Anas Moussa Al Refaie, Ali M. Alashwal, Zulkiflee Abdul-Samad and Hafez Salleh
Climate change and global warming have increased concerns over the influence of weather on workers' health and productivity in construction projects. A significant number of…
Abstract
Purpose
Climate change and global warming have increased concerns over the influence of weather on workers' health and productivity in construction projects. A significant number of studies can be found in the weather and productivity interplay area. The purpose of this paper is to review the recently published papers in this area to explore the trends of research and topics discussed and to determine knowledge gaps and directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
Recent papers published between 2014 and 2019 were synthesized, reviewed and analyzed using bibliometric and text mining analysis.
Findings
The results revealed the trends of publications, the main authors contributed to this area and countries that attracted most of the research papers. Based on the review, this study presented a taxonomy of studies consisting of seven clusters, namely productivity management, seasons, weather factors, participants' conditions, uniform and clothing, work time and health and safety.
Originality/value
This review paper sheds a light into the topics discussed in this area, the interrelationship between the topics and the significant topics that should be continued in the future. Global warming concerns necessitate the need for more studies in tropical countries and countries that are expected to expose to high temperatures and heat stress, which greatly impact labor productivity. The paper highlighted the need to understand how weather influences workers' psychological conditions and subsequently their productivity.
Details
Keywords
Anas Al-Refaie, Ali Alashwal, Zulkiflee Abdul-Samad, Hafez Salleh and Ahmed Elshafie
Weather is one of the main factors affecting labour productivity. Existing weather-productivity models focussed on hot and cold climates paying less attention to the tropics. Many…
Abstract
Purpose
Weather is one of the main factors affecting labour productivity. Existing weather-productivity models focussed on hot and cold climates paying less attention to the tropics. Many tropical countries are expected to be the most areas affected by accelerated climate change and global warming, which may have a severe impact on labour health and productivity. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the existing models can be used to predict labour productivity based on weather conditions in the tropics.
Design/methodology/approach
Five models are identified from the literature for evaluation. Using real labour productivity data of a high-rise building project in Malaysia, the actual productivity rate was compared with predicted productivity rates generated using the five models. The predicted productivity rates were generated using weather variables collected from an adjusting weather station to the project.
Findings
Compared with other models evaluated in this paper, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was found to be the best model to predict productivity based on the case study data. However, the result shows only a 57% accuracy level of the USACE model indicating the need to develop a new model for the tropics for more accurate prediction.
Originality/value
The result of this study is perhaps the first to apply meteorological variables to predict productivity rates and validate them using actual productivity data in the tropics. This study is the first step to developing a more accurate productivity model, which will be useful for project planning and more accurate productivity rate estimation.