The increasing urbanization in China has created a high demand for housing and other infrastructure. Meeting this demand has huge resource implications with potentially harmful effects on the environment. A sustainable approach to construction is therefore a way forward to ensure that the competing needs for housing, economic development and protection of the environment can be achieved. This p...

OBJECTIVES Blue-collar workers are a recognised priority for tobacco control. Construction workers have very high smoking rates and are difficult to study and reach with interventions promoting smoke-free workplaces and cessation. The objectives of this study were to explore the smoking-related social climate in the North American residential construction sector and to identify potential barrie...

Buildings account for nearly 50% of all greenhouse gases globally. While this has been widely recognized, the GHG mitigation strategies have traditionally concentrated on reducing the use phase emissions, as over 90% of the emissions are generated during the use phase according to several studies. However, two current developments increase the importance of the construction phase emissions and ...

Through interpreting Landsat TM images, this study analyzes the spatial distribution of rural settlements in China in 2000. It calculates rural residential land percentage for every 1-km(2) cell. The entire country is divided into 33 regions to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamic patterns of rural residential land during the 1990s. According to the remote sensing survey, the rural residenti...

PROBLEM Falls from heights account for 64% of residential construction worker fatalities and 20% of missed work days. We hypothesized that worker safety would improve with foremen training in fall prevention and safety communication. METHOD Training priorities identified through foreman and apprentice focus groups and surveys were integrated into an 8-hour training. We piloted the training wi...

The key factors in the energy-saving design of a building’s exterior in Taiwan are the thermal performance of the roof and window glazing. This study used the eQUEST software to investigate how different types of roof construction, window glasses and sunshield types affect the energy consumption in residential buildings under common scenarios. The simulation results showed that the use of an ap...