Integrating environmental sustainability and disaster resilience in building codes

Abstract

The planning, design, construction and operation of buildings are governed by building codes. Not all countries in Asia and the Pacific have a native building code and countries that do have a code often struggle with low compliance rates. Improving building code quality and enforcement could help cities improve their environmental sustainability and disaster resilience. To address this issue, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) conducted a joint study to gain an overview of the current status of integration of disaster resilience and environmental sustainability in building codes in the Asia-Pacific region and to document a series of good practices, showing a range of incentives for building code stakeholders in this region to further integrate these elements in their work. The findings of the study reveal that environmental design is a relatively new element in building codes in developing countries and is therefore often not well integrated. With regards to disaster resilience, some hazards have been addressed reasonably well. Resistance against earthquakes, storms and typhoons, for example, has been integrated in many codes analyzed. Some of the incentives to integrate environmental design and disaster resilience in building codes includes fiscal, financial and zoning. Three methods have been identified through which building codes can be implemented effectively. Improving the building code is going to have a greater impact as building growth is expected to be higher in this region.