Hiete, Kühlen and Schultmann analyse the perceived interdependencies between the criteria of a sustainability building rating system. They argue that the interdependencies within typical hierarchical indicator systems can result in unwanted overweighting of some criteria. Based on perceived direct cause‐effect relationships between the criteria, the authors calculate total direct and indirect interdependencies. Taking the German building rating system as an example, they identify cause and effect criteria. Cause criteria affect other criteria more than they are themselves affected. The authors argue that this information is valuable for users because measures affecting a cause criterion positively will also affect those criteria in a positive way which depend on this criterion. Developers of a rating system may find such information useful when selecting appropriate criteria. For example, strongly inter‐linked criteria should be carefully checked for unwanted double counting and effect criteria are more complex to understand and control as they are influenced by other criteria.
Little attention has been given to the adjustment towards the target capital structure for firms in the construction industry, in particular within the context of emerging markets. Yeh utilizes the partial adjustment model to examine the adjustment behaviour of capital structure of the listed firms in the construction industry during the period of 1982 to 2007 within the context of Taiwan that had a successful experiment of economic transition from being a less developed country to becoming a newly industrialized country within only a few decades in the last century. The author finds that firms with financial constraint of over‐leverage relative to the target debt ratios finance less debt in order to reduce the cost and risk of bankruptcy than firms with financial constraint of under‐leverage during the period of 1982 to 2007. In addition, the difference in the average debt ratios between firms with financial constraint of over‐leverage and under‐leverage has become narrower after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The author also finds that the average speed of adjustment towards the target debt ratios has slowed down since the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
Chan examines the role of fatigue in accidents in the context of the oil and gas construction sector. This is an especially hazardous type of construction work, and operatives are subject to unusually high levels of stress and fatigue. Her survey in China, backed up with interviews of accident victims, reveals that fatigue is ranked as the most important causative factor of accidents in this sector. She recommends that fatigue is recognized as a major accident cause, and that it is a complex and multi‐dimensional phenomenon. But in order to mitigate accidents, project managers should develop tactics to deal with the factors that cause fatigue in operatives.
Elazouni and Salem present an approach employing pattern recognition techniques to overcome the problem of reporting inaccurate actual data associated with construction project monitoring. They argue that there is a tendency to conceal the slow progress of lagging activities which camouflages outstanding performance in other areas. In simple terms, the pattern recognition techniques are used to classify the patterns representing the planned progress at a given cut‐off date. The authors show that their proposed approach offers a fairer evaluation process for monitoring progress.
Schade, Olofsson and Schreyer propose a decision‐making framework to be used in a structured performance‐based design process, where design alternatives consisting of both objective and subjective evaluation criteria can be evaluated. The authors argue that use of building information models can offer more precise estimates where required data to evaluate the building performance can be imported to different types of estimation and analysis software. However, the different aspects of a design are often contradictory, and so a performance‐based design needs the support from a formal decision making method where the different design alternatives' performances can be evaluated and compared. They demonstrate the potential of their framework in an energy performance based design process of an office building in Helsinki.
Issa, Attalla, Rankin and Christian evaluate energy consumption in Canadian ‘green’ schools in order to address a lack of empirical evidence about the long‐term energy efficiency of green buildings in Canada. Using a life‐cycle costing approach, they conduct an analysis of the actual, documented energy quantities and costs of a sample of conventional, energy‐retrofitted, and green Toronto schools following the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. The analysis shows that green schools spend more on electricity but less on gas than conventional and energy‐retrofitted schools, and that total energy costs are also lower in green schools, even if this difference is not statistically significant. The authors argue that while these results provide initial empirical evidence to the energy‐efficiency of green buildings, there is a need to analyse more green buildings of various types, and over a longer study period to develop a body of knowledge that can be used to improve existing green building rating schemes.
Hu, Rahmandad, Smith‐Jackson and Winchester review the evidence of the risk of falls in the industry. They argue that falls are a significant public health risk and a leading cause of non‐fatal and fatal injuries among construction workers worldwide, and that a more comprehensive understanding of causal factors leading to fall incidents is essential to prevent them in the future. The authors analysed and coded 121 articles and synthesized them to provide an overview of the important relationships from the literature. Factors commonly associated with falls included working surfaces and platforms, workers' safety behaviours and attitudes, and construction structure and facilities. Significant differences across qualitative and quantitative studies were found, with qualitative studies including many more soft issues and organizational and cultural factors. The authors argue that their study also provides a literature synthesis method based on macro‐variables which offers a flexible approach to aggregating previous findings and assessing agreement between them. Detailed coding results are also provided in freely accessible online databases for interested readers.
Hallowell, Esmaeili and Chinowsky examine the impact of spatial and temporal interactions among highway construction work tasks on base‐level safety risks. A limitation of previous safety risk databases is that tasks are modelled as if they were independent and isolated. To enhance our understanding safety risk, 600 interactions were quantified using four rounds of Delphi surveys and input provided by three independent panels of 12 or more certified experts. The results suggest that the most incompatible work tasks are installing curbs and gutters while installing concrete pavement and performing construction zone traffic control while installing rigid pavement. Furthermore, the results indicate that tasks may increase each others' base‐level safety risk by up to 60% when performed in the same physical location at the same time. The resulting database can be used to integrate safety risk information with pre‐project planning tools, which promotes proactive safety management.