This dissertation, "Assessing and Explaining the Health and Hygiene Performance of Apartment Buildings" by King-chung, Alex, Cheung, 張勁松, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author.
Abstract:
Abstract of thesis entitled
Assessing and Explaining the Health and Hygiene Performance of Apartment Buildings
Submitted by
CHEUNG KING-CHUNG, ALEX
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in July 2006
The global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in early 2003 aroused public concern for building health and environmental hygiene. This thesis develops a practical assessment scheme to evaluate the health and hygiene performance of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. It is different from similar schemes elsewhere, as it takes a balanced approach to the design and management aspects. As such, it can be easily adopted to assess the performance of existing buildings. The scheme involves assessing a hierarchy of building attributes that have a bearing on environmental qualities, and thus the health of their occupants. An index method was proposed to integrate the assessment outcomes into a simple and user-friendly performance indicator for public consumption. Workshop surveys were conducted to collect information on the relative importance of various building attributes. The results were analyzed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process to generate weightings for the aggregation of an index, namely the Building Health and Hygiene Index (BHHI). The BHHI can inform the public of the relative risks regarding the health and hygiene of different buildings. It can also help building owners, developers, and government bodies to develop more informed and socially responsible decisions to improve building health and environmental hygiene. A survey involving a sample of 140 apartment buildings was conducted through site inspections, desk searches, and interviews using the proposed scheme. Multiple regression models were then applied to analyze the effect of exogenous factors on the health and hygiene performance of buildings, which was proxied by the BHHI. The empirical results showed that older buildings were in poorer condition because of wear and tear and difficulties in financing maintenance and improvement works. Buildings in large scale developments performed better, as building management in these places was more cost-effective. The presence of incorporated owners and property management agents were also significant factors in enhancing building health and hygiene. These findings suggested that the choice of management regime matters as far as building health and hygiene are concerned. Last, hedonic price models were employed to test if the BHHI affected property prices using transaction data from the surveyed buildings. After controlling for physical characteristics, building management, location, and time factors, the implicit price of building health and environmental hygiene was found to be positive and significant. The result was invariant of the functional forms specified. The empirical evidence revealed that units in buildings with better health and hygiene performances commanded higher market prices. This also suggested that the residential property market in Hong Kong was highly efficient.
(417 words)
DOI: 10.5353/th_b3672381
Subjects:
High-rise apartment buildings - China - Hong Kong
Buildings - Environmental engineering - Evaluation - China - Hong Kong