Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel risk analysis method named fuzzy critical risk analysis (FCRA) for assessing the infrastructure risks from a risk-community network perspective. The basis of this new FCRA method is the integration of existing risk magnitude analysis with the novel risk impact propagation analysis performed in specific infrastructure systems to assess the criticality of risk within specific social-infrastructure interrelated network boundary.

The FCRA uses a number of scientific methods such as failure mode effect and criticality analysis (FMECA), social network analysis (SNA) and fuzzy-set theory to facilitate the building of risk evaluation associated with the infrastructure and the community. The proposed FCRA approach has been developed by integrating the fuzzy-based social network analysis (FSNA) method with conventional fuzzy FMECA method to analyse the most critical risk based on risk decision factors and risk impact propagation generated by various stakeholder perceptions.

The application of FSNA is considered to be highly relevant for investigating the risk impact propagation mechanism based on various stakeholder perceptions within the infrastructure risk interrelation and community networks. Although conventional FMECA methods have the potential for resulting in a reasonable risk ranking based on its magnitude value within the traditional risk assessment method, the lack of considering the domino effect of the infrastructure risk impact, the various degrees of community dependencies and the uncertainty of various stakeholder perceptions made such methods grossly ineffective in the decision-making of risk prevention (and mitigation) and resilience context.

The validation of the model is currently based on a hypothetical case which in the future should be applied empirically based on a real case study.

Effective functioning of the infrastructure systems for seamless operation of the society is highly crucial. Yet, extreme events resulted in failure scenarios often undermine the efficient operations and consequently affect the community at multiple levels. Current risk analysis methodologies lack to address issues related to diverse impacts on communities and propagation of risks impact within the infrastructure system based on multi-stakeholders’ perspectives. The FCRA developed in this research has been validated in a hypothetical case of infrastructure context. The proposed method will potentially assist the decision-making regarding risk governance, managing the vulnerability of the infrastructure and increasing both the infrastructure and community resilience.

The new approach developed in this research addresses several infrastructure risks assessment challenges by taking into consideration of not only the risk events associated with the infrastructure systems but also the dependencies of various type communities and cascading effect of risks within the specific risk-community networks. Such a risk-community network analysis provides a good basis for community-based risk management in the context of mitigation of disaster risks and building better community resilient.

The novelty of proposed FCRA method is realized due to its ability for improving the estimation accuracy and decision-making based on multi-stakeholder perceptions. The process of assessment of the most critical risks in the hypothetical case project demonstrated an eminent performance of FCRA method as compared to the results in conventional risk analysis method. This research contributes to the literature in several ways. First, based on a comprehensive literature review, this work established a benchmark for development of a new risk analysis method within the infrastructure and community networks. Second, this study validates the effectiveness of the model by integrating fuzzy-based FMECA with FSNA. The approach is considered useful from a methodological advancement when prioritizing similar or competing risk criticality values.

While the success of the toll road projects procured through public private partnerships (PPPs) routes are widely confined to the cost, time and quality performance in the delivery context, considerable evidence suggests that such success criteria are not sufficient when the toll road projects are assessed in relation to meeting the long-run community expectations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors associated with the success of the toll road projects from a societal perspective in Indonesia.

Based on the input from 12 experts and a rigorous literature review, a questionnaire survey was designed and a total of 206 respondents from three broad stakeholders’ groups, namely, government, private and end-users’ communities were surveyed to measure the performance of eight toll road projects. The data were primarily analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and reliability test using SPSS Software.

Four significant factors associated with the project social benefit were established as a measure of the overall success criteria in toll road projects. It is expected these can be used as guidance to deliver project social benefit to the community in the overall project lifecycle.

This research contributes to the incorporation of social project benefit attributes to the the toll road projects’ success criteria in overall project lifecycle.

This study can be used as guidance for the overall stakeholders, such as the government and the project manager to address the current social problems and better navigate the project direction in order to achieve the overall toll road project success in the overall project lifecycles.

The research highlights how the Indonesian government’s program of developing toll road projects using the PPP procurement routes can be supported for complete social inclusivity by considering the social dimension to achieve long-term success.

Identification of the key project social factors based on the data set with a wide representation of the stakeholders has made the research original and unique.

This paper focuses on a conceptual methodology for an integrated simulation model dubbed as dynamic simulation modelling system (DSMS) for proactive and optimal decision making within a project management framework. Due to the uncertainties in project environment, the technical and operational functionality of a facility needs to be assessed during development and operation phases of the project. The simulation model is used for optimising the investment decisions vis‐à‐vis evaluation of functionalities on project facilities in early stages of the project. Project life cycle objective functions (LCOFs) are employed as a set of decision criteria throughout the project’s life. The discussion is being extended on the need for setting up an integrated and user‐friendly model to encompass the processes in the entire life cycle of the project. Details of the system are described and a hypothetical case study is used to demonstrate its capabilities. Possible extensions are then outlined. The C++ programming language in association with the object‐oriented database management system is used to achieve the aforementioned objectives.

The present study employs social network analysis (SNA) to demonstrate the extent to which various building information modeling (BIM) functions can be used to address significant issues faced by the Tanzanian public sector construction projects.

This study adopted secondary data obtained from a comprehensive literature review on core BIM functions and the underlying issues faced by the Tanzanian public sector construction projects. This study then adopted SNA for associating the BIM functions with relevant construction issues.

For Objective 1, the findings revealed that BIM can address 68% of significant issues faced by the Tanzanian public sector construction projects. For Objective 2, the findings revealed that the identified functions mainly addressed issues in the early phases of the project. Finally, for Objective 3, the most effective function was “spatial coordination.”

