Measures for mitigating the delay in high-rise building construction projects in Dubai

Construction industry faces several challenges such as low labour productivity, cost overrun, time overrun, and extreme weather condition. Globally, the most severe challenge is project delay, particularly in Dubai where the construction industry is booming rapidly than other parts of the world, especially in high-rise building construction projects. Hence, objectives of this research are to identify the factors causing delay, to determine the significant factors and their mitigation measures, and to assess relationship between significant factors of delay and their mitigation measures. This study consists of two stages. In stage one, based on 56 common factors causing delay in construction projects identified from literature review, a questionnaire survey was designed and distributed to 100 respondents among the construction practitioners. Through SPSS version (20) analysis, 11 out of 56 common factors were found to be significant factors causing delay. In stage two, a preliminary study was initially carried out by developing a semi-structured questionnaire which was distributed among 30 construction experts in order to determine the mitigation measures for each of 11 significant delay factors. The 44 mitigation measures associated respectively with each of the 11 significant factors were then utilized in the development of final questionnaire. This finalized questionnaire was distributed among 100 construction experts of high-rise building construction projects in order to assess the relationship between significant factors and their mitigation measures. It was unveiled from bivariate analysis of Pearson correlation coefficient that relationship between significant factors and their mitigation measures has very significant, positive and linearly correlated with each other. This research would be helpful for all construction practitioners who are involved in high-rise building construction projects in mitigating the relative delay to the project. Thus, it will directly benefit the construction community and contribute in raising the economy of the country

Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of Small Dams Based on T-Paired Sample Test Using SPSS Software

A dam is a barrier/structure that impounds water and retains it for later use. Thus, it plays an important role and offers a reserve stock of water for rural communities in remote areas. The present study was conducted to assess the socio-economic impact of small dams on local communities. The impact was analyzed based on descriptive statistics and t- paired sample tests using SPSS software to study and analyze the Nagarparkar area, Sindh, Pakistan. Primary and secondary data were used for collecting the data. The data was collected randomly from 250 people through interviews and group discussions Also, 104 sets of data were obtained through a questionnaire survey. The overall results summary of the parameters revealed that a significantly positive variation occurred in the study area after construction of the dam. The number of the packa houses and water depth were increased. The distance to collect water and water-fetching time were decreased 6% and 5.61 % respectively. The overall average area cultivated with crops was increased by 26.55%. The average yield of almost every crop in both Rabi and Kharif seasons were increased by 55% in the areas surrounding the dams. The overall number of livestock was increased by 18.08%, while the number of horses decreased by 1.5% after construction of the dam. The income, expenditure, and savings have increased significantly to 36.16%, 17.68%, and 32.15%, respectively, while the migration rate has decreased19.09% since construction of the dam. The choice of crops has also changed from inferior crops to superior and market-oriented crops. The water table and quality have improved, and wells have been recharged

Land Covers Change Assessment After Small Dam’s Construction Based on the Satellite Data

The small dams were constructed in the study area for storing the rainwater. The present study was conducted to assess the impact of small dams on the LCC (Land Cover Change) in Nangarparkar, Pakistan based on the satellite data. The ENVI (Environment for Visualizing Images) software was used for classification of the four year’s images and three classes viz. water, vegetation, and soil were taken for detection of LCC. The MLH (Maximum Likelihood) supervised method was used to classify the multispectral satellite images. The classified results of the classes were found different each year before and after dam construction. Average results of the two years before dam’s construction revealed that water availability, vegetation cover and soil cover was 3.02%, 18.52%, and 32.30% respectively. However, after the dam construction, the water availability, vegetation cover and soil cover was 8.49%, 34.33%, and 17.15% respectively. Overall results revealed that water availability and vegetation cover were increased by 5.47 % and 15.18% respectively while soil cover decreased 15.15% after the construction of dams. Hence, based on the results, it is confirmed that the constructions of small dams have a direct and indirect positive impact on the land cover changes and it can play an important role in the resettlement of the communities of the arid areas

Green and Sustainable Concrete – The Potential Utilization of Rice Husk Ash and Egg Shells

