Concrete construction requires utilization of many temporary facilities such as formwork, shoring, and scaffolding. Appropriate use of these temporary facilities greatly impacts the quality, cost, schedule, and safety of concrete construction. The current practice in design and planning of temporary facilities is often manual, error-prone, and re-active based on construction site layout, status, and progress in the field. Early design and planning of temporary facilities for concrete construction using Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology offers a potential solution. Although some commercially-available software exists that assists in the generation of temporary facility designs, the construction industry lacks tools that support detailed planning and design of many other temporary facilities. This research presents our early work in automating the design and planning of temporary facilities utilizing BIM. Algorithms were developed to automatically assess geometric conditions of work space to detect required temporary facilities and design them. The proposed methodology was implemented in a test model. By automatically incorporating temporary facilities into BIM, more realistic construction models can be created with less effort and errors. Temporary facilities-loaded models can finally be used for communication, bill of materials, scheduling, etc. and as a benchmark for field installation of temporary formwork, shoring, and scaffolding systems.

Recently, defect management have been considered as one of the major issues for more large-sized and complicated in domestic construction industry. However, the defect management have not been performed systematically because of special manpower, excessive amount of documents, 2D based inspection work, unclear traditional checklists, complicated work process and difficulty in communicating construction information. Therefore, the construction field manager could not performed the quality inspection and defect management work on time as well as the reliability of recorded quality and defect factors was decreased. The primary objective of this study is develop a Construction Defect Management Application CDMA) using a mobile (smartphone). The application can be sharing a huge information and communication technology based on RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), BIM (Building Information Modeling) which enables field mangers to efficiently gather the information of defection in construction on-site.

Substantial research has been performed on the data standards and exchanges in the AEC/FM industry over the past several years. The growing popularity of BIM technology is based heavily upon a perception that the technology can facilitate the sharing and reuse of information during a project life-cycle. Although many researchers and practitioners are in agreement about the potential applicability and benefit of BIM in construction, it is still unclear why BIM is adopted, and what factors enhance implementation of BIM. Thus, BIM acceptance and use remains a central concern of BIM research and practice. Therefore, we propose the key factors affecting the acceptance of BIM in construction organizations using factor analysis. The key factors for BIM acceptance are identified through a literature review in TAM (Davis 1989) and related theories, and consolidated by interviews and pilot studies with professionals in construction industry. Based on the factors, a questionnaire was designed and sent out to construction organizations such as contractors, architects, and engineers in Korea. Total 148 completed questionnaires were retrieved. Using factor analysis, key factors were grouped into six dimensions. These findings will clarify what the highly prioritized factors are, and can also be used in an assessment tool for the performance of BIM utilization.

Construction safety is a predominant hindrance in in-situ workflow and considered an unresolved issue. Current methods used for safety optimization and prediction, with limited exceptions, are paper-based, thus error prone, as well as time and cost ineffective. In an attempt to exploit the potential of BIM for safety, the objective of the proposed methodology is to automatically predict hazardous on-site conditions related to the route that the dozers follow during the different phases of the project. For that purpose, safety routes used by construction equipment from an origin to multiple destinations are computed using video cameras and their cycle times are calculated. The cycle times and factors; including weather and light conditions, are considered to be independent and identically distributed random variables (iid); and simulated using the Arena software. The simulation clock is set to 100 to observe the minor changes occurring due to external parameters. The validation of this technology explores the capabilities of BIM combined with simulation for enhancing productivity and improving safety conditions a-priori. Preliminary results of 262 measurements indicate that the proposed methodology has the potential to predict with 87% the location of exclusion zones. Also, the cycle time is estimated with an accuracy of 89%.

The construction industry has introduced the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system to promote objective evaluations of the sustainability of buildings. Three important values to consider when implementing sustainability are the associated environmental, social, and economic impacts. Recently, researchers have begun to investigate the real estate value of LEED certified buildings in terms of the rental cost, occupancy rate, cost per unit area, and resale value in order to better understand the economic benefits of the LEED rating system. However, the economic benefits also encompass economic effects such as the impact of LEED certified buildings on neighborhood real estate values surrounding the certified buildings. This research examines whether the enhanced real estate value of LEED certified buildings in New York City extends to surrounding commercial buildings, utilizing spatial analysis via a Geographic Information System (GIS) and the hedonic pricing method to derive meaningful economic relationships. The results provide practical insights into the economic effect of LEED certified buildings that will be of interest to city officials and planners, as well as the owners, developers, investors and other stakeholders of surrounding buildings.

With the increased interest in green buildings, the building industry has been experiencing a fast-growing demand for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the last decade. Still, it is not unusual to see various barriers and issues during its implementation, and experience tells that they can result in harming the overall project performance with reworks, lower productivity, schedule delays, and cost overruns. In order to better understand the industry's observation on issues and their consequences during LEED implementation, we distributed an online survey, and a total of 53 responses were received. The survey results indicate that (1) both designers and non-designers (e.g., contractors) select 'added costs to design and construction' as the biggest barrier; (2) both designers and non-designers select 'decision made too late in the design process' as the most frequently observed issue; and (3) non-designers indicate higher perceived severity in every consequence criteria than designers. The statistical analyses reveal that cost overruns are the most severe impact observed and have a statistically significant relationship with responses in regard to the barrier to LEED implementation.

California's heartland, the Great Central Valley, is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. However for many years the valley has been struggling with a broad range of social, economic, and environmental challenges. Some significant concerns include water resources, air pollution, poverty rates, housing issues, etc. Another strike against the valley is the relative reluctance to embrace widespread sustainable building practices. This paper discusses the long-term and profound impact of the built environment has on the aforementioned socioeconomic and environmental issues facing the valley. It reviews exemplary practices in other states and regions regarding policy-making and regulation in the building industry as well as sustainable community development. The paper further explores viable options specifically for the Fresno metropolitan area (the largest in the Central Valley) to combat its unique multifaceted challenges.

Existing buildings now represent the greatest opportunity to improve building energy efficiency. Building performance analysis is becoming increasingly important because decision makers can have a better visualization of their building's performance and quickly make the solution for improving building energy efficiency and reducing environmental impacts. Nowadays, building information models (BIMs) have been widely created during the design phase of new buildings, and it can be easily imported to third party software to conduct various analyses. However, a BIM is not always available for all existing buildings. Even if a BIM is available during the design and construction phases, it is very challenging to keep updating it while a building is aged. A manual process to create or update a BIM is very time consuming and labor intensive. A laser scanning technology has been a popular tool to create as-is BIM. However it still needs labor-intensive manual processes to create a BIM out of point clouds. This paper introduces automatic as-is simplified BIM creation from point clouds for energy simulations. A framework of decision support system that can assist decision makers on retrofits for existing buildings is introduced as well. A case study on a residential house was tested in this study to validate the proposed framework, and the technical feasibility of the developed system was positively demonstrated.

The use of economic incentives to improve H&S performance in the construction industry in general, has been investigated by various scholars. However, few studies have looked at the impact of economic incentives on construction clients especially in the developing world. Therefore it was necessary to investigate specifically the impact of the economic incentive on client's H&S performance. Economic incentives are considered to be a proactive way of improving H&S performance. The investigation was conducted using a Delphi technique to determine the impact significance of the economic incentive or disincentive on construction clients' H&S performance. Findings from the study were that the economic factor had critical impact significance on clients' H&S performance. Further clients were 'very likely to' implement various H&S elements as a result of the economic incentive and disincentive. The paper will report on the findings from an analysis of impact significance of the economic incentives on clients. It will underscore the point that economic incentives or disincentives on construction clients are necessary to encourage them to actively participate in H&S performance improvement.

Introducing the concept of construction safety in the design/engineering phase can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of safety management on construction sites. In this sense, further improvements for safety can be made in the design/engineering phase through the development of (1) an automated hazard identification process that is little dependent on user knowledge, (2) an automated construction schedule generation to accommodate varying hazard information over time, and (3) a visual representation of the results that is easy to understand. In this paper, we formulate an automated hazard identification framework for construction safety by extracting hazard information from related regulations to eliminate human interventions, and by utilizing a visualization technique in order to enhance users' understanding on hazard information. First, the hazard information is automatically extracted from textual safety and health regulations (i.e., Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA) Standards) by using natural language processing (NLP) techniques without users' interpretations. Next, scheduling and sequencing of the construction activities are automatically generated with regard to the 3D building model. Then, the extracted hazard information is integrated into the geometry data of construction elements in the industry foundation class (IFC) building model using a conformity-checking algorithm within the open source 3D computer graphics software. Preliminary results demonstrate that this approach is advantageous in that it can be used in the design/engineering phases of construction without the manual interpretation of safety experts, facilitating the designers' and engineers' proactive consideration for improving safety management.

Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a famous method amongst Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), set up by Saaty in 1980. AHP can be determined as a methodology of hierarchical analysis following reasonable decision making with make simpler a difficult crisis. Decision making in systems of Safety management concerned multipart challenges. AHP is process for get better the composite decisions understanding with analyzes of the problem in a structure of hierarchy. The integration all of applicable decision criteria, their pair wise judgment permits the decision maker to establish the trade-offs amongst objectives. In recent years, Malaysian's economy and infrastructure development have significantly and rapidly risen. The construction industry continues to play a major role in this development as many construction activities have been carried out to meet the high demands of the expansive market. However, the construction industry has faced a wide range of challenges, one of which is the frequent occurrences of accidents at the workplace. An effective safety program can substantially reduce accidents because it can help management to build up safer means of operations and create safe working environments for the workers. Furthermore, by having an effective safety programs, good safety culture can be embedded in organization because it can encourage mutual cooperation between management and workers in the operations of the programs and decisions that affect their safety and health. The focus of this research is development methodology of Analytics Hierarchy Process (AHP) in construction safety factors and investigates the levels of some effective elements in SMS in Malaysian construction industries.

Aiming at reducing deaths and injuries involving construction crane operations, OSHA has recently updated its 40-year-old crane safety standards with new rules addressing the use of cranes and derricks in construction. The goal of this change in rule is to deal with the leading causes of fatalities related to crane and derrick operations. Employers in the construction industry are mandated to ensure that employees in the work zone are trained to recognize hazards associated with the use of the equipment and any related duties that they are assigned to perform. However, those responsible at construction sites for the supervision and management of safe crane operations often lack the integrated knowledge of the standards, regulations and best practices for conducting or supervising daily, monthly, or quarterly inspection of cranes. As such, proper planning, management and implementation of crane operations, including inspections are just as paramount to reducing accidents on the construction site. It is important that engineers responsible for the management and planning of crane operations understand the latest OSHA crane and hoisting standards to ensure a safer work environment is maintained. Many on site engineers overseeing crane operations do not have adequate training, experience, and knowledge of the inspection requirements to assess safe crane operation and too often rely on the crane operator's judgement. This paper highlights recent research effort in defining significant changes in new crane and hoisting standards and provides basis for safety construction operations.

Knotworking represents a distributed collaborative expertise in pursuit of a task that is organized among designers from different design disciplines. Construction processes involve phases and tasks that cannot be solved in one organization only, as integration of expert knowledge from various sources is needed. Through knotworking, groups of people, tasks and tools are set to work intensively for a short period of time to solve a problem or accomplish a task. Knotworking requires intensive collaboration across organizational boundaries and hierarchies. The practice of knotworking has been developed and applied in the development of healthcare organizations, libraries and school-university relationships, but it has not previously been applied in the construction industry. In this paper, we describe the concept of knotworking and the findings of a case study that we completed in the Finnish construction industry. We will also compare the similarities and differences of the Big Room and knotworking in terms of participants, duration, target, space/infrastructure, benefits and challenges. Finally, we present some suggestions for further research and experimentation on knotworking in construction projects.

