QCS 2010 Section 7 Part 2 QSAS Page 1

2.  QATAR SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM - QSAS ....................... 2 

2.1  SCOPE .......................................................................................................... 2 

2.1.1  General 2 

ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

2.1.2  Reference 2 
2.1.3  QSAS Objective 2 
2.2  QSAS CATEGORIES & CRITERIA................................................................ 2 
2.2.1  General 2 
2.3  DESCRIPTION OF QSAS CATEGORIES ..................................................... 3 
2.3.1  Urban Connectivity [UC] 3 
2.3.2  Site [S] 3 
2.3.3  Energy [E] 3 
2.3.4  Water [W] 4 
2.3.5  Materials [M] 4 
2.3.6  Indoor Environment [IE] 4 
2.3.7  Cultural & Economic Value [CE] 4 
2.3.8  Management & Operations [MO] 4 
2.3.9  QSAS Categories and Criteria 4 
2.4  MEASUREMENT & SCORING ...................................................................... 6 
2.4.1  General 6 
2.5  QSAS SCHEMES AND TYPOLOGY ............................................................. 6 
2.5.1  QSAS scheme 6 
2.6  QCS GREEN BUILDING REQUIREMENTS .................................................. 7 
2.6.1  Types of Buildings 7 
2.6.2  QCS Green Building Categories & Criteria 7 
2.6.3  Submittal Requirements 8 

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2. QATAR SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM - QSAS

2.1 SCOPE

ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

2.1.1 General

1 Unless otherwise specified or recommended by the Engineer the Owner may follow the
QSAS guidelines specified herein.

2 For rating the building sustainability referred to in this document, the QSAS scoring
methodology is to be used for assessing the categories and criteria recommended in this
section.

3 Nothing in this standard is intended to prevent the use of other systems and methods for
designing a sustainable built environment.

4 Nothing in this standard shall be in intended to restrict new technologies or alternate

arrangements, provided that the built environment is assessed as prescribed by this
standard is not lowered.

2.1.2 Reference

1 The following documents are referred to in this section:

QSAS (Qatar Sustainability Assessment System) - v1.0 2010, Gulf Organisation for
Research and Development, Qatar (Note: QCS reference shall be limited only to this
particular version of QSAS and non-other), [Refer to Section 7 Part 1 for the entire list of
reference]

2.1.3 QSAS Objective

1 The primary objective of Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS) is to create a

sustainable built environment that minimizes ecological impact while addressing the specific
regional needs and environment of Qatar.

2.2 QSAS CATEGORIES & CRITERIA

2.2.1 General

1 The criteria of QSAS are divided into eight categories, each with a direct impact on
environmental stress mitigation. Each category measures a different aspect of the project’s
environmental impact. The categories define these broad impacts and address ways in
which a project can mitigate the negative environmental effects (Figure 1).

2 These categories are then broken down into specific criteria that measure and define
individual issues.

3 These issues range from a thorough review of water consumption to an assessment of light
quality. Each criterion specifies a process for measuring individual aspects of environmental
impact and for documenting the degree to which the requirements have been met. A score is
then awarded to each criterion based on the degree of compliance.

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ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

4 The goals of the eight categories are the following:

(a) The building’s planning shall incorporate urban considerations.

(b) The building’s development in relation to the existing site conditions shall be
controlled.
(c) The building’s depletion of fossil energy over its service life shall be controlled.
(d) The building’s impact on the overall water resource shall be controlled.
(e) The impact of the building’s use of materials on the environment shall be controlled.
(f) The building’s indoor environment shall be controlled.
(g) The building’s cultural and economic value shall be maintained or enhanced.
(h) The building’s management and operations plan shall be defined.

2.3 DESCRIPTION OF QSAS CATEGORIES

2.3.1 Urban Connectivity [UC]

1. The Urban Connectivity category consists of factors associated with the urban environment
such as zoning, transportation networks and loadings. Loadings on the urban environment
include traffic congestion and pollution.

