Search results

The purpose of this research project is to reduce the carbon emissions of construction processes by Measuring, Mapping, Modelling and Managing (4Ms) the carbon performance of construction activities. This particular paper presents the research work and major findings in the first two stages: measuring the carbon footprint of construction activities in building projects; and mapping the carbon emissions from construction activities.

A hotel project in South Wales was selected as a case study where the carbon emissions from six categories of construction activities (i.e. management, operations, visitors, deliveries, plant and utilities) were monitored by using carefully designed data collection methods throughout the construction process. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were adopted to distil and map the emissions with construction activities.

This study provides a benchmark for the carbon emissions from construction processes. The results show that construction activities generate more carbon than expected. Of the CO₂ emitted, materials delivery, operational activities and plant operation account for more than 90 per cent of the total emissions. Activities from management, visitors and utilities only contributed 10 per cent of the CO₂ emissions. Carbon emissions from construction processes can be best managed through project planning/scheduling where carbon emissions should be considered as a new criterion for project planning along with time, cost and quality.

There are some limitations with the data collection methods adopted in this study. For example, the fuel/CO₂ emission conversion rate for plant was obtained from online sources. This rate needs to be validated and adjusted on‐site with CO₂ measurement gauges for different equipment. Similarly, the fuel efficiency adjusting rates for vehicles also need to be checked and verified constantly.

The on‐site carbon emission methods, the mapping approaches between the emission and construction activities, and the online system developed in this study (www.constructco2.com/default.aspx) are all embraced by the industry. So far, 76 projects have already subscripted to the online system.

This study developed a set of systematic and feasible approaches to measuring and analysing carbon emissions from construction activities. Unlike the existing studies which mainly focus on recording the carbon emissions on‐site, this research measured the emissions, and mapped the emissions with construction activities. The online system developed could analyse the data collected and support the contractor to decide in which aspects they should make effort to control the carbon emissions.

Dynamic planning and scheduling forms a widely adopted smart strategy for solving real-world problems in diverse business systems. This paper uses deductive content analysis to explore secondary data from previous studies in dynamic planning and scheduling to draw conclusions on its current status, forward action and research needs in construction management.

The authors searched academic databases using planning and scheduling keywords without a periodic setting. This research collected secondary data from the database to draw an objective comparison of categories and conclusions about how the data relates to planning and scheduling to avoid the subjective responses from questionnaires and interviews. Then, applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, we selected one hundred and four articles. Finally, the study used a seven-step deductive content analysis to develop the categorisation matrix and sub-themes for describing the dynamic planning and scheduling categories. The authors used deductive analysis because of the secondary data and categories comparison. Using the event types represented in a quadrant mapping, authors delve into where, when, application and benefits of the classes.

The content analysis showed that all the accounts and descriptions of dynamic planning and scheduling are identifiable in an extensive research database. The content analysis reveals the need for multi-hybrid (4D BIM-Agent based-discrete event-discrete rate-system dynamics) simulation modelling and optimisation method for proffering solutions to scheduling and planning problems, its current status, tools and obstacles.

This research reveals the deductive content analysis talent in construction research. It also draws direction, focuses and raises a question on dynamic planning and scheduling research concerning the five-integrated model, an opportunity for their integration, models combined attributes and insight into its solution viability in construction.

This research paper is a literature review of the existing building retrofitting process. It proposes studying the functional, technical, and organizational issues of the green retrofit process. The purpose of this paper is to expand the domain of design framework for retrofitting existing buildings.

The paper provides a review of the model-based design process from enrollment to evaluation stages representing the green retrofitting process in selected publications. The paper opted to review the Green Retrofit Design (GRD) process model for achieving a systematic design model of GRD development in the future.

Functional and maintenance issues are mainly for new buildings, also in the field for renovation and demolishing. Publications also show that environmental, social, and technical issues are often examined separately in the decision process of GRD. Papers in the facility management scale would concentrate more on organization/legal issues. Publications with questionnaire design are devoted to the usage on life-cycle assessment on existing building, but not yet on the stakeholder management and design process and related issues.

