The global population now exceeds seven billion. This means that during the past 250 years or so, it has increased tenfold that of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, which is believed to have been 700 million. Eighty percent of the global population lives in developing regions, which means that the consumption of resources and energy will increase enormously in the future. Resources and energy are some of the most fundamental elements for the daily life of humankind. In recent years, it has been recognised that increasing fossil energy consumption could even change the global climate. It is anticipated that global warming will cause extremely serious problems in the future, in fact, climate change driven by global warming has already increased the intensity and frequency of weather action such as typhoons/hurricanes and torrential rainfalls, causing enormous damage; in addition, the frequency or intensity of heavy precipitation
events has likely increased in North America and Europe 1 . On the other hand, developed countries, such as EU, have accumulated a huge amount of infrastructure and building over a longtime. It means that these structures have to be properly maintained by taking cost, natural resources consumption, and more severe loading and environment into consideration. In other words, it is very important how to incorporate sustainability concepts into construction industry.
CAVERZAN Alessio;
LAMPERTI TORNAGHI Marco;
NEGRO Paolo;
2016-11-30
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC103289
978-92-79-62619-7 (print),
978-92-79-62618-0,
OP LB-06-16-142-EN-C (print),
OP LB-06-16-142-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC103289,
10.2788/252595 (print),
10.2788/499080 (online),