In this research, a new methodology to perform building energy analysis using Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard has been studied. With the help of Archicad 14 modeling software, a 3D test model is generated and then exported to IFCXML format. A ruby code program retrieves the building information from the resulting IFCXML file using Nokogiri library. An INP file is created and gets ready for next energy analysis step. DOE 2.2 program analyzes the INP file and gives a detailed report of the energy cost of the building. Case study shows when using the IFC standard method, the Interoperability of the energy analysis is greatly improved. The main stream 3D building modeling software supports IFC standard. DOE 2.2 is able to read the INP file generated by IFC file. This means almost any 3D model created by main stream modeling software can be analyze in terms of energy cost Thus, IFC based energy analysis method has a promising future. With the development and application of IFC standard, designers can do more complex and easy-to-run energy analysis in a more efficient way.

The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is beginning to utilize Building Information Modeling (BIM), benefiting from the resulting improved visualization and productivity, better coordination of construction drawings, building documents that contain embedded links to virtual information, faster delivery, and lower costs. However, construction firms often face challenges when reorganizing their company structure to take full advantage of these benefits. This paper proposes an organizational structure that will enable engineering-construction firms to successfully adopt and implement BIM for major construction projects. A case study research method is utilized based on in-depth interviews with four BIM directors and vice presidents charged with BIM adoption, implementation and education. Organizational transformation challenges and recommendations are discussed in detail for those considering implementing BIM in the engineering-construction industry. Topics such as organizational changes in the firm, costs and benefits of BIM implementation, strategies of BIM implementation (execution) plan, BIM education, risks and opportunities associated with BIM, BIM software, contract methods, human resource management and new hires, and the future implementation and direction of BIM are discussed in detail.

As construction project becomes big, PMIS has been progressed and developed as collaboration tool between project participants. But recently it has been transformed from collaboration function tool to one of formal systems, and used as a simple report or just database system. Many researches have been actively studying how to combine BIM to PMIS for solving the problem. There need transferability from PMIS to BIM, however, data size is getting big because of complexity in building size. Many users experience inconvenience in slow loading speed. Therefore, this study suggested an improvement method for high transferability by utilizing virtual technology of IT industry and analyses its suitability.

Recently, Korea parliament legislated the Low Carbon Green Growth Act (April, 2012) and approved a bill (May, 2012) to start carbon emission trading system in 2015. It means that for the first time, government would regulate the amounts of carbon emission in private entities, and private entities should attain predefined emission reduction goals by implementing clean development mechanism (CDM) project or buy the Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) from the trading market to avoid penalty. Under these circumstances, it is not easy for them to determine when or how to implement the CDM project because the governmental energy policies about the level of governmental subsidies, periods for free emission allocation, etc. are still under discussion and the future price of the CERs is quite uncertain. Thus, this study presents a real-option based model to assess the financial viability of the CDM project which switches bunker-C oil to liquefied natural gas (LNG). The proposed model is expected to assist private entities in establishing the investment strategy for CDM project under uncertain government energy policies.

Underground construction requires long construction duration and a variety of equipment, and environmental management and improvement of its activities are considered necessary. For the purpose of the environmental improvement of underground construction activities, the appropriate development of technologies to reduce generated pollutants is mandatory. However, the analysis of the needs of technology development and the evaluation of development priorities should take precedence. In this research, the needs for the improvement of each construction activity are analyzed as a preliminary study for a proposed technology development plan to improve the environmental performance of underground construction. Firstly, environmental problem factors caused by underground construction activities are determined while underground construction types, methods, and activities are classified. A questionnaire survey to determine the needs for the improvement of each activity is then carried out. The survey indicated that the most urgent activity to be improved is that of cutting excavation, which causes environmental problems associated with flying dust. This study could be used as a basis for a technology development plan for the environmental improvement of underground construction activities. The result of this study, the priority of improvement needs, contributes to the effective allocation of a limited Research and Development (R&D) budget.

A number of urban renewal projects are currently being implemented around the world. Current project management tools are limited in effectively dealing with numerous issues regarding management of these projects (e.g., simultaneous execution of multiple projects). As an effort to address this deficiency, an Intelligent Program Management Information System (i-PgMIS) was developed for effective management of urban renewal projects. The i-PgMIS is a web-based system consisting of various modules including cost management, schedule management, risk management, change management, eco-value engineering (EVE) and so on. Based on the recognition of increasing awareness of creating sustainable built environment, this paper focuses on the EVE module that can support eco-value analysis at program-level management. The EVE module is expected to enhance value and sustainability of construction processes throughout the whole 'program' lifecycle and further to support program feasibility study based on life cycle costing.

Computer simulations designed to predict technical and financial returns of wind turbine installations are used to make informed investment decisions. These simulations used fixed values to represent real-world variables, while the actual projects can be highly uncertain, resulting in predictions that are less accurate and less useful. In this article, by modifying a popular wind power simulation sourced from the American Wind Energy Association to use Monte Carlo techniques in its calculations, the authors have proposed a way to improve simulation usability by producing probability distributions of likely outcomes, which can be used to draw broader, more useful conclusions about the simulated project.

Determining on a particular construction method is typically decided in the initial phases of a project. However, changing conditions during actual construction may require a different method or technology to be employed. Providing an option for project managers to change construction provides flexibility that can increase value to the overall project. This research provides the ability to modify construction methods as a real option, which allows its value to be modeled. The research also formalizes a way to integrate a binomial lattice model with the Earned Value Method's S-curve. The integrated model provides a decision support tool that planners can use to determine whether to exercise the option depending on the status metrics provided by EVM.

The purpose of this study is identifying the relationship among the business strategy, order receiving capability and leverage variables of a construction company using industry characteristic variables, in addition to the explanation variables used in the previous studies. The samples of this study were limited to the construction companies listed in Korean stock market. This study built multiple regression analysis models, which have been frequently used in traditional previous studies, in the explanation of company capital structure. Empirical analysis on Static Trade-off Theory and Pecking Order Theory was done by the built model. The study results suggested that the capital structure determination behavior of a construction company generally follows Static Trade-off Theory; however, profitability was found to follow Pecking Order Theory. The explanation variables used in the previous capital structure studies mostly produced significant results; however, the variables, which this study experimentally used, did not produce significant results. It is believed that it implies that additional studies are required in the selection of variables and study methodology. Consequently, a case that unconditionally supports a particular theory is scarce. It has been also found that a case can support both theories at the same time. Therefore, it is believed that development study methodology or introduction of new study methodology that can identify the dynamic characteristic of construction company capital structure formation is required.

This paper presents a system called a Cash-flow based Construction Schedule Optimization system(CfSO). The existing CPM effectively handles schedule and cost management. However, funding strategy should be considered to obtain maximum profit and to progress a project favorably. One of measures is to coordinate the contract terms between owner and subcontractors (or suppliers). Contractor may decrease the interest cost attributed to project financing by adjusting the timing of cash-inflows and cash-outflows. It is an excellent method maximizing profits. This paper presents a method to estimate the amount of a cash-flow occurred periodically by integrating the terms of contract into scheduling. The proposed method is implemented as a system prototype in Microsoft Excel. This system provides a user an automated tool that identifies an optimal schedule that secures maximum profit by adjusting start and finish times of non-critical activities' free-floats without affecting on the project completion time. This system supports a project manager to establish an optimum project schedule and identifies profitable contractual conditions against to a construction owner.

As a recent global trend, the majority of mega-size plant projects are delivered through EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts, where a single contract is awarded for engineering, procurement, and construction. Under this contracting mechanism, it is challenging for contractors to carry out the projects under traditional project management processes used in design-bid-build projects. A new EPC Plant, the POSCO Special Steel Plant in Changwon, was built successfully at the beginning of 2012 and it is currently in full-scale production. The project has encountered a number of major difficulties however, with some technical and managerial issues through its development process. As summarized in this paper, the authors (as project participants with the contractor) investigated it as a post construction analysis and recorded the Lessons-learned for future project management improvement.

Since the sub-prime mortgage crisis from the US in 2008, the Korean housing market has plummeted. However, the deposit prices of the Korean local lease contract, Chonsei, had been increasing. This increase of Chonsei prices can be a threat to low-income people, most of whom prefer to live in houses with a Chonsei contract. In the housing and Chonsei market, there are many stakeholders with their own interest, hence, simple thoughts about housing and Chonsei market, such as more house supply, will decrease house price, would not work in a real complex housing market. In this research, we suggests system dynamics conceptual model which consists of causal-loop-diagrams for the Chonsei market as well as the housing market. In conclusion, the Chonsei price has its own homeostasis characteristics and different price behavior with housing price in the short and long term period. We found that unless government does not have a structural causation mind in implementing policies in the real estate market, the government may not attain their intended effectiveness on both markets.

Building envelope systems with growing complexity in geometry and performance criteria demand adapted workflow processes toward the efficient integration of their design and fabrication. To facilitate integration of the workflow process, this study analyzes relationships among teams who share digital models and exchange information that help project participants identify areas of improvement in task allocation and exchanges among various actors, systems, and activities. In addition, major gaps identified in knowledge transfer, project tracking, and design integration during the performance evaluation stages, emphasize the need for a more comprehensive approach to integrating the design, the fabrication, and the construction parameters of building envelope systems. To evaluate the effectiveness of streamlining interactions of design parameters with fabrication constraints and constructability assessments, this paper examines a mechanical design approach as it applies to various project scenarios to develop a mechanical solution for streamlining building envelope design and construction workflow.

A construction workspace is considered as a critical factor to secure constructability and safety of a project. Specially, optimized size of each workspace helps to minimize any conflicts between workspaces, works and resources within a workspace in the construction site. However, since an existing method for making a decision workspace's size depends on generally experiences of managers and work conditions of activity, it is difficult to perform safe works considering feasible workspace size. The workspace size is changed according to the quantity of resources allocated into each activity as time progresses. Accordingly, it is desirable that optimized workspace size considering input size of resources is determined. To solve these issues, this study configures an optimized model for deciding standard size of workspaces by simple regression analysis and develops a visualized scenario model for simulating the optimized workspace shape in order to support BIM (Building Information Modeling) environment. For this, this study determines an optimized resource shape size considering maximum working radius of each resource and constructs its visual model. Subsequently, input size of resources for each activity is estimated considering safety execution area of resources and workspaces. Based on this, an optimized 3D workspace shape is generated as a VR simulation model of a BIM system based on the suggested methodologies. Moreover, operational feasibility of the developed system is evaluated through a case study for a bride project. Therefore, this study provides a visualized framework so that project managers can establish an efficient workspace planning in BIM environment. Besides, it is expected that constructability, productivity and safety of the project will be improved by minimizing conflicts between workspace and congestions between resources within a workspace in the construction phase.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an effective decision-making platform that helps to save project cost and enhance quality of construction. By generating and linking a wide variety of objects data, BIM can be effectively utilized, and it should be ensured that object properties maintain consistency throughout the project period of design, estimates, construction, maintenance and repair. This study examined how to utilize BIM data in a construction project, by linking cost and schedule data in web environment, to better utilize the information and maintain consistency of the BIM information. To do so, the model integrated WBS data and CBS data, linked them with BIM model to realize 5D simulation in web environment. As a result, cost and schedule data could be simultaneously acquired, and object properties-cost, schedule, location-as well. These are expected to contribute to developing a BIM-based automatic data-processing system in web environment.

