The durability and service life of building materials and components is a topic of growing interest all over the world. The pursuit of sustainable development is highlighting such issues as life cycle assessment of materials and building products, recycling and reuse of materials, use of substitute raw materials etc., and in this way the demand for knowledge on degradation factors and processes, service life data and life cycle economy. In all countries the stock of building is growing. An estimate is that the built environment - buildings and infrastructure - constitute more than 50 per cent of the real capital of each country. The effective and environmentally friendly management and renewal of these investments, calls for improved abilities to predict service life, cost effective building materials with well documented long-term behaviour and improved procedures to maintain the serviceability of building products. Research into durability aims at increasing the knowledge base in all these areas. This book presents the latest research and development and offers researchers and practitioners articles from around the world on the main topics: prediction methods and modelling; measurement a

These books contain articles on R&D into the major aspects of durability and service life prediction of building materials and components, as well as theoretical aspects of methods and modelling of prediction, description of degradation environment by use GIS, as practical implementation of knowledge on durability in maintenance procedures and in standardisation and regulations.