Search results

The purpose of this study is to get a clearer knowledge of the reasons for, approaches to and challenges associated with integrating sustainable development concerns into pipeline construction projects in New Zealand. To achieve this, this study delves deeply into sustainable construction to understand the reasons behind and incorporate sustainable development trials into their newly established product management and development procedure. As a result, this study looks at identifying key elements of sustainable construction practices and various interpretations of sustainability in the construction industry; offering a strategy for incorporating sustainable construction practices into the pipeline construction project in New Zealand; and benefits and difficulties that the construction industry encounters when implementing sustainable construction. Finally, a framework is developed to help in understanding the issues and potential solutions for integrating sustainable building methods into the pipeline construction project in New Zealand.

This study followed a four-step method (Figure 1), beginning with the identification of the data, continuing with the first screening of the data, determining eligibility and, finally, including the data. This data collection is being done to provide knowledge and direction for further research. Data were collected from various websites on the Web of Science and from Scopus databases. Additionally, data were gathered with the assistance of aggregator databases such as Scopus (scopus.com) and publishing databases such as Elsevier (sciencedirect.com), Inderscience, Taylor and Francis (tandfonline.com), Emerald Insight (emeraldinsight.com) and Google Scholar. These databases have been considered by a number of scholars to be reputable databases.

This research provided a thorough description of the key justifications for sustainable construction. This study demonstrated how the idea worked in practice by reviewing the literature on the relevance and analysis of sustainability in construction. This body of research identified crucial components of sustainable construction techniques and varied interpretations of sustainability in the construction industry. To better grasp the current application considerations in the construction sector, it also offered literature on sustainable construction methods. To determine the most effective strategy to make certain adjustments to the current construction processes, the literature also includes a wide range of sustainability-related topics in both developed and developing country contexts. This study also demonstrated the many perspectives and strategies for sustainable behaviors. Because the purpose of this study was to develop a strategy for implementing sustainable construction in New Zealand, it was of the utmost importance to shed light on the most well-known and prominent sustainable construction applications from across the world. The output of this aim provided the literature on construction practices to acquire insight into the ongoing conversations on sustainable practices and systems in the construction industry. This was done to obtain insight into the existing talks.

This research's contribution to the body of knowledge is demonstrated by the fact that this study has led to a better understanding of sustainable construction practices in the construction industry as well as the identification of the most significant challenges that businesses, organizations, educators and policymakers must face to improve their ability to put these strategies into practice. This research has provided a solid foundation for future research that aims to advance knowledge in this field by providing options for future research to evaluate the influence that the approach has had on enhancing the implementation of sustainable construction. Additionally, this study presents options for future research to evaluate the influence the approach has had on improving the implementation of sustainable construction. The successful completion of the research aim in the more traditional forms of higher education in the built environment can contribute to a better representation of new trends in the practice area associated with expanding and improving the construction industry sustainably.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the driving forces behind the adoption of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) principles in building designs from the perspectives of Nigerian quantity surveying firms.

A quantitative approach was used which involved administering a well-structured questionnaire to a sample of 114 quantity surveyors. The collected data were analyzed using various statistical methods, including frequencies, percentages, mean item scores, Kruskal–Wallis test and exploratory factor analysis.

The top five ranked drivers were climate change mitigation, conservation of natural resources, reduction of waste and pollution, use of sustainable building materials and development of new materials and building systems. Based on the factor analysis, the study identified five clusters of drivers: (1) health and well-being drivers (2) economic drivers (3) environmental drivers (4) innovation and technology drivers and (5) regulatory drivers.

The findings from this study suggest that to effectively integrate IEQ principles, quantity surveying firms should consider developing comprehensive guidelines and checklists that align with the identified drivers and clustered categories. These resources can serve as practical tools for project teams, facilitating a structured and holistic approach to the incorporation of IEQ factors throughout the project lifecycle.

The study’s identification of the top drivers and the subsequent clustering of these drivers into five distinct categories contributes to the existing body of knowledge on IEQ. This approach provides a structured framework for comprehensively understanding the factors influencing IEQ adoption, offering a valuable tool for researchers, policymakers and industry practitioners.

This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of various techniques for enhancing indoor air quality (IAQ) in construction. It analyzed the alterations in the concentration of indoor air pollutants over time for each product employed in controlling pollution sources and removing it, which included eco-friendly substances and adsorbents. The study will provide more precise and dependable data on the effectiveness of these control methods, ultimately supporting the creation of more efficient and sustainable approaches for managing indoor air pollution in buildings.

