Abstract

Population growth has led to the conversion of resource-related land uses, such as agricultural lands, to urban related land uses, like housing. Urban development has made life convenient and comfortable. Travel has become faster, communication has become easier. However, there are externalities that we need to face due to urban development; Externalities such as overcrowding of cities which leads to continual expansion of the city (suburbanization); traffic congestion; and the environmental quality is worsening. One aspect of urban development is the construction of residential and non-residential buildings in cities. This paper tries to study the changes of carbon emissions induced by building construction. To be able to assess the future requirements of society in terms of infrastructure facilities and its sustainability, a study on the historical changes of carbon emissions and the relationship of material requirements to emissions are necessary. The focus is on the technological evolution of Japanese building construction to be able to assess its environmental impacts and to be able to recognize the material and energy requirements of building construction that contribute to the total carbon emissions. The main contribution of the paper is the environmental evaluation of the building construction system. Moreover, carbon emission