Using GIS as a decision making support tool for LEED credits

Green building rating systems are voluntary tools intended to promote sustainable building process through approaching several environmental issues that include sustainable design parameters related to the construction site and others related to its surrounding context. Decision making software support tools and methods are needed to guide practitioners on minimizing building’s environmental impact especially for early design decisions. Hence, the study shows how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is used as a decision-making support tool for assessing location and transportation (LT) together with sustainable site (SS) categories for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system. The methodology is applied on the 10th of Ramadan city in Egypt; creating land suitability analysis for these two LEED categories. The analysis considers sensitive land protection, high priority development sites, surrounding density and diverse uses, and access to quality transit on the context level. It also analyses lithology type and condition as well as habitat and open spaces protection on the site level. The result shows the potential role of integrating GIS analysis as a tool for site selection credits for LEED rating systems. This allows for more data integration to set a solid base for objective decision making process based on contextual conditions. The method can be generalized and applied in similar contexts in order to attract private investments for green construction especially in new development areas