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1 – 10 of 72Amna Salman, Anoop Sattineni, Salman Azhar and Kasia Leousis
The purpose of this study is to conduct a rigorous systematic literature review and present a summary of building systems and technologies that can be used to mitigate the spread…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to conduct a rigorous systematic literature review and present a summary of building systems and technologies that can be used to mitigate the spread of airborne viruses. With the recent outbreak of COVID-19, occupants’ health and indoor air quality (IAQ) have become a critical issue for facility managers to maintain the full functionality of the buildings. An improved understanding of these available systems will help facility managers and building owners to protect the health and safety of building occupants.
Design/methodology/approach
The PRISMA protocol was used for defining the literature search methodology. The concept mapping technique was used for determining the keywords. The keywords were then used to search for relevant articles using the Scopus database and Google Scholar. A thorough bibliometric analysis and qualitative analysis were conducted for the selected publications.
Findings
It was found that sensor technologies, botanical air-filtration systems and artificial intelligence could be used to effectively monitor and improve IAQ. In addition, natural ventilation is one of the low-cost and effective methods of reducing contaminants from the indoor air. Computational fluid dynamic modeling can be used to understand the flow of virus particles within the building through the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. Several changes to the HVAC system are also discussed.
Originality/value
This study contains a diversity of methods from the existing literature that were systematically selected to present the state-of-the-art building systems and technologies that can effectively improve IAQ. The researchers plan to follow up on the findings of this research and will conduct an empirical study to assess its impact on IAQ.
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Hanane Bouhmoud, Dalila Loudyi and Salman Azhar
Considering the world population, an additional 415.1 billion m2 of built floor will be needed by 2050, which could worsen the environmental impact of the construction industry…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the world population, an additional 415.1 billion m2 of built floor will be needed by 2050, which could worsen the environmental impact of the construction industry that is responsible for one-third of global Carbon Emissions (CEs). Thus, the current construction practices need to be upgraded toward eco-friendly technologies. Building Information Modeling (BIM) proved a significant potential to enhance Building and Infrastructure (B&I) ecological performances. However, no previous study has evaluated the nexus between BIM and B&I CEs. This study aims to fill this gap by disclosing the research evolution and metrics and key concepts and tools associated with this nexus.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method design was adopted based on scientometric and scoping reviews of 52 consistent peer-reviewed papers collected from 3 large scientific databases.
Findings
This study presented six research metrics and revealed that the nexus between BIM and CEs is a contemporary topic that involves seven main research themes. Moreover, it cast light on six key associated concepts: Life Cycle Assessment; Boundary limits; Building Life Cycle CE (BLCCE); Responsible sources for BLCCE; Green and integrated BIM; and sustainable buildings and related rating systems. Furthermore, it identified 56 nexus-related Information and Communication Technologies tools and 17 CE-coefficient databases and discussed their consistency.
Originality/value
This study will fill the knowledge gap by providing scholars, practitioners and decision-makers with a good grasp of the nexus between CEs and BIM and paving the path toward further research, strategies and technological solutions to decrease CEs of B&I sectors and their impacts on the climate change.
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Hanane Bouhmoud, Dalila Loudyi, Salman Azhar and Mounia Farah
The unexpected spread of COVID-19 rapidly switched from a health crisis to an economic one. The Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry experienced drastic…
Abstract
Purpose
The unexpected spread of COVID-19 rapidly switched from a health crisis to an economic one. The Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry experienced drastic impacts, especially in Africa. Several studies investigated COVID-19 impacts on the AEC industry, but very few were conducted in Africa. This study aims to cover this gap, address detailed overview of negative and positive impacts of COVID-19 on the AEC field, especially in the different African regions, and highlight their causes and the measures taken to overcome them.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors combined a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-based Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and a survey involving 87 AEC companies operating in Africa. The SLR initially used four scientific databases; however, considering the limited Africa-related found data, institutional and governmental databases were also included.
Findings
Globally, implementing the mandated restrictive measures against COVID-19 caused significant losses for developers, designers and contractors but helped the information and communication technologies operators to thrive. In the five African regions, the AEC industry experienced 22 heavy impacts that can be split into four categories: financial, managerial/strategic, operational and opportunities. This paper thoughtfully explains the causes of COVID-19 impacts and presents the undertaken measures by the African private and public sectors to overcome them. Generally, the African AEC industry lost 51% of the total sales in 2020.
