Environmental Impact Assessment of Shelter Solutions in North-West Syria

Abstract

The construction sector is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions can be decreased by moving towards more sustainable construction techniques. Important to note is that the new construction is mainly happening in the global south. Part of this new construction is led by the humanitarian sector, specifically within their shelter programs. It is of high importance to integrate sustainability not only in the construction sector, but also into these shelter programs. Hence, serving vulnerable people and taking care of the environment are to be handled simultaneously and not successively. The main purpose of this thesis is to perform an environmental impact assessment of an existing shelter solution, with some additional consideration on economic and social aspects. This shelter solution was designed by a non-governmental organization (NGO) and has been applied in Northwest Syria. The main characteristics of the shelter design are a floor area of 25m2 and a life span of 25 years. This design has been applied in 3 different arrangements within two different camps, maintaining the same design for each unit. It has been implemented as a stand-alone shelter unit as well as a double unit in Idleb, and as an eight-unit shelter in Aleppo. The results of this thesis provide the NGO with information on the current sustainability performance of their shelter solution. These results were developed by performing a life cycle assessment on the existing shelter solution. Moreover, life cycle costing was performed to study the affordability of such a shelter and a brief social impact assessment was then executed to give an overview on possible improvement that might facilitate the life of IDPs. Within these results, it was found that the studied shelter solution is within the range of acceptability in terms of environmental, economic, and technical performance, but does not meet the requirements in terms of social performance. Thus, it was found that its accessibility requires critical improvements.