This paper discusses the assessment of the environmental impact produced by low income housing projects (LIHP), since inadequate design and implementation processes have often resulted in environment degradation problems. Failures in fulfilling requirements for environmental sustainability have origins in the lack of process approach in product development, resulting in failures in the information flow and, consequently, in value generation. The research strategy used was a case study developed in a medium sized town. Based on the analysis of the approval process of LIHB by government bodies, the authors identified as one of the main problems the lack of criteria and tools for evaluating those impacts.For the analysis of the environmental impacts, both the users and the communitywere considered as clients in the development of LIHP.A major contribution of this article is the proposalof instruments for the analysis of environmental requirements that must be considered in the approval process for LIHP.
Low income housing; Environmental impact; Requirements evaluation