The current building activities have rendered most of the European area a concrete environment. To have and maintain a green and sustainable environment, standards, and regulations regarding the conservation of forests to improve the percentage of the green environment should be included in the Technical Handbooks. This will be a significant move forward regarding the conservation of fading natural water resources and purification of the polluted (carbon from automobiles) air. Global warming which is caused by the gradual depletion of the ozone layer poses many risks to health and safety soon regarding the change in weather and increased rainfall. Due to the change in weather, there is an expected increase in the amount of rainfall and flooding as a result of increased evaporation rates.
Designers should therefore be aware of the impact that climate change could have on the building fabric through increased rainfall and temperatures. The anticipated higher winds and driving rain should focus attention to improved design and quality of construction and the effective protection of the building fabric from long-term dampness. Higher winds for example, may alter roof plans and hold down traps which brings the need for sound structural design for such structural components of buildings. For this to be a success, and without posing many risks to the health and safety of occupants of buildings, proper regulations should be enforced so as to ensure excellent design methods are used to come up with key structural components of buildings.
There should be an improved approach towards sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) which shall take into consideration health matters and at the same time provide an environment free from contamination. A good example can be the effective removal of surface run-off through pavement systems without affecting the structural stability of buildings, health, and safety of the occupants. This can be achieved through the provision of new regulative measures to reduce hard standings around properties for better drainage. Underground drainage systems should be provided where great risks may be posed to the peoples’ health and safety.
The formation of snow, snowfalls, and snow movement in Scotland poses a great danger to the drainage systems and buildings. Therefore, buildings should be constructed not less than 5m above sea level to curb this condition. An increase in UV light emission may increase the rate of damage to building components such as PVC windows and felt roofs leading to the need for improved protection or the use of more durable material. The emission also causes increased occurrences of skin cancer and can be appropriately reduced by installing UV interceptors in openings. In the future, building materials such as timber may become even more expensive due to exhaustive exploitation and regulations may be required to govern its use. This may be significantly attended to by limiting usage of timber to aesthetics only and metals for building framework which may also necessitate recycling of such materials.