This book focuses on the impacts of the built environment, and how to predict and measure the benefits and consequences of changes taking place to address sustainability in the development and building industries. It draws together the best treatments of these subjects from the Leeds Sustainability Institute’s inaugural International Conference on Sustainability, Ecology, Engineering, Design for Society (SEEDS). The focus of discussion is on understanding how buildings and spaces are designed and nurtured to obtain optimal outcomes in energy efficiency and environmental impacts. In addition to examining technical issues such as modeling energy performance, emphasis is placed on the health and well-being of occupants. This holistic approach addresses the interdependence of people with the built and natural environments. The book’s contents reflect the interdisciplinary and international collaboration critical to assembly of the knowledge required for positive change.
Dr. Mohammad Dastbaz is Dean of Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology and Professor of Informatics at Leeds Metropolitan University. Professor Dastbaz’s research work over recent years has been focused on the use and impact of emerging technologies in society, particularly learning, training and the development of “eGovernment.” Dr. Dastbaz has led EU and UK based funded research projects and has been the Symposium Chair of Multimedia Systems in IEEE’s Information Visualisation (IV) conference since 2002. He has over 50 refereed publications, including numerous journal paper articles, conference papers, book chapters and books on e-learning, eGovernment, and the design and development of Multimedia Systems. Professor Dastbaz is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and UK’s Higher Education Academy as well as the professional member of ACM and IEEE’s computer society.
Dr. Christopher Gorse is Director of Leeds Sustainability Institute, Head of the Centre for the Built Environment and Professor of Construction and Project Management at Leeds Beckett University. He is an Engineering Professors Council Member, Chartered Builder, Vice Chair for the Association of Researchers In Construction Management leading research projects in the energy, sustainability and building performance. Chris is an established author with publications in management, law, construction and refurbishment. While working in the construction industry, he operated as an engineer and project manager working on both building and civil engineering projects and continues to undertake legal and technical consultancy.