The achievement of the study is to provide a new framework of design approach that is significant to the theoretical research, education, communication, and practical works in terms of GRD development.

The paper not only achieves a specific sequence of practical approaches, including awareness of problems, conceptual development, and design embodiment, to meet design objectives, but also conforms to academic practice-based research of creative design taking on GRD practice.

This study aims to evaluate the suitability of Ferrock as a green construction material by analysing its engineering properties, environmental impact, economic viability and adoption challenges. It also aims to bridge knowledge gaps and provide guidance for integrating Ferrock into mainstream construction to support the decarbonisation of the built environment.

It presents a systematic and holistic review of existing literature on Ferrock, comprehensively analysing its mechanical properties, environmental and socio-economic impact and adoption challenges. The approach includes evaluating both quantitative and qualitative data to assess Ferrock’s potential in the construction sector.

Key findings highlight Ferrock’s superior mechanical properties, such as higher compressive and tensile strength, and enhanced durability compared to traditional Portland cement. Ferrock offers significant environmental benefits by capturing more CO₂ during curing than it emits, contributing to carbon sequestration and reducing energy consumption due to the absence of high-temperature processing. However, the material faces economic and technical challenges, including higher initial costs, scalability issues, lack of industry standards and variability in production quality.

This review provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of Ferrock. Despite being discussed for a decade, Ferrock research has been overlooked, with existing studies often limited and published in poor-quality sources. By synthesising current research and identifying future study areas, the paper enhances understanding of Ferrock’s potential benefits and challenges. The originality lies in the holistic evaluation of Ferrock’s properties and its implications for the construction industry, offering insights that could drive collaborative research and policy support to facilitate its integration into mainstream use.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of facilities managers in sustainable practice. It also analyzes the change in facilities management (FM) in terms of sustainability.

This research adopted a combination of literature review and expert interviews. Empirical data were collected through in-depth interviews with 40 industrial experts in the UK and Ireland.

The analysis of interview results shows a sustainable movement in the context of FM. Facilities managers play important roles in sustainable practice, including integrating all sustainability considerations, linking strategic level with operational level, incorporating FM knowledge and experience into design, disseminating sustainable knowledge and educating people and encouraging sustainability through innovation.

This research goes beyond the limitations of existing studies that are characterized by a lack of positioning facilities managers in sustainability.

Sustainable delivery represents a direction of FM development. This research describes what facilities managers can do and how they should do for sustainable delivery of FM, based on which improvements are made and benefits are maximized.

This research provides a deeper insight into the FM role in the sustainable agenda. The findings of this research help industrial practitioners and academic researchers to better understand sustainable FM.

Cognitive style has been identified to be significantly influential in deciding users' preferences of search engines. In particular, Witkin's field dependence/independence has been widely studied in the area of web searching. It has been suggested that this cognitive style has conceptual links with the holism/serialism. This study aims to investigate the differences between the field dependence/independence and holism/serialism.

An empirical study was conducted with 120 students from a UK university. Riding's cognitive style analysis (CSA) and Ford's study preference questionnaire (SPQ) were used to identify the students' cognitive styles. A questionnaire was designed to identify users' preferences for the design of search engines. Data mining techniques were applied to analyse the data obtained from the empirical study.

The results highlight three findings. First, a fundamental link is confirmed between the two cognitive styles. Second, the relationship between field dependent users and holists is suggested to be more prominent than that of field independent users and serialists. Third, the interface design preferences of field dependent and field independent users can be split more clearly than those of holists and serialists.

The contributions of this study include a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between field dependence/independence and holists/serialists as well as proposing a novel methodology for data analyses.

This paper aims to investigate to what extent hybrid differential evolution (DE) algorithms can be successful in solving the optimal camera placement problem.

