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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 October 2021

Hung Duy Nguyen, Quang Nhat Huu Do and Laura Macchion

Risks are considered a significant obstacle to Green Building (GB) development and have recently received significant attention from both construction practitioners and academics…

2134

Abstract

Purpose

Risks are considered a significant obstacle to Green Building (GB) development and have recently received significant attention from both construction practitioners and academics. This study aimed to identify critical GB risks and explore the relationship between participants' characteristics and risk assessment.

Design/methodology/approach

Firstly, a list of GB risks was developed based on a comprehensive literature review and interviewing GB experts. After that, a survey of 207 construction professionals was then conducted to validate these GB risk factors. Finally, this research adopted the ANOVA test and hierarchical regression analysis to examine the relationship between participants' characteristics and risk assessment.

Findings

The results provided a list of GB risks classified and evaluated according to the GB project life cycle and, thus, may serve as a helpful reference for GB practitioners. Notably, the ANOVA analysis revealed that risk assessment negatively correlates with participants' GB experience, while their industry experience does not affect risk assessment. Furthermore, the hierarchical regression analysis proved that participant roles do not moderate the association between risk assessment and GB experience.

Originality/value

This study contributed to GB literature by implementing empirical research on GB risks in a developing country. The results implied the essential role of professionals with rich GB experience in risk management in GB projects. Furthermore, this research could help construction practitioners understand GB risks adequately and thereby have better risk-management strategies for future GB projects.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 April 2022

Hung Duy Nguyen and Laura Macchion

Risks in implementing green building (GB) projects have emerged as a significant obstacle for GB development, especially in developing countries. In recent years, both academics…

2188

Abstract

Purpose

Risks in implementing green building (GB) projects have emerged as a significant obstacle for GB development, especially in developing countries. In recent years, both academics and construction practitioners have paid considerable attention to the risks associated with GB. In this study, the authors aimed to create a comprehensive risk assessment model that considers three crucial risk features: impact level, probability of occurrence and risk manageability.

Design/methodology/approach

In the research, authors adopted the mean scoring and fuzzy synthetic evaluation method to assess GB risks. Based on expert assessments, this model can determine the significance of risk factors, risk groups and overall risk. Notably, this research applied the proposed model to assess GB risks in Vietnam by surveying 58 GB experienced professionals.

Findings

The findings revealed that GB risks are relatively high in Vietnam, implying that risk management is essential for GB projects to succeed. The results also showed that “lack of experience of GB designers” is the most critical factor, and “human resources risk in the design phase” is the top crucial risk group.

Originality/value

This study contributes a novel and practical model to help practitioners assess risks in GB projects. In addition, this research offers detailed GB risk evaluations in Vietnam and thus could be a valuable reference for construction practitioners and future studies.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 October 2019

Laszlo Hetey, Eddy Neefs, Ian Thomas, Joe Zender, Ann-Carine Vandaele, Sophie Berkenbosch, Bojan Ristic, Sabrina Bonnewijn, Sofie Delanoye, Mark Leese, Jon Mason and Manish Patel

This paper aims to describe the development of a knowledge management system (KMS) for the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument on board the ESA/Roscosmos…

1748

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to describe the development of a knowledge management system (KMS) for the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument on board the ESA/Roscosmos 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft. The KMS collects knowledge acquired during the engineering process that involved over 30 project partners. In addition to the documentation and technical data (explicit knowledge), a dedicated effort was made to collect the gained experience (tacit knowledge) that is crucial for the operational phase of the TGO mission and also for future projects. The system is now in service and provides valuable information for the scientists and engineers working with NOMAD.

Design/methodology/approach

The NOMAD KMS was built around six areas: official documentation, technical specifications and test results, lessons learned, management data (proposals, deliverables, progress reports and minutes of meetings), picture files and movie files. Today, the KMS contains 110 GB of data spread over 11,000 documents and more than 13,000 media files. A computer-aided design (CAD) library contains a model of the full instrument as well as exported sub-parts in different formats. A context search engine for both documents and media files was implemented.

Findings

The conceived KMS design is basic, flexible and very robust. It can be adapted to future projects of a similar size.

Practical implications

The paper provides practical guidelines on how to retain the knowledge from a larger aerospace project. The KMS tool presented here works offline, requires no maintenance and conforms to data protection standards.