Concrete which is widely used material in the construction industry, has a carbon footprint. Approximately 10% of global Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gas is emitted during the production of cement which is vital ingredient of concrete. The increase in production of cement affects global warming and climate change. Therefore, many have attempts have been made to develop green and sustainable concrete by utilizing different waste materials. With the utilization of waste materials as cement replacement, the CO2 gas emissions can be reduced as well as resolve the environmental issues that the inhabitants face during the disposal of such waste materials. This paper reviews the potential and innovative utilization of Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and Eggshells as partial cement replacement to develop green concrete. RHA which is rich in silica and eggshells contain identical amount of calcium oxide as cement, when finely grinded and used together as partial cement replacement, can trigger a pozzolanic reaction, in which silica reacts with calcium oxide resulting in the formation of calcium silicates which are responsible for achieving higher strengths

A hybrid method using kinect depth and color data stream for hand blobs segmentation

The recently developed depth sensors such as Kinect have provided new potential for human-computer interaction (HCI) and hand gesture are one of main parts in recent researches. Hand segmentation procedure is performed to acquire hand gesture from a captured image. In this paper, a method is produced to segment hand blobs using both depth and color data frames. This method applies a body segmentation and an image threshold techniques to depth data frame using skeleton data and concurrently it uses SLIC super-pixel segmentation method to extract hand blobs from color data frame with the help of skeleton data. The proposed method has low computation time and shows significant results when basic assumption are fulfilled

Optimal sizing and technical assessment of a hybrid renewable energy solution for off-grid community center power

Decentralized energy generation systems based on renewable sources have significant potential to assist in the sustainable development of developing countries. The small-scale integration of hybrid renewable energy systems in off-grid communities has not been thoroughly researched. The primary objective is to develop a preliminary design for a PV/biogas hybrid system that can meet the energy needs of an off-grid community center. A survey was conducted to calculate the energy demands of an off-grid community center and a hybrid renewable system has been designed to supply the electricity. The optimum designed system is evaluated by the PVSYST simulation software and SuperPro Designer software. The annual production of the PV system is 34428 kWh/year, specific production is 1118 kWh/kWp/year, and the performance ratio is 81.72%. All the factors that contribute to energy loss are considered in designing a PV system. The average operating efficiency of the inverter is 92.6%, and global inverter losses are 2752.4 kWh. The biogas simulation findings show an adequate match with the composition of conventional biogas and contains 89.64% methane and 5.99% carbon dioxide content. Two sensitivity analyses of biogas based on hydraulic retention time and moisture content have been performed. Measurements readings of hourly data are used to analyse the performance of PV, biogas system as well as the hybrid system performance. At day time, the maximum power generation of the hybrid PV/Biogas and the maximum load demand of the community at that time are 25.2 kW and 24.31 kW, respectively. At night time, the maximum power generation of the hybrid system and the maximum load demand are 9 kW and 8.3 kW, respectively. The power factor (PF) of the system fluctuates between 0.92 and 0.98 and the frequency of the system is constant at 50 HZ

Evaluation of solar disinfection of water intervention delivered through lady health workers in reduction of diarrheal episodes in under five children

Background: Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) is a simple, inexpensive and sustainable means of daily household treatment for drinking and storage of water. Globally, over a billion people lack access to safe drinking water. As many as half million under five children die annually due to diarrheal illnesses. Most of these deaths are concentrated in Africa and South Asia. Unsafe water is one of the most critical risk factors for diarrhoea. Systematic reviews indicate that interventions to improve the microbial quality of drinking water in households are effective at reducing diarrhoea illnesses and thereby contribute significantly in reducing deaths due to communicable diseases in children under 5 years. We evaluated the impact of the SODIS intervention on health outcomes and diarrheal episodes in two districts of Punjab province in Pakistan. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken to assess the impact of solar water disinfection (SODIS) program in two districts of Punjab province, Pakistan. The program was implemented by the Ministry of Health from April 2010- May 2011 in Faisalabad district. We selected Toba Tek Singh as a comparison district for the survey.Results: Analysis with regression models revealed that children had a lower risk of contracting diarrhoea when they consumed high percentages of safe drinks (SODIS), lived in households with good hygiene, washed hands, and belonged to the richest quintile. Diarrhoea prevalence was 10.1 episodes per child per year in the non-intervention area compared to 5.6 episodes per child per year (\u3c 0.0001) in the intervention area. Similarly the proportion of children with dysentery reported in the intervention was half compared to non-intervention area (6.1% vs. 13.9%). SODIS method for purifying drinking water is acceptable and effective in the developing countries. It should be a part of preventive strategies at health system level to control diarrheal illnesses and reduce under five mortalit

