The building sector, due to the significant energy and environmental footprints it creates, needs to adopt sustainable approaches to help prevent global warming and climate change. Sustainable Building (SB) rating systems have been developed around the world as a method to promote sustainability in this sector. Water is one of the most vital natural resources, and is extensively consumed in the building sector. This article examines the coverage of water-related aspects in 11 prominent SB rating systems under the three key sustainability dimensions: environmental, economic, and social, using a comprehensive coverage analysis approach. Findings highlight a wide range of variation between the examined SB rating systems in terms of water attributes being assessed, water assessment criteria used, the optimal number of these criteria, and the weight assigned to them. Results also show that in general, most of the examined systems exhibit low representativeness and comprehensive coverage of major water subcategories and themes related to sustainable buildings. However, some moderate to high comprehensive coverage was found in water attributes that focus on the environmental and social aspects. The results indicate that representative and comprehensive coverage of social-related water attributes are less than that of environment-related water attributes. The results also highlighted the effectiveness of using coverage analysis techniques as a systematic and efficient way to assess comprehensive coverage of water criteria in SB rating systems.

Reinforcing steel corrosion, caused by chloride ingress into concrete, is the leading cause of reinforced concrete deterioration. One of the main findings in the literature for reducing chloride ingress is the improvement of the durability characteristics of concrete by the addition of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and/or chemical agents to concrete mixtures. In this study, standard ASTM tests—such as rapid chloride permeability (RCPT), bulk diffusion and sorptivity tests—were used to measure concrete properties such as porosity, sorptivity, salt diffusion, and permeability. Eight different mixtures, prepared with different SCMs and corrosion inhibitors, were tested. Apparent and effective chloride diffusion coefficients were calculated using bound chloride isotherms and time-dependent decrease in diffusion. Diffusion coefficients decreased with time, especially with the addition of SCMs and corrosion inhibitors. The apparent diffusion coefficient calculated using the error function was slightly lower than the effective diffusion coefficient; however, there was a linear trend between the two. The formation factor was found to correlate with the effective diffusion coefficient. The results of the laboratory tests were compared and benchmarked to their counterparts in the marine exposure site in the Arabian Gulf in order to identify laboratory key tests to predict concrete durability. The overall performance of concrete containing SCMs, especially fly ash, were the best among the other mixtures in the laboratory and the field.

Soils in Saudi Arabia are emerging as potential sustainable building materials, a notion central to this study. The research is crucial for advancing construction practices in arid areas by enhancing soil thermal properties through stabilization. Focusing on Hejaz region soils, the study evaluates the impact of stabilizers such as cement, lime, and cement kiln dust (CKD) on their thermal behavior. This investigation, using two specific soil types designated as Soil A and Soil B, varied the concentration of additives from 0% to 15% over a 12-week duration. Employing a TLS-100 for thermal measurements, it was found that Soil A, with a 12.5% cement concentration, showed a significant 164.54% increase in thermal conductivity. When treated with 2.5% lime, Soil A reached a thermal conductivity of 0.555 W/(m·K), whereas Soil B exhibited a 53.00% decrease under similar lime concentration, reflecting diverse soil responses. Notably, a 15% CKD application in Soil A led to an astounding 213.55% rise in thermal conductivity, with Soil B recording an 82.7% increase. The findings emphasize the substantial influence of soil stabilization in improving the thermal characteristics of Hejaz soils, especially with cement and CKD, and, to a varying extent. This study is pivotal in identifying precise, soil-specific stabilization methods in Saudi Arabia’s Hejaz region, essential for developing sustainable engineering applications and optimizing construction materials for better thermal efficiency.

The improvement in the chloride binding capacity of concrete has been shown to increase corrosion resistance. The addition of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) to Portland cement has been proven to increase the binding capacity, except for silica fume, whereas the impact of chemical additives is not extensively addressed in the literature. This work studies the influence of SCMs and chemical additives, i.e., calcium nitrite inhibitor (CNI), migrating corrosion inhibitor (MCI), and Caltite as a hydrophobic material, on binding capacity. The addition of both corrosion inhibitors (MCI and CNI) has minimal effect on the binding capacity, while the addition of Caltite reduces the binding capacity by limiting the contact of the samples with the salt in water due to its hydrophobic nature. In addition, the study compares the performance of the available fitting–binding models against the available experimental work in the literature, and shows that the Freundlich isotherm is the best fitting model for describing the relationship between the binding capacity and the free chloride. The study further relates the binding capacity to different compositions in cement and SCMs, and shows, by conducting quantitative analysis, that the Al₂O₃ content is the dominant factor affecting the binding capacity. Finally, this work proposes a new model, which uses Al₂O₃ content and free salt concentration to predict the bound chloride. The model shows adequate correlations to the experimental work and, further, can be used in service-life modeling of concrete.