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With the increasing use of small unmanned aircrafts (SUAs), many countries have enacted laws and regulations to ensure the safe use of SUAs. However, there is a lack of industry-specific regulations accounting for the unique features of construction-related SUA operations. Operating SUAs in the construction industry is attributed to specific risks and challenges, which should be regulated to maximize the utility of SUAs in construction. This study, therefore, aims to develop a multi-dimensional regulatory framework for using SUAs in the construction industry.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to compare seven selected national/regional SUA regulations to identify the applicability of implementing the existing regulations in construction. The interview surveys were then conducted to diagnose the challenges of construction-related SUA operations and gather interviewees' suggestions on the regulatory framework for SUA uses in construction.

The research found that some challenges of construction-related SUAs operations were not addressed in the current regulations. These challenges included the complex and time-consuming SUA operation permit, lack of regulation for special SUA operations in construction, insufficient regulatory compliance monitoring and a lack of construction-related remote pilots' training. A regulatory framework was then developed based on the findings of comparative analysis and interview surveys.

This study mainly compared seven representative countries/regions' regulations, leading to a small sample size. Further research should be carried out to study the SUA regulations in other places, such as South Africa, South America or Middle East countries. Besides, this study's respondents to the interviews were primarily concentrated in Hong Kong, which may cause the interview results to differ from the construction industry in other countries/regions. A large-scale interview survey should be conducted in other places in the future to validate the current findings.

The proposed regulatory framework provides a reference for the policy-makers to formulate appropriate industry-specific SUA regulations and improve the applicability of SUA regulations in the construction industry. It sheds light upon the future of SUA regulations and the development of regulatory practice in this area.

This study is the first to propose a multi-dimensional regulatory framework for operating SUAs in construction by comprehensive policy comparisons and interviews. The regulatory framework offers a fresh insight into the unexplored research area and points out the direction for subsequent studies on SUA regulations in the construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the synergies between post-end-of-life of building (PEoLB) concepts and operations to achieve sustainability.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using 65 articles published between 2006 and 2017, and it has been subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis.

The descriptive analysis revealed that the majority of the articles were about (60 per cent) PEoLB operations, followed by (23 per cent) PEoLB concepts. Only 17 per cent of the articles have dealt with PEoLB-related strategic approaches. The thematic analysis elaborated on the literature development; interrelationships between PEoLB concepts and operations; impediments of introducing sustainability on these operations, remedial measures and information-based strategic approaches to achieve sustainability. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework for sustainable PEoLB operations is proposed. Furthermore, four areas of potential future research are discussed.

This study presents a future research agenda including best practices to plan PEoLB operations and the development of optimisation models, risk management and information-based strategic approaches.

The proposed conceptual research framework triggers and nurtures potential pathways to introduce sustainable PEoLB operations under sound information flow. This could create a basis for future empirical studies in filling the identified gaps in literature. The framework could also assist practitioners in mitigating risks associated with transportation, storing and contamination of salvaged materials through enhanced information flow. In addition, the framework provides some managerial guidance to organisations seeking ways of establishing sustainability during reverse logistics (RL) operations.

This paper presents an SLR of an emerging area of research that encapsulates closed-loop supply chain through sustainable RL operations. The study highlights the interrelationships between PEoLB concepts and operations. It develops a robust approach to effectively manage the PEoLB operations underpinned by a sound information flow to facilitate sustainability.

Cross operation is a common operation method in the building construction process nowadays. Due to the crossover, each other's operations are disturbed, and risks also interact. This superimposed relationship of risks is worthy of attention. The study aims to develop a model for analyzing cross-working risks. This model can quantify the correlation of various risk factors.

The concept of cross operation and the cross types involved are clarified. The risk factors were extracted from cross-operation accidents. The association rule mining (ARM) was used to analyze the results of various cross-types accidents. With the help of visualization tools, the intensity distribution and correlation path of the relationship between each factor were obtained. A complete cross-operation risk analysis model was established.

The application of ARM method proves that there are obvious risk correlation deviations in different types of cross operations. A high-frequency risk common to all cross operations is on-site safety inspection and process supervision, but the subsequent problems are different. Cutting off the high-lift risk chain timely according to the results obtained by ARM can reduce or eliminate the danger of high-frequency risk factors.

This is the first systematic analysis of cross-work risk in the construction. The study determined the priority of risk management. The results contribute to targeted cross-work control to reduce accidents caused by cross-work.

