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Sustainable construction re-engineers the conventional project lifecycle to integrate sustainability solutions. The additional sustainability requirements introduce new layers of complexity, challenges and risks that if unaddressed, can derail the gains in sustainable construction projects. This study developed a multidimensional risk assessment model for sustainable construction projects in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The research activities a comprised comprehensive literature review to shortlist relevant risks, an analysis of the probability – impact rating of the shortlisted risks – and the development of a risk assessment model for SC projects in the UAE. The model is developed based on the multicriteria framework and mathematical formulation of the fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach.

The developed model quantified the overall risk level in sustainable construction projects to be 3.71 on a 5-point Likert scale, indicating that investment in SC projects in the UAE is risky and should be carefully managed. The developed model further revealed that each of the risk groups, comprising management (3.82), technical (3.78), stakeholder (3.68), regulatory (3.66), material (3.53) and economic risks (3.502), presents a significant threat to realizing outcomes typical of SC projects.

This study developed a multidimensional risk assessment model capable of objectively quantifying the overall risk level and provides decision support to project teams to improve risk management in sustainable construction projects.

Identifying the criteria that effectively drive innovation in universities is critical to assessing their innovation maturity level, and hence, planning for the improvements required to reach a target level. This paper aims to propose a three-phase approach to develop a multidimensional maturity assessment framework used by university decision-makers to determine their level of innovation readiness.

First, a systematic collection of evaluation criteria from the literature is conducted. The results are mapped into different categories in a hierarchical and multidimensional way, and validated by experts. The second phase aims to identify the critical factors and their priorities, which are determined using analytic network process (ANP). To facilitate that, a panel of thirteen experts is formed and questionnaires are sent to rank the importance of the criteria and their elements. Finally, a maturity assessment tool is developed to complement the framework, allowing decision-makers to determine the level of innovation maturity with respect to each dimension and the overall position.

Results revealed three clusters, eight criteria and 26 subcriteria related to innovation in universities. The findings about the relative importance of the various attributes are reflected in the developed assessment tool and taken into consideration in the maturity indices computation approach.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive list of innovation success drivers in universities and to use this list to design an innovation maturity assessment framework

The European Commission has established the reference value of the social discount rate (SDR) to be used in the cost-benefit analysis according to the subdivision of the states relating to the beneficiaries of the Cohesion Fund. This criterion does not allow to adequately consider the economic, social and environmental conditions of each European states for ensuring an equitable and inclusive growth. The aimof the work is to provide an innovative methodology for assessing the “adjusted” SDR according to the socioeconomic and environmental conditions that differently affect the sustainable development of each European state.

Through the implementation of a methodological approach that consists of ordered and sequential phases and the synergic adoption of the Multi-Criteria Techniques with the Data Envelopment Analysis, a corrective coefficient of the SDR established by the European Commission is determined.

The results obtained for the 27 European states highlight how the different conditions of each of them could affect the correct choice of the SDR to be used in the Cost-Benefit Analysis.

The proposed research represents a useful reference for identifying national reference SDR values for each European state, consistent with its specificities and with the goals of inclusive growth of the countries and of social and territorial cohesion. Furthermore, the traceability of the methodology in its phases will allow to adapt the SDR to sudden events or exogenous shocks.

This chapter describes the scenario technique used for the integrative methodological approach (IMA) of the German global change project GLOWA Elbe. It is outlined how regional scenarios are systematically derived to analyze water use conflicts and their resolution in the context of global change for the German Elbe river basin. Through the combination of frameworks of development and policy strategies a consistent set of developmental scenarios can be generated that makes it possible to examine the regional impact of policy strategies under conditions of different future global change development paths. The scenario analysis of the framework of development starts on the global level with qualitative IPCC storylines, translates them to the regional level, and quantifies their regional effects by means of modeling and statistical estimation methods. The policy strategies are derived in close cooperation with regional stakeholders.

Understanding the relational factors in information technology outsourcing (ITO) processes is essential for managers to exercise successful governance over their relationship. Based on this premise, this paper aims to present a study about relational factors using judgments of managers from small and medium-sized supplying and contracting companies involved in ITO relationships, helping to understand the differences between what they believe to be relevant for maintaining the relationships.

The analytical approach consisted of applying fuzzy sets theory elements, converting the managers' judgments into crisp values through a defuzzification process, and the multicriteria method ELECTRE IV that created the rankings of the relational factors according to the defuzzified judgments. The approach was applied with 16 managers from supplying companies and 34 from contracting companies, in both cases located in a large Brazilian pole of information technology.

The main findings indicate that suppliers are initially more concerned with contractual aspects, being in the highest positions in the ranking: detailed contract, service level agreement and costs. Only after these elements, suppliers prioritize aspects less linked to the contract. For contractors, customer relationship management is the most important, followed by costs and commitment by managers, which indicates more openness to issues-oriented to relational development.

The approach adopted in this article is differentiated by prioritizing relational factors that are not always directly perceived in ITO relationships. Another important consideration is that most studies focus only on the perspective of supplier selection by contracting companies. In this paper, both suppliers' and contractors' judgments on the importance of ITO relational factors were analyzed, creating rankings that supported understanding the difference between the two perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel decision‐making approach to risks assessment in commercial real estate development against social, economic, environmental, and technological (SEET) criteria. It therefore aims to describe a multiple criteria decision‐making model based on analytic network process (ANP) theory, and to use an experimental case study on an urban regeneration project in Liverpool to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ANP model.

