Data-driven nexus for sustainable building design

Life on Earth is sustained by and depends on the provisioning of ecosystems services (ESs) like food, fresh water, and energy. Anthropogenic pollution and climate change negatively affect the functioning of ecosystems. Consequences are loss of habitat and biodiversity as well as a reduced generation of ESs. All of this has a knock-on effect on human health and wellbeing. To counteract these issues, governments as well as companies and individuals increasingly aim to contribute to regenerative developments.

As cities densify, there is less capacity to derive all ecosystem services from urban green and blue spaces. This is a reason why buildings and infrastructure must begin to generate ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services can be generated through sustainable building design.

Naturally, ecosystem services are generated by functional biological ecosystems.

Ecosystems are defined as dynamic and complex systems consisting of plant, animal and microorganism communities as well as the nonliving environment, all of which interact as a functional unit. This definition integrates humans and can also imply that buildings or any other nonliving structure from the anthropogenic environment are parts of ecosystems. Human and ecosystem health are interdependent. When seeing buildings as integral parts of ecosystems, they require to become functional units and interact with the other functional units or elements of the ecosystem. Within a functional unit, all elements consume and produce resources. Resources are exchanged and energy flows are maintained. Therefore, buildings can be seen as potential contributors to the overall ecosystem health by generating ESs. In order to design the human-engineered system as a part of the local biological ecosystem, its elements require to equally contribute to the generation of ESs. As buildings are one of the largest consumers of energy and resources in the anthropogenic system, their contribution to the local biological ecosystem has to cover or even exceed their consumption in order to maintain a functioning system.

Ecosystem services are the benefits that humans and all living organisms derive, either directly or indirectly from the functions of ecosystems (source).

ESs are categorized in regulation and maintenance services as well as provisioning services and cultural services. The regulation and maintenance services represent ecological processes such as nutrient cycling and regulation of soil, water and air quality. Provisioning services are the material benefits that are generated by ecological processes (e.g. food, fresh water, and energy), while the cultural services are immaterial benefits that result from the ecosystems (e.g. relaxation and well-being).

Buildings have the opportunity to generate ecosystem services through targeted design strategies. By integrating regulation and maintenance services in buildings, provisioning and cultural services can be generated.