Adapting buildings to climate change
Submitting Institution
University of GreenwichUnit of Assessment
Architecture, Built Environment and PlanningSummary Impact Type
EnvironmentalResearch Subject Area(s)
Built Environment and Design: Building, Other Built Environment and Design
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Summary of the impact
Climate change will have a profound impact on built environment
performance over the next 50 years. More severe flooding and overheating
will lead to more obsolete buildings and premature mortality across the UK
and Europe. The research team explored the issues surrounding adaptation
of the built environment to climate change, and developed a new model of
built asset management that integrates adaptation decision making into the
building life cycle. The model is being used by facilities managers and
surveyors to produce long term asset management plans, and by central and
local government policy makers to inform and develop adaptation
strategies.
Underpinning research
The research is drawn from two EPSRC (IDCOP — Innovation in the Design,
Construction and Operation of Buildings for People, ref GR/T04878/01,
value £1,773,507; and the CREW — Community Resilience to Extreme Weather,
ref EP/F035861/1, value £551,593) and two industry (RBS — Royal Bank of
Scotland, value £195,000) projects undertaken by the Sustainable Built
Environment Research Group (SBERG), University of Greenwich.
Professor Keith Jones was co-investigator on the EPSRC IDCOP
project (2004-2009), involving three UK universities and 16 industrial
partners. It aimed to identify the innovation required to ensure that
buildings continued to support the needs of businesses and citizens over
the next 50 years. Professor Jones identified the existing built asset
management model's inability to objectively integrate economic,
environmental and social performance into the maintenance and
refurbishment decision-making process and reconcile short-term adaptation
plans with long-term drivers for change (e.g. corporate social
responsibility, climate change etc.). The project's key research outputs
were:
- a new theoretical built asset management model that linked maintenance
and refurbishment actions to the performance of buildings-in-use;
- identification of the barriers to implementing adaptation solutions in
the built asset management process.
The new management model was tested in a parallel RBS-funded research
project which developed practical toolkits to assess building performance
in use [3.6]. The barriers associated with implementing adaptation
solutions were examined through an RBS-funded International PhD
Scholarship, won by Jones. This project identified the adaptation
decision-making process from a business perspective [3.5]. Both the
performance-based management model and business decision model formed the
theoretical basis of a subsequent EPSRC project (Jones was the PI)
investigating Community Resilience to Extreme Weather Events (CREW).
The multi-disciplinary CREW consortium project (2008-2011), involving 14
UK universities, examined how existing communities could better prepare
for and recover from future extreme weather events. Jones and Dr Ali
(full-time member of SBERG since 2009) were responsible for developing an
adaptation framework that could be integrated into the built asset
management process [3.4]. The framework involved translating
vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity of buildings and
communities (Ali and Jones, 2013) to extreme weather events into a series
of performance metrics. The metrics were tested through a field study of
social housing [3.3] whilst the wider policy implications were explored
through joint workshops with Greater London Authority, Confederation of
Small Businesses, local Councils, local community groups and insurance
industry representatives. Public and private sector facilities managers
explored the business drivers. SBERG's outputs from the CREW project
included: six international conference papers; three international
refereed journal papers; one book chapter; six business dissemination
workshops; a risk assessment framework, and a policy drivers framework.
The CREW project's combined outputs are summarised in the CREW Final
Report [3.1], published by EPSRC through the Adaptation and Resilience to
Climate Change Coordination Network (ARCC).
The research identified clear weaknesses in existing built asset
management theory, and identified the business challenges to be addressed
if adaptation was to be integrated into maintenance and refurbishment
planning. It provided solutions since used by policy makers and
professionals to improve the resilience of buildings, their surroundings
and communities, to current and future climate change.
References to the research
(REF1 submitted staff in bold, **REF2 Output)
3.1 Jones, K. & Ali, F. (2013). Community Resilience to
Extreme Weather Events through Improved Local Decision Making. In Hallet,
S. (Ed.). Community Resilience to Extreme Weather the CREW project
Final Report (Chapter 3). Available online at http://www.arcc-
cn.org.uk/wp-content/pdfs/CREW_Final_Report.pdf. Accessed on 11
November 2013.
3.2 Ali, F. M. M., & Jones, K. (2013). Negotiating community
resilience in the city in a time of political change and deficit
reduction. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built
Environment, 4(1), 9-22.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17595901311298973
3.3 Jones, K., Brydson, H., Ali, F., & Cooper, J. (2013).
Assessing vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity of a UK Social
Landlord. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built
Environment, 4(3), 287-296. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-03-2013-0004
**3.4 Jones, K. (2012). Preparing for Extreme Weather Events: A
Risk Assessment Approach. In C. Booth, F. N. Hammond, J. Lamond, & D.
G. Proverbs (Eds.), Solutions for Climate Change Challenges in the
Built Environment (pp. 269-282). Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9
781405 195072.
3.5 Desai, A., & Jones, K. (2010). Examination of existing
facilities management approaches to climate change and future directions.
In M. E. A. da Graca (Ed.), (pp. 585-596). Presented at the Proceedings of
the CIB W International Conference in Facilities CIB W070 International
Conference Facilities Management: FM in the Experience Economy, Sao Paulo,
University of Sao Paulo, 13-15 September 2010. Available at:
http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB21402.pdf.
Details of the impact
Impact on Policy Makers
The business decision-making model developed from the IDCOP and CREW
projects has directly informed local and national government policy
frameworks.
