Ecological design considerations in high-rise buildings with references to C02 levels

Abstract

Rapid development coupled with urbanization has been identified as the main cause of environmental and social imbalances. This will lead to the increment of population as well as the pollutants in cities. This scenario results in limited space, there-by giving more room to high-rise buildings, which lack proper ecological design considerations. An urban area with buildings arranged densely will result in not just poor ventilation but also a strong heat island effect. Less vegetative urban areas do not have a proper mechanism to absorb the green-house gas emissions, which are increasing at an alarming rate. In a high-rise building, this effect can differ with location and also with the elevation. An in-depth analysis of Carbon Dioxide (C02) concentrations, Relative Humidity (RH) and temperature can be used to evaluate indoor air quality, which should be acceptable in terms of both health and comfort of people. A densely populated urban area located along the Galle road in the City of Colombo was chosen for the research to analyze the effect of the sea-breeze on the variation of C02 level, RH and temperature. They were obtained in each floor of selected high-rise buildings on either side (sea-side and land-side) of Galle road. Analysis of data provides evidence that the dispersion of C02 and temperature is uniform and considerably low in sea-side buildings throughout the day, where as in land side, the variation is significant. However, the variation of humidity is significant in sea-side buildings. Even though both categories of buildings experience the same heavy traffic condition of the main road data provide evidence that sea-side buildings were successful in maintaining a better indoor air quality than the land-side buildings. That implies a better indoor air quality can be achieved in properly ventilated buildings. Therefore, it concludes that ecological design consideration plays an important role in making the urban cities sustainable over a long period.