To analyze building energy consumption, the building description for building energy performance analysis (BEPA) is required. The required data input for subject building is a basic step in the BEPA process. Since building information modeling (BIM) is applied in the construction industry, the required data for BEPA can be gathered from a single international standard file format like IFCXML. However, in most BEPA processes, since the required data cannot be fully used from the IFCXML file, a building description for BEPA must be created again. This paper proposes IFCXML-based automatic data input approach for BEA. After the required data for BEPA has been defined, automatic data input for BEPA is developed by a prototype system. To evaluate the proposed system, a common BIM file from the BuildingSMART website is applied as a sample model. This system can increase the efficiency and reliability of the BEPA process, since the data input is automatically and efficiently improved by directly using the IFCXML file.

The construction market condition is getting worse because of global constructions slow down, low profit, market contraction and so on. For these reason, most construction companies depend on public construction projects which possible to protect construction fee, known as progress payment, by laws. Despite this law, problems of progress payment are constantly occurring and it has been main factors that hinder the construction cost's cash-flow in construction project. To solve this problem, many researchers suggested various solutions but most of solutions were focused on specific target as owner, general contractor, and subcontractor. So, most of solutions were insufficient consider about interaction between contractors. Because of these reasons, it was hard to reflected policy. This research aimed to use system dynamics to develop the model for the application and payment based on the regulations and papers. Also, performed a developed model's verification based on progress payment regulation's basic objectives.

Construction operations generate a significant amount of air pollutant emissions, including carbon emissions. The environmental performance of construction operations is closely relevant to the operational efficiency of each resource employed, which indicates how efficiently each resource (e.g., construction equipment) is utilized. In this context, monitoring the operational efficiency of construction equipment provides key information in managing and improving the environmental performance and productivity of construction operations. In this paper, we report our efforts to measure the operational efficiency of construction equipment, using low-cost accelerometers. An experimental study and real-world case studies are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. The results have shown the potential of this approach as an economically feasible means of monitoring the environmental performance of construction operations.

Environmental problems like global warming have now become important issues that should be considered in all industries, including construction. In South Korea, many studies have been conducted to achieve the government's goals of reduction in environmental impacts. However, the research on buildings has only focused on CO₂ emission as a research target despite the fact that other environmental impacts resulting from ozone depletion and acidification should also be considered, in addition to global warming. In this regard, this study attempted to propose assessment criteria and methods to evaluate the environmental performance of the structures from various aspects. The environmental impact category can be divided into global impacts, regional impacts, and local impacts. First, global impacts include global warming, ozone layer depletion, and abiotic resource depletion, while regional impacts include acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidation. In addition, noise and vibration occurring in the building construction phase are defined as local impacts. The evaluation methods on the eight environmental impacts will be proposed after analyzing existing studies, and the methods representing each environmental load as monetary value will be presented. The methods presented in this study will present benefits that can be obtained through green buildings with a clear quantitative assessment on structures. Ultimately, it is expected that if the effects of green buildings are clearly presented through the findings of this study, the greening of structures will be actively expanded.

CO2 emission makes up more than 80% of whole green gas. Therefore CO2 is recognized as the main culprit of global warming. IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is advising the 3 methods measuring CO2 emission. TIER1 is measured CO2 emission by criteria the energy consumption, TIER2 measure by criteria the emission factor according to the emission control technique each kind of vehicle, TIER3 is measured by criteria the distance each kind of vehicle. Currently, the most of CO2 emission measurement is used by TIER1. But it is not standardized that CO2 emission measurement method have the factor as work condition each distance. Specially, it is not suggest that methodology has the condition changing load of equipment according to site condition and the same position work as construction equipment. So, this study is suggested the CO2 emission measurement methodology of construction equipment.

Global warming and climate change is now an important issue in every industry. Construction is not an exception. Greenhouse Gases (GHG) are emitted by construction activities such as fuel usage in construction equipment and so on. In light of this, Intelligent Excavating System (IES), which is a robotic excavator with site modeling capability, is developed by a research consortium formed in Korea to improve productivity, quality, and safety of the traditional earthwork. This paper presents that energy saving effect of IES in comparison to traditional method. Through this review, we propose a research strategy to achieve carbon reduction goals in construction industry.

To respond to global warming and climate change, Korean Government has implemented the GHG Target Management, which leads to a voluntary reduction in greenhouse gases from large businesses. Korean universities have put efforts on reducing GHG emissions and energy consumptions in the campuses, however, because of various activities and its characteristic of non-profit organization, establishing a long-term plan for reducing greenhouse gases is necessary. In this research, the Seoul National University's energy usage is analyzed and applicable technologies for reducing GHG emissions are extracted. Hence, three scenarios for performing the GHG Target Management are established. Proposed scenario is available for GHG Target Management and it would be expected to support decision- makings for reducing GHG emissions.

State transportation agencies utilize fleets of heavy equipment to construct and maintain roadways. Equipment cost models can be developed to forecast economic life, which is the point at which the average unit cost to date reaches a minimum. A calculated economic life and cost models can be used to quantify the impacts of management strategies applied to a fleet. The purpose of this research was to develop an accurate method of quantifying the results of management strategies applied to a fleet of heavy construction equipment. The strategies evaluated are related to the annual usage of the fleet and the size of the fleet. More specifically the methodology is used to adjust the economic model to consider a limit to the annual decline in machine usage and a reduction in the number of machines in the fleet. When limiting annual machine usage, a specified rate is applied to the usage of the fleet, while total usage is held constant. This causes aging at a modified rate. A reduction in fleet size also causes a change to the usage of a fleet as the fleet must use fewer machines to produce the same total usage.

In the tall building construction, the slab formwork largely impacts on construction cost. Because productivity of a slab formwork is influenced by a number of and the efficiency of equipment, using the equipment-based construction method, an appropriate equipment input planning is crucial for the productivity. Meanwhile, the general equipment input planning is conducted by intuition based on experience due to the lack of equipment productivity data. Thus, this study develop a simulation model to analyze table formwork productivity and to propose an optimum equipment input plan that reflects the construction process, based on the full consideration of the economic factors. This study developed a simulation model by using CYCLONE and the data for the model was collected by measuring the duration of each unit activity in the tall building where table forms were applied. It is expected that a simulation model helps users to make better decision on the equipment input planning of slab formwork.

According to the recent development of USN technology, it has been applied in various fields of construction management. In particular, the concrete curing management using the wireless measurement system is actively being conducted. However, the existing method has limitations such as the reinstallation of temperature sensors and repositioning of repeaters. It is also not easy to acquire the measured data. Thus, this study focuses on the concrete curing management. This study proposes data acquisition method using the smartphone on construction site and tests applicability of the data measuring device and the smartphone. The test allows us to suggest the actual communication distance on construction site and to determine the correction value that is applied to the measured temperature. The data acquisition method proposed in this study is intended to enable appropriate management on construction site and will be able to be applied effectively to a variable construction site. It can also be used in all fields of construction management.

With the recent global trends in environmental preservation, the importance of sustainable construction is being highlighted in Korea. In particular, the trend is being discussed about life cycle of the apartment houses in various aspects. However the Korean construction market and housing policy have been increasingly focusing on supplier. Structures become progressively obsolete after a certain period, but their durability can be extended with proper maintenance management. Accordingly, if maintenance management on the structures is made efficiently, waste of construction energy and damage to the environment and economic loss due to early demolition and reconstruction can be effectively prevented. Therefore, this study aims to suggest the user manual design for the efficient maintenance in apartment housing

Cash management is a major concern for all contractors in the construction industry. It is arguable that cash is the most critical resource of all. A contractor needs to secure sufficient funds to navigate the project to the end, while keeping an eye on maximizing profits along the way. Past research attempted to address such topic via developing models to tackle the time-cost tradeoff problem, cash flow forecasting, and cash flow management. Yet, little was done to integrate the three aspects of cash management together. This paper, as such, presents a comprehensive model that integrates the time-cost tradeoff problem, cash flow management, and cash flow forecasting. First, the model determines the project optimal completion time by considering the different alternative construction methods available for executing project activities. Second, it investigates different funding alternatives and proposes a project-level cash management plan. Two funding alternatives are considered; they are borrowing and company own financing. The model was built as a combinatorial optimization model that utilizes ant colony search capabilities. The model also utilizes Microsoft Project software and spreadsheets to maintain an environment that incorporates activities, their durations, and other project data, in order to estimate project completion time and cost. Ant Colony Optimization algorithm was coded as a Macro program using VBA. Finally, an example project was used to test the developed model, where it acted reliably in maximizing the contractor's profit in the test project.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is utilizing CAD technology in a way that ultimately ties all the components of a building together as objects imbedded with information, and has been changing the way we design and build over the last 20-30 years. In Polytechnic Institute of NYU, there are four BIM courses offered which provide students with different levels of knowledge regarding BIM Technique, BIM Standards, BIM Guideline and Roadmap for Private and Public Implementation, BIM Application in Real Projects, the Cooperation of BIM and IPD for Public Works in New York City. With advanced BIM technology, BIM's integration into the construction process and its incorporation into project delivery systems, especially Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) are the bridges between technology, industry and research. This paper presents an integrated BIM curriculum with three modules: 1) BIM functions and Bid Preparation; 2) Time-Cost Trade-off Analysis; and 3) Problems Solving in BIM/IPD Environment. In this project-based curriculum developed by the common efforts of academia, public agency and industry, the objectives are: (1) to provide the information and skills needed to successfully implement BIM into the construction phase; (2) to identify BIM's role in construction and the project delivery system; (3) to develop a module in conjunction with leading BIM into project delivery system, particularly coordination between BIM and IPD; (4) to connect technology and research into industry. The course assessment was conducted and the results indicate that it is a successful reform in construction management education.

This study for establishing specific standards of atrium design aims to discuss design of atrium to consider energy performance according to the types of atrium of office building. In order to evaluate a type and a scale of atrium at the early design stage, modeling details of mass design were set as standards of conceptual design. In the experiment, Project Vasari was used to analyze modeling and energy consumption, based on the LOD 100-step suggested by AIA, because there is no guideline to specify a level of modeling details at each design process. From this analysis, the correlation among a simple-typed atrium and scale and energy load was understood, and the followings are the considerations for designing an atrium. First, the single-sided atrium reduced energy the most, and it was followed by three-sided, two-sided, four-sided and continuous-typed ones. On the whole, they could decrease energy by up to about 15%. Also, the atrium with a wide facade facing in the south was more favorable to reduce energy. Second, planning an atria within 10~30% of the whole building area was more energy efficient. Third, rather than the depth, adjusting the length in designing an atrium could reduce cooling and heating loads by 1.5% per 1m. As explained above, energy performance evaluation considering types and planning elements of atrium helps to assess alternatives in a reasonable way. In particular, considering the use of building needs to be preceded to select a type of atrium, although it is also important to consider its planning elements.

