Sustainability impact assessment of university master plans with reference to Palestinian universities in Gaza

Joint Authors

Muhaysin, Ahmad Salamah
al-Tawil, Inam Jumah

Source

المؤتمر الدولي الهندسي الرابع : “نحو هندسة القرن الحادي و العشرين” : الذي نظمته كلية الهندسة بالجامعة الإسلامية-غزة يومي الاثنين و الثلاثاء الخامس عشر و السادس عشر من تشرين أول / أكتوبر 2012.

Publisher

Islamic University of Gaza Faculty of Engineering

Publication Date

2012-10-31

Country of Publication

Palestine (Gaza Strip)

No. of Pages

17

Main Subjects

Engineering & Technology Sciences (Multidisciplinary)

English Abstract

Population growth, global climate change, increasing inequity in income distribution and education opportunities and so many other problems in the 21 st century necessitates an urgent action to address sustainability issues in our communities.

Sustainability can be seen as a necessity in order to avoid the costs of deteriorating social, environmental, and economic systems.

On the other hand, sustainability can be seen as a source of new opportunities to improve the rate and extent of human development.

In addition to the life-supporting services provided by healthy environmental, social, and economic systems, pursuing sustainability leads to the identification of vast new opportunities to create values.

As sustainability is of critical importance to continued human prosperity, a growing number of entities ranging from individuals to organizations, institutions, corporations, and governments, have begun to define their own responsibilities toward global sustainability.

Since universities are looked upon with high regard, it is the responsibility of the university to set an example of how the environment is respected and conserved.

It is the mission of the university to find ways in which society can be improved, scarce resources can be managed, and environmental values can be preserved.

Students, who learn and practice a sustainable lifestyle while in university, may be inclined to transfer these practices into their daily lives after they graduate.

But, due to bad situation in Palestine, Palestinian universities and especially in Gaza, have been for long suffering from several problems related to sustainability such as lack of financial abilities, insufficient land, polluted ambient air, deteriorated infrastructure and very low level of public awareness and commitment, etc.

This paper chose a unique method to assess sustainability in master plans of Palestinian universities.

Several indicators and measures were used for this assessment in order to empirically determine sustainability problems of these plans and to provide the most optimum solutions for them.

Specific concentration was directed to the master plan of Islamic university of Gaza (IUG) current campus.

Indicators and measures were chosen based on a thorough review of the different sets available globally.

There was also a review of the different software available with greater emphasis on sustainable project appraisal routine (SPEAR) software.

Data Type

Conference Papers

Record ID

BIM-777276

• APA
• MLA
• AMA