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Perhaps one of the least attractive aspects of making a structural survey is the roof space inspection which can be a cold, dark, and dirty activity in which the surveyor may encounter a number of dangers and surprises. One danger to guard against is professional negligence and it is imperative that the inspection is not reduced to a quick look round from the trap door access or becomes an excuse to use one's inexperienced office assistant to do the dirty work.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature concerning the various causes of failures of external wall tile finishes.

A 4×3 matrix hierarchy framework is developed for a systematic analysis of the literature reviewed.

The findings from this paper indicate the importance of environmental effects, movement joints, and adhesive on the performance of external wall tile finishes. Thermal and moisture effects induce movement of tiles, and the failure of the tiling system depends very much on the adhesive strength and the provision of movement joints. Workmanship is also a key factor affecting the performance of external wall tile finishes and should not be overlooked.

Various studies have been carried out on the causes of defects in external finishes in the past. However, many of them were case‐oriented and were not supported by laboratory findings. The hierarchical framework developed in this paper serves as a basis for further laboratory and field studies on this issue.

The framework is conducive to the diagnosis of external wall tile delamination.

This paper reviews systematically and comprehensively the literature on the causes of external wall tile delamination.

This paper aims to introduce a knowledge‐based managemental prototype entitled E+ for environmental‐conscious construction relied on an integration of current environmental management tools in construction area. The overall objective of developing the E+ prototype is to facilitate selectively reusing the retrievable knowledge in construction engineering and management areas assembled from previous projects for the best practice in environmental‐conscious construction. The methodologies adopted in previous and ongoing research related to the development of the E+ belong to the operations research area and the information technology area, including literature review, questionnaire survey and interview, statistical analysis, system analysis and development, experimental research and simulation, and so on. The content presented in this paper includes an advanced E+ prototype, a comprehensive review of environmental management tools integrated to the E+ prototype, and an experimental case study of the implementation of the E+ prototype. It is expected that the adoption and implementation of the E+ prototype can effectively facilitate contractors to improve their environmental performance in the lifecycle of projectbased construction and to reduce adverse environmental impacts due to the deployment of various engineering and management processes at each construction stage.

Defining degradation in terms of physical deficiency-based condition descriptors, combined with Markov chain modelling, has been shown to provide improved predictions of degradation. However, unless these physical conditions are converted to lost value ratios (LVRs), maintenance managers would not be able to grasp the cost implications of degradation. Hence the purpose of this research is to convert the predicted deficiency-based condition ratings to lost value ratio bands.

Rectification costs were found using a Building Schedule of Rates to arrive at LVRs for each of the physical degradation conditions for the 12 building elements studied (ranging from concrete elements through finishes and ceilings to doors and windows). These LVRs were allocated into five bands with LVR interval limits of 0.00, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00, with the five intervening ranges corresponding to LVR Bands A to E. These computations were compared with those arrived at independently by industry professionals.

Elements such as doors, widows and ceilings reached the maximum LVR Band E at the worst physical Condition 5 defined. However, Condition 5 for other elements only corresponded to LVR Bands A to D. Some 83% of the LVR bands assigned to the physical conditions were in agreement with those arrived at by the professionals, or differed by only one band.

The conversion of deficiency-based conditions to LVR bands yielded a completely new maintenance-oriented perspective on degradation. The banding was done using a novel ranking and clustering process that identified regions of high variation in LVRs as thresholds of the bands.

Management education is a vital component in the training process for all building professionals and increasing emphasis is being placed on inculcating an effective management ability in addition to specialist technical skills. Outlines the philosophy employed in the design and development of two MSc courses for project and property managers in the School of Building & Estate Management, Faculty of Architecture & Building, National University of Singapore. Makes an evaluation of the experience gained through five years of operation and proposes the nature of future changes. The need for Singapore to enhance the quality of its human resources as a marketable commodity both regionally and internationally is perceived as an important requirement for maintaining future business success and continued economic growth and survival. Management needs are ever‐changing and diverse and a recognition of the skills and expertise required in the market is considered to be of paramount importance in the design of future curriculum development.

The purpose of this paper is to bring out the shortcomings of the EIA model imported from developed countries when it is assessed for its focus on poverty alleviation in a developing nation (India) and to suggest improvements in the existing framework.

The paper explores the current performance of EIA process in India, critically analyses the philosophy of continued sidelining of environmental protection in favour of unrestricted economic growth in the light of evidence regarding growing inequality.