Early design phase energy modeling is used to provide the design team with first order of magnitude feedback about the impact of various building configurations. For better energy-conscious and sustainable building design and operation, the construction of BIM data interoperability for energy performance assessment in the early design phase is important. The purpose of this study is to suggest construction of BIM data interoperability for energy performance assessment based on BIM. To archive this purpose, the authors have investigated advantage of BIM-based energy performance assessment through comparison with traditional energy performance assessment and suggested requirement for construction of open BIM environment such as BIM data creation, BIM data software practical use, BIM data application and verification. In addition, the authors have suggested BIM data interoperability and BIM energy property mapping method focused on materials.

Over the past several years, the building codes that govern commercial building construction have become increasingly prescriptive in nature, specifying detailed information related to the design and installation of the systems, while offering no reasoning behind their prescriptive measures. For example, metal stud framing is commonly used in commercial building construction to create bearing walls and non-bearing partition walls. BIM provides a powerful platform for developing and implementing "pre-planning" tools and methods to facilitate both engineering and administrative controls during construction. This paper discusses the use of BIM to enhance constructability for commercial building construction activities, specifically metal stud framing. Using specific real-world examples this paper demonstrates ways that BIM can be used to foresee potential construction issues and motivates and informs future uses of BIM technologies

This paper introduces a new method for identification of building energy performance problems. The presented method is based on automated analysis and visualization of deviations between actual and expected energy performance of the building using EPAR (Energy Performance Augmented Reality) models. For generating EPAR models, during building inspections, energy auditors collect a large number of digital and thermal imagery using a consumer-level single thermal camera that has a built-in digital lens. Based on a pipeline of image-based 3D reconstruction algorithms built on GPU and multi-core CPU architecture, 3D geometrical and thermal point cloud models of the building under inspection are automatically generated and integrated. Then, the resulting actual 3D spatio-thermal model and the expected energy performance model simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis are superimposed within an augmented reality environment. Based on the resulting EPAR models which jointly visualize the actual and expected energy performance of the building under inspection, two new algorithms are introduced for quick and reliable identification of potential performance problems: 1) 3D thermal mesh modeling using k-d trees and nearest neighbor searching to automate calculation of temperature deviations; and 2) automated visualization of performance deviations using a metaphor based on traffic light colors. The proposed EPAR v2.0 modeling method is validated on several interior locations of a residential building and an instructional facility. Our empirical observations show that the automated energy performance analysis using EPAR models enables performance deviations to be rapidly and accurately identified. The visualization of performance deviations in 3D enables auditors to easily identify potential building performance problems. Rather than manually analyzing thermal imagery, auditors can focus on other important tasks such as evaluating possible remedial alternatives.

The annual expenditure on diesel oil and heavy oil in the construction sector is the second largest among all industrial sectors. According to the greenhouse reduction scheme of Korean Government, construction sector targeted 7.1% reduction by 2020. Although this target is not higher than other industrial sectors, it is not easy to achieve the reduction target without radical advance in technology, which cannot be expected to happen soon, considering the conservative characteristics of construction industry. Most researches on environmental issues focus on the issues related to energy saving matters during material production stage or maintenance stage, such as heating and insulation, and few deal with the issues directly related to the energy use in the construction sites. This research regards the operation of equipment for the on-site construction processes as a system and attempts to model the energy use processes related to the activities in construction sites, and provides simulation results of earth excavation and hauling processes. The result of this research is expected to aid construction planners estimating the time-based patterns of energy use and assessing greenhouse gas emission and to help selecting more energy efficient alternatives at the planning stage.

In many urban cities, super-tall buildings have been being constructed around New York and Chicago as the center since 1930 to improve the efficiency of land use and respond to new residential type. In terms of energy consumption, super-tall buildings are classified as a top energy consumption building. Also, as time passed, the degradation of energy performance occurs in super-tall buildings like general things so that these cannot show the initial performance planned in the design phase. Accordingly, building owners need to make a plan to apply energy saving measures to existing building during the operation phase. In order to select energy saving measures, calculus-based methods and enumerative schemes have been typically used. However, these methods are time-consuming and previous studies which used these methods have problems with not considering the initial construction cost. Consequently, this study proposes a model for selecting an optimal combination of energy saving measures which derives maximum energy saving within allowable cost using genetic algorithms. As a contribution of this research, it would be expected that a model is utilized as one of the decision-making tools during the planning stage for energy saving.

On BIPV systems, especially roof-top PV systems, the power generation is easier to be reduced due to the shades of facilities nearby, or roof itself. To secure profitability of roof-top PV systems, the optimal design of solar arrays through the precise shading analysis is an important item of design considerations. In this paper, an optimization system for array design of roof-top PVs is to be developed using three-dimensional Geospatial Information System(GIS). The profitability of income and expense is considered through the shading analysis of entire roofs. By applying the system to project for validation, the adequacy and the improvement of NPV of the system were verified compared to expert's design. The system has significance by reason that PV modules are placed through rules established with expert knowledge and geometric rules were applied to reflect the constructability and maintainability.

Various programs have been developed to predict the energy consumption of a building as a result of recent increased social interest in the environmental friendliness of construction as measured by energy efficiency. The goal of environmental-friendliness, which is achieved by predicting the energy consumption of a building, can be realized in the design stage by applying a variety of technologies, planning factors and planning systems. However, most energy analyzing engines are only suitable for use in the advanced stages of design because of the large amount of design information that must be entered. Thus, because the simulation programs currently used are not suitable for use in the early stages of design, this study suggests a prediction logic that provides an overview of the energy consumption of a building according to its size, scope, and purpose by analyzing statistics collected by government agencies.

Although global construction spending has experienced slow growth due to consecutive economic crises, global contractors have consistently attempted to expand their overseas market share, leading to more intense competition among contractors in the international construction market. In this market environment, owners, clients and financial institutions require reasonable and systematic criteria to effectively assess the business capabilities of international construction firms. However, the existing evaluation methods for construction firms rarely consider overseas-focused business capabilities. To address this problem, this study proposes a quantitative approach to assessing the overseas business capabilities of international construction firms. The limitations of existing approaches are reviewed, and the capabilities required to perform overseas businesses are analyzed through expert interviews. Finally, 18 evaluation indices are suggested in four categories: technology resources, project management, experience and performance, and sustainability. The relative weight of each index is determined according to the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, and a preliminary investigation of 11 Korean construction firms is conducted. The proposed method is expected that it will provide the rational criteria for international owners, clients, and financial institutions for decision-making and for evaluating international contractors.

The aim of this study is to compare efficiency and Total Factor Productivity(TFP) between Korean and Japanese construction firms in Korea and Japan over the period of 2005-2011. The results of this study are as follows. Efficiency scores of Korean construction firms are 0.797, and Japanese construction firms are 0.921. Second, annual total factor productivity growth of Korean construction firms is 0.5% and technical progress do much for TFP decrease. However Japanese construction firms marked annual increasing of 2.5% of TFP. Third, technical progress contributed in TFP increase of construction firms in Korea. Korean construction firms, however, relatively lagged behind Japanese construction firms in technical progress. Therefore, Korean construction firms need strategies to achieve technical advances including adopting new technology or process innovation to maintain competitiveness, survive, and develop in the future competition with Japan.

Inter-organizational Relationships (IORs) governance is one of the emerging research areas that have been studied in different contexts (e.g. economics, strategy, organization, and management). This view, particularly, attracted rising attention from academics and practitioners in the context of construction projects, due to the complex forms of IORs in terms of inter-firm exchanges (e.g. engineering, procurement, finance, construction, and operation) in these projects. The focus of IORs governance is to control Inter-organizational relationships among two or more cooperative parties to alleviate conflict and achieve mutual gains. One of the mechanisms that have been identified in the related literature is formal governance mechanism. Although many empirical studies have been conducted using formal governance terms and indicators, there isn't yet a consensual definition of this mechanism and its components that may cause misinterpretation of research results and also impede future research. This paper makes contribution to the concept of IORs governance by clarifying the meaning of formal governance mechanism and identifying different indicators of this mechanism that have been used and identified in previous studies. This provides an innovative and useful framework to understand formal governance mechanism and its application in construction projects.

Incentive/Disincentive (I/D) contracting experiences in many states have been evaluated in terms of time and cost performance and substantial project time savings were found in many project cases. However, there is little understanding on individual project success factors for I/D projects during construction. This paper explores the significance of I/D clause in the success of the MacArthur Maze reconstruction project and summarizes a list of group causes that explains and elaborates on the detailed factors. The methods used for carrying out this study started with a search of online media and news reports and contract documents were also obtained from Caltrans. After review of the preliminary information, Interviews were performed with the Caltrans Resident Engineer and the contractor's project manager who were in charge of the MacArthur Maze reconstruction. In conclusion, the evaluation of their responses hinted at six significant cause groups responsible for the project's success. These groups can be listed as: 1) Motivation, 2) Policy, 3) Teamwork, 4) Communication, 5) Expectation, and 6) Resource Management.

Various project delivery methods have been utilized by owners over the years to maximize project performance. The design-build delivery method is being increasingly used due to the advantages it can offer to an engineering construction industry. Numerous studies have advocated the use of design/build over the traditional design/bid/build delivery approach. This study represents comprehensive analysis of 40 projects from the construction industry and shows that design/build method may not provide all the benefits to project performance. This study found timesaving was a definitive advantage of design/build project delivery, but the positive effects of cost changes was not convincing. Based on the results of the study, the project management expertise and experience of the contractor may have a greater impact on project performance outcomes than focusing on project delivery strategy only.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) as a delivery method fully capitalizes on an integrated project team that takes advantage of the knowledge of all team members to maximize project outcomes. IPD is currently the highest form of collaboration available because all three core project stakeholders, owner, designer and contractor, are aligned to the same purpose. Compared with traditional project delivery approaches such as Design-Bid-Build (DBB), Design-Build (DB), and CM at-Risk, IPD is distinguished in that it eliminates the adversarial nature of the business by encouraging transparency, open communication, honesty and collaboration among all project stakeholders. The team appropriately shares the project risk and reward. Sharing reward is easy, while it is hard to fairly share a failure. So the compensation structure and the contingency in IPD are very different from those in traditional delivery methods and they are expected to encourage motivation, inspiration and creativity of all project stakeholders to achieve project success. This paper investigates the compensation structure in IPD and provides a method to determine the proper level of contingency allocation to reduce the risk of cost overrun. It also proposes a method in which contingency could be used as a functional monetary incentive when established to produce the desired level of collaboration in IPD. Based on the compensation structure scenario discovered, a probabilistic contingency calculation model was created by evaluating the random nature of changes and various risk drivers. The model can be used by the IPD team to forecast the probability of the cost overrun and equip the IPD team with confidence to really enjoy the benefits of collaborative team work.

Private participation on public infrastructures projects is being promoted by governments of several developing countries, among them Colombia. As a result, several advantages such as service delivery efficiency, technology application and faster execution of the projects have been recognized. Hence, the Colombian Government is looking for schemes that allow the private investment in projects like hospitals, schools, prisons and public edification. In this paper, experiences in PPP from other countries were analyzed and adjusted to the Colombian environment. As a result, a model adapted to Colombia is presented, based on a well-developed case from Spain. The awarding process is defined by economic criteria, previous compliance of minimum technical exigencies. Once the infrastructure is operating, contractual periodical payments will be done, based on the performance of the facility.