Safety and productivity are key concerns in the construction projects. While safety looks to the construction workers need to work in a safe environment, productivity affects the project’s profitability and is of a paramount importance from the project owner’s view. The different perspective to the safety and productivity from these two major players in construction projects poses a potential for the conflict between the two. This problem can be fundamentally addressed by methods concurrently improving project safety and productivity. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

To this aim, a discrete event simulation (DES) based framework applicable was proposed for complex and hazardous operations. The utility of the framework was tested using a case study of an eight-story residential building in the north-east part of Tehran, Iran. The excavation and stabilization operation was identified as the most hazardous and critical operation in this case. The framework could improve safety and productivity of this operation by 38 and 4 percent, respectively.

This framework is a complement to the conventional construction project safety and productivity planning methods. Its main application is in complex and hazardous construction operations.

For the first time, a comprehensive framework for concurrently improving safety and productivity of an entire project was proposed in this research. DES was used as the main modeling tool in the framework to provide an ex-ante evaluation foundation applicable to a wide range of construction projects.

The demand to reduce carbon emissions has become an increasingly important social factor due to the unprecedented impacts of climate change. However, most existing publications have focused on minimizing emissions during the operational phase of buildings. At the same time, there is a lack of comprehensive research conducted on carbon emissions, specifically during the construction phase. The purpose of this paper is to identify, review and classify current practices related to carbon emissions management in construction operations to gain greater insight into how to reduce and mitigate emissions and achieve more sustainable solutions.

This study reviewed the published literature on carbon emissions from construction. A total of 198 bibliographic records were extracted from the Scopus collection database and analyzed using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). PRISMA is used as a basis for reporting possible trends, research methods and strategies used in published literatures. A total of 99 papers related to carbon emissions in the construction operations were further reviewed and analyzed. This review paper draws on existing research and identifies current carbon management patterns in construction projects.

Data indicated an upward trend in the number of publications in carbon emissions research during the last few years, particularly in 2015, 2017 and 2019. The most significant contributions to the domain were reported from China, Europe and the USA. This paper found that most studies conduct the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method to estimate carbon emissions. This paper found that the primary studies have focused on construction machinery and equipment emissions. The strategies such as establishing uniform standards for carbon emissions policies and regulations, equipment and logistic planning and low carbon design material will potentially impact carbon emissions reductions.

This paper provides information that will be beneficial for the construction industry to design and manage construction operations. It will also be of interest to those looking to reduce or manage construction emissions.

Although there is a diversity of current thinking related to the practical estimation and management of carbon emissions in construction projects, there is no consolidated set of keys of standardized carbon emissions management in practice. By assessing the existing paradigms of carbon assessment methods and tactics in the construction industry, this study contributed to the existing knowledge base by providing insights into current techniques in the construction sector for monitoring and mitigating emissions.

Productivity increase is correlated with profitability, sustainability and competitiveness of the construction firms. Recent studies reveal that the primary causes of productivity decline are poor usage of scientific and technological advances, ineffective supervision strategies and poor apprenticeship facilities/opportunities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to evaluate how well construction supervisors can utilise fundamental science and technological concepts/ideas to increase the efficiency and productivity of construction activities.

A new strategic layout was designed with the use of potential training guide tools. Based on the designed layout, a new supervisory training programme was developed, and 62 construction supervisors were selected, trained and evaluated in line with six parts of competencies and the relevant learning domains. An assessment guide with different levels of descriptions and criteria was developed through literature analysis and expert interviews. The research tools were verified using comprehensive approaches.

The overall mean values of supervisors’ performance scores indicate proficient-level grades in the competency characteristics related to taking measurements, generating drawings/designs using manual techniques and computer-aided tools, involving Bill of Quantities (BOQ) preparations and preparing training plans/materials for improving the competencies of labourers on estimation, measurements and understanding drawings. Their proficiency was notably lower in the use of information and communication technology application tools in construction tasks compared to others. The findings point to a modern generalised guideline that establishes the ranges of supervisory attributes associated with science and technology-related applications.

The study outcomes produce conceptualised projections to restructure and revalue the job functions of various working categories by adding new definitions within the specified scope. This may result in constructive benefits to upgrading the current functions associated with urbanisation, sustainability and society. The implementation of the study’s findings/conclusions will have a significant impact on present and future practices in other developing nations and developing industries, even if they are directly applicable to the Sri Lankan construction industry.