The paper finds that for the proponent driven EIA model to contribute towards poverty alleviation, a new “socio‐ecological linkage document” is needed. This will bring out the fragile linkages that marginalized communities have with their local ecosystems and can be prepared with the help of local ecological knowledge. A framework to integrate the socio‐ecological linkage document into the EIA‐SEA‐SA domain is presented.

The paper shows that the supportive framework of generating the “socio‐ecological linkage document” has the potential to enhance the EIA‐SEA‐SA process in terms of ensuring that plans, policies, programs and projects are sensitive to the need of ecosystem dependent poor.

The paper proposes a framework to support the alternative thinking that poverty alleviation can be enhanced through preservation of ecosystem linkages, in contrast to the modern paradigm of economic growth at the cost of ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to review the topic “urban green space” focusing on its social benefits and measure techniques in terms of monetary value and accessibility. It suggests potential research direction by using an integrated valuation and measurement framework, and concludes that urban green space valuation in the providers’ perspective as well as accessibility analysis in the consumers’ perspective are useful tools that provide significant measure techniques in urban green space planning.

The paper uses a systematic approach to build up a conceptual framework that quantifies social benefits of green space from provider and consumer perspectives. The literature review indicates some limitations of existing techniques of valuation and accessibility analyses, which entails an integrated model of measurements.

The paper explores social benefits of urban green space, which includes recreational opportunities, aesthetic enjoyments, adjusting psychological well‐being and physical health, enhancing social ties, and providing educational opportunities. To analyze existing evaluation and measure techniques of urban green space, the paper points out that a single measurement only evaluates certain aspects of urban green space, which may not always be suitable to comprehensively assess social benefits from both providers’ and consumers’ perspectives. Considering this limitation, the paper offers an integrated model to measure urban green space that may deal with current limitations.

The originality of the study resides in designing an integrated model including valuation and measure techniques. It certainly offers an important avenue to evaluate social benefits of urban green space.

Environmental disclosure within company annual reports has become an increasing expectation of environmental regulators and campaigners in industrial countries. It is an indicator of business commitment to environmental improvement to the extent that the disclosures report progress in implementing environmental programmes. Perhaps more important, disclosure is a source of documentary evidence that can be used by external parties to evaluate company performance. The willingness by company managers to open the organisation to external scrutiny is often viewed as a necessary first step in obtaining business commitment to environmentally sustainable forms of business activity. This paper compares Western experience with environmental disclosure to that in Singapore. Information on environmental disclosure in Singapore is presented from a review of company annual reports (covering two years 1995/96 and 1996/97) and the responses to a questionnaire survey covering all public listed companies in Singapore. The surveys reveal a low commitment to environmental disclosure amongst Singapore organisations. Reasons for the low interest in disclosure are explained. Possible public policy responses and options for changing current business attitudes toward disclosure are outlined.

The UK government has introduced condition standards for housing known as the “Decent Homes Standard” (DHS). The DHS prescribes several key indicators – termed “criteria” – for showing that a dwelling is up to a minimum standard of repair and that it meets a minimum energy efficiency level. The DHS requires that all English social housing meet these criteria by 2010. The social housing sector is currently trying to implement maintenance programmes to ensure that the DHS is met. A range of strategic problems have arisen, particularly in terms of the finance available to undertake necessary works to dwellings, and human resources – both in terms of contractor availability and in‐house resources such as contract administrators and surveyors. However, the main starting point for implementing a strategy to meet the DHS is stock condition data. This paper describes issues with the accuracy and consistency of surveyors' survey judgements and their potential impact on planning for the DHS.

First, the paper examines the extent of environmental disclosures (EDs) made by the Malaysian local governments (LGs) on their websites. Second, it examines the patterns of disclosure with the aim of investigating the underlying motive behind the EDs.

A descriptive content analysis was employed to measure the EDs. A disclosure instrument, based on the extant studies, is designed to facilitate the measurement process.

The results suggest that LGs of various levels, have taken the initiative to report EDs on their websites even in the absence of any statutory reporting regulations either by the state or federal government. Differences in the types of EDs are also apparent and consistent with the premise of legitimacy theory.

A paucity of prior studies measuring EDs made at the LG level is observed in the literature. Research evidence focussing on the EDs reported on the websites is even more scarce. This lack of research contributes to a limited understanding on the development and challenges of the environmental reporting practices within the developing country's perspective. Moreover, generalising the findings of studies conducted in developed countries may not be possible due to a number of regulatory, political and socio-economic factors.