This problem is stated as a unicost set covering problem (USCP) and 18 problem instances are defined according to practical operational needs. Three methods are selected from the literature to solve these instances: a CPLEX solver, greedy algorithm and row weighting local search (RWLS). Then, it is proposed to hybridize these algorithms with two hybrid DE approaches designed for combinatorial optimization problems. The first one is a set-based approach (DEset) from the literature. The second one is a new similarity-based approach (DEsim) that takes advantage of the geometric characteristics of a camera to find better solutions.

The experimental study highlights that RWLS and DEsim-CPLEX are the best proposed algorithms. Both easily outperform CPLEX, and it turns out that RWLS performs better on one class of problem instances, whereas DEsim-CPLEX performs better on another class, depending on the minimal resolution needed in practice.

Up to now, the efficiency of RWLS and the DEset approach has been investigated only for a few problems. Thus, the first contribution is to apply these methods for the first time in the context of camera placement. Moreover, new hybrid DE algorithms are proposed to solve the optimal camera placement problem when stated as a USCP. The second main contribution is the design of the DEsim approach that uses the distance between camera locations to fully benefit from the DE mutation scheme.

This work explores the effectiveness of an innovative inclusion model that is based on the development and operationalization of the inclusion coach (IC) role in one school district (in Ontario, generally referred to as a ‘board’). This model has implications for school systems that desire a change in practice but may perceive challenges to this change in their local capacity. In this model, internal school district funding and existing structures were reallocated to convert teaching positions into IC positions. This staffing change was designed to support the desegregation of stand-alone special education classes at the elementary and secondary levels within that school district. While significantly decreasing the number of segregated settings, the intervention was not without its challenges. Challenges and successes will be examined through the perspectives of school principals, ICs and classroom teachers. This school district created an effective and sustainable model to promote inclusion, through internal staffing adjustments, and role redefinition. Utilizing a shared focus and support for staff, this school district was successfully able to transition beliefs and practices from segregated special education to full inclusion for students with special education needs.

Nowadays, the increase in the capacity of batteries has laid the foundations for a broader diffusion of electric mobility. However, electric mobility is causing a growing electricity demand as well as the need to increase the diffusion of suitable charging stations. Within these last challenges, drawing on the recent literature, this chapter provides a critical and wide-ranging review of papers dealing with the formulation of the problem of the localisation of electric vehicle (EV) charging points. This problem is approached considering the electric charging infrastructure technologies, localisation criteria and related methodologies. This review shows how the ‘electric mobility revolution’ applies the technological innovations provided by the energy supply systems, and the location of these systems within the urban contexts. Since the technological innovations have different options, achieving an international standard of charging systems is still far away. Moreover, as there are several criteria, parameters and methodologies, and some analytical approaches for the localisation of electric vehicle charging points, the formulation of the ‘localisation’ problem should require the application of multi-criteria analysis to be addressed. Finally, the results show that there is no consensus on technologies, criteria, and methodologies to be adopted. Therefore, this wide-ranging analysis of the literature would be useful to support possible benchmarking and systematisation accordingly.

The purpose of the paper is to share the types, uses, and students' recommendations about reusable digital learning objects at Northwest Missouri State University, which can be used or adapted by other libraries in both online and on‐ground information literacy instruction environments.

The rationale for incorporation of learning objects, their application, and uses is discussed. Examples of successful applications of learning objects in online and on‐ground instructional classes are provided. Models for developing one's own learning objects are included. A survey and analysis for soliciting students' opinions about the reuse of learning objects is included.

The paper provides suggestions for developing and evaluating learning objects. This includes successful applications of digital learning objects in traditional and online information literacy classes. It shares easy to incorporate learning objects that can be used in tutorials or on‐ground bibliographic sessions and includes a student survey about reuse of learning objects, analysis of survey results, and suggestions for survey improvement.

The survey population was small. The librarians plan to replicate the survey with a larger audience. The survey may be adapted for use by other academic libraries.

The paper provides links to libraries of digital learning objects that instruction librarians can immediately begin linking to and using in tutorials or information literacy sessions.

The paper illustrates that access to a library of learning objects enables use of learning objects and enhances ideas for locally created prototypes. The survey can be easily adapted to other library environments to gather suggestions for reuse of local learning objects.