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The inherent risks and their interactive impacts in megaproject development have been found in numerous cases worldwide. Although risk management standards have been recommended for the best practice in engineering construction projects, there is still a lack of systematic approaches to describing the interactions. Interactions such as social, technical, economic, ecological and political (STEEP) risks have complex and dynamic implications for megaproject construction. For a better understanding and effective management of megaprojects such as the Edinburgh Tram project, the dynamic interaction of concomitant risks must be studied.

A systems dynamic methodology was adopted following the comprehensive literature review. Documentary data were gathered from the case study on Tram Network Project in Edinburgh.

A casual loop of typical evolution of key indicators of risks was then developed. A hypothesised model of social and ecological (SE) risks was derived using the system dynamics (SD) modelling technique. The model was set up following British Standards on risk management to provide a generic tool for risk management in megaproject development. The study reveals that cost and time overruns at the developmental stage of the case project are caused mainly by the effects of interactions of risk factors from the external macro project environment on a timely basis.

This article presented a model for simulating the socio-ecological risk confronting the management and construction of megaprojects. The use of SD provided the opportunity to explain the nature of all risks, particularly the SE risks in the past stages of project development.

The challenges facing the productivity of Nigeria's refineries have generated much academic discourse. This study was carried out to develop a causal loop model showing the interrelationships of the multiple factors driving the poor performance of the refineries. Using a framework of political, economic, social and technical (PEST) factors, the developed model helped identify leverage points for policy intervention in the system.

A mixed-method approach was adopted to collect quantitative data from 118 refinery workers and qualitative data from 14 participants polled from the various Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) subsidiaries. The quantitative data were analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM) to prioritise the more significant factors, while the qualitative data were analysed by content analysis to further validate the questionnaire findings and provide clearer contexts for the operationalisation of the factors.

The structural equation model identified several PEST factors such as government interference, political indecision, funding issues, spare parts costs, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, maintenance issues as some of the significant factors affecting the performance of the refineries. The interviews validated these findings and provided richer contexts on how these factors operate within system. A causal loop model was developed based on these findings to identify key leverage points upon which policy intervention through best practice, management autonomy and stakeholder satisfaction was proposed to address these challenges.

The study uncovers that the factors which affect the performance of the refineries have significant multiple interrelationships, the understanding of which is crucial for developing effective solutions by policymakers.

The findings of this study lay important foundations for a deeper understanding of how PEST factors interact to drive suboptimal performance across NNPC refineries.

The causal loop model developed in this study provides a new approach to viewing and analysing the associated factors affecting the performance of Nigeria's refineries from a non-linear perspective.

The changing role of quantity surveyors in the new paradigm of sustainable construction requires studies into new competencies and skills for the profession. The impact of sustainable construction on quantity surveying services, engagement and how they manage challenges provided an indication of the success indicators of the quantity surveying profession in meeting the sustainable construction needs.

A five-point Likert scale was developed from the list of quantity surveying firms in Singapore. An 85% response rate from 60 quantity surveying firms contacted in this study provided 51 responses. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were employed to evaluate the findings.

The factor analysis categorised the drivers derived from the literature into awareness of sustainable construction, adversarial role on green costing; carbon cost planning; valuing a sustainable property; common knowledge of sustainable construction; and lack of experience in sustainable construction.

The research findings supported the idea of increased sustainable construction skills in quantity surveying education, research and training.

The dearth of quantity surveyors with sustainable construction experience must focus on quantity surveying professional bodies and higher education. The quantity surveying profession needs reskilling in green costing and carbon cost planning to meet the needs of sustainable construction.

Establishing a more sustainable built environment is an increasing global concern for the construction industry. Despite the intrinsic and extrinsic obstacles the stakeholders face, huge efforts are required to transition to a smooth, sustainable construction (SC) practice. This study identifies and discusses cogent obstacles to SC in developing nations.

The Preferred Reporting Item for systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) approach was employed to establish research work in SC for developing countries. The databases used were Scopus and Web of Science. Meta-analysis of keywords was analysed thematically. The initial broad search returned 8,420 publications which were filtered and reviewed in-depth to fit the aim of the study, produced only 21 relevant publications from the years 2000–2021.

