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SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE-IX

ADITI SRIVASTAVA-GCAD/17/205

GATEWAY COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN, SONIPAT

ASSIGNMENT-04
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1.Explain in detail NBC for site selection and prevention of soil erosion.

Ans1. SITE SELECTION

The parameter that should be taken into consideration while selecting the site are as follows:
1. Impact on the Environment
• Avoid ESZ
• Avoid constructing on land that was previously marked as public parkland.
• Avoid constructing on land with small waterways which are the habitat for aquatic
lives.
• Selection of site should be done keeping in mind that site has not been purely
marked as the farmland serves or as natural habitats for the endangered species.
2. Connection with the community
• The idea is based on LEED system which specifies that the construction of
particular project must contribute some positive development for the surrounding
community under construction. This means to protect the Greenfields that are
important trademark for the community and convert any grey field or borrow field
for the construction purpose.
3. New development is limited
• This policy of LEED system is to make it clear to avoid the construction of a new
project on a new land and utilize the land that are already abandoned. This involves
the construction on borrow field sites, run down land.
• The sites that are already contaminates, landfills, and those lands that are classified
as borrow fields sites officially by government can also be utilized for the same.
4. Transportation
• LEED system provides a great concern for proximity of transportation. A site
should be in consideration that promotes the use of public transportation by the
future occupants instead of having their own cars. This results in less traffic, less
carbon emission and hence less negative and harmful impact on the environment.
5. Providing proximity to public amenities and ensure their availability
6. Utilizing open spaces
• Providing open spaces greater than local zoning requirements i.e., by 25%
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• Providing open space that is 20% of the building footprint.

• Providing underground parking or sharing the parking with neighborhood buildings
so that many open spaces can be provided.
7. Site Characteristics to avoid according to the NBC norms
• Site adjacent to irrigated areas shall be avoided at all cost.
• Adjacent to changing land surface conditions shall be avoided.
• Flood plains shall be avoided.
• Large ground slope on site shall be avoided.
• Complex meteorological zones shall be avoided
• Site which has trees within 50 m shall be avoided
Protection of Landscape during construction
Measures for preventing soil erosion, sediment control and management of stormwater
shall be checked upon. Construction work and erosion control applications shall be
scheduled and sequenced during dry weather periods when the potential for erosion is the
lowest.
a) Preservation of Existing Vegetation
It is the identification and protection of desirable vegetation that provides erosion
and sediment control benefits. It means protecting desirable trees, vines, bushes,
and grasses from damages during project development.
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b) Sedimentation Basin
A sedimentation tank allows suspended particles to settle out of water or waste
water as it flows slowly through the tank therefore, providing some degree of
purification, A layer of accumulated solids, called sludge forms at the bottom of the
tank and is removed cyclically.

c) Contour Trenching
Contour trenches are ditches dug along a hillside in such a way that they follow a
contour and run perpendicular to the flow of water. The soil is excavated from the
ditch is used to form a berm on the downhill edged of the ditch.
The idea is to store overland flow on site and allow it to percolate slowly into the
soil. Contour trenches are delicate structures.
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d) Mulching
The process of covering the open surface of the ground by a layer of some external
material is called mulching and the material used for covering is called mulch.
Mulching is usually practiced when cultivating commercially important crops, fruit
trees, vegetables, flower, nursey sapling.

e) Infiltration Trenches
An infiltration trench is long, narrow, shallow excavation located over porous soils
and back-filled with stone to form a subsurface reservoir to hold stormwater and
allow it to infiltrate the soil. The sheet flow enters the trench through a layer of
vegetated porous soil on the top of the trench.
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f) Bio-filtration swale/grass swale

Biofiltration uses grass or other dense plants to filter out sediment and oily materials.
Swales often look like a flat-bottomed channel with grass growing in them. A swale
is usually dry, but after a storm, the runoff moves through it slowly and at shallow
depth.

g) Sand Filter
These device filter stormwater runoff through a sand layer into an underground
drain system which collect and direct the water to a detention facility. They restrict
the solid waste to follow through. The water flows through the sand with ease, but
larger particles are unable to pass through, once the debris and other particles are
filtered out by the sand, a pump move the water back.