Originality/value

This paper shows how knowledge management requirements for space missions can be fulfilled. The paper demonstrates how to transform the large collection of project data into a useful tool and how to address usability aspects.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 92 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 June 2023

Inimbom Walter Isang

Research studies related to sustainability and green building have made monumental contributions to the concept of sustainable construction (SC) in Nigeria. This paper therefore…

2174

Abstract

Purpose

Research studies related to sustainability and green building have made monumental contributions to the concept of sustainable construction (SC) in Nigeria. This paper therefore aims to present a historical review of the development of SC in Nigeria over a 10 year period. The review also provides constructive perspective on the benefits of SC and the present state of enforcement of green building in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

A historical review strategy was applied to the study. Using secondary data sources, 47 influential journals from emerald, scopus and science direct database focusing on “SC”, “sustainability” and “green building” in Nigeria between 2012 and 2022 were used for the analysis.

Findings

The analysis deduced that the development of SC in Nigeria have undergone a triple period of development: the inception period (2012–2016), the transition period (2016–2020) and the advancement period (2020–present). The review juxtaposes the three timeline to show rapid growth in the awareness of SC, but revealed moderate levels of implementation in some major cities in Nigeria. Therefore, the author finds and argues that the advancement of SC in Nigeria can be achieved through the synergy, commitment and active roles of researchers, academics, practitioners, policy makers and the government in enforcing existing green policies.

Originality/value

The study is the first academic paper to undertake a decade long historical review of SC in Nigeria. This review provides an up-to-date understanding of the developments, changing dynamics and future progressions in the field of SC in Nigeria.

Details

Frontiers in Engineering and Built Environment, vol. 3 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-2499

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 February 2023

Emmanuel Chidiebere Eze, Onyinye Sofolahan and Olayinka Gideon Omoboye

Sustainable/Green building materials (SBMs/GBMs) offer a wide range of benefits which cut across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The…

6267

Abstract

Purpose

Sustainable/Green building materials (SBMs/GBMs) offer a wide range of benefits which cut across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The incorporation of these materials in construction projects in most developing countries is still low owing to some factors. This study assessed the major barriers to the incorporation of SBMs in the delivery of construction projects in developing countries, with Nigeria as a case in point.

Design/methodology/approach

The well-structured quantitative questionnaire was used to gather data from the key players in the construction industry, using the snowball sampling method and electronic means of questionnaire administration. Frequencies, percentile, relative importance index, Kruskal–Wallis H test, Kendall's coefficient of concordance and exploratory factor analysis were used to analyse the gathered data.

Findings

The study revealed that the major constructs of barriers to SBM adoption in construction projects are: (1) resistance and information barriers (Eigenvalues = 5.237; % of V = 23.806), (2) regulation and funding of R&D (Eigenvalues = 2.741; % of V = 12.457), (3) cost and market barriers (Eigenvalues = 2.223; % of V = 10.105), (4) government incentive and suppliers' availability (Eigenvalues = 1.728; % of V = 7.852) and (5) GB experts and labour barriers (Eigenvalues = 1.307; % of V = 5.942).

Originality/value

This study assessed the view of construction experts in the five states of the south-eastern geo-political zone of Nigeria, particularly as regards the barriers to the incorporation of sustainable building materials in construction projects in the region.

Details

Frontiers in Engineering and Built Environment, vol. 3 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-2499

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 2 August 2011

342

Abstract

Details

Microelectronics International, vol. 28 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-5362

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 September 2021

Samuel Heuchert, Bhaskar Prasad Rimal, Martin Reisslein and Yong Wang

Major public cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure or Google, offer seamless experiences for infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a…

2378

Abstract

Purpose

Major public cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure or Google, offer seamless experiences for infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). With the emergence of the public cloud's vast usage, administrators must be able to have a reliable method to provide the seamless experience that a public cloud offers on a smaller scale, such as a private cloud. When a smaller deployment or a private cloud is needed, OpenStack can meet the goals without increasing cost or sacrificing data control.

Design/methodology/approach

To demonstrate these enablement goals of resiliency and elasticity in IaaS and PaaS, the authors design a private distributed system cloud platform using OpenStack and its core services of Nova, Swift, Cinder, Neutron, Keystone, Horizon and Glance on a five-node deployment.

Findings

Through the demonstration of dynamically adding an IaaS node, pushing the deployment to its physical and logical limits, and eventually crashing the deployment, this paper shows how the PackStack utility facilitates the provisioning of an elastic and resilient OpenStack-based IaaS platform that can be used in production if the deployment is kept within designated boundaries.

