Integrating Climate-Resilient Design And Life Cycle Costing In Green Building Projects: A Simulation-Based Assessment In Tropical Urban Areas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51903/3cq4x038Keywords:
Sustainable Construction, Life Cycle Costing, Climate-Resilient Design, Tropical Urban Environment, Building Performance SimulationAbstract
Tropical urban areas are increasingly exposed to the compounded impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, high humidity, and increased rainfall, which pose challenges to the long-term performance, durability, and cost-efficiency of green buildings. This study integrates climate-resilient building design strategies with Life Cycle Costing (LCC) to evaluate both the technical performance and long-term economic feasibility of green building projects in tropical urban environments. A simulation-based building performance assessment was conducted to model key microclimatic variables, solar radiation, thermal loads, and precipitation, and their impacts on building envelope performance, passive cooling strategies, and water management systems. Simulation outputs were incorporated into an LCC framework to compare multiple design scenarios over a 30-year operational lifecycle. The results indicate that climate-resilient design alternatives reduce annual building energy demand by approximately 15–25% and lower total life-cycle costs by 10–18% compared to baseline green-building configurations, despite an initial capital cost increase of 5–12%. These findings demonstrate that investments in climate-adaptive strategies enhance long-term cost efficiency, operational stability, and resilience to extreme climate conditions in tropical cities. This study provides a coherent simulation-based framework that links environmental performance analysis with life-cycle economic evaluation, offering practical decision-support insights for architects, engineers, developers, and policymakers. By quantitatively revealing trade-offs between initial investment and long-term benefits, the research addresses a critical gap in current green building assessment practices and supports the development of financially viable and climate-resilient urban building solutions.
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