corporate speeches with the environmental effects that large retail buildings brought to the surrounding areas in terms of urban deforestation and increasing superficial temperature, this paper probes that greenwashing campaign are not only used to impact corporate legitimacy with consumers and investors but also to deliberately diminish the environmental responsibilities of private developers in vulnerable urban areas.

ЕКОЛОГІЧНА ОЦІНКА СТАНУ ПОВОДЖЕННЯ З ТВЕРДИМИ ПОБУТОВИМИ ВІДХОДАМИ В МІСТІ УМАНЬ

The study of municipal solid waste management was carried out on the example of the city of Uman, the features of the municipal waste collection were considered. One of the promising utilization methods of the municipal waste organic component is proposed — anaerobic fermentation with subsequent composting of the resulting products. Urban population growth, industrialization, urbanization and economic prosperity lead to an increase in municipal solid waste (MSW). The aim of the work was to consider the characteristics of municipal solid waste management using the example of the city of Uman; inspect the features of collecting municipal waste; consider a separate collection system; identify problems and possible solutions. According to the statistics of Uman city council, 73-75 tons of municipal waste per day are delivered to the landfill. The control is carried out on the composition of the waste entering the landfill. Sorting takes place using a sorting line, which was put into operation in October 2016. Removal of municipal solid waste from the residential sector is carried out according to the schedule. The waste from the private sector of the city is removed during the day. Transportation (transport) of municipal waste is carried out by specially equipped vehicles. On the plots of the private residential sector, the collection of municipal waste is carried out by containerless and container methods. The containerless method is used in those areas of private building, where the possibility of the garbage truck's driving and its maneuvering are limited. Analysis of the current state of municipal solid waste management in the city of Uman showed that the main reasons for the increase in the volume of environmental pollution due to municipal solid waste is the lack of a high-quality management system in the field of MSW management, and especially the outdated waste collection and transportation scheme. The state of MSW management does not meet modern requirements. At the landfill, as a result of the introduction of the technology for the production of biogas from municipal solid waste, it is possible to obtain marketable products — biogas and compost. The city can receive income from the use of biogas as an alternative source of energy for heating buildings or from its consuming by the population. For the city of Uman, the volume of biogas formation at the MSW landfill in 2018 would have amounted to 5,441,280 m3, and in 2019 – 5,424,930 m3.Thus, it is possible to obtain significant volumes of biogas for the production of both heat and electricity. As a result of the study, recommendations were developed to improve the system for collecting municipal waste in the city of Uman. One of the promising utilization methods of the municipal waste organic component in the city of Uman is anaerobic fermentation followed by composting of the resulting products.

KINERJA KEUANGAN SUB SEKTOR BUILDING CONSTRUCTION NON-BUMN SEBELUM DAN SETELAH PRIORITAS INFRASTRUKTUR

Since 2014 the government has focused on developing national infrastructure as stated in Nawacita and as seen in the significant increase in the infrastructure budget from 2015-2019. However, the increase in the infrastructure budget did not affect the private building construction sub-sector companies' profit. This study aims to measure the financial performance of the private building construction sub-sector and to determine the significance of the differences between financial performance before and after infrastructure becomes the focus of development. Purposive sampling was used within the criteria of a private building construction sub-sector company that publishes annual financial reports for 2011-2019. The period is divided into two, before infrastructure becomes the focus of development (2011 - 2014) and after infrastructure becomes the focus of development (2015 - 2019). Paired sample t-test and financial ratio analysis (FRA) were used to analyze the data. The results show that return on assets and total asset turnover have a significant difference between the period before and after infrastructure becomes the focus of development, while the current ratio and debt to equity ratio are not significantly different. These findings can be useful for company managers who would continue to explore opportunities to provide higher profits.
 Keywords: financial performance, construction, profitability, solvency

Metal/metalloid levels in hair of Shenzhen residents and the associated influencing factors

129 Shenzhen residents’ hair samples were collected and the metal/metalloid concentrations of Hg, As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe and Ni were detected. Meanwhile, the relationships between metal/metalloid contents in human hair and gender, age, seafood diet habit, smoking habit, as well as the housing type (dwelling environment) were analyzed. Results showed that the average content of Hg, As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe and Ni in human hair of Shenzhen residents was 0.76 ± 0.96, 0.10 ± 0.04, 5.25 ± 4.88, 0.25 ± 0.33, 0.60 ± 0.31, 13.84 ± 3.67, 2.82 ± 2.01, 196.90 ± 145.01, 12.20 ± 5.10 and 0.34 ± 0.32 μg/g, respectively. Compared with other regions at home and abroad, most metal/metalloids in Shenzhen residents were at a moderate level, and the highly toxic elements (i.e. Pb, Cd, As and Hg) didn’t exceed the upper limit of normal values in China. Statistical analysis showed that the young male people contained significantly higher (p < 0.05) level of Pb (in age group of 20–30 years old) and Fe (in age group of 20–40 years old) in hair than the female people. Smokers had significantly (p < 0.05) higher level of Cd (0.35 μg/g) but lower level of Zn (101.24 µg/g) than non-smokers (Cd: 0.17 μg/g; Zn: 252.63 µg/g). Hg and Pb contents in hair of Shenzhen people were positively related with the frequencies of seafood consumption and the age, respectively. Moreover, residents lived in private buildings (well decorated house) accumulated significantly higher (p < 0.05) levels of Pb, Cr, Fe and Ni as compared with those lived in public rental house and village house (no decoration or simple decoration), suggesting that decoration material was also an important way for human exposure to heavy metals.

Seismic vulnerability assessment of low to mid-rise RC buildings addressing prevailing design and construction practices in the Northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent: A case study based approach

RC buildings with infilled masonry are very common in Northeast India and neighbouring countries like Nepal, along with open ground storey (OGS) buildings and bare framed buildings. In this region, due to the low financial capacity of the owners, most of the private buildings are constructed either with a consultation to local masons without any engineering input or by the engineers, mainly based on the thumb-rules. In such cases, design and construction quality (DCQ) and non-uniform distribution of the infill wall increase the damage level. Herein, an effort has been made to quantify the influence of DCQ, infill wall distribution, and their combined effect on seismic response. The vulnerability of low to mid-rise RC buildings is studied through fragility analysis using a simplistic nonlinear static analysis based method. The fragility curves show that inferior design and construction quality and the absence of masonry infill on the ground floor increases susceptibility to the manifold. However, the vulnerability of these RC buildings, including the ones with an open ground storey, can be decreased through well design and construction practices under controlled supervision. Thus, it may avoid collapse mainly for low seismic hazards that are often striking the Northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent and many other countries relatively more frequently than the very severe event. The overall observations that came out from the study may prove beneficial for selecting the suitable building configuration by design engineers, keeping a balance between safety and economy. The results obtained in the form of various curves and tables may be used for the preliminary design of new buildings and seismic risk assessment of existing buildings of such regions as well as of other areas with similar building typologies. Hence, the study may prove useful not only in the design offices, but the approach outlined in the study may be applied to various regions for vulnerability assessment, using the methodology having a fair compromise between rigour and accuracy. Finally, a large set of results generated following such a process may pave the way for refining design guidelines for performance-based design.