ABSTRACT
In most environmental contexts found on Earth, the built environment is an essential part of the infrastructure necessary for human survival. Buildings provide shelter from adverse climate conditions such as rain and snow, ambient temperature ranges outside human comfort levels and threatening weather conditions. They also afford privacy and security from a variety of dangers, including predatory and pest animals and malevolent humans (Allen 1980). In addition to these roles that contribute to basic human survival, built facilities serve other purposes which help to expand the quality of human life beyond mere biotic survival, including their role as infrastructure for activities such as collection, treatment and/or storage of solid, liquid and gaseous waste, provision and distribution of pure water, processing and distribution of agricultural products into food, and manufacturing and distribution of other products used by humans.
