Construction waste estimation depending on urban planning options in the design stage of residential buildings

• This study compares the environmental impact of different urban options.
• The objective is to evaluate environmental impact of urban planning.
• This study highlights the importance of an urban environmentally friendly design.
• Waste generated in the previous works on the lot should not be ignored.

In the framework of the integral construction of urban residences and buildings is necessary a previous study to analyze the evaluation and management of waste generated throughout the building process. This key ingredient of urban planning responds, in part, to growing environmental problems and a more acute awareness of the consequences that improper management of such wastes would entail. A previous quantification of the waste generated through construction – during the project stage – is needed so that the best building proposal may be chosen. Urban planners and policy makers should develop a keen eye for selecting cost-effective projects while environmentally friendly.The aim of this paper is to study the production of waste in light of diverse urban solutions, both in the urban planning and building stages, as well as in global terms. To this end we studied six types of housing projects through simulations using statistical data, for different purposes, but with a common construction surface (50,000 m2): (i) detached single-family unit; (ii) semi-detached single-family unit; (iii) 5-floor apartment block; (iv) 10-floor apartment block; (iv) 20-floor apartment block; and (vi) 40-floor apartment block. The main finding is that linear constructions generate a greater volume of waste than vertical construction, the difference reaching up to 57%.