The four identified themes of obstacles to SC in developing countries are as follows: construction professional training and education, clients' attitudes and awareness, construction industries' culture and capacity and governments' regulation, policies and economy. The key barriers identified from the meta-analysis include inadequate training and education amongst construction professionals, poor execution of sustainability ethics, poor populace attitude towards sustainability, poor awareness and understanding, dearth of precise data and integrated study and inappropriate priorities about sustainability.

The originality in this study are themes drawn from millennium development goals (MDGs) and sustainable development goals (SDGs) publications related to SC. Consequently, the final framework presented a holistic approach to surmounting the established limitations and aided recommendations for future studies. Thus, setting a background for developing strategies to overcome the limitations and further attain sustainable development (SD).

Flood preparedness and response from the perspective of community engagement mechanisms have been studied in scholarly articles. However, the differences in flood mitigation may expose social and behavioural challenges to learn from. This study aimed to demonstrate how text mining can be applied in prioritising existing contexts in community-based and government flood mitigation and management strategies.

This investigation mined the semantics researchers ascribed to flood disasters and community responses from 2001 to 2022 peer-reviewed publications. Text mining was used to derive frequently used terms from over 15 publications in the Scopus database and Google Scholar search engine after an initial output of 268 peer-reviewed publications. The text-mining process applied the topic modelling analyses on the 15 publications using the R studio application.

Topic modelling applied through text mining clustered four (4) themes. The themes that emerged from the topic modelling process were building adaptation to flooding, climate change and resilient communities, urban infrastructure and community preparedness and research output for flood risk and community response. The themes were supported with geographical flood risk and community mitigation contexts from the USA, India and Nigeria to provide a broader perspective.

This study exposed the deficiency of “communication, teamwork, responsibility and lessons” as focal themes of flood disaster management and response research. The divergence in flood mitigation in developing nations as compared with developed nations can be bridged through improved government policies, technologies and community engagement.

Kaizen in construction is a new paradigm stemming out of lean production systems. Construction companies in developing economies, such as Nigeria, have a task to innovate to liquidate in certain cases. With the aid of kaizen, which encompasses the benefit of stakeholder relationship improvement and management, profitability enhancement and delivery of projects to satisfied clients, construction companies can realise expected growth. An exploration of the critical success factors (CSF) and associated drivers within the limits of the scope is essential. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Exploratory factor analysis statistical tests categorised the CSF identified in the literature review section. A detailed sampling approach extracted 135 questionnaires under the five-point Likert scale format from a larger population in Nigeria. An exploration of important drivers and iteration of eigenvalues combined with asymptotic significance of the drivers provided the CSF and significant drivers.

Construction management function, operational efficiency, construction business ethics and construction cost management were the CSF established from the exploratory factor analysis tests. It was confirmed that kaizen can be adopted in Nigerian construction companies with reflections on the principal drivers for the CSF.

The exploration of the CSF and drivers associated with kaizen implementation can be applied to other developing countries with considerations of implementation in terms of cost and time.

The identification of CSF provides ample opportunity for consideration of kaizen in construction companies. The findings of this study are a basis for investigations into cost and time implications of kaizen adoption in construction companies.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the perspective of youth employees about owner manager businesses. The owner-manager business (a one-man business) is the most common in Lagos. Hence, an inquiry into their management style and how it impacts youth employees within the context of decent work is important to explore.

The study used the convenience sample technique to obtain data from 382 owner-managers and youth employees who work in owner-managed businesses across various sectors. They were administered a questionnaire with carefully structured questions, with an 81% return rate. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) technique was used to identify the prominent parameters, and the hypothesis tested and validated accordingly.

The study identified three prominent factors that youth consider when working for an owner-manager business, i.e. the workplace factor, geographical factors and employee benefit. Consequently, issues regarding sustainable employment, conducive working conditions, job security and pension are paramount in the youths' view. Many owner-managers do not respect labour laws, and job security is low in owner-managed businesses; hence, they experience high turnover as most youth work in one-man businesses to gain experience.

The owner-manager business is the most predominant in the country and yet is under-researched. Furthermore, the perception of youth employees regarding owner-manager businesses provides a better understanding of performance and expected satisfactory outcome required from youth employees and how they can be met through proper channelling of their energies to the right tasks.