As amount of information in construction industry is growing, the role of information system in project management is becoming increasingly important. With the emerging IT application to the advancing construction industry, construction project management system with advanced technology has been progressed vigorously to improve construction productivity and management efficiency. Recently, a web-based Project Management Information System (PMIS) is developed to support decision-making process by efficiently managing project related information generated from various discipline. Many firms are in the process of developing the PMIS system or already have been applied the system to various projects. However, PMIS is still in its early stage of development to be applied at industrial plant construction projects that process management is significantly emphasized for the successful execution of the project. With the complexity of the industrial plant projects, the industry practitioners need to be able to visualize the construction schedule information to manage the project efficiently. This study suggests methodologies for improving PMIS specialized for industrial plant piping construction projects to estimate the baseline schedule and performance measurement more accurately by developing a framework for the piping construction projects. By using this developed system, the researchers expect that piping construction projects will be more efficiently managed on a real-time basis through measuring progress of piping at each and every state of progress milestone and provide management with opportunities to forecast the level of efforts required to execute the remaining work scope in a timely manner

Although many research efforts have been conducted to address the effect of crew members' work skills (e.g., technical and planning skills) on work performance (e.g., work duration and quality) in construction projects, the relationship between skill and performance has generated a great deal of controversy in the field of management (Inkpen and Crossan 1995). This controversy can lead to under- or over-estimations of the overall project schedule, and can make it difficult for project managers to implement appropriate managerial policies for enhancing project performance. To address this issue, the following aspects need to be considered: (a) work performances are determined not only by individual-level work skill but also by the group-level work skill affected by work team members, each member's role, and any working behavior pattern; (b) work planning has significant effects on to what extent work skill enhances performance; and (c) different types of activities in construction require different types of work, skill, and team composition. This research, therefore, develops a system dynamics (SD) model to analyze the effects of both individual-and group-level (i.e., multi-level) skill on performances by utilizing the advantages of SD in capturing a feedback process and state changes, especially in human factors (e.g., attitude, ability, and behavior). The model incorporates: (a) a multi-level skill evolution and relevant behavior development mechanism within a work group; (b) the interaction among work planning, a crew's skill-learning, skill manifestation, and performances; and (c) the different work characteristics of each activity. This model can be utilized to implement appropriate work planning (e.g., work scope and work schedule) and crew management policies (e.g., work team composition and decision of each worker's role) with an awareness of crew's skill and work performance. Understanding the different characteristics of each activity can also support project managers in applying strategic work planning and crew management for a corresponding activity, which may enhance each activity's performance, as well as the overall project performance.

Underground infrastructure systems provide essential public services and goods through buried structures including water and sewer, gas and petroleum, power and communication pipelines. The majority of existing underground infrastructure systems was installed in green field areas prior to development of complex urban built environments. Currently, there is a global trend to escalate major demand for underground infrastructure system renewal and new installation while minimizing disruption and maintaining functions of existing superstructures. Therefore, Engineers and utility owners are rigorously seeking technologies that minimize environmental, social, and economic impact during the renewal and installation process. Trenchless technologies have proven to be socially less disruptive, more environmentally friendly, energy conservative and economically viable alternative methods. All of those benefits are adequate to enhance overall sustainability. This paper describes effective sustainable solutions using trenchless technologies. Sustainability is assessed by a comparison between conventional open cut and trenchless technology methods. Sustainability analysis is based on a broad perspective combining the three main aspects of sustainability: economic; environmental; and social. Economic includes construction cost, benefit, and social cost analysis. Environmental includes emission estimation and environmental quality impact study. Social includes various social impacts on an urban area. This paper summarizes sustainable trenchless technology solutions and presents a sustainable construction method selection process in a proposed framework to be used in urban underground infrastructure capital improvement projects.

As climate change and environmental pollution become one of the biggest global issues today, new renewable energy, especially solar photovoltaic (PV) system, is getting great attention as a sustainable energy source. However, initial investment cost of PV system is considerable, and thus, it is crucial to predict electricity generation accurately before installation of the system. This study analyzes the loss ratio of solar photovoltaic electricity generation from the actual PV system monitoring data to predict electricity generation more accurately in advance. This study is carried out with the following five steps: (i) Data collection of actual electricity generation from PV system and the related information; (ii) Calculation of simulation-based electricity generation; (iii) Comparative analysis between actual electricity generation and simulation-based electricity generation based on the seasonality; (iv) Stochastic approach by defining probability distribution of loss ratio between actual electricity generation and simulation-based electricity generation ; and (v) Case study by conducting Monte-Carlo Simulation (MCS) based on the probability distribution function of loss ratio. The results of this study could be used (i) to estimate electricity generation from PV system more accurately before installation of the system, (ii) to establish the optimal maintenance strategy for the different application fields and the different season, and (iii) to conduct feasibility study on investment at the level of life cycle.

Under climate change and urbanization, rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems are emerging as an alternative source of water supply because of growing concern about water sustainability. RWH systems can satisfy the various watering needs and provide the environmental benefits of lessening the damages from flood, drought, and runoff. The economic success of a RWH system is vitally concerned with the determination of the design capacity of storage tank to be built in the system. The design capacity is determined by the factors of average annual rainfall, period of water scarcity, and water price during the whole life-cycles. Despite the high uncertainties inherent in these factors, the current engineering design of RWH system construction often assumes that storage tanks should be built all at once. This assumption implicitly ignores the managerial flexibility in responds to the future as new information comes out-the right to build storage tanks stage by stage depending on the evolution of demand. This study evaluates the value of a multistage storage tank construction using a real option approach. A case study involving a typical RWH system construction in Jeonju, the Republic of Korea is conducted. The managerial flexibility obtained from the real option perspective allows engineers to develop investment strategies to better cope with the issue of water sustainability.

Use of recycled aggregates in portland cement concrete construction can offer benefits associated with both economy and sustainability. Testing performed to date indicates that RBMA can be used as a 100% replacement for conventional coarse aggregate in concrete that exhibits acceptable mechanical properties for use in structural and pavement elements, including satisfactory performance in some durability tests. RBMAC is currently not used in any type of construction in the United States. However, use of RBMAC could become a viable construction strategy as sustainable building practices become the norm. Rating systems such as LEED offer points for reuse of building materials (particularly on-site) and use of recycled materials. If renovations at an existing facility call for the demolition of existing brick masonry constructions, the rubble could be included as RBMA in new concrete pavement, sidewalks, or curb and gutter. Other potential uses for RBMAC could include those in the precast concrete industry, particularly in architectural precast concrete applications. In addition to providing acceptable strength and economy, the color of RBMA could be an attractive component of architectural precast concrete panels or other façade components. This paper explores the feasibility of use of RBMAC in several types of sustainable construction initiatives, based upon the findings of previous work with RBMAC produced from construction and demolition waste from a case study site. Guidance for obtaining and using RBMA is presented, along with a summary of material properties of RBMAC that will be useful to construction professionals.

As the construction environment has been changing all the times, the techniques for managing the construction projects have been improved accordingly. The schedule management technique, one of the construction management tools, has been evolved as well in order to be adaptable to new construction environment. Most of newly proposed scheduling techniques have been based on the Critical Path Method (CPM) that was proposed in 1956. The CPM is classified into two categories, Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) and Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM). ADM is so good in the visual format but it cannot express the overlapping relationships between two consecutive activities. On the other hand, PDM can express the overlapping relationships but it is unsatisfactory in the visual format. Recently, as the construction environment becomes more complex and the role of schedule management becomes more and more important, the overlapping expression becomes one of critical factors for scheduling as well. Most of construction project participants prefer more comfortable visual format, however, the scheduling software based on the PDM cannot satisfy their basic requirement. Beeliner, new scheduling software based on the Beeline Diagramming Method (BDM) that was proposed in 2010, was developed in 2012, it can express more flexible overlapping relationships and has superior visual format as well. This paper presents major features and applications of Beeliner, and makes construction professionals understand new scheduling concept and its applications.

In super-tall building construction projects, schedule risk factors which vertically change and are not found in the low and middle-rise building construction influence duration of a project by vertical attribute; and it makes hard to estimate activity or overall duration of a construction project. However, the existing duration estimating methods, that are based on quantity and productivity assuming activities of the same work item have the same risk and duration regardless of operation space, are not able to consider the schedule risk factors which change by the altitude of operation space. Therefore, in order to advance accuracy of duration estimation of super-tall building projects, the degree of changes of these risk factors according to altitude should be analyzed and incorporated into a duration estimating method. This research proposes a simulation model using Monte Carlo method for estimating activity duration incorporating schedule risk factors by weather conditions in a super-tall building. The research process is as follows. Firstly, the schedule risk factors in super-tall building are identified through literature and expert reviews, and occurrence of non-working days at high altitude by weather condition is identified as one of the critical schedule risk factors. Secondly, a calculating method of the vertical distributions of the weather factors such as temperature and wind speed is analyzed through literature reviews. Then, a probability distribution of the weather factors is developed using the weather database of the past decade. Thirdly, a simulation model and algorithms for estimating non-working days and duration of each activity is developed using Monte-Carlo method. Finally, sensitivity analysis and a case study are carried out for the validation of the proposed model.

Horizontal construction projects such as oil and gas pipeline projects typically involve repetitive-work activities with the same crew and equipment from one end of the project to the other. Repetitive scheduling also known as linear scheduling is known to have superior schedule management capabilities specifically for such horizontal construction projects. This study discusses on expanding the capabilities of repetitive scheduling to account for the variance in production rates and visual representation by developing an automated alignment based linear scheduling program for applying temporal and spatial changes in production rates. The study outlines a framework to apply changes in productions rates when and where they will occur along the horizontal alignment of the project and illustrates the complexity of construction through the time-location chart through a new linear scheduling model, Linear Scheduling Model with Varying Production Rates (LSM_VPR). The program uses empirically derived production rate equations with appropriate variables as an input at the appropriate time and location based on actual 750 mile natural gas liquids pipeline project starting in Wyoming and terminating in the center of Kansas. The study showed that the changes in production rates due to time and location resulted in a close approximation of the actual progress of work as compared to the planned progress and can be modeled for use in predicting future linear construction projects. LSM_VPR allows the scheduler to develop schedule durations based on minimal project information. The model also allows the scheduler to analyze the impact of various routes or start dates for construction and the corresponding impact on the schedule. In addition, the graphical format lets the construction team to visualize the obstacles in the project when and where they occur due to a new feature called the Activity Performance Index (API). This index is used to shade the linear scheduling chart by time and location with the variation in color indicating the variance in predicted production rate from the desired production rate.

With the increasing demand for public housing, the Singapore government decided to reduce the waiting time of future public housing owners, which requires these projects to be completed on time. As a result, this study aims to identify the frequent and impactful factors affecting schedule performance of public housing projects in Singapore. The survey conducted with 36 industry experts revealed that "site management", "coordination among various parties", "design changes by owner during construction", "availability of laborers on site", "availability of material", and "availability of staff to manage projects" were the six factors that should be emphasized to assure the schedule performance of public housing projects. In addition, there was statistically significant agreement between public housing projects and other building projects on both the frequency and impact ranks of the factors. The findings from this study will help practitioners involving public housing projects to take measures to assure the achievement of project schedule objectives.

Recently AEC industry has required construction automation according to becoming large and complex. Thus BIM-based construction project is increased and used in whole fields of AEC industry. Quantity take-off and estimation fields are important factor for decision-making in conceptual and schematic design stages of construction projects. The purpose of this study improves reliability of the estimation through QTO based on Open BIM. Scope and method to apply QTO is to select conceptual design stage through LoD(Level of Detail) in AEC field and to extract information from BIM model through analysis of IFC structure. This study proceeds three step to make BIM model and check the model quality and calculate QTO. The methodology of QTO using IFC is to verify of result in this study and expects utilizing in design stage of construction projects. The result from this study is expected to decrease the risk factor and time of estimation in the project early phase through improving reliability of schematic estimation.

