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Towards a Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment

Special issue call for papers from Built Environment Project and Asset Management

This Special Issue (SI) of Built Environment Project and Asset Management is one of a series based on the annual World Construction Symposium series, targeting advances under the overarching theme of ‘Sustainability’. The concept of ‘Sustainability’ has been conventionally defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In scientific literature, sustainable development has been analyzed using different qualitative approaches, such as economic, social, ecological, institutional, ethical and political. In this Special Issue, the concepts of both ‘smart’, and ‘resilient’ are considered to open up useful pathways to achieving sustainable buildings and infrastructure. Though the concepts of smart and resilient are considered to help achieve sustainability in the built environment, the interrelation and interdependence between these two concepts are not clearly evident. This led to the questions of ‘is the smart built environment always resilient?’; ‘is the resilient built environment always smart?’; and ‘what more is needed for sustainability?’. In exploring these areas, the proposed SI papers are expected to unveil and disseminate new insights to the triple concepts of smart, sustainable and resilient built environment.

Natural disasters are on the rise around the world in terms of their intensity and frequency. Addressing the climate change agenda is inevitable when achieving a sustainable built environment. Further, the impact of technological advancements cannot be ignored in the present trend of construction. Exploring the interconnections and interdependence of the concepts associated with a smart, sustainable and resilient built environment, as well as bringing them ‘under one umbrella’ in this SI will offer a new contribution to the existing body of knowledge in this critical domain. The papers published in this SI are also expected to open up new directions for research and to suggest innovative solutions to achieve sustainability in a smart and resilient built environment. The SI will assist to rectify the current imbalances and fill the dearth of knowledge in the literature, to develop a holistic approach focusing on technological innovation, green buildings, energy efficiency, carbon reduction, disaster resilience and sustainability that is necessary to respond to the climate change agenda. The research findings can collectively inform policy makers to develop necessary frameworks to address the sustainability issue in built environment. As a whole, the research community and society would benefit from such sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices that would also assist in achieving the reduced carbon and improved energy efficiency targets.

The theme of this SI aims to lay a platform for the researchers to integrate the concepts such as smart, innovation, technologies, green, energy efficiency, carbon reduction, sustainability and resilience in the context of buildings and other built infrastructure.  Specific objectives include:

  • To capture and document the latest concepts and practices for a smart, sustainable and resilient built environment in a global context
  • To investigate and integrate the three concepts of smart, sustainable and resilient built environment, both independently and interdependently; and also demonstrate their contributions to the climate change agenda
  • To investigate and convey how innovative technologies, materials and construction methods can contribute to resilience, energy efficiency and carbon reduction in the built environment.
  • To develop, disseminate and trigger further development of recent advances and critiques of theory and practice in the sustainable built environment, independently and collectively focusing on the concepts of smart and resilient issues
  • To provide a platform for innovative and forward looking technological case studies that substantiate the above advances in theory and practice

This SI can make a real impact in bringing together and synergizing advances in theory and practice on the sustainability of built environment. As this SI is particularly focusing on three key areas such as smart, sustainable and resilient, the integration of these sub-themes will provide greater potential for a holistic solution to the enhancement of the sustainability of the built environment that can withstand current climatic challenges and improve its resilience, while achieving this in smart modes with modern and innovative technologies. Organisations and researchers who are working on resilient buildings and others who contribute to smart buildings can find in this SI, a common platform to work collaboratively to incorporate both smart and resilient features to make the built environment more sustainable.

Anticipated Themes
The following is an indicative, hence a non-exhaustive, list of anticipated themes that could be explored in this Special Issue:

  • Smart, sustainable and resilient buildings and other built infrastructure
  • Addressing climate change with smart and resilient built environment
  • The integration of smart and resilient advances in the built environment in achieving sustainability
  • Eco-Friendly and sustainable materials and products
  • Sustainable construction methods and process improvement strategies
  • Social, economic, ecological and cultural perspectives of the built environment
  • Decision-support tools and assessment of built environment sustainability
  • Retrofitting and adaptive re-use of buildings for sustainability
  • Sustainable urbanisation
  • Green buildings
  • Low carbon and energy efficiency in buildings and infrastructure
  • Innovations and Smart Technologies to Enhance Sustainability
  • Awareness, education, training and capacity development for sustainable construction
  • Smart, Sustainable and Resilient cities
  • Environmental assessment of buildings and other built infrastructure
  • Regulations, policy interventions and initiatives to enhance smart resilience and sustainable development

Submission Guidelines

Submissions to Built Environment Project and Asset Management should be through ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bepam

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Author guidelines and information on how to submit your paper can be found here.

The total word count limit (including Figures and Tables, counted at 280 words each) is 7,500 words. Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal. Interested authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue “Towards a Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment” at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Deadline:
Papers for this special issue should be submitted through the above portal before 29th February 2020. [Note: new submissions after the deadline of 29th February 2020 cannot be considered for this Special Issue].

Expected Publication:
Papers would be available online via ‘Earlycite’ by February 2021, and hard copy publication thereafter.

If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact the Guest Editors. Draft abstracts (in the structured Emerald format as specified in the Author Guidelines) may also be emailed. Informal queries or submission of abstracts are encouraged.

The guest editors will conduct an initial screening of submitted papers. Those judged suitable for the special issue will be sent to at least two independent referees for double blind peer review, after which submissions may be recommended for revisions and further review, acceptance or rejection.

BEPAM is a CIB encouraged international journal and indexed and abstracted in databases such as SCOPUS, EBSCO, INSPEC as well as in the ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index) of Clarivate Analytics (previously of Thomson Reuters) in “Web of Science”.

For further information on the journal, please visit http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/bepam.htm.

Guest Editors

Dr Menaha Thayaparan
Department of Building Economics, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
[email protected]

Prof Andrew Ross
Department of the Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
[email protected]