The research investigates the impact of eco-friendly materials and adsorbents on improving indoor air quality (IAQ) in Dubai's tall apartment buildings. Field experiments were conducted in six units of The Gate Tower, comparing the IAQ of three units built with “excellent” grade eco-friendly materials with three built with “good” grade materials. Another experiment evaluated two adsorbent products (H and Z) in the Majestic Tower over six months. Results indicate that “excellent” grade materials significantly reduced toluene emissions. Adsorbent product Z showed promising results in pollutant reduction, but there is concern about the long-term behavior of adsorbed chemicals. The study emphasizes further research on household pollutant management.

The research studied the effects of eco-friendly materials and adsorbents on indoor air quality in Dubai's new apartments. It found that apartments using “excellent” eco-friendly materials had significantly better air quality, particularly reduced toluene concentrations, compared to those using “good” materials. However, high formaldehyde (HCHO) emissions were observed from wood products. While certain construction materials led to increased ethylbenzene and xylene levels, adsorbent product Z showed promise in reducing pollutants. Yet, there is a potential concern about the long-term rerelease of these trapped chemicals. The study emphasizes the need for ongoing research in indoor pollutant management.

The research, while extensive, faced limitations in assessing the long-term behavior of adsorbed chemicals, particularly the potential for rereleasing trapped pollutants over time. Despite the study spanning a considerable period, indoor air pollutant concentrations in target households did not stabilize, making it challenging to determine definitive improvement effects and reduction rates among products. Comparisons were primarily relative between target units, and the rapid rise in pollutants during furniture introduction warrants further examination. Consequently, while the research provides essential insights, it underscores the need for more prolonged and comprehensive evaluations to fully understand the materials' and adsorbents' impacts on indoor air quality.

The research underscores the importance of choosing eco-friendly materials in new apartment constructions for better IAQ. Specifically, using “excellent” graded materials can significantly reduce harmful pollutants like toluene. However, the study also highlights that certain construction activities, such as introducing furniture, can rapidly elevate pollutant levels. Moreover, while adsorbents like product Z showed promise in reducing pollutants, there is potential for adsorbed chemicals to be rereleased over time. For practical implementation, prioritizing higher-grade eco-friendly materials and further investigation into furniture emissions and long-term behavior of adsorbents can lead to healthier indoor environments in newly built apartments.

The research offers a unique empirical assessment of eco-friendly materials' impact on indoor air quality within Dubai's rapidly constructed apartment buildings. Through field experiments, it directly compares different material grades, providing concrete data on pollutant levels in newly built environments. Additionally, it explores the efficacy of specific adsorbents, which is of high value to the construction and public health sectors. The findings shed light on how construction choices can influence indoor air pollution, offering valuable insights to builders, policymakers and residents aiming to promote public health and safety in urban living spaces.

With the goal to indicate the importance of human–nature connection in designing workplaces, the authors investigated the effects of direct and indirect biophilic indicators on the well-being and performance of employees of an organization. The main question is what is the effect of biophilic components on the well-being and performance of employees.

To answer the research questions, the authors designed and validated an instrument to evaluate correlation between biophilic components with well-being and performance. The participants include 160 employees of one organization. For the data analysis, both descriptive statistical and inferential statistics were used. Pearson's correlation test and ANOVA were conducted to explain the relationship between variables.

The results indicated that biophilic components have significant positive relationships with the well-being of the employees, but no significant relationship was found between biophilic components and the performance of the employees. Using the ANOVA test, biophilic indicators that have a positive and significant effect on the well-being and performance of employees were determined. The natural scenery and warm colors has significant positive effects on social well-being, and the usage of natural landscape posters in the working rooms has a positive and significant relationship with psychological well-being. The natural lighting has a positive and significant relationship with the employees' counterproductive work behavior.

Most of the questionnaires of this research were filled electronically because of the health protocols during pandemic. Almost 70% of the organization's employees had less than 5 years of work experience, which can be considered one of the interfering factors. In addition, the authors only used the questionnaire as a tool for collecting information in this study. There are other forms of information that can be explored through observations, interviews or experiments. Another limitation of this study is the lack of significant diversity in the investigated environments. Finally, the numbers of male and female participants of this study were not equal. The authors suggest studying both genders with an almost equal ratio so that the differences and needs of both groups can be understood.

The designed questionnaire is a validated instrument that can be used by other researchers to evaluate the biophilic design of workplace. These findings can also be useful for managers, companies and organizations in making decisions to improve the working environment and increase the well-being and performance of their employees.

The social effects of biophilic design in the workplace are significant as well. The use of biophilic components can foster a sense of connection between employees and their workplace, creating a positive social environment that supports collaboration and communication. Additionally, a biophilic workplace can promote a positive company culture that values the health and well-being of its employees, which can contribute to employee retention and satisfaction.