Locally, members of SBERG worked closely with Croydon Council's
Sustainability Team and Lewisham Council's Emergency Planning Team to help
them develop their community resilience plans. The team briefed council
officials and organised scenario-based cross-departmental workshops with
their adaptation-relevant teams on 15/7/10 (Lewisham) and 08/12/10
(Croydon). These centred on the impacts of climate change on extreme
weather events that might affect their communities, and provided technical
input into development of their flood risk and overheating adaptation
plans. Local, regional and national policy makers were also involved
[5.1—5.3].
Regionally, SBERG worked with the Greater London Authority (GLA) to
understand the adaptation challenges London faces. The community
resilience factors identified by the CREW project helped inform the
Mayor's Climate Change Adaptation Strategy through a series of meetings
with the Mayor's Strategy Manager for Climate Change Adaptation and his
direct involvement with the CREW project. As part of this process,
Professor Jones was invited to be a member of the GLA team which presented
the lessons learnt from developing the Mayor's Strategy to an
international policy-making forum at the 2011 Resilient Cities Conference,
Bonn. Approximately 80 people, representing cities from around the world,
attended a workshop where London's approach to adaptation planning was
held as exemplary [5.4-5.6].
At the national level, Jones briefed the Cabinet Office (29/10/2011) and
DEFRA/EA/DCLG (26/05/2010) civil servants on the CREW project findings as
they affect policy thinking [5.7].
Impact on the built environment industry and its clients
The performance-based approach to built asset management and the
adaptation framework developed through the IDCOP, CREW and RBS projects
formed the basis of two TSB Design for Future Climate Change
projects and seven training/awareness-raising workshops/assemblies for
industry.
In TSB project `PN 400258' (2011-2013), SBERG worked with Octavia Housing
(a Registered Social Landlord) and Pellings (a Chartered Surveying
Practice) to apply the adaptation framework to assessing the resilience of
3,989 homes, located in London, to extreme weather events. The project
used the framework to evaluate the vulnerability, resilience and adaptive
capacity of Octavia's housing stock and identified pluvial flooding (25.6%
of Octavia's stock is at potential risk from flooding) and overheating
(55.7% of Octavia's stock is at potential risk from overheating) as the
highest risk categories, both today and into the future. This was at odds
with Octavia's expectations and contingency planning which was primarily
designed around recovering from fluvial flooding. The adaptation framework
was also used to identify and evaluate 29 adaptation solutions, of which
eight (ranging from technical interventions to working with tenants to
raise awareness and prepare personal flood protection plans) have been
adopted. Octavia have also reviewed their contingency plans and developed
a built asset management strategy that integrates adaptation of their
existing stock to future climate change. This represents a fundamental
change in approach to adaptation which is normally reactive rather than
pro-active. SBERGs involvement with Octavia is on-going [5.8].
In TSB project `EM/1520160' (2011-2012), members of SBERG joined the
client's team (the University of Greenwich) to examine the adaptation
needs to climate change of a new 15,267m2 educational building.
SBERG helped develop a range of future performance scenarios against which
adaptation solutions were assessed. Twenty five adaptation solutions were
developed by the building's design team (Heneghan Peng, Hoare Lea,
Fanshawe and Alan Baxter Associates) of which seven (ranging from
technical changes to the original design, to future changes in service
equipment) were adopted by the client and included in a future
refurbishment strategy. This again represents a fundamental change in
approach to climate change adaptation where the future performance of the
building is proactively considered at the design stage and future
solutions integrated into long-term built asset management strategies. The
integration of climate change adaptation into the initial design stage of
a building was presented to an international audience of Facilities
Managers and Built Environment Professionals at the EFMC2013 Conference in
Prague [5.9].
Finally, the SBERG team worked closely with the London Climate Change
Partnership, Climate South East, London Confederation of Small Businesses
and the London Knowledge Transfer Network to ensure that the CREW
project's outputs raised awareness/understanding and stimulated debate of
climate change resilience and adaptation amongst London businesses. Five
industry-focused workshops (28/09/10 — LTN/Willis RE; 08/03/2011 &
10/11/11 LCCP/Climate SE; 05/04/2011 & 13/07/10 — FLASH) attracting
over 250 delegates, and three Assemblies (03/04/2009, 02/07/10 &
25/11/11) attracting over 280 delegates, ensured that the adaptation
framework reached a wide, non-academic audience [5.5, 5.6]. The framework
is also the subject of a book chapter aimed at industry [5.10].
Sources to corroborate the impact
5.1 Travel & Transport Planning Officer, Croydon Council
5.2 Email from the Chair of the Emergency Planning Society &
Emergency Planning Officer, Lewisham Council.
5.3 Croydon Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan
(http://www.croydon.gov.uk/contents/departments/environment/pdf/ccaaplan.pdf)
5.4 Mayor's Climate Change Adaptation Plan
(http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Adaptation-oct11.pdf)
5.5 Partnership Manager, London Climate Change Partnership
5.6 Technical Director UKCIP
5.7 Email from the Department of Communities and Local Government.
5.8 Asset Management Director, Octavia Housing
5.9 TSB Design for Future Climate Final Report - University of Greenwich
Stockwell Street. — Available on request.
5.10 Jones, K. G. (2011) `Preparing for Extreme Weather Events: A Risk
Assessment Approach' in Booth, C., Hammond, F., Lamond, J., &
Proverbs, D. (eds.) Solutions to Climate Change Challenges in the
Built Environment. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9 781405 195072.