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

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

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

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

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

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

Using Nigeria, as a point of reference, this study aims to explore the applicability of climatic variables as analytically valid factors for conceptual cost estimation. This is in view of the vastness and topographical alignment of Nigeria's landmass, which makes it a country of extreme climatic variability from north to south. As construction costs in Nigeria, similarly, tend to show a north-south alignment, the study's objective is to establish cost-estimating relationships (CERs) between the variability of climatic elements and the variance in construction cost, to arouse interest in the concept.

Deploying correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, significant associations/relationships between meteorological variables and building cost for selected locations, following a North-South transect of the major climatic zones, are sought, to explain climate-induced construction cost variance. Validation of the regression model was carried out using variance analysis and the Mean Absolute Percentage Error of a different dataset.

Climatic indices of atmospheric moisture exhibited strong direct and partial correlations with construction costs, while sunshine hours and temperature were inversely correlated. The study further establishes statistically significant CERs between climatic variables and building cost in Nigeria, which accounted for 47.9% of the variance in construction cost across the climatic zones.

The study outcome provides a statistically valid platform for the development of more elaborate analytical costing models, for prototype buildings to be cited in disparate climatic settings.

This study establishes the statistical validity of climatic variables in constituting CERs for predicting construction costs in disparate climatic settings.

This study is carried out to demonstrate the computational practicalities of environmental construction economics necessary to offer early-stage cost advice. A case study of a private sector client’s development proposal is used. This is for the acquisition of a vacant freehold land of 1.2 acres brownfield site to develop a Grade A office complex with plans to achieve the BREEAM Excellent rating green building certification.

A three-stage methodology was deployed: Order of cost estimating, before life cycle costing and then development appraisal. The Order of Cost Estimate is generated using the BCIS online database, following the procedural guideline of the New Rules Measurement (NRM). The life cycle costing was carried out from an environmental perspective to explore two design options – Design A and Design B, in terms of which would offer the best value for money whilst reducing carbon emissions.

Based on the outcome of the life cycle costing computations, Design B was chosen as the advised development due to minimal differences in net present values and annual equivalents. Further evaluation of Design B, using the residual method of developmental appraisal was carried out, with all necessary assumptions made. From the extensive computations carried out, the project is considered unviable, as it reports a loss. Alternative use of the site or an alternative site is thus recommended to check if a greater return on investment is tenable.

The study narratively interweaves the application of three computational techniques that are core to offering early-stage cost advice.

This study aims to investigate ground-related design deficiencies as potential avenues of avoidable cost overruns, discernible from the geotechnical practices of highway agencies in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

The study deploys an interpretivist qualitative methodology to provide a detailed descriptive analysis of the design-related geotechnical practices of highway agencies during the pre-contract phase of highway projects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with in-house professionals, consultants and contractors affiliated with the three highway agencies in the Niger Delta and thematically analysed to identify significant deviations from geotechnical best practices.

The study outcome shows that during the pre-contract phase, a chain of design-related geotechnical shortcomings has plagued highway projects executed in the Niger Delta. This view of practice uncovered in this study demonstrates a culture of significant deviation from best practice recommendations, which could plausibly contribute to the history of significant project cost overruns recorded in the region.

The study qualitatively spotlights gaps in the practice of highway agencies and reinforces the need for a re-orientation of the attitude to risk management, to give geotechnical concerns a priority in the financial management of highway projects executed in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the ongoing discourse centred on enhancing building performance to provide an interpretation of life cycle cost (LCC) analysis, directly applicable to building construction in coastal areas located in tropical wet–humid settings.

A survey of 50 buildings based on physical observation is carried out to identify typical failure patterns in wet‒humid environment. Further, a comparative initial construction cost and LCC analysis is computed for two alternative building schemes with identical floor plans: Scheme A using sound construction and detailing to guard against future maintenance problems and Scheme B adopting the typical designs evident in the study area.

The result of the analysis shows that in the long-run scheme, A is an economically more viable option than B, as the increased initial costs are entirely offset by the reduced running cost.

The contextual nature of LCC analysis poses difficulties in applying the evidence provided in this study to provide a generalisable financial justification to buildings clients.

The outcome of the study provides analytical validation to overcome resistances and enables informed decision making by clients, which is necessary to promote transition from conventional to environmentally responsive design choices suitable to wet–humid conditions.

The study provides an interpretation of LCC analysis, directly applicable to building construction in the tropical wet–humid setting of coastal areas against the backdrop of inconsistencies in the practical application of the theory of LCC.

This paper aims to investigate the statistical validity of geotechnical risk factors in accounting for cost overruns in highway projects. The study hypothesises that “latent pathogens” because of mismanaged geotechnical risk, which lay dormant in organisational practices of highway agencies, trigger cost overruns.

To test this hypothesis, cost and geotechnical data gathered for 61 completed highway projects, executed in the Niger Delta, recording unusually high cost overruns, along with qualitative data from 16 interviews with the project commissioners, were comprehensively analysed via regression modelling, to statistically explain recorded cost variance.

The results provide empirical evidence supporting a cause–effect relationship between the extent of cost overrun and key geotechnical factors. It is suggested that positive changes made in the geotechnical practices of the highway agencies will produce an expected exponential decrease in the level of cost overruns recorded in highway projects.

The study is limited to explaining the propagation of unusually high cost overruns in the geologic setting of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. As such there is a need to test the generalisability of the theory presented.

The emergent view of geotechnical practice calls for further research, necessary to align geotechnical best practice into highway project delivery in the Niger Delta region.