Originality/value
This paper contains all aspects related to health hazard influences on the AEC industry, especially in Africa. Researchers and decision-makers may use it to build new approaches or strategies related to risk management or design technological solutions.
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Salman Azhar and Rafiq M. Choudhry
The purpose of this paper is to present findings of a capacity building project on construction health and safety that is recently completed in Pakistan. The major objectives of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present findings of a capacity building project on construction health and safety that is recently completed in Pakistan. The major objectives of this project are: first, to benchmark the current state of construction health and safety practices in Pakistan and to identify the data needs for continuous performance measurement; second, to develop health and safety guidelines; third, to develop adequate educational and training material; and finally, to improve the existing regulatory infrastructure for worker health and safety.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed-methods approach is adopted for data collection which included site observations, surveys, semi-structured interviews, and case studies. The methodology consists of following major tasks: first, literature review and study of best practices; second, investigation of existing safety practices and development of guidelines; third, educational and training programs for construction professionals and educators; and finally, development of a strategic framework for continuous improvement in construction safety culture, laws, and practices. Collected data were analyzed using various qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods.
Findings
The enforcement of health and safety regulations on construction sites is very limited in Pakistan. Procedures for formulating, implementing, and monitoring safety rules and regulations are weak, and the implementation of safety management systems does not occur on most construction sites. The paper presents a detailed plan to improve the health and safety culture, laws, and practices in Pakistan.
Practical/implications
Detailed proposals for improving existing construction health and safety laws and regulations are prepared for relevant regulatory and statutory bodies and ministries in Pakistan. From an educational perspective, comprehensive health and safety training material are developed and training workshops are conducted in major cities of Pakistan. Over 1,000 construction professionals benefited from these workshops.
Social/implications
The project helped in raising awareness about construction health and safety in Pakistan.
Originality/value
The project benchmarked existing health and safety practices in Pakistan. It identified data needs for continuous monitoring of health and safety performance and provided a mechanism for collecting such data. The project produced international standard health and safety training material that can fulfill the local needs. The project deliverables are extremely helpful for other developing countries in the region.
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Abdullahi Babatunde Saka and Daniel W.M. Chan
This paper aims to review the status of development of building information modelling (BIM), its trends and themes across the six continents of the world.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the status of development of building information modelling (BIM), its trends and themes across the six continents of the world.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 914 journal articles sought from the search engine of Web of Science (WOS) based on the country/region option of the WOS to group them into continents. A best-fit approach was then applied in selecting the suitable software programmes for the scientometric analysis and comparisons and deductions were made.
Findings
The findings revealed that there are differences in the development of BIM across the six continents of the world. South America and Africa are lagging in the BIM research and Australia and Asia are growing, whilst Europe and North America are ahead. In addition, there exist differences in the research themes and trends in these continents as against the single view presented in extant studies.
Originality/value
This study introduced a new approach to carry out a comparative and taxonomic review and has provided both academic researchers and industrial practitioners with a clear status of development of BIM research and the trend across the six continents of the world.
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Praveena Munianday, Rahimi A. Rahman and Muneera Esa
There is a dearth of studies conducted by local academics on actual building information modelling (BIM) projects to analyse the actual hurdles of BIM adoption. The majority of…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a dearth of studies conducted by local academics on actual building information modelling (BIM) projects to analyse the actual hurdles of BIM adoption. The majority of BIM research focuses on the technology’s general advantages, disadvantages, issues and limitations. In addition, research on actual BIM projects that have integrated BIM throughout the project is necessary to increase the current low number of BIM users in Malaysia. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the challenges BIM adopters experience while implementing BIM in their projects and how they overcome them.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth interview session was used to collect data based on a case-study methodology. In Malaysia, three BIM projects were chosen, given the available resources. To evaluate the data in this qualitative study, NVivo was used.
Findings
According to the findings, the most important elements influencing the adoption of new technology and innovation were people and capital. The most significant impediments to BIM adoption are the appraisal of time and finances, as well as the tolerance of changes in approach.
Originality/value
Collaborative training and BIM education have been the most explored solutions for reducing BIM difficulties. As a result, these concerns and solutions should be investigated and implemented to ensure project success and fully use technological innovation.
