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This study establishes an ontology-based framework for rework risk identification (RRI) by integrating heterogeneous data from the information flow of the prefabricated construction (PC) process. The main objective is to enhance the automation level of rework management and reduce the degree of reliance on human factors and manual operations.

The proposed framework comprises four levels aimed at managing dispersed rework risk knowledge and integrating heterogeneous data. The functionalities were realised through an integrated ontology that aligned the rework risk ontology with the PC ontology. The ontologies were developed and edited with Protégé. Ultimately, the potential benefit of the framework was validated through a case study and an expert questionnaire survey.

The framework is proven to effectively manage rework risk knowledge and can identify risk objects, clarify risk factors, determine risk events, and retrieve risk measures, thereby enabling the pre-identification of prefabricated rework risk (PRR) and improving the automation level. This study is meaningful and lays the foundation for the application of other computer methods in rework management research and practice in the future.

This research provides insights into the application of ontology to solve rework risk issues in the PC process and introduces a novel risk management method for future prefabricated project research and practice. The findings have significant theoretical value in terms of enriching the methods of risk assessment and control and the information management system of prefabricated projects.

The Equator Principles are a transnational corporate social responsibility initiative in the project finance sector. In 2013, the Equator Principles Association celebrated the tenth anniversary of its principles and at the same time the formal launch of the latest generation of the Equator Principles (EP III). The paper describes the historic development of the Equator Principles – from the initial drafting process in the early 2000s up to the latest review process which led to the third generation of the Equator Principles. The paper also analyzes the current state of affairs of the Equator Principles (Association) and gives a brief outlook on potential lines of (future) development. In particular, the paper deals with the following questions: What are the main characteristics of the Equator Principles framework? What are the relevant actors involved in the drafting and reviewing process? Why are the EPs and other organizational and associational codes of conduct in the finance sector so important? What has been achieved so far by the Equator Principles (Association) and the participating (financial) institutions and what remains to be done?

The development of financial markets as well as a country’s overall financial system plays a crucial role in the evolution of the world’s real economy. In developed countries like the USA, UK, Japan, and European nations, the world’s financial centers are located for exchanging huge capital flows with well-established functioning. However, laying the foundation for a financial center can be a big challenge to developing markets whose financial systems are still in the early stages, since the formation of financial centers is determined by multiple factors. Motivated by that reason, this book chapter provides a comprehensive review of critical determinants in the formation of international financial centers, including (i) economic growth; (ii) governance and business environment; (iii) financial development; (iv) labor force; (v) infrastructure accessibility; and (vi) the country’s reputation and stability. In line with the reviewed literature, the study particularly highlights the recent political and technological developments in the world and their impacts on the future of different financial centers worldwide.

There have been major efforts to develop the technology for integrated construction environments and the mechanisms needed to improve the collaboration between construction professionals. Evidently, the development and usage of such an environment is a complicated task. The two issues that can be among the main contributors to this are: the development of the technology and its effective implementation. These two issues are addressed separately in this paper. The paper first explains the approaches of sharing project information, followed by a review of a recent project in this area, the result of which is a distributed integrated construction environment based on the industry foundation class (IFC), capable of supporting a number of construction applications. This environment is capable of supporting a construction team to work collaboratively over the internet. It then discusses the difficulties facing the successful implementation of such environments in construction organisations. This is addressed within the context of two management models for effective implementation of IT: the resource‐based model and the Nolan model.

As the engineering design process becomes increasingly complex, multidisciplinary teams need to work together, integrating diverse expertise across a range of disciplinary models. Where changes arise, these design teams often find it difficult to handle these design changes due to the complexity and interdependencies inherent in engineering systems. This paper aims to develop an innovative approach to clarifying system interdependencies and predicting the design change propagation at the asset level in complex engineering systems based on the digital-twin-driven design structure matrix (DSM).

The paper first defines the digital-twin-driven DSM in terms of elements and interdependencies, where the authors have defined three types of interdependency, namely, geospatial, physical and logical, at the asset level. The digital twin model was then used to generate the large-scale DSMs of complex engineering systems. The cluster analysis was further conducted based on the improved Idicula–Gutierrez–Thebeau algorithm (IGTA-Plus) to decompose such DSMs into modules for the convenience and efficiency of predicting design change propagation. Finally, a design change propagation prediction method based on the digital-twin-driven DSM has been developed by integrating the change prediction method (CPM), a load-capacity model and fuzzy linguistics. A section of an infrastructure mega-project in London was selected as a case study to illustrate and validate the developed approach.

The digital-twin-driven DSM has been formally defined by the spatial algebra and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema. Based on the definitions, an innovative approach has been further developed to (1) automatically generate a digital-twin-driven DSM through the use of IFC files, (2) to decompose these large-scale DSMs into modules through the use of IGTA-Plus and (3) predict the design change propagation by integrating a digital-twin-driven DSM, CPM, a load-capacity model and fuzzy linguistics. From the case study, the results showed that the developed approach can help designers to predict and manage design changes quantitatively and conveniently.

This research contributes to a new perspective of the DSM and digital twin for design change management and can be beneficial to assist designers in making reasonable decisions when changing the designs of complex engineering systems.

This paper publishes summary results for the first time of a major survey of senior financial practitioners undertaken in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 2005, and compares these with the Global Financial Centre Index first created in 2007 to determine the extent to which both are consistent.

