Sustainability Assessment of Concrete Structures within the Spanish Structural Concrete Code
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138, Issue 2
Abstract
Since 2008, the Spanish Structural Concrete Code (EHE in Spanish) has generally focused on respecting the environment; as a result, it has become a support tool for designing sustainable concrete structures. The Ministry of Public Works took charge of the initiative and a wide range of professionals and researchers, encompassing various points of view in this sector, carried it through. It is a pioneering initiative, opening up an avenue for the future of sustainable structural design. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the procedure used in drafting the sustainability appendix for the EHE and to present the EHE model for assessing the sustainability of concrete structures. Although the project has had its problems, the model that it produced is very thorough. It includes practically all the main criteria, taking into account the current state of the art and the fact that this was the first time a sustainability assessment technique has been included in a structural code.
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was completed within the framework of the following projects: “Sustainability through Value Analysis Applied to Various Fields—MIVES II” (UNSPECIFIEDBIA2005-09163 C03-01), “Towards Sustainability in Construction through Value Analysis with Deterministic and Probabilistic Approaches—MIVES III” (UNSPECIFIEDBIA2009-14171-C04-01), “Quantification of Sustainability in Construction Engineering with and without Uncertainty,” and “Application and Testing of Different Components and at Different Scales of Construction—MIVES IV” (UNSPECIFIEDBIA2010-20789-C04-01), funded by the Ministry of Education and Science; “ICES—Assessment of the Environmental Sensitivity Index of Concrete Structures” (UNSPECIFIEDFOM/3546/2005), funded by the Ministry of Public Works; and “MIVES-EH-i—Support Tool for the Sustainable Design of Concrete Structures, Taking Uncertainty into Account,” funded by the Regional Government of Galicia (UNSPECIFIED08TMT011166PR).
We wish to express our most sincere thanks to all the professionals who cooperated in the drafting of Appendix 13 of EHE-2008 (see Appendix of this paper).
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Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138 • Issue 2 • February 2012
Pages: 268 - 276
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 11, 2010
Accepted: May 18, 2011
Published online: May 20, 2011
Published in print: Feb 1, 2012
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