1,720,988 research outputs found
Virtual Reality Applied to Road Construction Sites: Designing and Testing a Virtual Learning Environment
No full textNowadays, workplace safety is essential in many countries and across all productive sectors, especially in the construction sector. Among the most significant obstacles are the workers’ mindset, the cost of simulating the actual working condi-tions, and the time required to teach all activities properly. To this end, the presented research reports the steps and results of the collaboration with Virtual Safety Lab, which is dedicated to developing a virtual reality environment to teach the safety activities for the construction and maintenance of road construction sites. The imple-mented virtual reality environment is committed to mobile construction sites, specifi-cally reviewing, integrating, and placing road signage in the work activities conducted in the presence of vehicular traffic and in accordance with Italian national regulations. The Virtual Reality environment comprises three modules, one theoretical and the other practical. In this manner, using the first modules, the workers are familiarised with virtual environments and learn the meaning of signage and safety regulations. Then, the other two modules consider the best practices and mobile construction site procedures. Training through the modules developed enables users to safely learn the operating methods necessary for the safe management of mobile road construction sites. In addition, the system may allow the optimisation of processes and decisions by training users in best practices that are useful in reducing costs and creating a safer and less stressful work environment
Model for Smart, Self-learning and Adaptive Resilience Building
No full textPurpose – This article’s purpose is to develop The Model for Smart, Self-learning and Adaptive Resilience Building (SARB).Design/Methodology/Approach – Products and patents of methods and systems analysis was carried out in the fields of BIM application, Smart, Self-learning and Adaptive Resilience Building. Based on other researchers’ findings, The SARB Model was proposed.Findings – Analysis of the literature showed that traditional decisions on the informational modelling do not satisfy all the needs of smart building technologies owing to their static nature. The SARB Model was developed to take care of its efficiency from the brief stage to the end of its service life.Research Limitations/Implications – The SARB Model was developed to take care of its efficiency from the brief stage to the end of its service life. The SARB Model does have some limitations: (1) the processes followed require the collection of much unstructured and semi-structured data from many sources, along with their analyses to support stakeholders in decision-making; (2) stakeholders need to be aware of the broader context of decision-making and (3) the proposal is process-oriented, which can be a disadvantage during the model’s implementation
A Longitudinal View of Adopting Project Alliancing: Case Finland
No full textPurpose – The paper aims to describe the evolution and use of project alliancing in Finland: how the model was discovered, and then, little by little, became an established practice.Design/Methodology/Approach – The paper is based on a long-term observation of the construction sector activities, involvement in their development and a review of related research and practice documents.Findings – The paper illustrates how a major change may be laborious. It also reveals that the application of project alliancing seems to have been successful so far, but there are still threats on the horizon.Research Limitations/Implications – The overview ignores many meaningful details and does not include a critical review of the positive experiences reported by the industry. There certainly is need for related research.Practical Implications – The study offers a point of reference for evaluation of the smoothness of the progress of industry wide changes.Originality/Value – This paper seems to be the first one providing a more comprehensive picture of the progress and use of alliancing in Finland, thus supplementing existing view- and project-specific examinations
Underlying Causes for Risk Taking Behaviour Among Construction Workers
No full textPurpose – This paper will examine the unsafe work practices that are plaguing the construction industry. Statistics show that four out of five of all workplace accidents are attributed to unsafe behaviour. Research studies have sought to understand worker self-protection. For example, it is difficult to make predictions of conditions that influenced worker’s behaviour to act unsafely or safely in a given work situation. It is evidentthere is a gap in the literature in this area of research, most notably failing to understand the underlying “why” factors. The aim of the study is to identify and examine the proximate set of contributing factors most likely to have an influence on workers’ decisions about participation in unsafe behaviour.Design/Methodology/Approach – To perform the study, questionnaires were adopted, and 225construction workers from 9 construction companies participated in the study.Findings – Results showed that both underlying organisational factors and individual factors could affect the risk aversion among construction workers. The paper also highlights measures to create a safe work environment to minimise unsafe behaviour among construction workers. Results from the study are important to help organisation to systematically plan for a good working environment.Research limitations – As the results were based only from the questionnaires, a deeper understanding behind the workers’ responses was not probed.Practical implications – Construction companies should work at several organisational levels at thesame time. It is necessary to include levels such as individual, group, workplace and management levels, thus taking a systemperspective on risk behaviour and safety
Opening the Black Box of Accessibility Regulation
Get PDFPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to open the black box of prescriptive requirements by analysing their role in shaping interests and decisions on accessibility, and discuss the consequences hereof for a futuremove to a performance-based accessibility model based on Universal Design principles.Design/Methodology/Approach: A single case study based on 15 qualitative interviews with clients about their approach to accessibility and Universal Design is analysed by using actor-network theory (ANT)as the theoretical framework.Findings: It is shown that the prescriptive requirements in the Danish building regulations constitute a black box, which is decisive in defining the clients’ perception of the users and their level of ambition for accessibility by inscribing specific expectations, actions and ways of knowing about accessibility.Research Limitations/Implications: The study is based on a qualitative single case study. We argue that analytical generalisations nevertheless can be drawn.Practical Implications: Performance-based regulations can be a source of innovation but also entail negative consequences for the quality of the built environment if treated in an isolated manner alone.The paper contributes to the discussions on Universal Design and theimplementation of performance-based accessibility regulation by illustrating how current prescriptive requirements are not mere “matters of fact” but play an active role in mobilising and shaping a network of users, technologies, norms and practices, which the introduction of performance-based requirements willradically alter.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to open the black box of prescriptive requirements by analysing their role in shaping interests and decisions on accessibility, and discuss the consequences hereof for a future move to a performance-based accessibility model based on Universal Design principles.Design/Methodology/Approach: A single case study based on 15 qualitative interviews with clients about their approach to accessibility and Universal Design is analysed by using actor-network theory (ANT) as the theoretical framework.Findings: It is shown that the prescriptive requirements in the Danish building regulations constitute a black box, which is decisive in defining the clients’ perception of the users and their level of ambition for accessibility by inscribing specific expectations, actions and ways of knowing about accessibility.Research Limitations/Implications:The study is based on a qualitative single case study. We argue that analytical generalisations nevertheless can be drawn.Practical Implications: Performance-based regulations can be a source of innovation but also entail negative consequences for the quality of the built environment if treated in an isolated manner alone.Originality/Value: The paper contributes to the discussions on Universal Design and the implementation of performance-based accessibility regulation by illustrating how current prescriptive requirements are not mere “matters of fact” but play an active role in mobilising and shaping a network of users, technologies, norms and practices, which the introduction of performance-based requirements will radically alter
BIM-i p\uf5histe ehituslubade valmiduse hinnang hulgikriteeriumide anal\ufc\ufcsi meetodil. Readiness Assessment for BIM-based Building Permits Using Multiple Criteria Analysis
No full textBIM’i kasutamine ehitusinseneride koolituses. Facilitating BIM-enabled Learning in Construction Education
No full textThe Management of Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction Programmes in Developing Countries. Katastroofij\ue4rgne elamute rekonstrueerimise korraldus arengumaades
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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