Implement the vertical greenery wall (facade) to multi-stored building in Sri Lankan context

The use of vertical greening has an important impact on the thermal performance of buildings and on the effect of the urban environment, in both summer and winter. Plants are functioning as a solar filter and help to prevent the absorption of heat radiation of building materials extensively. Applying green façades wall (GFW) is not a new concept, where most of the developed countries have been implemented the vertical greenery to their buildings while realising its sustainable benefits. However, vertical greening can provide a cooling potential on the building surface, which is to be very important during summer periods in warmer climates. In this study, an analysis of the effect on temperature (air and surface) of vertical greening systems on the building level is presented. An experimental approach was set up to measure the temperature on direct and indirect GFW, using infrared thermometer and psychrometer. And the energy saving effect of the thermal resistance was identified by using heat transfer calculation. A comparison between measurements on a bare façade wall (BFW) and a GFW were done in the summer season to understand the contribution of vegetation to the thermal behaviour of the building envelope. Since the research was focused on quantifying the vertical greening systems and in the possible effect on the thermal resistance, the main conclusions that could be drawn from the selected buildings are presented. The evaluation was done in different locations, namely, in front of bare facade wall (BFW) and greened facade wall (GFW), and identified small differences of air temperature between façade walls. Further, it was investigated that inside and outside surface temperature of walls and finally concluded that the vertical greening systems are effective natural sunscreens, due to a reduction of the surface temperatures behind the green layer compared to the BFW. It was found that the energy recovering value between the BFW and GFW. The final result of energy requirement was less to the GFW than the BFW

Medical student views of and responses to expectations of professionalism

Funding this study is part of the corresponding author's (EAS) doctoral programme of research funded by the University of Aberdeen, and supervised by EH and JC. Acknowledgements we thank all the students who took part in this project, and Professor Rona Patey, the Director of the Institute of Education for Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, for her support of this project.Peer reviewedPostprin

Lessons learned from tsunami damage in Sri Lanka

Around 300 000 people were killed by the tsunami that followed the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake on Boxing Day 2004, making it one of the worst disasters in modern history. Up to 40 000 died in Sri Lanka alone, where around 80 000 houses were also destroyed when waves up to 15 m high swept ashore. This paper reports on how coastal buildings and infrastructure in Sri Lanka behaved under various tsunami wave heights and the many lessons learned for reducing vulnerability to future events. In particular, newly published national guidelines for reconstruction emphasise the importance of tying down structures against upward and lateral loads as well as the need to anticipate and reduce soil scour around foundations, especially of backfilled earth

Indoor environment quality of green buildings: case study of an LEED platinum certified factory in a warm humid tropical climate

Abstract not availableSachinthaka Ravindu, Raufdeen Rameezdeen, Jian Zuo, Zhihua Zhou, Ravihansa Chandratilak

Post-December 2004 Tsunami Reconstruction in Sri Lanka and Its Potential Impacts on Future Vulnerability

The 26 December 2004 tsunami displaced more than 500,000 people and killed an estimated 31,000 in Sri Lanka. Damage was not uniform, often reflecting distinct patterns of social, infrastructural, and ecological vulnerability. Severely affected populations tended to be poorer, to live in fragile structures, and to be more exposed to the tsunami as a result of prior environmental degradation in the coastal zone. The massive reconstruction effort may further decrease the resilience of rural communities by degrading the natural environment that sustains their livelihoods. A sustainable reconstruction approach must therefore consider long-term solutions that increase community resilience by fostering socioeconomic, infrastructural, and environmental progress. A reconnaissance team monitored the initial recovery stages and identified mechanisms in supporting research on reducing the long-term vulnerability of human settlements and ecosystems to future environmental hazards. DOI: 10.1193/1.220492

Global perspectives on Covid-19 from the editorial board

‘May you live in interesting times’: although the provenance of this saying is unknown, it has been described as a curse.1 Globally, we are in a period of disruption and tremendous change during this Covid-19 pandemic. Believing the world is cursed is obviously not helpful and many people are instead rising to the challenges of keeping safe, working collaboratively, changing approaches to education and communication, and rethinking social and political processes. In this article the editorial board of The Clinical Teacher reflect on living in the time of Covid-19 from their personal perspectives, influenced by their local and national contexts and experiences

Sustainability in (Mega)Project Management—A Business Case for Project Sustainability

Sustainability in a 3P framework is becoming a key driver in megaproject feasibility assessment according to International Financial Institutions. Currently, in several cases, sustainability is still used as a fair topic to talk about by CEOs and presidents ofCompanies and Institutionswithout a concrete plan to implement it.This paper aims to explore the strategies for a real implementation of 3P sustainability in projects and megaprojects, integrating the three pillars of sustainability into a cohesive whole to make it works not only at year-end speeches to shareholders, but also to fruitfully include sustainability into the strategy of organizations