Utilization of Rubber Powder of Waste Tyres in Foam Concrete

Foam concrete or light concrete has become increasingly recognizable in commercial and construction field. Foam concrete is not just light in its weight but also light in cost, as there is no coarse aggregate needed in its production. Application of foam concrete is limited due to the fact that it is not as strong as conventional concrete in terms of strength and rigidness. Therefore, this study is to investigate the potential of foam concrete incorporating with rubber powder of waste tire and admixture as an additive material to improve its strength and workability. Thus, the use of rubber powder in this study could enhance the strength by filling the voids in foam concrete. The amount of rubber powder added as additive in foam concrete is 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% respectively. The amount of plasticizers used is limited to less than 0.4% to the weight of cement. The mix design was set to achieve density of 1800kg/m3. The workability of foam concrete is decreasing as the percentage of rubber power was increasing. The foam concrete containing 5%of rubber powder has highest compressive strength with value of 20.6 MPa for 7 days water curing and 22.3 MPa for 28 days water curing. Significantly showing an increase of 1.7 MPa. The highest value of tensile strength for both air curing 7 and 28 days are 1.86 MPa and 1.97 MPa also held by 3% of rubber powder mix. As a conclusion the optimum rubber powder content to be used in foam concrete is 5% that gives the highest results in terms of workability and strength

Fatigue and Rutting Analysis of Asphaltic Pavement Using “KENLAYER” Software

Rutting and Fatigue are taken as main premature failures among all distresses, as these distresses have wide effect on performance of pavement. Sudden variation of heavy axle loaded vehicles, improper mix design and traditional design methodologies used in pavement design industries are major factors behind these failures. For proper performance and good serviceability, these premature distresses should be resisted. Thus, there is a need of using a Mechanistic based design methodology like KENPAVE software, so that traditional design errors should be overcome. KENLAYER is a part of KENPAVE software. KENLYER software tool is utilized to calculated accurately stresses and strains in asphaltic pavement that are ultimately used in calculating allowance for rutting and fatigue failure utilizing Asphalt Institute design models or formulas. Resistance to Rutting failure is checked by calculating vertical compressive stress at the top of soil sub-grade layer, while resistance to fatigue failure is checked by calculating horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of asphaltic layer using KENLAYER software tool. Thus, the object of this research study is to analyze a flexible pavement with respect to rutting and fatigue distresses using KENLAYER software tool. For achieving that objective NHA (N-55) section of road in Sehwan Pakistan was taken as a reference pavement. Pavement was analyzed by altering the thicknesses of bituminous courses by ± 25 percent. From that we obtained total 20 cross-sections to be analyzed using KENLAYER software in terms of Rutting and Fatigue premature failures

Implementation of building information modeling (BIM) in Pakistan construction industry

This paper examines the implementation of building information modeling (BIM) in construction industry. Various initiatives and approaches are used in different countries to promote the BIM implementation in their construction industries. The real implementation and use of BIM remains a major concern of the construction industry. This study investigates the implantation of BIM globally, in developed countries and the percentage of implementation of BIM in constriction industry of Sindh, Pakistan. This research demonstrates 131 responses from BIM users regarding BIM implementation whose collaboration aspects produce the highest positive impact. The adopted methodology is an online questionnaire survey and literature review which was conducted to find out the implementation of BIM in construction industries of developed countries. This research reveals that BIM implementation is increasing continuously over the past few years. A Number of developed countries are emerging successful BIM implementation strategies, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France are generally leading the way. However, according to our study findings, only 11% of industries have implemented BIM in Sindh, Pakistan