Project bank accounts: the second wave of security of payment?

Project bank accounts: the second wave of security of payment

Factors Facilitating Construction Industry Development

This paper reports on a study aimed at identifying the key factors associated with construction industry development worldwide, by using a grounded theory approach. This involved, firstly, the identification of 62 variables from earlier studies. A questionnaire survey was then used to elicit views of the current strength of each variable. The resulting data were factor analysed and a set of eight key factors obtained comprising: (1) Industry-led better practice and culture; (2) Financial resources and investor confidence; (3) Human skills and culture of transparency; (4) Government policies and strategies supporting construction business; (5) Research and Development for construction; (6) Self-reliant construction culture; (7) Institutional support; and (8) Supportive attitudes from Aid agencies. These appear to be relevant to both developed and developing countries

A practice mining system for the delivery of sustainable retirement villages

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd With the wide recognition of sustainable development, a range of sustainable practices has been incorporated into the development and operation of retirement villages to provide a sustainable living environment for residents in Australia. The retirement village sector is seeking effective methods of reusing these historical practices to facilitate the future development and operation of sustainable retirement villages. However, this is challenging and there has been no research to date into this issue. Therefore, this study aims to develop a practice mining system (PMS) to address the research gap. By using multiple case studies for data collection and case-based reasoning (CBR) for data mining, the study develops the CBR-PMS, which comprises a Data Transforming and Location System, a Data Warehouse, and a Data Mining and Reusing Engine. The CBR-PMS is a data management and mining system that can be adopted to retain, capture, reuse, and revise prior sustainable practices to facilitate the future development and operation of sustainable retirement villages. Case studies and expert judgements are used in its demonstrations and validation, and satisfactory performance is achieved. It is concluded that the CBR-PMS is an effective tool for retaining and transferring prior practices and acts as an innovative tool of knowledge management and organizational learning in the retirement living sector. Although the CBR-PMS is at its conceptual stage and requires some automation to make it user-friendly, it provides practical insights into the development of a sustainable living environment and benefits the development of data mining systems for other sustainability initiatives

An eutrophication index for lowland sandy rivers in Mediterranean coastal climatic regions of Southern Africa

The eutrophication of waterways has become an endemic global problem. Nutrient enrichment from agriculture activities and waste water treatment plants are major drivers, but it remains unclear how lowland sandy rivers respond to eutrophication. The objective of this study was the development and verification of eutrophication index for sandy rivers (EISR) to prioritize nutrient enrichment river stretches caused by different land use activities that include point and nonpoint sources of nutrient enrich water. The Berg River drainage system in South Africa served as a case study area for this purpose during the dry seasons (December and January) of 2015 and 2016. In the initial EISR development phase, periphyton, benthic biomass (chl-a mg m−2), and macroinvertebrate families were employed as benthic bioindicators of river bedforms, whereas in the second phase, physicochemical and abiotic variables were used as target indicator. Using a weight of support approach, the site receiving sewage effluent was categorize as heavily polluted whereas sites impacted by agriculture land use activities were polluted. The EISR that focuses strongly on benthic bioindicators, which are close to the transfer of nutrients and energy in the food web, showed a distinct difference between river bedform impacted by sewage effluent and agriculture none point source. A maximum benthic algae biomass of 110 mg m−2 chl-a was recorded with higher sediment orthophosphate concentration at sewage-impacted sites. The outcome of the proposed EISR showed that it can be employed as a decision support tool for eutrophication management of sandy rivers.Fil: Oberholster, Paul Johan. Natural Resources and the Environment; Sudáfrica. University of Stellenbosch; Sudáfrica. University of the Western Cape; SudáfricaFil: Madlala, Tebogo. Natural Resources and the Environment; Sudáfrica. University of the Western Cape; SudáfricaFil: Blettler, Martin Cesar Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto Nacional de Limnología. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto Nacional de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Amsler, Mario Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto Nacional de Limnología. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto Nacional de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Eberle Folmer, Eliana Gisel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto Nacional de Limnología. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto Nacional de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Botha, Anna María. University of Stellenbosch; Sudáfric