Life cycle environmental impacts assessment for residential buildings in China

Building industry has made significant contribution to economic development of China, but meanwhile it has harmed the environment to a severe extent, which aroused broad recognition. Since building is an interactive integration of building materials and products instead of a simple collection and environmental impacts of buildings are various and long-term, how to assess and quantify in which way the buildings affect the environment becomes a worth concerning topic. In this study, through a perspective of a life-long span, we will analyze the environmental impacts of a building within its every stage, propose some hypothesis and simplification according to Chinese particular conditions, and advance the framework of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) aimed at buildings, especially for residential buildings. By using this framework and relative toolkits developed for research, not only can the environmental impacts of existed buildings be observed, but guidance for architectural designs is provided. Consequently, it contributes to green or ecological design and assessment of buildings. Further more, an LCA case study on residential building fabrics design and construction effecting on the environment energy and resource consumption is introduced.