In this study, to determine the effects of the biophilic indicators on dimensions of employees' well-being and performance, an instrument is designed and validated.

This paper aims to propose and provide an overview of a model analysis that considers the main spatial design attributes that influence and produce the most relevant salutogenic outcomes. These results are essential for a healthy work experience, especially in shared workspaces.

This study departs from the theoretical contributions of the salutogenic approach, principles from supportive design theory, psychosocial supportive design and the environmental demands and resources model. After a scoping literature review covering different fields of workspace design, environmental psychology and evidence-based design of health-care facilities, a conceptual analysis is done on a proposed understanding of work, health and environmental relations to overview spatial attributes that enhance specific salutogenic and well-being-promoting outcomes needed for a healthy work experience.

The model of analysis, as a theoretical element that helps create methodological tools, combined with the application of a post occupancy evaluation, is thought to assist architects, designers, workspace owners and stakeholders in their new designs or to evaluate existing ones.

Studies on defining spatial attributes and their intended salutogenic outcomes have been formally done in health-care facilities. However, applying this idea to shared workspaces is something new and is expected to contribute to their design and evaluation, especially if the notion of environmental demands and resources is complemented.

At the beginning of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a digitalized construction environments surfaced in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in the form of a modern delivery system called demand controlled ventilation (DCV). Demand controlled ventilation has the potential to solve the building ventilation's biggest problem of managing indoor air quality (IAQ) for controlling COVID-19 transmission in indoor environments. However, the improper evaluation and information management of infection prevention on dense crowd activities such as measurement errors and volatile organic compound (VOC) generation failure rates, is fragmented so the aim of this research is to integrate this and explore potentials with machine learning algorithms (MLAs).

The method used is a thorough systematic literature review (SLR) approach. The results of this research consist of a detailed description of the DCV system and digitalized construction process of its IAQ elements.

The discussion revealed that DCV has a potential for being further integrated by perceiving it as a MLAs and hereby enabling the management of IAQ level from the perspective of health risk function mechanism (i.e. VOC and CO₂) for maintaining a comfortable thermal environment and save energy of public and private buildings (PPBs). The appropriate MLA can also be selected in different occupancy patterns for seasonal variations, ventilation behavior, building type and locations, as well as current indoor air pollution control strategies. Furthermore, the conceptual framework showed that MLA application such as algorithm design/Model Predictive Control (MPC) integration can alleviate the high spread limitation of COVID-19 in the indoor environment.

Finally, the research concludes that a large unexploited potential within integration and innovation is recognized in the DCV system and MLAs which can be improved to optimize level of IAQ from the perspective of health throughout the building sector DCV process systems. The requirements of CO₂ based DCV along with VOC concentrations monitoring practice should be taken into consideration through further research and experience with adaption and implementation from the ventilation control initial stage of the DCV process.

The health, well-being and productivity (i.e. WELL) of office building occupants are vulnerable to poor office environments. Therefore, this study aims to identify new features and concepts of office buildings in supporting occupants’ WELL. To achieve that aim, this study: explores new WELL features for office buildings, develops new WELL concepts for office buildings and examines the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on existing WELL building standard (WELL v2) concepts.

The first phase involved ten experts to assign weightage for health, well-being and productivity. In the second phase, 206 questionnaire survey data were collected from office building occupants throughout Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis established new WELL concepts for office buildings. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling examined the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on the existing WELL v2 concepts.

Two new WELL concepts were developed: “space and services”, consisting of sufficient space, workstation privacy, office layouts, building automation systems, cleanliness and information technology (IT) infrastructure, and “building security”, consisting of security systems and safety at parking lots. Here, “space and services” influences all existing WELL v2 concepts, and “building security” influences the water, nourishment, mind and community concepts of WELL v2.

This study uncovers holistic WELL building concepts to support occupants’ health, well-being and productivity with additional new features and concepts for construction industry policymakers to establish holistic building assessment tools.

Corporate real estate management (CREM) is complex due to an increasing number of real estate (RE) added values and the tensions between them. RE managers are faced with trade-offs: to choose a higher performance for one added value at the cost of another. CREM research mainly deals with trade-offs in a hypothetical sense, without looking at the characteristics of the RE portfolio nor the specific context in which trade-offs are made. The purpose of this paper is to further develop the concept of real estate value (REV) optimisation with regard to tensions between decreasing CO₂ emissions and supporting user activities.

Mixed method study. REV optimisation between user activities and energy efficiency for police stations in the Netherlands built between 2000 and 2020 is analysed. This is complemented by interviews with an RE manager and senior user of police stations and analysis of policy documents.