The study used a robust methodological approach to understanding the propagation of cost overruns in highway projects, based on a characterisation of geotechnical intricacies, which is unprecedented in cost overrun research.

The study is carried out to analytically reconnoiter geotechnical index properties of subgrade soils as key variables that shape the cost profile of road infrastructure projects in a tropical geographic setting with starkly heterogenous ground conditions.

Using the Niger Delta region, as a point of reference, data on geotechnical index properties of subgrade soils at spatially dispersed locations for 61 completed highway projects are collated. Exploratory statistical tests were carried out to infer significant associations with final project costs before regression analysis. Regression analysis is principally deployed as an explanatory analytical tool, relevant to quantify the sensitivity of highway project costs to the individual and collective impact of geotechnical variables.

Several parameters of expansivity and compressibility exhibited significantly strong associations with the final costs recorded on the highway projects. The statistical analysis further established a cause-effect relationship, whereby small changes in the geotechnical properties of sub-grade soils at project locations, would result in disproportionately large changes in the cost of road construction.

The study findings provide insight into the sensitivity of road construction costs to geotechnical variables, which can serve as a useful input in financial risk analysis for development appraisal and the generation of location adjustment factors.

The study statistically demonstrates location-induced construction cost profiles, triggered in response to the spatial geotechnical variability and occurrence of problem subgrade soils in the humid tropics, which may be different from those traditionally established in studies of cold and temperate climate soils.

This study demonstrates integration within a mixed-methods case study of construction phenomena, whilst ensuring reliability and validity. This is in view of the established philosophical challenges in theory generation, whereby qualitative and quantitative methods are underpinned by divergent, almost incompatible, paradigmic assumptions.

The study uses a sample case study research on the phenomenon of cost overruns, supported by a coherent flow of well-articulated philosophical arguments to idealise the logic of integration. Issues of reliability and validity were resolved along these lines, by incorporating applicable criteria from both the qualitative and qualitative strands. A detailed outline and rationalisation of the stepwise approach to achieving integration are provided, from the point of design conceptualisation, data collection, analysis and further down to theory generation.

The study generated two level-1 theories by collecting numerical data on cost overruns, geotechnical index parameters and textual data on the geotechnical practices. Another level-1 theory was generated in reflexive adaptation to unanticipated social constructs emerging from the qualitative data. All level-1 theories from the quantitative and qualitative strands were triangulated to yield two “level-2 theories”: A log-regression model and a cognitive map. The approach to integration is thus explanatory sequential, and concurrent (at the second stage of transformation in the generation of level-2 theories).

The study empirically reinforces that ontological flexibility, achievable through the use of thoughtfully designed integrated mixed-methods case studies, permits the investigation of multidimensional construction phenomena in innovative ways, relevant to provide holistic theoretical and practice-based contributions.

The study practically signposts a bespoke stepwise approach to integration, in a mixed-methods case study of construction phenomena, against the contextual backdrop of its relative novelty and lack of studies delving in-depth into the theoretical nitty-gritty.

This study aims to proffer a theoretical narrative explaining the poor financial performance of public highway agencies in Nigeria. This study critically spotlights seminal works in the literature offering theoretical narratives on the poor financial performance of public infrastructure projects, to discuss whether they adequately capture the relationship between psychological factors, project governance/leadership issues and knowledge/skill deficiencies related to the cost performance of infrastructure projects in the developing world. The evaluation reveals the predominant contextual exclusivity of these theoretical narratives to the developed world, which tend to under-represent developing countries, such as those on the African continent.

Using a case study research strategy, longitudinal documentary/archival data for 61 highway projects were analyzed. In total, 16 interviews were also conducted with highway officials from the three highway agencies responsible for the execution of the projects. A two-stage deductive-inductive thematic analysis of the collated data was carried out to identify barriers to the financial management of public highway projects, the result of which is cognitively mapped out.

The study showcases empirical insight on cost overruns experienced in Nigerian public projects, because of the trickle-down effect of human and organizational environment, as well as because of workers’ knowledge/skill deficiencies.

The developed theory is contextual to Nigeria, and there is scope for testing its generalisability to other developing nations.

The in-depth trajectory provided uncovers an intricate web of technical and psycho-social, organizational and institutional issues, which have not been identified and explained by previous theoretical narratives.

The study aims to investigate the nomenclature of structural versus non-structural building adaptation measures taken by occupants of residential properties located in flood-prone areas of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, to verify whether they are adapted or maladapted relative to their level of flood exposure and underscore the role of disaster resilience in property management.

Using the survey research strategy, the uptake of structural and non-structural adaptation measures in spatially distributed areas of Port Harcourt was descriptively analyzed and tested to identify significant variation in the uptake of adaptation measures relative to increasing flooding levels, using a one-way ANOVA.

The study outcome reveals that there are some distinctive features of buildings in Port Harcourt which provide wet-proofing structural adaptation qualities while dry-proofing structural adaptation measures are not adequate. However, although some key structural adaptation measures were adapted relative to the levels of flood exposure, most structural features of the buildings do not vary relative to flooding levels, indicating maladaptation even with increasing flood risk. The uptake of non-structural measures is also inadequate and maladapted relative to changes in the level of flood exposure, despite their non-intrusive and low-cost nature. Overall, the findings imply that maladaptation is more prevalent.

The study provides a descriptive snapshot of the nomenclature of property-level flood risk adaptation in residential buildings, while highlighting the maladaptive tendencies/behavior of property occupants, within a metropolitan setting in the developing world, necessary to inform policy and provide sensitization for fostering disaster resilience in property management.