Talib E. Butt

Northumbria University

A baseline study is a means of and for acquiring, organising, cleansing, presenting, and analysing all the data and/or information of preliminary investigation for hazard and risk assessment. This output of baseline study can be regarded as a conceptual site model (CSM), which has wide-ranging aspects that the literature to date does not appear to...

Waste, Energy and Transport are three of the main sectors of the human society. The three sectors have substantially been studied in their individual right and there is a plethora of literature available on them individually and also collectively in varying combinations. For instance, Waste to Energy is a well-established field, and so is the energ...

The complexity of hazards, risk and environmental legislation surrounding the reuse of brownfield sites necessitates a preliminary risk assessment prior to their redevelopment. Most prevailing efforts have been targeted at indepth site investigations, which are often costly, time–consuming, and may not be required at the early stages of a site deve...

Health hazards associated with the redevelopment of contaminated sites can be complex and pose considerable risks. A systematic literature review was conducted on risk assessment tools for contaminated sites. These tools have been identified from searching through leading academic databases and other professional sources. For each of the identified...

A baseline study is a means of and for acquiring, organising, cleansing, presenting, and analyzing all the data and/or information of preliminary investigation for hazard and risk assessment. This output of baseline study can be regarded as a Conceptual Site Model (CSM), which has wide-ranging aspects that the literature to date does not appear to...

Brownfield sites always raises concern for the health and safety of site workers involved in site renovations and developments and, subsequently, for the residents or occupants of the sites. As a minimum, a preliminary risk assessment is necessary to determine whether a brownfield site is contaminated and, if so, ensuring any redevelopment is safe...

It is generally believed that human age / generation gap may well play a role of a "disabler" in a (new) technology adoption. Similarly, despite BIM (Building Information Modelling) has been around for well over a decade, still the uptake of this technological approach is not fast enough even in developed countries, such as the UK, for which genera...

The Construction industry is one of the four key sectors of the UK economy. Furthermore, construction is one of the most multi- and inter-disciplinary. Yet, one of the greatest challenges that the industry faces is skill-shortages. One crucial aspect is that there is a serious lack of young persons, entering the industry for their career. This stud...

The poor economic efficiency of construction projects worldwide, has proven to be an insurmountable problem for the industry. Also, nowadays, construction projects are increasingly becoming more complex, thereby, stressing even more on time, quality and cost. This generally leads to a much wider discrepancy between the estimated cost and actual cos...

This paper proposes the concept design of a novel Localised Rapid Flood Vulnerability Index. This proposed index has been initially tested and applied to a specific locale in Somerset, UK. The early analysis demonstrates that flood vulnerability may be unique to an individual location, despite the flood risk being considered the same for identical...

‘Perception’ plays an influential role in policy formulation, implementation, and monitoring. It varies between individuals, communities, and administrative levels, and in degrees of importance. Furthermore, perception can be good or bad, positive or negative, yes or no, right or wrong, belief or disbelief, or even true or false. In parallel to per...

The sustainable development philosophy can be regarded as the most multi- and interdisciplinary field. On the other hand, climate change, which is relatively a new field, has yet been evolving as another significantly multi- and interdisciplinary field. Both, the sustainable development and climate change have many factors in common ranging from so...

A robust risk assessment of Mehmood Booting Open Dumping (MBOD) site has been carried out by developing holistic risk assessment framework. Framework mainly comprises on baseline study, hazard identification, and risk quantification and evaluation. Physico-chemical analysis of groundwater and leachate, health risk assessment, and estimation of gas...

Despite landfills having the potential to pollute the environment both during their operation and long after they have ceased to receive waste, they remain a dominant waste management option, particularly in the UK. In order to combat the environmental pollution caused by landfills, risk analysis is increasingly being employed through computer mode...

For the successful completion of a risk analysis process, its foundation (i.e. a baseline study) has to be well established. For this purpose, a baseline study needs to be more integrated than ever, particularly when environmental legislation is increasingly becoming stringent and integrated. This research investigates and concludes that no clear e...

For the successful completion of a risk analysis process, its foundation (i.e. a baseline study) has to be well established. For this purpose, a baseline study needs to be more integrated than ever, particularly when environmental legislation is increasingly becoming stringent and integrated. This research investigates and concludes that no clear e...

Buildings are thought to consume about 50% of the total energy in the UK. The use stage in a building life cycle has the largest energy consumption, although different assessments are showing that the construction can equal several years of maintenance and operations. The selection of materials with lower embodied energy is very important to reduce...

Landfills can be regarded as a particular type of contaminated land that has a potential to directly and indirectly pollute all of the four main spheres of the environment which are the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and eventually adversely impact the biosphere. Therefore, environmental risk assessment of a landfill has to be more integrated...

