A Circular Built Environment In The Digital Age

This open access book offers a comprehensive exploration of the digital innovations that have emerged in recent years for the circular built environment. Each chapter is meticulously crafted to ensure that both academic readers and industry practitioners can grasp the inner workings of each digital technology, understand its relevance to the circular built environment, examine real-life implementations, and appreciate the intriguing business models behind them. Our primary objective is to blend scholarly knowledge with practical inspiration by providing real-life case studies for each innovation. The authors, who possess extensive expertise in their respective fields, have contributed chapters dedicated to digital technologies within their areas of specialization. The book is organized into three distinct parts. The first part focuses on data-driven digital technologies and delves into how their capabilities can facilitate the transition to a circular built environment. Essential aspects such as building information modeling (BIM), digital twins, geographical information systems (GIS), scanning technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), data templates, and material passports are explored as vital tools for data collection, integration, and analysis in the context of circular construction. In the second part, various digital technologies for design and fabrication are introduced. Topics covered include computational design algorithms, additive and subtractive manufacturing, robotic manufacturing, and extended reality. These discussions shed light on how these technologies can be leveraged to enhance design and fabrication processes within the circular built environment. Finally, the last part of the book presents emerging digital concepts related to business and governance. It explores the role of deconstruction and reverse logistics, blockchain technology, digital building logbooks, and innovative business models as enablers of circularity in the built environment. The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to digital transformation and its potential to propel the built environment towards a regenerative future. In addition to the substantive content, the book features forewords and perspectives from esteemed experts, providing valuable economic and creative insights to complement its comprehensive approach.

Mine Design, Planning and Sustainable Exploitation in the Digital Age covers mine planning, design and exploitation taking cognizance of new developments, especially those associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the positive influence that it has, and will have, on the mining industry. It refers to latest best practices with emphasis on the social license to operate and sustainable (green) mining. The book covers surface and underground mining in some detail and addresses relevant associated aspects such as risk management, green mining and the importance of real community relations. It is organized as follows: Surface Mining Underground Soft Rock Mining Underground Hard Rock (Metal/Non-metal) Mining Green and Sustainable Mining It has many relevant photos and figures that help the reader and includes appropriate support design and types commonly used in the various mining methods. Mine Design, Planning and Sustainable Exploitation in the Digital Age is mainly aimed at mining, geological engineering and other undergraduate and postgraduates interested in the mining resources industry. It will also serve as a useful reference book for practitioners in the mining industry who want an easy-to-use book.

This book examines sustainable manufacturing, from the extraction of materials to processing, use, and disposal, and argues that significant changes in all of the above are needed for the world to progress toward a more circular economy. Materials and processing methods are usually chosen with performance as the key metric. Why has our society embraced plastics? Because they work. In most cases, they are lighter, easier to manufacture, and less expensive than the metal, wood, glass, or stone they have replaced. Why do industrial manufacturers use toxic chemicals? Because they are effective, but the unintended consequences may be severe. By learning how various materials are made and what happens when they are recycled, readers will better understand the value of materials and the challenges that manufacturers face when trying to make their facilities and products less toxic and less wasteful. The three chapters in Part I provide essential background about materials in the circular economy, chemicals, and waste. Part II delves into specific materials. It includes chapters on plastics, metals, wood and paper products, glass, and novel materials. Part III covers recycling and manufacturing processes, and Part IV delves into practical considerations, including the effect of regulations, concluding with a chapter that helps readers translate the information presented into action. Interviews with industry experts round out the chapters and offer valuable insights. Materials and Sustainability is a must-read for business professionals who are serious about making their companies as environmentally responsible as possible and for business and engineering students who want to begin their careers with practical knowledge about materials and their impacts.

This open access book explores the strategic importance and advantages of adopting multidisciplinary and multiscalar approaches of inquiry and intervention with respect to the built environment, based on principles of sustainability and circular economy strategies. A series of key challenges are considered in depth from a multidisciplinary perspective, spanning engineering, architecture, and regional and urban economics. These challenges include strategies to relaunch socioeconomic development through regenerative processes, the regeneration of urban spaces from the perspective of resilience, the development and deployment of innovative products and processes in the construction sector in order to comply more fully with the principles of sustainability and circularity, and the development of multiscale approaches to enhance the performance of both the existing building stock and new buildings. The book offers a rich selection of conceptual, empirical, methodological, technical, and case study/project-based research. It will be of value for all who have an interest in regeneration of the built environment from a circular economy perspective.