The paper commences with a description about risks related to commercial real estate development, and provides a list of risk assessment criteria based on literature review and experience in related areas. The ANP is then introduced as a powerful multicriteria decision‐making method. An experimental case study is finally conducted with scenarios and assumptions based on a real urban regeneration project in Liverpool.

The paper defines a group of risks assessment criteria against SEET requirements directly related to commercial real estate development. An ANP model is set up with 29 risks assessment criteria, and results from an experimental case study reveal that the ANP method is effective to support decision‐making based on risks assessment to select the most appropriate development plan; and therefore it is applicable in commercial area.

This paper defines SEET criteria for risks assessment in regard to SEET requirements to emphasise sustainable development; while the ANP is introduced to assess risks in commercial real estate development. The ANP model provides a platform for decision makers in commercial real estate development to evaluate different plans based on the degree of interactions among risk assessment criteria.

Policy makers are frequently challenged by the need to achieve sustainable development in cities and regions. Current decision-making processes are based on evaluation support systems which are unable to tackle the problem as they cannot take a holistic approach or a full account of actors. The purpose of this paper is to present a new generation of evaluation systems to support decision making in planning and regeneration processes which involve expert participation. These systems ensure network representation of the issues involved and visualization of multiple scenarios.

A literature review is used for both revising existing evaluation tools in urban planning and the built environment and highlighting the need to give stakeholders (industry, cities, operators, etc.) new tools for collaborative or individual decisions and to facilitate scaling up solutions. An overview of the new generation of decision support systems, named Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) is provided and real case studies are analyzed to show their ability to tackle the problem.

Recent research findings highlight that decisions in urban planning should be supported by collaborative and inclusive processes. Otherwise, they will fail. The case studies illustrated in this study highlight the usefulness of MC-SDSS for the successful resolution of complex problems, thanks to the visualization facilities and a network representation of the scenarios.

The case studies are limited to the Italian context.

These SDSS are able to empower planners and decision makers to better understand the interaction between city design, social preferences, economic issues and policy incentives. Therefore, they have been employed in several case studies related to territorial planning and regeneration processes.

This study provides three case studies and a review of the new MC-SDSS methodology which involve the Analytic Network Process technique to support decision-making in urban and regional planning.

Present study aimed to integrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) in conjunction with multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) to enhance infrastructure investment planning.

This analysis combines GIS databases with BIM simulations for a novel highway project. Around 150 potential alternatives were simulated, narrowed to 25 more effective routes and 3 options underwent in-depth analysis using PROMETHEE method for decision-making, based on environmental, cost and safety criteria, allowing for comprehensive cross-perspective comparisons.

A comprehensive framework proposed was validated through a case study. Demonstrating its adaptability with customizable parameters. It aids decision-making, cost estimation, environmental impact analysis and outcome prediction. Considering these critical factors, this study holds the potential to advance new techniques for assessment and planning railways, power lines, gas and water.

The study acknowledges limitations in GIS data quality, particularly in underdeveloped areas or regions with limited technology access. It also overlooks other pertinent variables, like social, economic, political and cultural issues. Thus, conclusions from these simulations may not entirely represent reality or diverse potential scenarios.

The proposed method automates decision-making, reducing subjectivity, aids in selecting effective alternatives and considers environmental criteria to mitigate negative impacts. Additionally, it minimizes costs and risks while demonstrating adaptability for assessing diverse infrastructures.

By integrating GIS and BIM data to support a MCDM workflow, this study proposes to fill the existing research gap in decision-making prioritization and mitigate subjective biases.

Explains the importance of assessing country risk to lenders and investors, outlines previous research on techniques for doing this and describes a classification method: the multi‐group hierarchical discrimination method (MHD). Applies this to 1978‐1995 data for 143 countries, subdivided into four income groups, and compares the results with those from multiple discriminant, logit and probit analyses using jackknife procedures. Finds MHD more accurate overall and for most income groups except the lower‐middle income economies. Briefly considers other applications for MHD and avenues for further research.

The study aims to introduce a cloud-based virtual reality (VR) approach and investigate its applicability and performance in aiding the remote design evaluation process by assessing the clients' convenience perception toward cloud-based VR-aided design evaluation (Cloud-based VR Approach) compared to 3D model-aided design evaluation (3D Model Approach) and rendering images-aided design evaluation (Image Approach).

A multicriteria comparative study was conducted with 26 university students using the “analytic hierarchy process” technique to compare the three approaches applied to home finishing material selection tasks based on the five “service convenience” dimensions, consisting of access convenience, decision convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience and post-benefit convenience.

The results indicated that the “Cloud-based VR Approach” was perceived to be more convenient than the “3D Model Approach” and the “Image Approach” based on the aspects of “decision convenience”, “transaction convenience”, “benefit convenience” and “post-benefit convenience”. The only aspect that the Cloud-based VR Approach was comparatively less convenient than the 3D Model Approach and Image Approach for the user was “access convenience”. Overall, the findings showed that the developed Cloud-based VR Approach had more potential than the conventional approaches in aiding the design evaluation process under ongoing social distancing measures requiring designers and clients to work remotely.

The disastrous impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on logistical systems have resulted in massive disruptions to the construction industry worldwide. Various construction activities have been halted and most meetings moved online. Design evaluation conducted between clients and designers is one of the important activities affected by such an impact. Thus, this study presents the Cloud-based VR Approach as an innovative means to maintain essential ongoing activities and meeting of the current design evaluation approach with respect to the social distancing measures.