An Original Theoretical and Methodological Contribution to Building Pathology Practice in Sub-Saharan African Construction Environments

Building pathology, the systematic study of building defects, their causes, and remediation, has been developed primarily in temperate climate and high-income country contexts, and its theoretical and methodological adaptation to sub-Saharan African construction environments represents an original and practically urgent scholarly contribution. This study develops an original Building Pathology Framework for Sub-Saharan African Construction (BPFSSAC), comprising a comprehensive defect taxonomy calibrated to tropical climate degradation mechanisms, local material deficiencies, and artisanal construction practices characteristic of the region. The framework integrates forensic science methodologies with a new Hierarchical Defect Causation Model developed through qualitative analysis of 250 building failure investigation reports from Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon. An original Building Defect Risk Stratification Matrix is developed and validated against 180 defect case studies from six Nigerian geopolitical zones, enabling probabilistic prediction of defect type from building characteristics and environmental exposure. Quantitative validation using logistic regression confirms that the matrix correctly classifies defect types in 81% of cases (AUC = 0.84). The framework is further tested in practice through structured application to 30 forensic building investigations by trained assessors, with inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.79) confirming replicable application. Original contributions include the defect taxonomy, the Hierarchical Defect Causation Model, the Building Defect Risk Stratification Matrix, and a standardised forensic building investigation protocol adapted for low-resource professional contexts. The BPFSSAC provides a theoretically grounded foundation for building pathology education and practice development across sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: building pathology, defect causation, sub-Saharan Africa, forensic investigation, defect taxonomy