The construction industry consists of various and massive architectural information as an architectural process includes a variety of design stages with cooperation of many disciplines. Particularly, architectural information is generated and managed through the life cycle of a building, from conceptual design stage to the construction and maintenance. A Building Information Model (BIM) serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle from inception onward. BIM technology accomplished quantitative development being utilized in various disciplines. However, it is necessary to develop environment and requirement for qualitative improvement of BIM based project. Particularly, requirement is very important for architectural design evaluations. The purpose of this study is to develop and apply of quality control requirement for improving the quality of architectural design in open BIM environments. To achieve this purpose, the authors have investigated case study for open BIM data quality control (software, guideline and application case) and classified quality control targets according to physical/logical quality and data quality. In addition, the authors have defined open BIM based quality control process and developed quality control requirements. Finally, the authors have developed rule based quality check system using requirements for efficient quality control based on open BIM.

This study suggests IFC-based bridge information modeling methods and its application model in BIM environment. Data model extension for bridge structure was achieved using user-defined property sets based on IFC framework. First, identification information was added. Bridge members are identified through physical and spatial semantic information added as property sets. Instances for semantic information were assigned according to standardized rules. Second, CO2 related factors were added for application information model. It can play a role to calculate and manage the quantity of CO2 emission. Third, properties for temporary structure to estimate and manage the construction cost were added. Finally, we investigated proposed methods through implementing the application information model of bridges.

Recently, sustainable building design, a growing field within architectural design, has been emerged in the construction industry as the practice of designing, constructing, and operating facilities in such a manner that their environmental impact, which has become a great concern of construction professionals, can be minimized. A number of different green rating systems have been developed to help assess that a building project is designed and built using strategies intended to minimize or eliminate its impact on the environment. In the United States, the widely accepted national standards for sustainable building design are known as the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System. The assessment of sustainability using the LEED green rating system is a challenging and time-consuming work due to its complicated process. In effect, the LEED green rating system awards points for satisfying specified green building criteria into five major categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality; and sustainability of a project is rated by accumulating scores (100 points maximum) from these five major categories. The sustainability rating process could be accelerated and facilitated by using computer technology such as BIM (Building Information Modeling), an innovative new approach to building design, engineering, and construction management that has been widely used in the construction industry. BIM is defined as a model-based technology linked with a database of project information, which can be accessed, manipulated, and retrieved for construction estimating, scheduling, project management, as well as sustainability rating. This paper will present a framework representing the building knowledge contained in the LEED green building criteria. The proposed building knowledge framework will be implemented into a BIM platform (e.g. Autodesk Revit Architecture) in which sustainability rating of a building design can be automatically performed. The development of the automated sustainability rating system and the results of its implementation will be discussed.

Public private partnership (PPP) procurement was introduced into Singapore in 2003, and 10 PPP projects was successfully completed and have been in operation. The objective of this study is to identify the critical risk factors and risk allocation preferences for PPP projects in Singapore. To achieve this objective, a comprehensive literature review was carried out and 42 risks were identified and grouped into three meta levels, i.e. macro, meso and micro levels. The questionnaire survey produced 48 completed questionnaires from 48 different contractors. The survey results indicated that 23 risk factors had significantly high criticalities and that four macro-level risks, four meso-level risks and two micro-level risks were among the top 10 risk ranking. "Lack of support from government", "availability of finance" and "construction time delay" were perceived as the top three critical risks. Also, the result implied that micro-level risks had a higher criticality mean score than macro-level and meso-level risks. The findings of this study help both public and private sectors to better understand the risks and their allocation in PPP projects, providing valuable information for organizations that intend to participate in PPP projects in Singapore.

This research documents the initial findings and recommendations for developing a risk management tool to assess and quantify the risks associated with the construction of the next generation of nuclear power plants. The proposed tool builds upon the Construction Industry Institute's International Project Risk Assessment (IPRA) Best Practice. This paper provides an overview of the investigation to assess the unique risk elements pertaining to nuclear power plant construction and documents the preliminary findings from historical project performance data to better understand the function and use of the IPRA's Relative Impact value.

Risk exists in all construction projects and resides among the collection of subcontractors and their array of individual activities. Wherever risk resides, the interrelation of participants to one another becomes paramount for the way in which risk is measured. Inherent risk becomes recognizable and quantifiable within network schedules in the form of consuming float - the flexibility to absorb delays. Allocating, owning, valuing, and expending such float in network schedules has been debated since the inception of the critical path method itself. This research investigates the foundational element of a three-part approach that examines how float can be traded as a commodity, a concept whose promise remains unfulfilled for lack of a holistic approach. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) of financial portfolio theory, which describes the relationship between risk and expected return of individual stocks, is explored as an analogy to quantify the inherent risk of the participants in construction projects. The inherent relationship between them and their impact on overall schedule performance, defined as schedule risk -the likelihood of failing to meet schedule plans and the effect of such failure, is matched with the use of CAPM's beta component - the risk correlation measure of an individual stock to that of the entire market - to determine parallels with respect to the inner workings and risks represented by each entity or activity within a schedule. This correlation is the initial theoretical extension that is required to identify where risk resides within construction projects, allocate and commoditize it, and achieve actual tradability.

Construction contactors must continuously seek to improve their cash flows, which reside at the heart of their financial success. They require careful planning, analysis, and optimization to avoid the risk of bankruptcy, remain profitable, and secure long-term growth. Sources of cash include bank loans and retained earnings, which are conceptually similar in that they both incur a cost of capital. Financial management therefore requires accurate yet customizable modeling capabilities that can quantify all expenses, including said cost of capital. However, currently existing cash flow models in construction engineering and management have strongly simplified the manner in which interest is assessed, which may even lead to overstating it at a disadvantage to contractors. The variable nature of cash balances, especially in the early phases of construction projects, contribute to this challenging issue. This research therefore extends a new cash flow model with an accurate interest calculation. It utilizes singularity functions, so called because of their ability to flexibly model changes across any number of different ranges. The interest function is continuous for activity costs of any duration and allows the realistic case that activities may begin between integer time periods, which are often calendar months. Such fractional interest calculation has hitherto been lacking from the literature. It also provides insights into the self-referential behavior of compound interest for variable cash balances. The contribution of this study is twofold; augmenting the corpus of financial analysis theory with a new interest formula, whose strengths include its generic nature and that it can be evaluated at any fractional value of time, and providing construction managers with a tool to help improve and fine-tune the financial performance of their projects.

To carry out a one-off construction project successfully, effective and accurate early cost estimation is crucial, especially during the conceptual stage where very limited minimum information of construction project is given. As the level of accuracy of the early cost estimation has huge impacts on precise budgeting and cost management of a project, in other words, reducing the risk of a project, cost must be managed with special awareness. In an effort to improve the estimate accuracy of cost during the conceptual stage, this research introduces a Parameter Impact (PI) which can quantify weights of parameters and rank them; and PI development derived from the principle of impulse in physics is explicated. For a case study, 76 public apartment building cases in Korea are analyzed. To examine the validity of the proposed PI, a validation in terms of CBR applicability test and estimate accuracy comparisons using 10-nearest neighbor cases are carried out. The validation results support that the suggested PI can be applied in quantifying the weights of the parameters and CBR method for early cost estimation.

State Highway Agencies (SHAs) have started utilizing cost-plus-time bidding (A+B bidding) since Federal Highway Agency (FHWA) declared it operational on May 4, 1995. Although this technique has successfully accelerated many projects by incorporating construction time in the bidding competition, a framework to illustrate the interactions of incentive/disincentive (I/D) rates on the competitiveness of contractors participating in the bid competition is yet to be developed. In a previous research, authors indicated that for each bid competition there is an efficient cap for I/D rates which are dictated by the capabilities of contractors in project acceleration. However, the results of previous study were based on the assumption that there is a statistically significant relationship between cost and time. In this study, the entire cost-plus-time projects implemented by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) were investigated. Then the significance of relationship between cost and time were analyzed for each contractor utilizing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique, and the price-time function of each contractor was determined by regression analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between cost and time for the majority of contractors. However, a quadratic relationship is not always significant and for some contractors a linear price-time relationship is significant. The results of this project can be used not only by ODOT to optimize the incentive/disincentive rates but also by contractors to determine the most competitive strategies of other bid participants.

Accurate initial cost estimates are essential to effective management of construction projects where many decisions are made in the course of project management by referencing the estimates. In practice, the initial estimates are frequently derived from historical actual cost data, for which standard distribution-based techniques are widely applied in the construction industry to account for risk associated with the estimates. This approach assumes the same probability distribution of estimate errors for any selected estimates. This assumption, however, is not always satisfied. In order to account for the probabilistic nature of estimate errors, an alternative method for measuring the risk associated with a selected initial estimate is developed by applying the Bayesian probability approach. An application example include demonstrates how the method is implemented. A hypothesis test is conducted to reveal the robustness of the Bayesian probability model. The method is envisioned to effectively complement cost estimating methods that are currently in use by providing benefits as follows: (1) it effectively accounts for the probabilistic nature of errors in estimates; (2) it is easy to implement by using historical estimates and actual costs that are readily available in most construction companies; and (3) it minimizes subjective judgment by using quantitative data only.

Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is a systematic optimization process that allows users to compare different alternatives and to determine if a project is a solid investment. Many state DOTs have included CBA in their pavement management systems (PMSs) to help allocate state funds for maintenance, rehabilitation, resurfacing, and reconstruction of pavements. In a typical CBA, each pavement type has an assigned weight factor which represents the level of importance of this pavement type. To conduct an accurate CBA, it is essential to select appropriate weight factors. Arbitrarily assigning weights factors to pavements can lead to biased and inaccurate funding allocation decisions. The purpose for this paper is to outline a method to develop an ideal set of weight factors that can be utilized to conduct more accurate CBA. To this end, a matrix of all possible weight factors sets was developed. CBA was conducted for each set of weight factors to obtain a population of possible optimization solutions. Then a regression analysis was performed to establish the relationship between benefit and weight factors. Finally, a multi-objective genetic algorithm was applied to select the optimal set of weight factors. The findings from this study can be used by state DOTs to strategically manage their roadway systems in a cost effective manner.

An important decision-making element for the success of housing redevelopment projects is a prediction of the profitability of redevelopment. Risk factors influencing profitability were deduced through a review of the literature about profitability and a risk analysis developed by a survey of maintenance projects. In addition, a profitability prediction depending on the analysis of risk factors is necessary to judge the business feasibility of a project in the planning stages. A profitability prediction model of management and disposal method, which is calculated by proportional rate and which helps estimate contributions to profitability, is proposed to prevent difficulties in business development. The proposed model has the potential to prevent interruptions, reduce the length of projects, generate cost savings, and enable rational decision-making during the project period by allowing a judgment of profitability at the planning stage.

The cash flow forecasting is normally done by contractors in construction industry at early stages of the project for contractual decisions. The decision making in such situations involve uncertainty about future cash flows and assessment of working capital requirements gains more importance in projects constrained by cash. The traditional approach to assess the working capital requirements is deterministic in and neglects the uncertainty. This paper presents an alternate approach to assessment of working capital requirements for contractor based on fuzzy set theory by considering the uncertainty and ambiguity involved at payment periods. Statistical methods are used to deal with the uncertainty for working capital curves. Membership functions of the fuzzy sets are developed based on these statistical measures. Advantage of fuzzy peak working capital requirements is demonstrated using peak working capital requirements curves. Fuzzy peak working capital requirements curves are compared with deterministic curves and the results are analyzed. Fuzzy weighted average methodology is proposed for the assessment of peak working capital requirements.