2.3.2 Site [S]

1 The Site category consists of factors associated with land use such as land conservation or
remediation and site selection, planning and development.

2.3.3 Energy [E]

1 The Energy category consists of factors associated with energy demand of buildings, the
efficiency of energy delivery, and the use of fossil energy sources that result in harmful
emissions.

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2.3.4 Water [W]

1 The Water category consists of factors associated with water consumption and its
associated burden on municipal supply and treatment systems.

ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

2.3.5 Materials [M]

1 The Materials category consists of factors associated with material extraction, processing,
manufacturing, distribution, use/re-use, and disposal.

2.3.6 Indoor Environment [IE]

1 The Indoor Environment category consists of factors associated with indoor environmental
quality such as thermal comfort, air quality, acoustic quality, and light quality.

2.3.7 Cultural & Economic Value [CE]

1 The Cultural and Economic Value category consists of factors associated with cultural
conservation and support of the national economy.

2.3.8 Management & Operations [MO]

1 The Management and Operations category consists of factors associated with building
design management and operations.

2.3.9 QSAS Categories and Criteria

1 For a summary of QSAS Categories and Criteria refer to Table 1.

Table 1: QSAS Categories & Criteria Summary

No Category / Criteria Weights

UC Urban Connectivity 8.00%
UC.1 Load on Local Traffic Conditions 1.80%
UC.2 Pedestrian Pathways 1.08%
UC.3 Proximity to Amenities 0.69%
UC.4 Light Pollution 0.58%
UC.5 Noise Pollution 0.43%
UC.6 Public Transportation 1.30%
UC.7 Private Transportation 0.39%
UC.8 Sewer & Waterway Contamination 1.08%
UC.9 Shading of Adjacent Properties 0.65%

S Site 9.00%
S.1 Ecological Value of Land 2.34%
S.2 Vegetation & Shading 1.05%
S.3 Desertification 1.75%
S.4 Rainwater Runoff 1.17%
S.5 Mixed Use 0.88%
S.6 Heat Island Effect 0.58%
S.7 Adverse Wind Conditions 0.88%

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No Category / Criteria Weights

S.8 Acoustic Conditions 0.35%

E Energy 24.00%

ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

E.1 Energy Demand Performance 5.20%
E.2 Energy Delivery Performance 5.20%
E.3 Fossil Fuel Conservation 3.64%
E.4 CO2 Emissions 4.55%
E.5 NOx, SOx, & Particulate Matter 5.41%

W Water 16.00%
W.1 Water Consumption 16.00%

M Materials 8.00%
M.1 Regional Materials 1.85%
M.2 Responsible Sourcing of Materials N/A
M.3 Structure Reuse: On-site 0.91%
M.4 Materials Reuse: Off-site 1.54%
M.5 Recycled Materials 1.85%
M.6 Design for Disassembly 1.85%
M.7 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) N/A

IE Indoor Environment 14.00%

IE.1 Thermal Comfort 1.20%
IE.2 Low-Emitting Materials 1.60%
IE.3 Natural Ventilation 1.60%
IE.4 Mechanical Ventilation 1.60%
IE.5 Indoor Chemical & Pollutant Source Control 1.60%
IE.6 Views 1.20%
IE.7 Glare Control 1.20%
IE.8 Illumination Levels 1.20%
IE.9 Acoustic Quality 1.20%
IE.10 Daylight 1.60%

CE Cultural & Economic Value 13.00%

CE.1 Heritage & Cultural Identity 8.67%
CE.2 Support of National Economy 4.33%

MO Management & Operations 8.00%

MO.1 Commissioning Plan 2.67%
MO.2 Energy Use Sub-metering 0.89%
MO.3 Leak Detection 1.77%
MO.4 Organic Waste Management N/A
MO.5 Recycling Management N/A
MO.6 Intelligent Building Control System 2.67%

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2.4 MEASUREMENT & SCORING

2.4.1 General

ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

1. The aim for all QSAS criteria and their associated measurements is to be performance-
based and quantifiable on the scale of -1 to 3 (-1, 0, 1, 2, 3) or 0 to 3, depending on the
criterion’s level of impact. This implies that every criterion should be measured in terms of a
predicted outcome of the proposed design, such as a predicted load in an impact category
for the environment, the depletion rate of fossil energy, the consumption of potable water, or
the addition to the overall cultural value of the urban environment.