Up to certain limits/stages, the study fills not only the knowledge gap in the field of creating protocols and application techniques connected to lifelong learning and skill enhancement/upgrading but also the existing gaps in work attributes and roles of construction supervisors associated with the utilisation of fundamental science and technological concepts/ideas towards reinforcing sustainable and productive site operations.

This study proposes a framework for Earthwork Ontology (EW-Onto) to support and enhance data exchange in the project and the efficient decision-making in the planning and execution phases.

The development of EW-Onto started from defining the concepts and building taxonomies for earthwork operations and equipment following the METHONTOLOGY approach. In addition, several rules have been extracted from safety codes and implemented as SWRL rules. The ontology has been implemented using Protégé. The consistency of EW-Onto has been checked and it has been evaluated using a survey.

The assessment of EW-Onto by experts indicates an adequate level of consensus with the framework, as an initial step for explicit knowledge exchanges within the earthwork domain.

The use of an ontology within the earthwork domain can help: (1) link and identify the relationships between concepts, define earthwork semantics, and classify knowledge in a hierarchical way accepted by experts and end-users; (2) facilitate the management of earthwork operations and simplify information exchange and interoperability between currently fragmented systems; and (3) increase the stakeholders' knowledge of earthwork operations through the provision of the information, which is structured in the context of robust knowledge.

This paper proposes a framework for Earthwork Ontology (EW-Onto) to support and enhance data exchange in the project and the efficient decision-making in the planning and execution phases. EW-Onto represents the semantic values of the entities and the relationships, which are identified and formalized based on the basic definitions available in the literature and outlined by experts.

The increasing consciousness of environmental protection has fostered the development of environmental management systems (EMS). ISO 14001 is an international standard that provides guidance for the establishment and monitoring of EMS implementation. Investigates the development of environmentally‐friendly construction operations based on a recent study in Hong Kong. Contributes to identifying the elements and processes of EMS implementation, and explaining the procedural guideline of a seven‐step EMS approach in managing construction practice. Incorporating the compliance requirements of ISO 14001, the approach addresses the policy, the implementation and monitoring, and continuous improvement of construction operations. The tangible and intangible benefits of the approach are also discussed with reference to the experiences of the Housing Department in Hong Kong. The approach may also be useful for construction practitioners to manage the EMS processes and assess their environmental performance towards continuous improvement.

The crane plays an essential role in modern construction sites as it supports numerous operations and activities on-site. Additionally, the crane produces a big amount of data that, if analyzed, could significantly affect productivity, progress monitoring and decision-making in construction projects. This paper aims to show the usability of crane data in tracking the progress of activities on-site.

This paper presents a pattern-based recognition method to detect concrete pouring activities on any concrete-based construction sites. A case study is presented to assess the methodology with a real-life example.

The analysis of the data helped build a theoretical pattern for concrete pouring activities and detect the different phases and progress of these activities. Accordingly, the data become useable to track progress and identify problems in concrete pouring activities.

The paper presents an example for construction practitioners and researcher about a practical and easy way to analyze the big data that comes from cranes and how it is used in tracking projects' progress. The current study focuses only on concrete pouring activities; future studies can include other types of activities and can utilize the data with other building methods to improve construction productivity.

The proposed approach is supposed to be simultaneously efficient in terms of concrete pouring detection as well as cost-effective. Construction practitioners could track concrete activities using an already-embedded monitoring device.

While several studies in the literature targeted the optimization of crane operations and of mitigating hazards through automation and sensing, the opportunity of using cranes as progress trackers is yet to be fully exploited.

Computer simulation in construction planning has been the subject of research for the last few decades. The present paper describes simulation models geared toward improving the productivity of concreting operations. It is primarily concerned with a study of the sensitivity of concreting operations to a set of possible resource combinations. Thirteen models are examined by the two well‐known methods of concreting: (1) crane and bucket; and (2) the pump. Concreting into slabs, beams and columns are considered. The simulation software Micro‐CYCLONE is used for the actual generation of models. Sensitivity parameters considered in resource combinations include the number of truck‐mixers, buckets and labourers in concrete placing crews. The simulation models developed are compared and the results are discussed. The results enable planners to realize how the resource quantities and capacities in one cycle affect the ones in another period for cyclic operations like concreting. It can be concluded that the maximum number of resources, the interaction of work crews caused by work space limitations and the interaction of equipment because of sharing with other activities of the project may bring limitations.