International Roughness Index (IRI) has been widely used by state DOTs to quantify pavement smoothness. When pavement condition falls below certain IRI thresholds, corresponding pavement maintenance treatments should be considered for application. Selection of appropriate IRI thresholds is essential to tactical allocation of limited resources to improve the conditions of states' roadway systems. This selection process is often challenging, however, because IRI thresholds are largely determined by Perceived Ride Quality (PRQ), and PRQ differs in each state. In this paper, a framework is proposed to address this problem. Passenger raters will be randomly selected from predetermined geographic locations, and their PRQ ratings collected. Taking this perceived ride data, along with other data collected, a statistical analysis will be conducted to establish the relationship between measured IRI values and PRQ. Appropriate IRI thresholds will then be determined. Once this framework is implemented, state DOTs could make informative maintenance decisions, which are expected to greatly enhance the public perception of pavement conditions in today's challenging economy.

An inappropriate space zoning plan causes the unnecessary transportation of construction material and equipment among work areas and increases the disorder of work space. Space zoning is an essential operation management technique which contributes to reduce the process and/or operation idle-time. This paper introduces a method that computes the idle-times between construction operations (or processes) by using Web-CYCLONE. It allows computing with idle-times that affect the construction productivity. Using the idle time between operations and between processes, it computes the optimal number of zones and finds the optimal combination of zones that minimize the idle times. The method contributes to minimize the idle times relative to the operation schedule using complete enumeration. This paper presents the system prototype in detail. A case study is presented to demonstrate the system and verifies the validity of the model. It allows a project manager to establish space zoning plan that effectively segregates a project into optimal number of construction zones and to assign the constrained resources (e.g., laborer, equipment).

Earthmoving equipment's haul-route has a great influence on the productivity of the earth work operation. Haul-route grade is a critical factor in selecting the haul-route. The route that has low grade resistance contributes to increase machine travel speed and production. This study presents a mathematical model called "Hauling-Unit Optimal Routes Selecting system" (HUORS). The system identifies optimal path that maximize the earth-work productivity. It consists of 3 modules, i.e., (1) Module 1 which inputs site characteristic data and computes site location and elevation using GIS(Geographical Information System); (2) Module 2 which calculates haul time; (3) Module 3 which displays an optimum haul-route by considering the haul-route's gradient resistances (i.e., from the departure to the destination) and hauling time. This paper presents the system prototype in detail. A case study is presented to demonstrate the system and verifies the validity of the model.

In construction operation, the temporary structure is used to support designed facilities or to provide work spaces for construction activities. Since the structure is used only during the construction operation, the operation may be given insufficient attention. The contractor is likely to try to save cost on the material and labor cost. This contractor's behavior frequently leads to construction accidents. In order to prevent accidents from the failure, the operation should be carefully monitored for identifying the effect of dynamics in the surrounding site area. Otherwise, any unexpected adversary effect could result in a very costly construction failure. This study presents the feasibility of the ubiquitous sensor network (USN) technology in collecting construction data during the construction operation of earth retaining walls. The study is based on the result at the Construction System Integration Laboratory (CSIL) at the Pusan National University. A USN-based system has been developed for monitoring the behavior of the temporary structure of earth retaining walls. The data collected from the sensors were used to understand the behavior of the temporary structure. The result of this study will be used in increasing the safety during the construction operation of retaining walls.

Schedule management of construction work is important in order to complete construction projects within a given period of time. Many efforts have been made and many tools have been developed in order to manage construction projects by a smart device such as smart phones and smart pads. This research proposed a basic design to manage construction schedules via a smart device using Flash. The interactive and graphic property of Flash enables a field manager to manage schedules easily and efficiently. A basic structure was designed for a user to be able to make and change a schedule by touching the smart device's screen. And a prototype was implemented by Adobe Flash/Flex Builder, it is applied to a sample network in a smart phone.

The importance of engineering design increases due to the expansion of engineering education certification. But there are not much teaching methods and examples of engineering design to be referred to the college classes. This paper introduces a new teaching and learning method of Action Learning adopted to a engineering design class in the Department of Architectural Engineering, J University in Korea. The class included a team project to find problems of facilities or safety management factors in a building construction site, and to provide the alternatives to solve the problems. The Action Learning helped to improve the learning effect of students and to increase the quality of the project deliverables.

The coordination and control of construction projects is vital if a project is to be a success. Almost all analysis has shown that these can only be achieved if good quality communication can be maintained on a construction site. This research focuses on the role that tablet computers could play in enhancing this communication. The following points are investigated in this paper: (a) Whether a tablet computer can enable users to monitor project progress more efficiently than traditional methods, (b) How the tablet computer fits within the project management iron triangle in construction, (c) The two different psychological impacts of information transmission for the end user using a tablet computer (i) The expectancy to transmit information frequently and rapidly from tablet computer users to project members whilst working onsite (ii) The mode of information transmission to the cognition of the transmitted information to the tablet computer. Through the use of structured interviews and questionnaires, the opinions of individuals within various disciplines in construction were canvassed. The approach adopted in this paper deals with understanding both the soft and hard issues for deploying such a system. This research enabled the authors to develop a base framework incorporating the key factors which are relevant for implementing a tablet computer based on information flows primarily.

Although individual-level factors (e.g., attitudes, personality) have long been associated with day-to-day attendance decisions, increasingly researchers have recognized "the social nature of attendance dynamics and their susceptibility to social control (Johns, 2008)." Implications of this social approach for research would be to focus attention on the causes and effects of absence culture (i.e., absence-related perceptions, beliefs, values), and the effects of absence culture on individual and group attendance within social units. Construction projects typically require workers to work in teams or crews on highly interdependent projects, and, thus, are particularly relevant contexts to study absence culture. In this paper we apply a system dynamics (SD) model to study absence culture by utilizing the advantages of SD in capturing a feedback process and state changes. We were particularly interested in: (a) the awareness of social norms within construction crews that pertained to attendance, (b) the interplay between formal attendance rules (policy) and these social norms, and (c) how these sources of influence affected the decision-making process of construction crew members. We expect that the results of this work will help construction organizations evaluate (or re-consider) the effects of their attendance control policies (e.g., timing, strength, and frequency) within a social context. Moreover, our findings suggest that the key to reducing excessive absences might be to invest time in influencing absence culture directly rather than imposing frequent and strict regulations - which, in turn, may inadvertently fortify a culture that works against the organization's interests.

The future competitiveness of construction industry is dependent on K-12 students. However, unfavorable images of construction industry have negative influence on K-12 students' decision-making of their career. This negative image makes them not want to find out what actually happens in construction industry. Consequently, it is important to give K-12 students the opportunity to know what construction employees actually do in their job. Studies show that K-12 students who encounter the job early-on are more likely to choose it as their career. In this context, this paper proposes construction educational game in which it can serve as a medium for capturing K-12 students' interest in Construction Management (CM). Based on the literature reviews, challenges of construction educational game for K-12 students which are edutainment, hands-on experience and social interaction, are derived. To address these issues, conceptual model and scenario are designed. Based on designed scenario, prototype of Simulation based Construction Game in Virtual World (SCGVW) is developed in Second Life (SL) and applicability test to K-12 students are implemented. This paper concludes with a discussion of the lessons learned and the future development steps of the construction educational game for K-12 students.

Roof and exterior wall are designed and constructed in a manner that prevents the accumulation of water within the wall and roof assembly in the formal building. However, in a freeform building there is no clear distinction between exterior wall and roof. In other words, the exterior walls and roof systems of the freeform building are integrated as a surface, unlike the formal building envelope. Therefore, freeform architecture needs a systemized envelope design method to perform functions of exterior wall and roof. However, in many cases, construction methods for roof and exterior wall are applied to freeform buildings without necessary alterations, which lead to incomplete design, leakage, cracks and other problems. Freeform architecture is thus designed and constructed differently from formal buildings. In order to more easily and inexpensively actualize freeform architecture, Building Information Modeling (hereinafter referred to as BIM) has recently been applied in the construction industry. The studies and case analysis are not sufficient to identify the implications and contributions of freeform buildings in future similar projects. Therefore, this research will study design and construction methods for freeform surfaces. This study attempts to analyze the pros and cons of each method for the concrete surface frame, and then presents the panel options for envelope system of the freeform architecture.

The process and efficiency of monitoring building and construction violations is a concern of the construction industry. The detection of violations requires appropriate and sufficiently accurate spatial information to manage and support a comprehensive inspection process and monitor compliance. A building inspection workflow must extract appropriate spatial and measurement in-formation from a variety of sources, identify potential violations across a range of compliance criteria and determine the quality of resulting inspection reports. This paper presents a framework for supporting building inspections using spatial information and methods to detect construction violations and compliance. Current inspection processes involve issues around the identification of building violations, access to building regulations and existing spatial information, integration of a range of spatial and non-spatial information, and the quality of decisions within the inspection workflows. A survey of building inspectors was conducted and used together with the issues identified to establish the requirements for a spatial inspection framework. The results demonstrate how such a framework can support improved decision-making and reduced fieldwork effort in detecting and measuring the accuracy of building violations involving building placements, street offsets and footprint areas.

The purpose of this research is to develop the technology to meet the requirements of the design content, and to build a 'Requirement Information Management Model' for the design project. The model that should be used in the early design stage will undergo the following process: First, basic requirements would be defined by extracting the design content in the form of a reusable library of space units. At the next stage, requirement information should be modified after considering unique characteristics for the project and conflict problems between function and performance.

Enhancing utilization of buildings is gaining in importance in response to a challenging economy; thus, there is a need for a method that analyzes space, user, and user activity in an integrated way to provide project stakeholders with utilization information to support their decision-making about buildings. Conventional methods, such as architectural programming and post-occupancy evaluation, lack a formal relationship between user activity and other information, and therefore, are coarse-grained. This relationship has been formalized by two relatively new methods that provide fine-grained utilization information: workplace planning and space-use analysis. We characterize these two methods with focuses on their usage in different phases (i.e., planning, design, occupancy), required information that needs to be gathered, and the achievement and limitations in terms of three criteria, i.e., consistency, efficiency, and transparency. This characterization would not only help project stakeholders select and use a method that best meets their purposes for enhancing utilization of their buildings, but also provide researchers with promising research topics regarding enhancing utilization of buildings.

Typical highway infrastructure systems include roadway pavement, drainage systems, tunneling, and other hardware components such as guardrails, traffic signs, and lighting. Tunnels in a highway system have provided significant advantages to overcoming various natural challenges including crossing underneath bodies of water or through mountainous areas. While only a few tunnel failure cases have been reported, the failure rate is likely to increase as these assets age and because agencies have not emphasized tunneling asset management. A tunnel system undergoes a deterioration life cycle pattern that is similar to other infrastructure systems. There are very few agencies in the United States implementing comprehensive tunnel asset management programs. While current tunnel asset management programs focus on inspection, maintenance, and operation safety, there is an increasing need for the development of a comprehensive life cycle tunnel asset management program. This paper describes a conceptual framework for a comprehensive tunnel asset management program. The framework consists of three basic phases including a strategic plan, a tactical plan, and an operational plan to provide better information to the decision makers. The strategic plan is a basic long term approach of tunnel asset management. The tactical plan determines specific objectives and the operational plan actually applies asset management objectives in practice. The information includes operational condition, structural condition, efficiency of the system, emergency response, and life cycle cost analysis for tunnel capital improvement project planning.