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M.A. Abd El‐Ghaffar, I.A. Sabbah, M. Moustafa and A.A. Salman
Cobalt, Nickel and Copper hexaazabiphthalocyanine were prepared by the reaction of pyridine 2,3‐dicarboxylic acid anhydride, pyromillitic acid dianhydride, with urea and metal…
Abstract
Cobalt, Nickel and Copper hexaazabiphthalocyanine were prepared by the reaction of pyridine 2,3‐dicarboxylic acid anhydride, pyromillitic acid dianhydride, with urea and metal salt in presence of ammonium molybdate catalyst. The reaction is carried out in an inert solvent [nitrobenzene]. The structure of the prepared compound was confirmed by microanalytical and pectrophotometric methods. Evaluation of the highly coloured products according to international standard methods showed their suitability as excellent pigments for coating applications.
The Operations and Maintenance (O&M) cost of a facility is typically 60–85% of the total life cycle cost of a building whereas its design and construction cost accounts for only…
Abstract
Purpose
The Operations and Maintenance (O&M) cost of a facility is typically 60–85% of the total life cycle cost of a building whereas its design and construction cost accounts for only 5–10%. Therefore, enhancing and optimizing the O&M of a facility is a crucial issue. In addition, with the increasing complexities in a building's operating systems, more technologically advanced solutions are required for proactively maintaining a facility. Thereby, a tool is needed which can optimize and reduce the cost of facility maintenance. One of the solutions is Augmented or Mixed Reality (AR/MR) technologies which can reduce repair time, training time and streamline inspections. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish contextual knowledge of AR/MR application in facilities operation and maintenance and present an implementation framework through the analysis and classification of articles published between 2015 and 2022.
Design/methodology/approach
To effectively understand all AR/MR applications in facilities management (FM), a systematic literature review is performed. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) protocol was followed for searching and describing the search strategies. Keywords were identified through the concept mapping technique. The Scopus database and Google Scholar were employed to find relevant articles, books and conference papers. A thorough bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOS Viewer and subsequently, a thematic analysis was performed for the selected publications.
Findings
The use of AR/MR within facilities O&M could be categorized into five different application areas: (1) visualization; (2) maintenance; (3) indoor localization and positioning; (4) information management and (5) indoor environment. After a thematic analysis of the literature, it was found that maintenance and indoor localization were the most frequently used research application domains. The chronological evolution of AR/MR in FM is also presented along with the origin of publications, which showed that the technology is out of its infancy stage and is ready for implementation. However, literature showed many challenges hindering this goal, that is (1) reluctance of the organizational leadership to bear the cost of hardware and trainings for the employees, (2) Lack of BIM use in FM and (3) system lagging, crashing and unable to register the real environment. A preliminary framework is presented to overcome these challenges.
Originality/value
This study accommodates a variety of application domains within facilities O&M. The publications were systematically selected from the existing literature and then reviewed to exhibit various AR/MR applications to support FM. There have been no literature reviews that focus on AR and/or MR in the FM and this paper fills the gap by not only presenting its applications but also developing an implementation framework.
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Aaisha Khatoon, Nawab Ali Khan, Farhana Parvin, Mohammad Salman Wahid, Mohd Tariq Jamal and Saad Azhar
The objective of the work is to have an insight into the degree of the contemporary concept of greening the organization through human resource management (HRM) and to attempt to…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the work is to have an insight into the degree of the contemporary concept of greening the organization through human resource management (HRM) and to attempt to bridge the gap toward environmental awareness, as well as to observe the dimensions of green HRM (GHRM) practices and its impression toward environmental sustainability by using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and FAHP.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was carried out in two phases; multi-method was employed. The first phase mainly includes a systematic review to convene comprehensive knowledge of widespread GHRM practices to leverage environmental sustainability. In the second phase, the AHP and fuzzy AHP (FAHP) were employed to examine the influence of the respective dimension of GHRM practices toward environmental sustainability.
Findings
This study emphasizes the status of GHRM practices such as green recruitment and green selection, green performance management, green training and development, green compensation and rewards, green welfare aspects as a way to aid environmental issues. The findings suggest that these initiatives help to leverage environmental sustainability. Further, this paper reveals that green compensation and rewards have the highest impact on leveraging environmental sustainability. However, this study also emphasizes the comparative study of GHRM dimensions through AHP and FAHP.
Originality/value
As existing studies reveal, there is least research carried on this field of study and no study was conducted using AHP and FAHP in this field. Thus, this study reveals the necessity to discover the degree of concern toward GHRM practices in context to India.
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