Built Environment Assessment Systems in Africa: Challenges to Assure Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

LiderA is a Sustainable Evaluation System that can be used to select and develop sustainable solutions in plans or projects applied to urban environments or buildings, allowing also certified the level of sustainability. Major challenges identified using the assessment of LiderA system orientation for Africa to achieve an environment sustainability in built environment are: to assure that sustainability approaches be applied not only in a building level but as urban zone, in order to assure that promotes bioclimatic solutions and common energy system namely renewable; Also assure a good water cycle, from supply to local treatment and reuse linking building and urban zones; To promote the use of local materials (without achieve a critical level of the stocks) and solutions that interpret local techniques that could be low tech or not, but have a good balance in life cycle costs; Make a contributions to socio economic dynamics; Different locals and regions must adjust solutions to climatic and local conditions.