ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 183

International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy Session III SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AND BUILDING PERFORMANCE ON CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES IN THE UAE Nadia Al Badri1 1 Interiors and Architecture Department, University of Sharjah, UAE, [email protected] Abstract Over last decade, rapid growth in economic and population accompanied with depletion of the energy resources lead to serious impacts on environment and humanity. This development coupled with active constructions, which in some cases ignore the impact on the environment. Therefore, principle of sustainability has been required to reduce this negative impact on the environment and the humanity. In developing countries, it seems that there is a huge gap between current construction practices and sustainable principle, which needs more attention to clarify and define the problems to find suitable solutions before it comes more difficult and expensive. The study aims to evaluate and assess the current standing in terms of building sustainability and performance through collecting data on construction practices in UAE. A survey have been designed in order to collect data from experts who are involved in constructions projects such as architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical and interior designers. A questionnaire has been designed to demonstrate strong and feeble points to clarify the current practices in terms of sustainability and performance in constructions. The result of the data lead to highlight the significant important of sustainability and buildings performance issues in United Arab Emirates to recognize the problems, reduce the obstacles, and try to stimulated solutions and alternatives to improve the current situation, furthermore to be sure that sustainability implementation will be achieved in future . Keywords Sustainability, building performance, construction practices, survey, and sustainable implementation 181