The characteristics of the police station portfolio indicate no correlation between user activities and energy efficiency for the case studied. This is complemented by interviews, from which it becomes clear that there was in fact little tension between supporting user activities and energy efficiency. The performances of these two different added values were optimised separately.

This study combines different scales (building and portfolio level) with different types of data: portfolio analysis, document analysis and interviews. This creates a comprehensive image of whether and how the Netherlands police optimised the two RE values.

This study aimed to characterize the concentrations of indoor pollutants (such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂), as well as particulate matter (PM) (PM₁, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀) in Akure, Nigeria, as well as the relationship between the parameters’ concentrations.

The evaluation, which lasted four months, used a low-cost air sensor that was positioned two meters above the ground. All sensor procedures were correctly carried out.

CO₂ (430.34 ppm), NO₂ (93.31 ppb), O₃ (19.94 ppb), SO₂ (40.87 ppb), PM₁ (29.31 µg/m3), PM_2.5 (43.56 µg/m³), PM₁₀ (50.70 µg/m³), temperature (32.4°C) and relative humidity (50.53%) were the average values obtained. The Pearson correlation depicted the relationships between the pollutants and weather factors. With the exception of April, which had significant SO₂ (18%) and low PM₁₀ (49%) contributions, NO₂ and PM₁₀ were the most common pollutants in all of the months. The mean air quality index (AQI) for NO₂ indicated that the AQI was “moderate” (51–100). In contrast to SO₂, whose AQI ranged from “moderate” to “very unhealthy,” O₃'s AQI ranged from “good” (50) to “unhealthy” (151–200). Since PM₁, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ made up the majority of PC1’s contribution, both PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ were deemed “hazardous.”

The practical implication of indoor air pollution is long-term health effects, including heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases such as emphysema. Indoor air pollution can also cause long-term damage to people’s nerves, brain, kidneys, liver and other organs.

Lack of literature in terms of indoor air quality (IAQ) in Akure, Ondo State. With this work, the information obtained will assist all stakeholders in policy formulation and implementation. Again, the low-cost sensor used is new to this part of the world.

This case study paper aims to explore the complexities and challenges of epidemic response and public health surveillance in Native American and Indigenous American communities in the United States and find viable solutions. This paper explores these topics through the emergence and impact of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) within the Navajo Nation in the United States using critical incident analysis and best practices.

This project is a case study paper based on a topical review of the literature. A topical review of the literature is a comprehensive exploration of the current body of knowledge within a particular research field. It is an important tool used by scholars and practitioners to further the development of existing knowledge as well as to identify potential directions for future research (Fourie, 2020). Such a paper can provide a useful insight into the various aspects of the process that the researcher may have overlooked, as well as highlighting potential areas of improvement (Gall et al., 2020). It can also provide a useful source of ideas and inspiration for the researcher as it can provide an overview of the various approaches used by other researchers in the field (Göpferich, 2009). Case study papers using a topical review of the literature have been used to help frame and inform research topics, problems and best practices for some time. They are typically used to explore a topic in greater depth and to provide an overview of the literature to improve the world of practice to provide a foundation for future comprehensive empirical research. Case study papers can provide research value by helping to identify gaps in the literature and by providing a general direction for further research. They can also be used to provide a starting point for research questions and hypotheses and to help identify potential areas of inquiry.

This study explores best practices in public health surveillance and epidemic response that can help strengthen public health infrastructure by informing the development of effective surveillance systems and emergency response plans, as well as improving data collection and analysis capabilities within Native American and Indigenous American communities in the United States that also have the option to include new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) with similar outbreaks in the future.

The literature review did not include any primary data collection, so the existing available research may have limited the findings. The scope of the study was limited to published literature, which may not have reported all relevant findings. For example, unpublished studies, field studies and industry reports may have provided additional insights not included in the literature review. This research has significant value based on the limited amount of studies on how infectious diseases can severely impact Native American communities in the United States, leading to unnecessary and preventable suffering and death. As a result, research on viable best practices is needed on the best practices in public health surveillance and epidemic response in Native American and Indigenous American communities through historical events and critical incident analysis.

Research on public health surveillance and epidemic response in Native American communities can provide insights into the challenges faced by these communities and help identify potential solutions to improve their capacity to detect, respond to and prevent infectious diseases using innovative approaches and new technologies like AI.

More research on public health surveillance and epidemic response can inform policies and interventions to improve access to healthcare for Native American populations, such as increasing availability of healthcare services, providing culturally appropriate health education and improving communication between providers and patients. By providing better public health surveillance and response capacity, research can help reduce the burden of infectious diseases in Native American communities and ultimately lead to improved public health outcomes.