The research is based on a detailed survey and utilizes principal-components analysis to determine the primary factors relevant to the development of both cities as international financial centres (IFCs) and those which the respondents consider will be relevant in the future.

The paper demonstrates that the key “success factors” for both cities in 2005 remain very important in the global financial centres index (GFCI) analysis ten years later but not necessarily by the same ranking. We also found that a number of the “primary” factors change when respondents are asked to consider future success factors.

The survey was conducted ten years ago; however, the results continue to have significant reliability and validity - especially when compared with the results of the GFCI report of 2014.

The paper should enable policy makers and practitioners to better understand the future policy environment needed for extending the financial centre status of both Hong Kong and Shanghai.

This is the first time (some) of the survey findings that have ever been published, and they represent a rich source of information – however, the authors will be examining the survey data for future publications.

Small architectural firms (those that employ less than six people) account for an estimated 4525 or 74% of the total number of practices in the UK (RIBA, 2000), and market research has shown that there is a poor uptake of existing project specification information technologies in this sector. We present the results of an analysis of the ways that small practices currently create, manage and communicate project specification information and an overview of our research into new models to support these processes. The research has focused on the creation and population of appropriate, re‐usable information models and we describe these in the context of other modelling initiatives in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. The research has resulted in the definition of a large pool of domain specific data objects, which have the potential to provide a generic information resource for the industry. The Architectural Informatics Group, in conjunction with the National Building Specification (NBS), have implemented the results of this research through the development of a new commercial software tool for use in small design practices in the UK.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the general idea, design, and implementation of control system for general aviation aircraft which reduces pilot workload.

Proposed indirect flight control system framework is intended to simplify piloting, reduce pilot workload, and allow low‐end general aviation aircraft to operate under deteriorated meteorological conditions. Classical control theory is used for the design of the flight control laws. Although not inherently robust, controllers with classical control logic are made sufficiently stable using a correct and updated controller structure.

Despite controversies between perception of a modern manned aerial vehicle and limitations imposed by legacy airworthiness codes it is shown that a pilot workload reducing system can be successfully implemented onboard of a low‐end general aviation aircraft.

Hi‐level control laws and optimization of handling qualities can lead to unfavourable and unpredictable forms of man‐machine interactions, e.g. pilot‐induced oscillations.

General aviation aircraft are mostly flown by a single pilot, who could benefit from an intelligent system or “virtual copilot” assisting in or supervising the aircraft's safe operation under any conditions. Aircraft with this capability represents a next step in the evolution that might ultimately lead to trajectory‐based free‐flight concept of aircraft operations.

The paper introduces a safety enhanced digital flight control system on board small general aviation aircraft.

This paper aims to describe how building information model (BIM) and big data can be combined in the same interface for providing new value to stakeholders, such as the property owner and user, as well as property service and workplace service companies. The research presents a new concept, which shows how the BIM can be exploited efficiently during maintenance.

Initially, existing facility management (FM) processes were investigated to find out how to digitize them and identify bottlenecks. Second, BIM’s data content was explored to identify the information that could be used to streamline FM processes. Third, the potential of the active data measured in the building was evaluated. Finally, research was undertaken to find out how constantly fluctuating information can be combined with BIM objects and what kind of added value that combination could offer. The literature review was used to support the primary contribution. In addition, the research problems were described and the basics of the research were obtained by interviews. The author has interviewed 27 professionals from several stakeholders.

The first finding is that the BIM can serve as a platform for building use, various services and management when it has been adequately generated during the planning and construction phases and enriched before being commissioned. The other essential finding is the theory of conditions data model (CDM), which is a technical environment that combines active data with BIM. The most important advantages of BIM in FM are as follows: • Building owner attains better user satisfaction, acquires better quality and smarter services, saves energy, ensures better indoor conditions and improves building profitability. • Service providers can develop and offer new services, speed up operations, save resources and generate more profits. • The occupant gets a better user experience, faster and higher quality services and better indoor conditions.

The CDM enables to generate for the real estate and construction (RE&C) sector a novel BIM-based ecosystem with standard rules, instead of every individual operator developing his/her own unique solution for BIM use in FM. This will have an impact on the entire RE&C sector’s operating methods and will have significant financial implications in the near future. Application of this research is limited to office buildings where indoor condition measuring is undertaken continuously and where the knowledge of the use cases of spaces is available. In addition, the proper BIM in the Industry Foundation Classes format must exist. The evaluation of the validity of big data is not discussed in this article. Visualization of data and content of user interfaces will be the topic of another article by the author. This article does not deal with intricate technical details, but crucial issues are defined.

The article presents a unique method for BIM use in FM. The theory of CDM (how to combine active data with BIM) is completely new and a similar solution has not been presented earlier. The theory of the presented method will be the crucial key for BIM use and will lead worldwide commissioning. Currently, the theory is under test in the practical pilot project. The results of the project will be published in the next article.

With the advent of the FATF blacklist and the US FinCen advisories, the problem of perception and reality has been exacerbated. The international financial centres (IFCs) claim that the legislation and infrastructure are in place, and that money laundering, which still takes place largely in the metropolitan centres, is under control in their jurisdictions. The mainland countries perceive that money laundering is taking place in the IFCs. The situation is not unlike the story of two blindfolded men touching an elephant: the first held the tail and thought that it was something dry and sinewy; the second touched the tip of the trunk and thought the creature was something moist and flexible. The truth was somewhere in the middle.