Construction processes are highly repetitive. A resource entity continuously cycles through work tasks that processes or uses resources. Web-CYCLONE (Halpin 1992) has been accepted as a useful tool for modeling and analyzing a specific operation. However the system has a lack of practicality as follows: (1) it does not efficiently record and keep track of operation models in a database; (2) it does not provide the functions which facilitate to retrieve corresponding model and to update local variables of the model using observed data; (3) it does not automate the complex process that executes simulation experiment, analyzes simulation outputs and generates a report on behalf of the practitioners. Therefore, practitioners have a difficulty in reusing, modifying and analyzing the existing operation models. This study introduces a Client/Server based CYCLONE that improves above-mentioned limitations in the existing Web-CYCLONE. The system was illustrated by revising CSPU in practice.

Measuring the process of construction operations for productivity improvement remains a difficult task for most construction companies due to the manual effort required in most activity measurement methods. There are many ways to measuring the process. But past measurement methods was inefficient. Because they needed a lot of manpower and time. So, this article focus on the vision-based object recognition and tracking methods for automated construction. These methods have the advantage of efficient that human intervention was reduced. Therefore, this article is analyzed the performance of vision-based methods in the construction sites and is expected to contribute to selection of vision-based methods.

Advent of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has provided potentials to a variety of construction applications. It is well appreciated that WSNs have advantages over traditional wired system, such as ease of installation and maintenance with increased cost savings and efficiencies. However, the obstruction of wireless signal from physical objects in the heterogeneous construction environment often brings challenges to WSN measurement system. This paper analyzed the obstruction characteristic of construction environment where construction materials, equipment, and built structures obstruct the wireless signal yielding negative effect of measurement system. By adopting evaluation criteria, such as packet reception rate, field experiments have been implemented to quantitatively identify the interference of wireless signal from penetration, reflection, and network traffic under the construction environment. The results show that reliable performance of wireless sensor in construction environment depends on the optimal separation distance between a receiver and a transmitter, obstruction types, obstruction thickness, and transmission interval. In addition, the methodology and experimental results of this paper could be used in the practical design of network topology when hundreds of sensor nodes form a mesh network in the large scale construction applications.

In the current pavement construction practice, the state agencies traditionally determine the quality of the as-constructed pavement mix based on individual mixture material parameters (e.g., air voids, cement or asphalt content, aggregate gradation, etc.) and consider these parameters as key variables to influence payment schedule to the contractors and the present and future quality of the as-constructed mixture. A set of empirically pre-determined pay adjustment schedule for each parameter that was differently developed and being used by the individual agencies is then applied to a given project, in order to judge whether each parameter conforms to the designated specifications and consequently the contractor may either be rewarded or penalized in accordance with the payment schedule. With an improved quality assurance system, the Performance Related Specification, the individual parameters are not utilized as a direct judgment factor; rather, they become independent variables within a performance prediction function which is directly used to predict the performance. The quantified performance based on the prediction model is then applied to evaluate the pavement quality. This paper presents the brief history of the quality assurance in asphalt pavement construction including the Performance Related Specifications, statistical performance models in terms of fatigue and rutting distresses, as an example of the performance prediction models, and envisions the possibilities as to how this Performance Related Specification could be utilized in other infrastructures construction quality assurance.

Financial risks associated with capital investments are often measured with different feasibility indicators such as the net present value (NPV), the internal rate of return (IRR), the payback period (PBP), and the benefit-cost ratio (BCR). This paper aims at demonstrating practical applications of probabilistic feasibility analysis techniques for an integrated feasibility evaluation of the IRR and PBP. The IRR and PBP are concurrently analyzed in order to measure the profitability and liquidity, respectively, of a cash flow. The cash flow data of a real wind turbine project is used in the study. The presented approach consists of two phases. First, two newly reported analysis techniques are used to carry out a series of what-if analyses for the IRR and PBP. Second, the relationship between the IRR and PBP is identified using Monte Carlo simulation. The results demonstrate that the integrated feasibility evaluation of stochastic cash flows becomes a more viable option with the aide of newly developed probabilistic analysis techniques. It is also shown that the relationship between the IRR and PBP for the wind turbine project can be used as a predictive model for the actual IRR at the end of the service life based on the actual PBP of the project early in the service life.

The major countries including Korea extend the national investment on R&D and implement the business performance diffusion policy as the knowledge based competition age arrives recently. The necessity for risk management and systematic management system for R&D achievement have been appeared to prevent the failure as the R&D scale becomes larger as it was said. For this matter, the organization such as NASA and DoD in USA defines the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) as a quantitative accomplishment management index and utilize the Technology Readiness Assessment (TRA) system as a criterion. Such tool is evaluated as very effective in the R&D project purposed the practicalization. It is expected that the disadvantage of evaluation system which is oriented to the academic accomplishment in its contents of current research and to contribute greatly to the practicalization of outcomes when such technology readiness level concept is applied to Korean national construction and transportation R&D project. Accordingly, this study analyzed the concept of TRL·TRA, the characteristics and current evaluation management system of Korean national construction and transportation R&D project and suggested the construction and transportation R&D project TRL·TRA performance model to accomplish the practicalization purpose.

One of the oldest, most common engineering problems is measuring the dimensions of different objects and the distances between locations. In AEC/FM, related uses vary from large-scale applications such as measuring distances between cities to small-scale applications such as measuring the depth of a crack or the width of a welded joint. Within the last few years, advances in applying new technologies have prompted the development of new measuring devices such as ultrasound and laser-based measurers. Because of wide varieties in type, associated costs, and levels of accuracy, the selection of an optimal measuring technology is challenging for construction engineers and facility managers. To tackle this issue, we present an overview of various measuring technologies adopted by experts in the area of AEC/FM. As the next step, to evaluate the performance of these technologies, we select one indoor and one outdoor case and measure several dimensions using six categories of technologies: tapes, total stations, laser measurers, ultrasound devices, laser scanners, and image-based technologies. Then we evaluate the results according to various metrics such as accuracy, ease of use, operation time, associated costs, compare these results, and recommend optimal technologies for specific applications. The results also revealed that in most applications, computer vision-based technologies outperform traditional devices in terms of ease of use, associated costs, and accuracy.

No single project is identical to one another in the construction industry. Furthermore, many construction projects are suffering from tighter budget, shortened schedule and higher client satisfaction level. To overcome these, project managers and engineers are willing to apply various best management practices to their projects. However, it is non-trivial to select the most appropriate practices for their projects. In many cases, it is much more important to find the appropriateness of the management practices than just to use the practices. Although many researchers are focusing on the development of new management practices, there is little research on matching between the circumstances of projects and the developed management practices. The objective of this study is to provide a structured process to suggest the best management practices for individual construction projects by developing a computerized system where an individual project is matched with the most optimal management practices to increase the value of the project. At this stage of writing, the authors have developed a computerized system to effectively find out the best suitable management practices for individual projects. By maximizing the usages of this system, it would facilitate the application of the best management practices in the industry.

Knowledge-based Service Industry is an industry that creates added value through the production, processing, and use of knowledge. Comparing to other service industries, it is innovation-oriented business endeavors having the characteristics that exert the great influences on other fields. Meanwhile, however, research efforts thereof are yet insignificant. In this study, we analyzed the innovation performance of architectural design office which creates knowledge services, having raised the necessity of innovation of the design office. The innovation performance were classified according to the extent of efficiency of the architectural design office making use of DEA-Tier analysis, and, for those architectural design offices that showed significant differences in efficiency, we presented the case studies of the firms that were substantial benchmarking targets from short, medium, and long-term perspectives.

The aim of the study is to develop the 3D visualization of Building Information Model and integrated 4D model for optimization of resources in the construction project. This study discuss the process of methodology and creation of 4D model of the project and simulate it to monitor the workflow at the site. Different stages of the construction process and activities are generated by using Revit and MS Project. MS project has been used for creation of the schedules and these are linked with the Revit for 3D modeling. The time used as the fourth dimension and 4D model created by using Navisworks Time liner software. Narges shopping center is presented as a case study to realize the actual uses and benefits of Building Information Model (BIM). Narges shopping mall is located in Tehran, Iran. As a part of Hekmat master plan, Narges shopping center is an 11 stores building with a total area of 30000 Sq.m. This shopping and entertainment center is comprised of 150 retails and two multi-use public halls with a capacity of 400 persons each and underground parking with total 400 parking space. The main purpose of architecture was to create an urban public center along with its revolving, spiral like form and an ever changing continuous façade by means of different colors, materials, which is in harmony with the other building of the master plan. The approximate cost of the project is $17 million and duration of the project schedule is 30 months. The developed Building Information Model enabled us to identify the potential collisions or clashes between various structural and architectural systems. 4D model has been used for limiting the interaction between subcontractors installing the different systems so rework could be avoided and productivity maximized. It is also observed that the utility of BIM for construction stimulation and clash detection is the best suitable method. Clash detection before the implementation of work is highly recommended to avoid rework.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has become the new international benchmark for efficiency in design, construction and maintenance of buildings. It is the platform that brings about collaboration between project stakeholders and improvement of project outcomes. With all its potentials, not much of the impact of BIM technologies has been felt in the Nigerian construction industry. This research aimed at assessing the readiness of the Nigerian building design firms to adopt BIM technologies. The research was exploratory in nature. A field survey was conducted with the use of structured questionnaire, self administered to a sample of building design consultancy firms (architectural, structural, M&E, quantity surveying, and multi-disciplinary design firms) within Abuja and Kaduna. The questionnaire sought the perception of the responding firms on the factors affecting BIM adoption in the Nigerian construction industry, and their level of readiness to adopt BIM technologies in their practices based on the four categories of readiness-management, people, process and technology. 42.26% response rate was achieved and used for analysis. ANOVA and DUNCAN post-hoc tests were used to establish the differences between the responses of the groups of firms, while means and standard deviations were obtained to establish the important factors affecting BIM adoption in Nigeria. The survey revealed that all the groups of Nigerian design firms are appreciably ready for the adoption of BIM technologies in their practice, with slight variations in their respective levels of readiness. 'Lack of awareness of BIM technology among professionals' and clients and 'lack of knowledgeable and experienced partners' were identified as the most important barriers of BIM adoption in Nigeria; while the most significant drivers are 'availability of well trained professionals' and 'cooperation and commitment of professional bodies to the adoption'. Education and training of building design professionals and cooperation of all stakeholders in the design and construction supply chain were recommended as part of measures to ensure successful adoption of BIM in the Nigerian construction industry.

The information generated in large-scale and complex construction projects are transferred continuously and transformed into project products on the long span life cycle. Therefore, information flow management is related with the success of project directly. However, certain characteristics of large-scale and complex construction projects make the solving the problem more difficultly. Although several information retrieval systems support the information management system, it is not suitable to grasp information flows. Hence, we developed an information retrieval system specialized with the information flow based on a preceding research. The system consists of a relation-based database and the process information transferring relation inference application module. The system enables project managers to manage the entire project process more efficiently and each project member to work their own task being served the information flow retrieval results.