Sustainable building processes' challenges and strategies : the relative important index approach

Sustainability has been increasingly advocated by the global construction industry due to the need to minimise the industry's adverse impacts. An important area when focusing on sustainability is the issue of project management teams since they are involved from the project's inception to its completion. Many studies have investigated and advocated a wide range of sustainability practices within the construction industry. However, little attention has been geared towards construction project management teams when addressing the issues of sustainability. This study aims to provide an empirical analysis of the challenges and mitigating strategies for enhancing project management teams’ readiness in the adoption of sustainable building processes. It does so by undertaking an extensive critical review of literature resulting in the identification of sixteen challenges and sixteen mitigation strategies and conducted a cross-sectional survey among 200 Ghanaian construction industry professionals. Data obtained from the survey was analysed using descriptive statistics and relative importance index rankings. The study revealed that inadequate training and education, unfamiliarity with green technologies, and higher initial costs of green construction practices and materials are the key challenges that hinder project management teams’ implementation of sustainable building processes. The study further revealed the significant mitigation strategies such as educating stakeholders on the future benefits of green buildings, engaging personnel with green building background, and setting sustainable priorities and goals early in the feasibility study. The value of this paper is to help project management teams to understand these challenges and strategize to turn them into opportunities for the construction industry

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: A BIBLIOMETRIC AND SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

The integration and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing (CC) technology in the construction industry (CI) would support their implementation process and adoption. However, there is a lack of research in the extant literature, and recent advances in this field have not been explored. As such, the key research question focuses on the extent of existing literature, main research hotspots, and recent advances (i.e., research gaps and future directions) in AI in CC in the CI. To address this research question, this study aims to conduct a state-of-the-art review of AI in CC in the CI by providing a qualitative discussion of the main research hotspots, research gaps, and future research directions. This review study used a four-step bibliometric-systematic review approach consisting of literature search, literature screening, science mapping analysis, and qualitative discussion. The results found four main research hotspots, namely (1) construction project performance indicators, (2) data analysis and visualization, (3) construction quality control and safety, and (4) construction energy efficiency. These findings would provide valuable insights for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand and integrate AI and CC technology applications in the CI. This review study will lay a better foundation for future developments in construction project management processes, data-sharing protocols, real-time safety monitoring, and ethical implications of AI and CC technologies

Modeling the Principal Success Factors for Attaining Systemic Circularity in the Building Construction Industry: An International Survey of Circular Economy Experts

To achieve zero waste and cumber the acute environmental effect of the building construction industry (BCI), circular economy (CE) implementation is pertinent. Such implementation requires the incorporation of certain actionable factors that are critical to its success. However, investigating these factors considering the individualistic variations of developed and developing economies is rarely conducted in the literature. Therefore, this study evaluated the critical success factors (CSFs) for attaining systemic circularity in the BCI of both developed and developing economies. The methodological framework adopted comprises a literature review and a questionnaire survey of 140 CE experts across 39 developed and developing economies. The data collected was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), rank agreement analysis (RAA), and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) techniques. The EFA analysis revealed four principal success factors (PSFs): data-driven digital tools and circularity plan, capacity building and pre-demolition auditing, systemic circularity guidelines and commitment, and circular metric and secondary market development. The RAA results showed that consensus and non-consensus exist between the two groups (developed and developing economies) on the PSFs. The FSE method revealed that all the PSFs are paramount in achieving a successful CE implementation in the two economies. However, the top two in developed economies are systemic circularity guidelines and commitment, and circular metric and secondary market development, while data-driven digital tools and circularity plans, and capacity building and demolition monitoring are the top two in developing economies. The RAA findings underscore the need to be context conscious while adopting the CSFs for CE implementation in the BCI. The FSE findings and the PSF models developed would guide the government and management teams in resource allocation during CE implementation. This study contributes to existing knowledge by providing essential insights into the CSFs that would promote systemic circularity attainment in the BCI of developed and developing economies