Accounting of water footprint in substructure in a typical Multistory concrete building

Abstract

In last few decades, the building construction sector of India has become an important indicator of the development as it contributes a fair amount in GDP (gross domestic product) of nation. The fast growing construction consumes huge amount of natural resources such as, soil, water, woods, and by developing proper accounting method of consumption of these resources, the goal of sustainable construction can be achieved. This paper attempts to develop an empirical method of accounting of water footprint in construction of substructure (or foundation) in a multistorey concrete building. A substructure is the most important element of a multistorey building which connects it to the ground, and transfer loads from the structure to the ground. Water footprint attributed to substructure is the quantity of fresh water required for its various construction processes and supporting activities. The paper presents a case study on raft type, shallow substructures of three multistorey residential buildings of India to develop the method of accounting of water footprint. The results shows, total water footprint in construction of substructure in the case study buildings were accounted in the range of 7.71 – 36.10 litres per square meter of gross construction area. It also imputed from the results that water footprint consumption in concrete preparation has highest proportion, may be due to utilization of huge volume of concrete mix in construction of substructure. In addition, the paper also points out on some efficient reduction strategies of water footprint consumption to develop sustainable built environment.