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This study investigates the level of variance in the real time demand for bagged cement, induced in response to the climatic sequence of the humid tropics, to support best practice calls for a weather-responsive supply chain strategy.

Data on the consumption of cement and site works for 100 ongoing building construction sites were gathered for a period of 12 months. The variance partitioning capabilities of the Ordinary Least Squares and Hierarchical Linear Modelling forms of regression analysis are comparatively used to evaluate the sensitivity of cement demand to the meteorological profile of wet-humid climate

The study outcome provides statistical evidence demonstrating that the meteorological profile of wet-humid climate induces a significantly high percentage of the variance in the real-time demand for bagged cement on construction sites. However, nested within this variance, are the fixed effects of the cement footprint of the building architecture inherent in the locality. Particularly, positive changes to reduce the wet trade composition of buildings or compensating changes in technological bias, are necessary to combat weather interference in the humid tropics.

The findings are exploratory, and not for the purposes of holistically forecasting cement demand, and can therefore only form part of a more comprehensive decision support system, bespoke to the study area.

The study outcome provides a back-end view to climatic adaptation in wet humid settings, making a compelling case for localized climate-risk adaptive supply chain strategies and policies geared towards sustainability in cement usage.

The study delineates the confounding impact of weather, distinct from local building architecture and technological bias, thus creating a methodological platform for replication and comparative productivity studies in diverse geographical areas.

Offsite construction approaches and methodologies have been proffered a potential solution for controlling “traditional” projects, especially where high levels of complexity and uncertainty exist. Given this, locations such as Western Australia (WA), where there are unique housing provision challenges, offsite construction method was considered a potential solution for not only addressing the complexity/uncertainty challenges but also alleviating the housing shortage. However, whilst acknowledging the benefits of offsite construction, recognition was also noted on perceived barriers to its implementation, primarily relating to cost uncertainty. This recognition is exacerbated by very limited offsite construction cost data and information available in the public domain. In response to this, this paper sims to provide detailed cost analysis of three offsite construction projects in WA.

To hold parameters constant and facilitate cross-case comparative analysis, data were collected from three embedded case studies from three residential housing projects in WA. These projects represent the most contemporary implementation of offsite in WA; where two were completed in 2016/2017 and the third project was still ongoing during the data collection of this research. The research methodological approach and accompanying data analysis component engaged a variety of techniques, which was supported by archival study of project data and evidence gathered from the offsite construction provider.

Core findings revealed three emerging themes from residential offsite construction projects pertinent to cost. Specifically, the overall cost of delivering residential housing project with offsite construction techniques, the cost variability of offsite construction residential housing projects as impacted by uncertainties and the cash flow of residential offsite construction projects based on the payment term. These three major cost drivers are elucidated in this paper.

This research presents new cost insights to complement the wider adoption of offsite construction techniques. It presents additional information to address the limited cost data and information of offsite construction projects available in the public domain particularly for residential housing projects (within the bounded context of WA). It also highlights the further stages needed to enhance data validity, cognisant of universal generalisability and repeatability, market maturity and stakeholder supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the rationale and methodology applied to the rental valuation of wet led (i.e. pub or bar) retail leisure outlets. The paper does not cover the valuation of other leisure property (e.g. restaurants, hotels).

The paper opens with a brief outline of the factors and legislative changes which have shaped the public house market over the past 15 years. This is followed by a explanation of the rental valuation methods in use in the pub and bar sector and examination of the impact of some current issues – in particular the impact of the full implementation of the Licensing Act 2003 along with other legislative and regulatory changes. Finally the paper comments on some of the issues relevant to freehold investment purchases of public houses and bars.

As a consequence of the nature of the industry, profits based valuations continue to dominate the market and this raises difficult questions of method and interpretation particularly, as the market is further complicated by legislative and regulatory changes introducing greater uncertainty. With regard to public house and bar freehold investment changes in the structure of the market have had a significant impact on perceptions of the investment quality of the leisure sector with consequences both for flows of capital and the structure of yields in the market place.

Valuers need to be aware that freehold investment values in this sector have potentially peaked and that investment decisions in the sector should be based upon sustainable rent.

The paper is of use to all valuers in this niche market and provides a practical understanding of the profits test method of valuation from which a sustainable rent may be derived.

To examine the perspective of third-level university students in the context of the value proposition of construction apprenticeships in Ireland.

The research uses a qualitative method, conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 third-level university students enrolled on a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree program in Construction Management in Ireland.

The results highlight six themes. These include that society appears to be directly and/or indirectly steering students towards university. This is driven by what appears to be a prevailing stigma in that apprenticeships are not seen as an achievement by society. Also, apprenticeships are seen as a limited career choice, while also being one which appears to repel female entrants.