This literature-based study does not fully capture both the current contextual issues faced by the industry and the BIM capability of stakeholders involved. In addition, this research does not distinguish between public project size and type which can influence the types of issues faced and consequently the use of BIM function. Accordingly, the research presented in this study needs to be complemented by on-the-ground feedback of industry stakeholders and needs to investigate how project size and type impacts the types of issues that emerge and the use of BIM.

With respect to practice, the findings of the present study highlight key BIM functions practitioners can begin to target.

In Tanzania, public sector construction projects contribute greatly to social development of Tanzania's population. Owing to the current state of public sector projects underperforming and the negative impact the projects have on the country's development, an intervention measure such as BIM has the potential to enhance the effective and efficient delivery of these projects and thereby promote the social development of the country's population.

With respect to theory, this study demonstrates how core functions of BIM can be mapped with various construction-related issues in order to evaluate the efficacies of the BIM-based investments for improving overall performance in the public sector projects. With respect to practice, the method illustrated in the present study can be applied by policymakers and practitioners to identify core BIM functions to target to address pressing contextual issues faced by public sector projects in the respective contexts.

This paper aims to develop a novel risk analysis model that uses both participatory and computerized techniques to capture and model the dynamic of risk impact propagation and interaction pattern.

In this research, an integrated model, applying modified participatory method and novel dichotomize procedure in the perspectives of social network topological analysis, is developed.

Based on the analysis output, it is found that; (i) the risk propagation is characterized by its dynamic and non-linear impact pattern, and (ii) the risk interaction is distinguished based on the degree of connectedness between various risks.

This research assumes that the risk impact propagation and interaction pattern within the risk network are static. Further research is required to analyze the risk network in dynamic circumstances.

This research contributes in delivering practical tools that could potentially provide a further path for developing mitigation strategy and policies that seek to address the complexity of risk phenomena, and thus enhance community resilience.

This research reveals some underlying patterns of how the risk impact propagation and interaction pattern are structured. Thus, it can help decision-makers make formal arrangements of particular urban infrastructure (UI) governance visible toward building risk plan and mitigation strategies.

This research contributes to filling the risk management knowledge gap. It is suggested that analyzing risk using a network approach is suited to capture the intricate processes that shape the complexity of UI risk structural network. By validating the model, this research shows the applicability and capability of the model to improve both the RA accuracy and decision making effectiveness towards risk mitigation plan and strategy.

Construction projects have huge impacts on the social sustainability of the neighbouring community. The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the key factors of a construction project that contribute to the social sustainability of a neighbourhood.

Questionnaire surveys relating to two case studies of regeneration projects in Saudi Arabia were carried out to ascertain and analyse the perceptions of residents of the neighbourhood communities in which the projects were built.

The results derived from factor analysis suggested five significant underlying social factors: health and physical comfort, accessibility, integration, economy and participation. These are defined as the core social functions necessary for enhancing social sustainability in the neighbourhood community as a result of new construction.

Ideally, a construction project will create spaces where people can interact socially, develop a sense of community and grow and prosper. This study reveals how the neighbours of the project felt about it and what sort of input they wanted to have in the design, construction and operation of the facility. For developers emphasising sustainability, this is the essential data.

The purpose of the paper is to put forward a research‐based argument on the benefits of simulation approach in managing design at an early stage of a project. Having selected an optimal design configuration, the operational uncertainties can be removed and investment decisions are fully justified over the lifecycle of projects.

A simulation‐based methodology embodying balanced scorecard (BSC) for measuring the operational and business performance has been synthesised in the research. Multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been employed to evaluate the trade‐offs between feasible design alternatives and to select the optimum design configuration.

The findings show that the integrated framework developed in this research by integrating simulation technology, BSC and MCDA adds significant contributions in improving the current body of knowledge in the design management practices.

The framework should further be tested by applying to large engineering projects in order for realising the benefits in the decision‐appraisal process. Access to data in large projects before implementation would be the greatest challenge from a commercial‐in‐confidence perspective.

The framework will help the practitioner's understanding and management of the design configuration in highly complex modern projects. This will allow the decision makers to manage interdependency of complex processes and select optimal designs upfront. The resulting framework will significantly contribute to reducing scope creeps and cost variations and thereby reducing contractual disputes in projects.

The original design of the integrated framework of this kind for managing design complexity in projects adds significant value in the design management practices. The use of simulation embodying BSC and MCDA adds significant novelty in theoretical advancement of contemporary knowledge in the design management profession.

This paper aims to discuss the development of an integrated management system (IMS) by linking quantitative and qualitative decision parameters with a view to rank and optimise capital projects. Roles and impacts of the non‐financial criteria have been combined with traditional financial criteria for decision‐making and management processes in dynamic project environment.

Both tangible and intangible information associated over project life cycle have been integrated and the dynamic operating environment is evaluated in proactive decision‐making process. In this research, a closed loop feedback system incorporating stakeholder's input with project's business objectives has been developed. The triple bottom line has been employed as decision‐making criteria. While the architecture, communication protocols and conceptual modelling framework of the overall system are briefly discussed, modelling of soft issues and underlying impacts have been discussed in details. The overall functionality of the system has been established incorporating a multi‐criteria decision hierarchy module and a number of intelligent functions. Integration of the system is achieved through a common database and appropriate user's interfaces.

The capability and functionality of the system prototype have been discussed with the focus on a road infrastructure project. Implementation of the model has been highlighted with appropriate examples.

The initial design of the model is based on data gathered from a real life project. The practical implication of the prototype is significant for holistic analysis of investment decisions on complex projects.

The stated modelling technique of soft issues (e.g. overall satisfaction level and stakeholders benefit values) along with project's financial objectives in an integrated framework will benefit all industry sectors.