Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

THE IDENTIFICATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF SUITABLE CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS OF IRAN USING AHP TECHNIQUE

Ehsan Niksefat and Katayon Taghizade

Abstract

Since 1990s, green (sustainable) building rating systems have been widely developed as one of the sustainability evaluation measurement methods for buildings and every day, more countries move to promote the local systems. These systems, by introducing the criteria and their weights, try to measure the weaknesses and strength of a building in different sustainability fields. On the other hand, climatic and geographical conditions and environmental priorities of each are have their exclusive criteria and priorities which could not be ignored. This research tried to identify and study the local and international rating systems’ criteria, using expert team and questionnaire and identified 68 criteria which were classified in 8 categories, then, prioritized and weighted by AHP technique. As a result, its desired priorities and weights which were obtained based on the regional priorities of the country showed that it can be considered as a suitable model for designing the sustainability measurement tool for the buildings in the country. Then, by comparing the results of this research with another 6 rating system, weaknesses and strengths of this system were analyzed and some recommendations were suggested for its development and promotion.