Proceedings of ARCOM Doctoral Workshop on 'Industry 4.0 and Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment': ARCOM Doctoral Workshop in association with CIB W120 - Disasters and the Built Environment

Disruptive innovations of the 4th industrial revolution are now starting to make an impact on construction. Although construction has lagged behind some of the other industries in embracing this revolution, recent years have seen a concentrated effort to drive change in construction processes and practices. The 4th industrial revolution is characterised by technologies such as digitisation, optimisation, and customisation of production, automation and adaptation; as well as processes such as human machine interaction; value-added services and businesses, and automatic data exchange and communication. In construction, the applications of Industry 4.0 include 3D printing of building components, autonomous construction vehicles, the use of drones for site and building surveying, advanced offsite manufacturing facilities etc. The application of technologies, processes associated with Industry 4.0 is seen to be already making an impact on construction, and reshaping the future of built environment. This new digital era of construction, fuelled by Industry 4.0, has significant potential to enhance disaster resilience practices in the built environment. Knowledge on resilience of the built environment including preparedness, response and recovery has advanced significantly over the recent years and we are now in an era where resilience is seen as a key constituent of the built environment. But the recurring and devastating impacts of disasters constantly challenge us to improve our practices and seek ways of achieving greater heights in our quest of achieving a resilient built environment. It is often proposed that the innovations associated with Industry 4.0 joined by IoTs and sensors can be exploited to enhance the ability of the built environment to prepare for and adapt to climate change and withstand and recover rapidly from the impacts of disasters. This integration of cyber physical systems through IoTs needs a holistic view of disaster resilience. Often, the focus is on benefits individual technologies can offer. However, the ability to integrate different aspects of disaster resilience using a range of new technologies promise to deliver wider benefits beyond and above what individual technologies can offer. For instance, an integrated digital twin allows to bring together advanced risk modelling, big data, cloud computing, internet of things, advanced off-site manufacturing, etc. together to deliver a resilient built environment. This requires careful planning and extensive research on the complexities surrounding disaster resilience related aspects and the use of related data. The ultimate objective of any new innovation, including Industry 4.0, should ideally be to benefit the society. The society that we live today is often disrupted by natural hazard induced disasters, whether it be floods, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides or tsunamis. The challenge that is in front of us is to effectively utilise new innovations driven by digital information to enhance disaster resilience in our buildings, communities, cities and regions. However, unlike earlier industrial revolutions, digital revolution is not easy to control. We must ensure that the fundamental values such as freedom, openness and pluralism are inbuilt in these new technologies. This is an uncharted territory for us. In addition to addressing complexities and challenges of using Industry 4.0 technologies, we also need to have policies and guidelines on the use of information. There should be a balance between innovation and regulation. We are confident that by bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers alike from relevant disciplines we can deliver realistic benefits to transform our disaster resilience practices and policies, and make the built environment we live in more resilient

CIB International Conference 2014: W55/65/89/92/96/102/117 & TG72/74/81/83 Construction in a changing world: Book of Abstracts

It is no exaggeration to say that CIB is the world's foremost platform for international cooperation and information exchange in the area of building and construction research and innovation. What takes place at CIB events is the very essence of CIB's raison d'être and, outside the triennial CIB Congress, an unprecedented number of CIB working commissions and task groups are represented at this Conference and we have worked to facilitate interaction with a rich mix of specialist streams, opportunities for informal networking and a series of challenging keynotes. With its focus of “Construction in a Changing World”, the Conference provides a forum for researchers worldwide to debate and exchange ideas and experiences on a broad range of issues. Driven by technology innovation, demographic growth, environmental change, a new economic order and a strong undercurrent of social and political desire for change, the world is changing quickly. Construction doesn’t exist in isolation and, in a fast-changing world, the sector has the vital role of providing the requisite built environment to meet the challenges presented by these changes. In order to deliver value, maintain competitiveness and address the needs of society, the construction industry will need to develop its capabilities for managing innovation and technical change. The Conference will bring together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and disciplines to deal with the major challenges that construction professionals will be confronted with in the coming years