Building Information Modelling Benefits-Maturity Relationship from Client Perspective

Much work has focused on improving construction productivity including the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in construction. In particular, Building Information Modelling (BIM) could revolutionise the project process. Also, it is considered by the different construction industry stakeholders as a main driver towards them gaining a considerable savings in project costs. Clients can play a vital role in the implementation process of such technologies but still there is a lack of understanding as to where during the project lifecycle BIM can provide benefits to the client. In this article a new conceptual framework will represent the relationship between BIM application benefits and the client organisation maturity levels. This framework will help the clients to fully understand and monitor the BIM benefits through project life cycle. Keywords: Client, BIM, Applications, Benefits, Maturity Levels

Evaluation of Water Quality Parameters for Shatt Al-Basrah Canal in Basrah Authorities

A significant increase in freshwater demand has been reported recently due to several factors such as population growth, industrialization, rising living standards and global warming effects. As a direct result of that, numerous water crises have occurred around the world especially in downstream countries such as Iraq. Due to the previous reasons, water in terms of quality and quantity considered as a first priority by the Iraqi government. This study focuses on Basrah city, which is located in the south region. The purpose of this research is evaluating the physicochemical qualities of water from the Shatt Al-Basrah Canal to evaluate its suitability to be used for domestic or industrial uses. Data gathered from two sampling stations located on the canal to measure the physicochemical characteristics of the water such as pH, Ca, Mg, PO4, Cl, SO4, DO, NO3, TDS, and EC. With this specific purpose, water samples were collected from the study area, and the water quality has been evaluated. Water samples were collected during six months period during 2013 for assessment purposes. The results of the analysis were assessed according to international water standards for drinking water. From these results of this study, it is often asserted that there is a water pollution in the Shatt Al-Basrah canal and therefore immediate protective actions need to be utilized to minimize the pollution and improve water quality

Evaluation of Grid-Based Aridity Indices in Classifying Aridity Zones in Iraq

In this study, the aridity index (AI) based on gridded climate data was validated for defining aridity and classifying aridity zones in Iraq through comparison with the results obtained by the station-based aridity index. Gauge-based gridded climate data taken from Climatic Research Unit Timeseries (CRU TS) were used to determine the annual value of four aridity indices (Lang, De Martonne, Ernic and UNEP AI) over the period 1998-2011. The results showed that the aridity distribution maps derived using grid-based aridity indices were reasonably close to those found using station-based ones. The four aridity indices properly identified similar aridity (dryness) classifications in both the station-based and grid-based aridity maps. The area percentage of each aridity class predicted by grid-based AIs was also compared with that obtained by the station-based AIs. The results showed that the variances between the area percentages predicted by grid-based AIs and those estimated using station-based AIs are fairly slight. The Lang AI exhibited the least variance (0.4%) while the De Martonne AI had the biggest variance (-4.8%). Despite these minor variances, it is however possible to conclude that the grid-based aridity index classified the aridity zones of Iraq as properly as the station-based aridity index did

BARRIERS FOR IMPLETENATION THE PROACTIVE BUILDING MAINTENANCE IN IRAQ: BASRA CITY AS CASE STUDY

This research aims to demonstrate a number of proposed barriers to implement the proactive building maintenance in Basra City in Iraq where the importance of maintenance needs a lot of clarification. In this study, the proposed barriers are identified from literature; their importance have been identified based on data collected from the questionnaire. A total of 27 barriers is identified and classified into six main areas which are technical, management and administration, financial, human behaviour and attitudes, spare parts, and lack of institutional and training facilities. This paper provides a review of the proposed barriers for implementing proactive building maintenance in Basra city. The identified barriers have been ranked against its importance and their effects on the implementation process

Production Thematic Maps of Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundation for Al-Basrah Soil Using Standard Penetration Data and GIS

The Geographic Information System (GIS) is one of the modern database software which is used to collect, analyze, display, processing and produce geographic information maps for a specific objective. In addition, a statistical analysis can be generated within GIS on specific data to produce quantitative results. In this study, the GIS utilized to produce thematic maps showing the variation of bearing capacity of shallow foundation in Al-Basrah province soil. All the features mentioned above illustrate the importance of GIS exploring more valuable results such as the bearing capacity of shallow foundation from the results of standard penetration tests (SPT) conducted in Al-Basrah province soil. The total number of boreholes drilled was 135 distributed irregularly in the study area. In each borehole, three SPTs were performed at depths of 1.5, 6, and 9.5 m measured from the existing ground level (EGL). The results of the study can be summarized by the production of thematic maps showing the variation of the bearing capacity of the soil over the whole area of Al-Basrah city correlated with several depths. These maps can be used by different local authorities to predict soil bearing capacity and choose a suitable type of foundation. In addition, it can be utilized to assess the foundations of existing and irregularly constructed buildings and to assess the extent of the risks of failure and collapse