Originality/value

The authors adopt the multinode-capable PackStack utility in favor of an all-in-one OpenStack build for a true demonstration of resiliency, elasticity and scalability in a small-scale IaaS. An all-in-one deployment is generally used for proof-of-concept deployments and is not easily scaled in production across multiple nodes. The authors demonstrate that combining PackStack with the multi-node design is suitable for smaller-scale production IaaS and PaaS deployments.

Details

Applied Computing and Informatics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-1964

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 8 July 2022

Vania Vidal, Valéria Magalhães Pequeno, Narciso Moura Arruda Júnior and Marco Antonio Casanova

Enterprise knowledge graphs (EKG) in resource description framework (RDF) consolidate and semantically integrate heterogeneous data sources into a comprehensive dataspace…

Abstract

Purpose

Enterprise knowledge graphs (EKG) in resource description framework (RDF) consolidate and semantically integrate heterogeneous data sources into a comprehensive dataspace. However, to make an external relational data source accessible through an EKG, an RDF view of the underlying relational database, called an RDB2RDF view, must be created. The RDB2RDF view should be materialized in situations where live access to the data source is not possible, or the data source imposes restrictions on the type of query forms and the number of results. In this case, a mechanism for maintaining the materialized view data up-to-date is also required. The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of the efficient maintenance of externally materialized RDB2RDF views.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper proposes a formal framework for the incremental maintenance of externally materialized RDB2RDF views, in which the server computes and publishes changesets, indicating the difference between the two states of the view. The EKG system can then download the changesets and synchronize the externally materialized view. The changesets are computed based solely on the update and the source database state and require no access to the content of the view.

Findings

The central result of this paper shows that changesets computed according to the formal framework correctly maintain the externally materialized RDB2RDF view. The experiments indicate that the proposed strategy supports live synchronization of large RDB2RDF views and that the time taken to compute the changesets with the proposed approach was almost three orders of magnitude smaller than partial rematerialization and three orders of magnitude smaller than full rematerialization.

Originality/value

The main idea that differentiates the proposed approach from previous work on incremental view maintenance is to explore the object-preserving property of typical RDB2RDF views so that the solution can deal with views with duplicates. The algorithms for the incremental maintenance of relational views with duplicates published in the literature require querying the materialized view data to precisely compute the changesets. By contrast, the approach proposed in this paper requires no access to view data. This is important when the view is maintained externally, because accessing a remote data source may be too slow.

Details

International Journal of Web Information Systems, vol. 18 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-0084

Keywords

Content available
101

Abstract

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 80 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 June 2020

Chiara Franciosi, Valentina Di Pasquale, Raffaele Iannone and Salvatore Miranda

Poor maintenance management leads to non-negligible economic, environmental and social impacts and obstacles to the sustainable manufacturing paradigm. Studies evaluating…

1718

Abstract

Purpose

Poor maintenance management leads to non-negligible economic, environmental and social impacts and obstacles to the sustainable manufacturing paradigm. Studies evaluating maintenance impacts on sustainability underline growing interest in the topic, but reports on the industrial field are lacking. Therefore, this paper investigates the industrial environment and the indicators that manufacturing companies use for measuring their maintenance impacts.

Design/methodology/approach

In this pilot survey study, several stakeholders of production enterprises in the south of Italy were interviewed to unveil the spread of the measurement of maintenance impacts on sustainability and the indicators used by those companies.

Findings

The interview results showed a low level of awareness among stakeholders about maintenance impacts on sustainability. Maintenance stakeholders are mainly focused on technical and economic factors, whereas environmental, quality and safety stakeholders are becoming more aware of maintenance impacts on environmental and social factors. However, both groups need guidelines to define sustainability indicators to assess such impacts.

Originality/value

This exploratory study allowed us to investigate the current situation in industrial organisations and achieve the first variegated and diversified vision of the awareness of company stakeholders on maintenance impacts on the sustainability of several business functions. This paper provides a valuable contribution to “maintenance and sustainability” research area in production contexts and sheds light on non-negligible maintenance impacts on sustainability, providing preliminary insights on the topic and an effective basis for defining future research opportunities. Moreover, this study enables increased awareness among internal and external manufacturing company stakeholders on the role of maintenance in sustainable production.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

Keywords

1 – 10 of 116