The generation of energy via fossil fuel burning results in carbon emissions. These emissions contribute to the climate change of our world, particularly in terms of global warming. On the contrary, energy has become blood of life for the existence and functioning of our built environments. In order to control carbon emissions, the UK has taken lea...

In view of the literature to date as well as anecdotal conversations with practitioners and consultants in various sectors of the built environment industry, it is observed that the term 'obsolescence' is scarcely used or comprehended with its diverse implications. In the context of climate change impacts this term is even more uncommon. This paper...

The research described in this article introduces a new, but overlooked, insights about the inverse linkages between sustainability and obsolescence. This article explores the concepts, not only at an overall level via the individual definitions of the terms, but also on social, economic, and environmental grounds that are important to sustainabili...

There is growing awareness and public concern about environmental impacts of waste management and disposal. Environmental policy instruments have been strengthened and associated governmental programmes have increased in recent years, resulting in high level strategies for waste management. Risk assessment is now an essential tool in the prioritisa...

Climate change is happening and already manifested in a range of ways, including: global warming, rising sea levels, floods, heat-waves, stronger and more frequent storms, and droughts. One of the major factors in climate change is anthropogenic fossil fuel combustion for energy generation and it is increasing throughout the world. Fossil fuel burn...

Irrespective of the global debate that climate change is totally a natural phenomenon or a result only of anthropogenic activities, it can be said that at least a part of the reason (if not all) for climate change happening around the globe is anthropogenic activities. One such activity is carbon emissions that result as an unwanted side product wh...

There are generic elements in environmental risk assessments, which are independent of the subject to which risk analysis is applied. Examples of these elements are as follows: baseline study, hazard identification, hazards' concentration assessment, risk quantification, etc. Another important example of such generic elements is exposure assessment...

Although various risk assessment approaches have been adopted for landfill waste disposal sites, there are still wide-ranging knowledge gaps and limitations which need addressing by developing a holistic risk assessment methodology. This paper conceptually presents only a framework of such a risk analysis methodology for landfill leachate in a holi...

By 2050s the UK is expected to experience: increase in average summer mean temperatures (predicted to rise by upto 3.5o C) and frequency of heat-waves / very hot days; and increases in winter precipitation (of up to 20%) and possibly more frequent severe storms. Also, in 2050s approximately 70% of UK buildings will have been built before 2010, whic...

The environment that surrounds us can be categorised into two parts, the natural environment and the built environment. Which ever environment type is to be maintained and / or enhanced for good, its sustainability has to be managed against obsolescence. From the built environment perspective, well more than half of whatever has been built and is b...

From the built environment perspective, well more than half of whatever has been built and is being built, is going to be around for many decades to come. For instance in the UK, approximately 70% of the UK buildings that have already been built before 2010 will be existing in 2050s. The existing built environment (both infrastructures and building...

At the present time, risk analysis is an effective management tool used by environmental managers to protect the environment from inevitable anthropogenic activities. There are generic elements in environmental risk assessments, which are independent of the subject to which risk analysis is applied. Examples of these elements are: baseline study, h...

The review of literature and computer models described in Part 1 of this paper led the authors to conclude that a quantitative hazard assessment methodology does not exist, in holistic terms, for landfill leachate. Although there are various reports and models addressing different aspects of the methodology, they are not integrated and show differe...

A review of the literature and computer models from the perspective of hazard assessment approaches, particularly relating to the risk analysis of waste disposal sites, has been carried out. It was found that a comprehensive hazard assessment procedure covering all modules and sub-modules for landfill leachate does not exist. The same deduction als...

A risk assessment process can assist in drawing a cost-effective compromise between economic and environmental costs, thereby assuring that the philosophy of 'sustainable development' is adhered to. Nowadays risk analysis is in wide use to effectively manage environmental issues. Risk assessment is also applied to other subjects including health an...

Risk assessment is increasingly becoming an effective environmental management tool. It is used widely, in a range of sectors and settings, such as the siting and operation of waste disposal sites; the identification and minimization of natural hazards; the management of chemicals in a workplace and the identification and control of diseases. The a...

Risk assessment provides a proactive and logical ground for many decision-making processes. Although the approach of risk assessment nowadays is well established, it remains a relatively new research area, with increasing interest in understanding the principles that underpin the practice. In the review of computer models and literature on environm...

Risk assessment is a new research area. The risk assessment research area deals with a wide range of issues other than landfills. Examples of these issues are Radiation, Food Industry, Ecology, Epidemiology, etc. The authors have found that there are generic elements in risk assessment and these elements are independent of the subject areas mention...

As environmental legislation is becoming more and more inclusive, integrated and strategic; risk assessment approaches also need to be adapted to remain responsive and representative. Although various risk assessment approaches have been adopted for landfill waste disposal sites, there are still wide-ranging knowledge gaps and limitations which nee...