If the shortage of new skilled workers entering the construction industry continues, construction organisations will not have the necessary resources to tender for, and subsequently, complete new work.

The perception of what could have been seen as potential new apprenticeship entrants, but ultimately chose university, is worth examining further with a view to industry addressing the shortcomings identified. This therefore can provide an opportunity to stem the tide of reducing apprenticeship numbers, while also providing a viable alternative to university for those who wish to pursue alternative routes of entering the sector.

The paper uniquely focuses on the third-level university student's perspectives and what influenced their decision to pursue third-level university education over that of an apprenticeship within the built environment; an area which has yet to be investigated.

The use of prefabrication has been considered as one of the most effective waste minimization methods in the construction context; however, the industry has found difficulties to implement it. Contractors lack experience in using prefabrication and they do not know how to implement prefabrication to their projects effectively. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a study on the implementation of prefabrication in the context of different project types and procurement approaches.

This paper examines possible project types and procurement methods to maximally gain benefits of using prefabricated building components. A questionnaire survey and structured interviews have been conducted.

From the results, it should be noted that residential projects and design and build procurement methods are the most effective project types and procurement methods, respectively, in using prefabrication. In the interview discussion, one of the governmental employees highlighted that about 65 percent of projects are residential projects. The high supply of residential housing suits fast population growth in Hong Kong. The interviewee also explained that shortening construction period is one of the main goals in their projects. Furthermore, an interviewed main contractor highlighted that the involvement of contractors at the early design stage in a project can bring advantages in considering construction methods before project commencement on site and to improve project constructability. An interviewed subcontractor also explained that the involvement of construction organizations in the design stage can effectively improve the use of prefabrication in major activities including concreting, plastering and formworking, rather than wet‐trade construction activities. Therefore, the use of standardized designs and prefabricated building components are highly encouraged.

This brings early considerations and suggestions to project parties to improve prefabrication implementation. The effects of prefabrication implementation are also considered.

Besides organizational changes in the electricity supply industry there are growing concerns about environmental issues derived from the Kyoto Protocol for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as well as promoting renewable energies. The purpose of this paper is to address the source side emission trading impact on electricity prices in the competitive power market.

Various schemes are suggested and are being implemented to achieve this objective. It is expected that electricity price will increase due to imposition of emission taxes. This paper analyzes the impact of electricity prices in the competitive electricity markets having a uniform market clearing price mechanism.

It is found that the electricity prices depend on the system loading, generation mix, etc. at a particular hour. Various emission trading instruments are discussed with a special emphasis on the European market.

Block bidding of the suppliers is considered whereas the demand is assumed to be inelastic.

The emission trading impacts are analyzed on a simple example.

Hong Kong is running out of both reclamation sites and landfill space for the disposal of construction and demolition waste. This paper reports on the findings of a study, consisting of a questionnaire survey, interviews and work‐site visits, to compare the use of low‐waste building technologies in public housing and private residential projects in Hong Kong. The results show that large panel formwork and prefabricated building components are widely used in public housing projects in Hong Kong. Due to the difference of the design with public housing, the use of smaller aluminium panel formwork is more common in the private housing projects. The barriers for the adoption of low‐waste building technologies in the private sector are identified and discussed.

The Editor and Publishers regret that the prolonged dispute in the printing trade made it impossible to produce the February issue of this journal punctually, and continues to hamper them in their work.

Optimizing both qualitative and quantitative factors is a key challenge in solving construction finance decisions. The semi‐structured nature of construction finance optimization problems precludes conventional optimization techniques. With a desire to improve the performance of the canonical genetic algorithm (CGA) which is characterized by static crossover and mutation probability, and to provide contractors with a profit‐risk trade‐off curve and cash flow prediction, an adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA) model is developed. Ten projects being undertaken by a major construction firm in Hong Kong were used as case studies to evaluate the performance of the genetic algorithm (GA). The results of case study reveal that the AGA outperformed the CGA both in terms of its quality of solutions and the computational time required for a certain level of accuracy. The results also indicate that there is a potential for using the GA for modelling financial decisions should both quantitative and qualitative factors be optimized simultaneously.

A recent report, commissioned by Vigers Chartered Surveyors and carried out by the Building Performance Unit at Liverpool Polytechnic, has collected extensive evidence of defects in raised floors. One of its central themes is to provide guidelines for facilities managers wishing to obtain value for money from their raised floor installations. This article provides advice to managers who wish to extend the life cycle of raised floors in their care and in doing so reduce the scale of defects in use.