Sustainable Strategic Urban Planning: Methodology for Urban Renovation At District Level

Sustainable urban renovation is characterized by multiple factors (e.g. technical, socio-economic, environmental and ethical perspectives), different spatial scales and a number of administrative structures that should address the evaluation of alternative scenarios or solutions. This defines a complex decision problem that includes different stakeholders where several aspects need to be considered simultaneously. In spite of the knowledge and experiences during the recent years, there is a need of methods that lead the decision-making processes. In response, a methodology based on the global idea and implications of working towards a more sustainable and energy efficient cities as a holistic procedure for urban renovation at district level is proposed in the European Smart City project CITyFiED. The methodology has the energy efficiency as main pillar and the local authorities as client. It is composed of seven phases that ensures an effective dialogue among all the stakeholders, aiming to understand the objectives and needs of the city to define a set of Strategies for Sustainable Urban Renovation and their integration within the Strategic Urban Planning of the cities.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement N° 609129. The authors would like to thank the rest of the partners of the CITyFiED project for their help and support

Environmental, human health and socio-economic effects of cement powders: The multicriteria analysis as decisional methodology

The attention to sustainability-related issues has grown fast in recent decades. The experience gained with these themes reveals the importance of considering this topic in the construction industry, which represents an important sector throughout the world. This work consists on conducting a multicriteria analysis of four cement powders, with the objective of calculating and analysing the environmental, human health and socio-economic effects of their production processes. The economic, technical, environmental and safety performances of the examined powders result from official, both internal and public, documents prepared by the producers. The Analytic Hierarchy Process permitted to consider several indicators (i.e., environmental, human health related and socio-economic parameters) and to conduct comprehensive and unbiased analyses which gave the best, most sustainable cement powder. As assumed in this study, the contribution of each considered parameter to the overall sustainability has a different incidence, therefore the procedure could be used to support on-going sustainability efforts under different conditions. The results also prove that it is not appropriate to regard only one parameter to identify the ‘best’ cement powder, but several impact categories should be considered and analysed if there is an interest for pursuing different, often conflicting interests

Impact of New Technologies on Public Organisations

ICTs impact is important on organisational structure and organisational culture.IT offers options for the design of organisational culture,the interaction by means of new modalities ,joint fonctions and objectives,faciliting the set up of working groups with a determined term,as well as communication on large areas. The use of effective IT could provide an attractive work environment ,and could motivate the employees by means of job enrichment. ICTs represent a catalyst for the public sector,in order to improve the decisions making process, efficient management of resourses,to increase productivity in the public sector.Public organisations, new technologies, e-administration

Purchases for corporate needs in Russia’s regions in 2019

Objective. To consider the indicators that characterize purchases for the needs of large corporations with state participation in the regions of Russia. Methodology. The study uses relevant information for 82 regions of Russia. The methodology of the research base on evaluation functions density of normal distribution volumes of contracts on regions. Results. The results of research are calculation of four indicators’ values that demonstrate the regional aspects of procurement for corporate needs, including the contracts signed by small businesses or with their participation. Conclusions. It was proved that averageshare of the contracts with small enterprises is about 20 %; the value of every indicator is significantly varied in different regions of Russia. The article confirms the lack of connection between the values of each indicator and such factors as the level of economic development of regions and their geographical location

The association between Institutional Absorptive Capacity, Electronic procurement Assimilation and Procurement Process in Public Sector Organizations

Public sector organizations face challenges with their procurement processes. Electronic mode of public procurement enables governments and organizations to achieve efficient and effective tendering information processing, leading to transparency and fairness in the bidding process. However, little is known on the drivers of electronic procurement assimilation in the public sector. The study examines the influence of absorptive capacity on the assimilation of electronic procurement and the subsequent effect on the procurement process in the public sector. In addition, the study explores the mediating role of electronic procurement assimilation on the relationship between institutional absorptive capacity and the procurement process. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze 306 useable data from public sector organizations in Ghana where public procurement laws demand efficient and effective procurement processes. We found support for all the four hypotheses. We offer theoretical and managerial implications

The coevolution of AEC professional work practices with technology: collaborative delivery framework modelling for BIM projects

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Johannesburg, 2018Despite BIM’s potential to alleviate persistent construction industry challenges, its use does not guarantee results. Therefore, it was argued and established from a theoretical and practical standpoint that the implementation of BIM, an evolving technology, within pre-BIM organisational and project team work practices (as activity systems), induces their evolution through dysfunctions created in the systems and their resolution. A multi-stage\multi-method research design involving a study of BIM implementation cases, documents analysis, swimlane modelling and multi-domain-mapping (MDM) of pre-BIM and BIM-enabled project delivery processes was employed. This was to develop an understanding of how construction professional work practices evolve with the implementation of BIM. The findings show that evolutionary change of work practices within organisations precedes that of project teams. The findings further suggest a link between organisational attitude towards BIM as a method of working and success at implementing it. Using activity theory, a novel conceptual analysis of BIM induced change in professional work practices aided a theoretical understanding of the implications of implementing BIM on construction professional work practices. The theory provided a basis for analysing historical and future change patterns in professional work practices with BIM and indeed similar work mediating tools. An in-depth conceptualisation and new theoretical insight were developed on the phenomenon of new role legitimation, establishing that new BIM role takers are legitimated to exercise authority within project teams and organisations mainly because they leverage knowledge as a strategic resource. By implication, they will remain legitimate only as long as the constraint or dysfunction prompting their creation subsists. Furthermore, using swimlane and MDM modelling methods in complement, the BIM change impact on pre-BIM workflows was modelled. An objective evaluation of the BIM change impact at the pre-construction phase showed that the BIM-enabled project delivery workflows structure, compared to the pre-BIM is more connected and integrated.MT 201

Forecasting project success in the construction industry using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system

Project managers often find it a challenge to successfully manage construction projects. As a result, understanding, evaluating, and achieving project success are critical for sponsors to control projects. In practice, determining key success factors and criteria to assess the performance of construction projects and forecast the success of new projects is difficult. To address these concerns, our objective is to go beyond the efficiency-oriented project success criteria by considering both efficiency- and effectiveness-oriented measures to evaluate project success. This paper contributes to existing knowledge by identifying a holistic and multidimensional set of project success factors and criteria using a two-round Delphi technique. We developed a decision support system using the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) to forecast the success of mid- and large-sized construction projects. We gathered data from 142 project managers in Australia and New Zealand to implement the developed ANFIS. We then validated the constructed ANFIS using the K-fold cross-validation procedure and a real case study of a large construction project in Western Australia. The forecasting accuracy measures R2=0.97461, MAPE = 2.57912%, MAE = 1.88425, RMSE = 2.3610, RRMSE = 0.03149, and PI = 0.01589 suggest that the developed ANFIS is a very good predictor of project success