The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 37 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Growth of Urban Building Stock: Unintended Lock‐in and Embedded Environmental Effects
Abstract
Summary: Building stocks constitute enduring components of urban infrastructure systems, but little research exists on their residence time or changing environmental impacts. Using Los Angeles County, California, as a case study, a framework is developed for assessing the changes of building stocks in cities (i.e., a generalizable framework for estimating the construction and deconstruction rates), the residence time of buildings and their materials, and the associated embedded environmental impacts. In Los Angeles, previous land‐use decisions prove not easily reversible, and past building stock investments may continue to constrain the energy performance of buildings. The average age of the building stock has increased steadily since 1920 and more rapidly after the post–World War II construction surge in the 1950s. Buildings will likely endure for 60 years or longer, making this infrastructure a quasi‐permanent investment. The long residence time, combined with the physical limitations on outward growth, suggest that the Los Angeles building stock is unlikely to have substantial spatial expansion in the future. The construction of buildings requires a continuous investment in material, monetary, and energetic resources, resulting in environmental impacts. The long residence time of structures implies a commitment to use and maintain the infrastructure, potentially creating barriers to an urban area's ability to improve energy efficiency. The immotility of buildings, coupled with future environmental goals, indicates that urban areas will be best positioned by instituting strategies that ensure reductions in life cycle (construction, use, and demolition) environmental impacts.
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“These long lifespans may lead to lock-ins of specific use patterns which no longer meet current needs or reflect the current state of energy efficiency [43][44][45].”
From Material efficiency strategies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings, vehicles, and electronics—a review (2019) · cites this paper as [43]
In the citing paper
“In the US, the average lifetime of residential buildings is 50-60 years [43,48,60], in Europe it exceeds 100 years [61][62][63], while recent historical building lifetimes have been 30-40 years in Japan [64,65] and just 25 years in China [66][67][68].”
From Material efficiency strategies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings, vehicles, and electronics—a review (2019) · cites this paper as [43]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Reyna, J. L., & Chester, M. V.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Reyna, Janet L.
- Venue
- Journal of Industrial Ecology
- Published
- 2014-12-19
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 524-537
- ISSN
- 1088-1980 (ISSN-L)
- 1530-9290
- OpenAlex
- W2019890050
- Cited by
- 140
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 7.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Industrial Ecology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Sustainable Building Design and Assessment
- Keywords
- urban building stock, lock-in, land use decisions, building energy efficiency, life cycle assessment, building materials, Los Angeles County, urban infrastructure
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