2. Using negative points allows criteria with greater impact to be emphasized and to achieve a
higher level of building performance. In QSAS, (-1) is a negative measure of ‘not
acceptable,’ and 0 is a threshold for ‘acceptable’ or is used in the case that the requirement
is not applicable.

3. The scores of 1 to 3 are levels of gradual improvements.

4. Each category and criterion has an associated weight based on its relative environmental,
social, and economic impact. Once a score is assigned to each criterion in the assessment
system, the values are multiplied by the weight and a cumulative final score is determined.

5. QSAS consists of six certification levels to measure the project’s impact. A building that
obtains a final score below 0 does not meet the baseline and will be denied certification.
Certification can only be achieved when the final score is greater than or equal to 0, earning
a rating of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 stars. The highest score a building can achieve is 3.0 and the
highest certification level is 6 stars. The table below summarises this information (Table 2).

Table 2: Scoring levels of QSAS

Score Certification Level QSAS Certification

X<0 - Certification denied
0.0 ≤ X ≤ 0.5 Ì
0.5 < X ≤ 1.0 ÌÌ
1.0 < X ≤ 1.5 ÌÌÌ
Certification achieved
1.5 < X ≤ 2.0 ÌÌÌÌ
2.0 < X ≤ 2.5 ÌÌÌÌÌ
2.5 < X ≤ 3.0 ÌÌÌÌÌÌ

2.5 QSAS SCHEMES AND TYPOLOGY

2.5.1 QSAS scheme
1. QSAS scheme is applicable for the following categories:

(a) Neighbourhood
(b) Commercial
(c) Core & Shell
(d) Residential
(e) Schools
(f) Mosques

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(g) Hotels
(h) Light Industries
(i) Sports Facilities

ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

2.6 QCS GREEN BUILDING REQUIREMENTS

2.6.1 Types of Buildings

1. For the purpose of definition types of buildings shall be categorised as follows:

(a) Civic Buildings: Schools, Mosques, Sports Facilities, Public buildings and
governmental buildings.
(b) Commercial Buildings and Core & Shell: Built-up area of 10,000 m2 and more.
(c) Residential Compounds: Built-up area of 20,000 m2 and more.

2.6.2 QCS Green Building Categories & Criteria

1. The minimum recommended scores for the respective categories are specified below (Table
3).

Table 3: Green Building Categories & Criteria

Recommended Building
QSAS Category Criteria
Minimum Score Typology
[E.1] Energy Demand
Performance
[E.2] Energy Delivery Civic,
Average Score Commercial,
Energy [E.3] Fossil Fuel Conservation (1) Core & Shell, &
Residential
[E.4] CO2 Emissions Compounds
[E.5] NOx, SOx, & Particulate
Matters
Civic,
Commercial,
Water [W.1] Water Consumption Score (1) Core & Shell, &
Residential
Compounds
Civic,
Score (0) Commercial, &
[IE.2] Low-Emitting Materials
Core & Shell,
Civic,
Indoor
Score (1) Commercial, &
Environment [IE.3] Natural Ventilation
Core & Shell,
Civic,
Score (1) Commercial, &
[IE.4] Mechanical Ventilation
Core & Shell,
Civic,
Commercial,
Cultural And
[CE.2] Support of National Score (2) Core & Shell, &
Economic Value
Economy Residential
Compounds

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2.6.3 Submittal Requirements

1. Submittal Requirements shall be as per the relevant QSAS Requirements.

ACTS ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

END OF PART

QCS 2010