Social Ecology in the Digital Age: Solving Complex Problems in a Globalized World provides a comprehensive overview of social ecological theory, research, and practice. Written by renowned expert Daniel Stokols, the book distills key principles from diverse strands of ecological science, offering a robust framework for transdisciplinary research and societal problem-solving. The existential challenges of the 21st Century - global climate change and climate-change denial, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, disease pandemics, inter-ethnic violence and the threat of nuclear war, cybercrime, the Digital Divide, and extreme poverty and income inequality confronting billions each day - cannot be understood and managed adequately from narrow disciplinary or political perspectives. Social Ecology in the Digital Age is grounded in scientific research but written in a personal and informal style from the vantage point of a former student, current teacher and scholar who has contributed over four decades to the field of social ecology. The book will be of interest to scholars, students, educators, government leaders and community practitioners working in several fields including social and human ecology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, education, biology, medicine, public health, earth system and sustainability science, geography, environmental design, urban planning, informatics, public policy and global governance. Winner of the 2018 Gerald L. Young Book Award from The Society for Human Ecology"Exemplifying the highest standards of scholarly work in the field of human ecology." https://societyforhumanecology.org/human-ecology-homepage/awards/gerald-l-young-book-award-in-human-ecology/ The book traces historical origins and conceptual foundations of biological, human, and social ecology Offers a new conceptual framework that brings together earlier approaches to social ecology and extends them in novel directions Highlights the interrelations between four distinct but closely intertwined spheres of human environments: our natural, built, sociocultural, and virtual (cyber-based) surroundings Spans local to global scales and individual, organizational, community, regional, and global levels of analysis Applies core principles of social ecology to identify multi-level strategies for promoting personal and public health, resolving complex social problems, managing global environmental change, and creating resilient and sustainable communities Underscores social ecology’s vital importance for understanding and managing the environmental and political upheavals of the 21st Century Highlights descriptive, analytic, and transformative (or moral) concerns of social ecology Presents strategies for educating the next generation of social ecologists emphasizing transdisciplinary, team-based, translational, and transcultural approaches

Innovating Construction Law: Towards the Digital Age takes a speculative look at current and emerging technologies and examines how legal practice in the construction industry can best engage with the landscape they represent. The book builds the case for a legal approach based on transparency, traceability and collaboration in order to seize the opportunities presented by technologies such as smart contracts, blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data and building information modelling. The benefits these initiatives bring to the construction sector have the potential to provide economic, societal and environmental benefits as well as reducing the incidence of disputes. The author uses a mixture of black letter law and socio-legal commentary to facilitate the discourse around procurement, law and technology. The sections of the book cover the AS IS position, the TO BE future position as predicted and the STEPS INBETWEEN, which can enable a real change in the industry. The rationale for this approach lies in ensuring that the developments are congruent with the existing frameworks provided by the law. The book proposes various steps that the industry should seriously consider taking from the current position to shape the future of the sector and ultimately create a better, more productive and sustainable construction industry. This book is a readable and engaging guide for students and practitioners looking to learn more about construction law and its relationship with technology and for those seeking a platform for graduate studies in this area.

This open access book addresses the pressing need for sustainability in urban development and the use of technology, with cities to serve as the main stage for strategies that seek to meet the targets and the cross-sector priorities indicated in the EU’s Next Generation program, all in pursuit of a solid recovery on the part of the European economy, along lines of ecological transition, digitalization, competitiveness, training, and inclusion to overcome social, territorial, and gender differences. The international study encounter is meant to promote visions shared by architectural technology and other disciplines, which, though they may appear to differ, are closely interconnected, with the aim of achieving an open, interdisciplinary integration capable of proposing concrete projects regarding topics held to be of strategic importance to the future of the built environment. These are identified to draw up evolving scenarios of architecture and cities suited to reflection, at various levels, on innovative models of process and product.