A disaster risk assessment model for the conservation of cultural heritage sites in Melaka Malaysia

There exist ongoing efforts to reduce the exposure of Cultural Heritage Sites (CHSs) to Disaster Risk (DR). However, a complicated issue these efforts face is that of ‘estimation’ whereby no standardised unit exist for assessing the effects of Cultural Heritage (CH) exposed to DR as compared to other exposed items having standardised assessment units such as; ‘number of people’ for deaths, injured and displaced, ‘dollar’ for economic impact, ‘number of units’ for building stock or animals among others. This issue inhibits the effective assessment of CHSs exposed to DR. Although there exist several DR assessment frameworks for conserving CHSs, the conceptualisation of DR in these studies fall short of good practice such as international strategy for disaster reduction by United Nations which expresses DR to being a hollistic interplay of three variables (hazard, vulnerability and capacity). Adopting such good practice, this research seeks to propose a mechanism of DR assessment aimed at reducing the exposure of CHSs to DR. Quantitative method adopted for data collection involved a survey of 365 respondents at CHSs in Melaka using a structured questionnaire. Similarly, data analysis consisted of a two-step Structural Equation Modelling (measurement and structural modelling). The achievement of the recommended thresholds for unidimensionality, validity and reliability by the measurement models is a testimony to the model fitness for all 8 first-order independent variables and 2 first-order dependent variables. While hazard had a ‘small’ but negative effect, vulnerability had a ‘very large’ but negative effect on the exposure of CHSs to DR. Likewise, capacity had a ‘small’ but positive effect on the exposure of CHSs to DR. The outcome of this study is a Disaster Risk Assessment Model (DRAM) aimed at reducing DR to CHSs. The implication of this research is providing insights on decisions for DR assessment to institutions, policymakers and statutory bodies towards their approach to enhancing the conservation of CHSs

The Application of Health and Safety Plan in Nigerian Construction Firms

Construction works all over the world pose serious threat to workers and even non-workers. Health and safety in Nigerian construction firms have long been an issue to reckon with due to the several reports of the occurrence of accidents during construction works. This study investigates the extent of application of Health and Safety Plan in construction firms in Nigeria. A purposive sampling technique was used purposely for convenience sake and data was fetched from three cities with equal representation by the aid of a structured questionnaire. Results reveal that even though most firms studied have been in business for over a decade, one quarter of them hardly comply with any Health and Safety Plan during construction. Furthermore, employees are assets but this study reveals that some firms fully in business neither have Health and Safety insurance for their employees nor do some facilitate payment of Health and Safety insurance for their staff. It was concluded that effective Health and Safety practices for employees in Nigeria are yet to be fully appreciated and implemented among construction firms. As such, it is recommended that relevant authorities should checkmate Health and Safety practices in the Nigerian construction industry

An exploration of disaster risk to cultural heritage assets: towards effective conservation

Owning to the losses incurred from the occurrence of certain events at Cultural Heritage Sites (CHS’s), conservation of its Cultural Heritage (CH) assets is reported to be threatened. The losses while qualifying for disasters to an affected CHS have necessitated proactive measures in the conservation of CH assets (individual and collective) aimed at reducing the risks of their exposure to eventual disasters. Foremost in such measures is the assessment of Disaster Risks (DR) whereby good practice (assessment of DR) conceptualises it (DR) to being a collective interplay of four variables namely: hazards, vulnerability; capacity and exposure. While deeper insights to the manifestation of each variable is deemed to be gained through a technique that investigates each variable in a multi-level approach, researches in the CH domain are yet to fully apply such approach (particularly to all the variables). Therefore, this research examined the four DR variables with a view to explore their multi-level manifestations in the domain of CH conservation. With the aid of a structured questionnaire and by means of conducting a survey, data was collected from 204 respondents at The Historic Commercial and Residential Zone (Old Quarter) of the Core Zone of Malacca CHS in Malaysia. Using IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0, a 5-Step Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was carried out to analyse the inputted data. The achievement of certain threshold requirements by the results of this research indicates the fulfilment of some objectives of EFA. For instance, the reduction of manifest items is evident from the 47 manifest items having factor loadings ≥ 0.6 as against the total of 58 manifest items initially used in the study. Additionally, while the 47 manifest items for all 10 factors retained fulfilled convergent validity (loadings of manifest items ≥ 0.6), the loadings for the rotation of all 10 factors fulfilled discriminant validity (loading ≤ 0.3). These 10 factors retained spread across the four DR variables as follows: hazards (natural and human induced); vulnerability (human, material and managementbased); capacity (human, material and management-based); and exposure (heritage values and community assets). The EFA technique used in this research has enabled the multilevelling of each variable within the sphere of variable-to-factor and then factor-to-manifest item. The implication of the approach to multi-levelling of variables is for gaining deeper insights of DR to CHS conservation. However, it is worthy stating that the manifest items used in this study are bound to vary both within and across CHS’s, thus, further studies could embark on a conceptual framework for the assessment of DR that could apply to specific contexts of DR towards the effective conservation of CHS’s and its CH assets therein

The Structural of Effective Materials Management Factors Model: A PLS-SEM Approach

Effective materials management has a significant role in the success of any construction projects. Understanding the factors related to the management effectiveness may assist the decision-makers of construction firms to allocate resources in the best possible manner in managing materials when implementing construction projects. However, limited studies have explored and investigated the associated factors of effective materials management related to project performance, especially in the Malaysian construction industry context. Thus, this research paper aims to investigate the influential factors of effective materials management and their effects on project performance. A partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed to analyse 202 pieces of data collected from a questionnaire survey. The results indicate that the effective materials management has a positive significant impact on project performance. The top three groups of factors that contribute to this management effectiveness are transportation, management, and purchasing; meanwhile, the most implied factors of the effective materials management are waste, cost and time of project performance. To increase project performance, more resources should be allocated to improve the transportation, management and purchasing components of materials management

The desirability of Integrated Influential Factors (IIFs) model of internal stakeholder as a panacea to project completion delay in Yemen

In Yemen and other developing countries, many construction projects experience extensive delays by exceeding their initial completion time thereby leading to several reported effects which among others include: cost overrun; litigation; arbitration; failure; and abandonment. Although variability in prevailing conditions warrants influential factors causing such delays to differ among countries, an oft-cited approach implemented to mitigate these effects is enhancing the collaboration of stakeholders in construction project delivery. While this approach is overwhelmingly applauded by researchers, there however exist scant studies focusing on how effective project internal stakeholder integration can potentially impact prompt construction project delivery particularly in developing countries. This study as such, seeks to propose an Integrated Influential Factor (IIF) model of internal stakeholders with a view to reduce delay in construction project delivery. Data was collected from 301 respondents based on the influential factors divided into 7 categories of internal stakeholders. Findings from analysed results (using IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 and IBM SPSS AMOS SEM Version 23) were used to develop the Integrated Influential Factors (IIF) Model of Internal Stakeholder in Yemen Construction Industry. The proposed model was validated through construction industries expert opinion which inform that sincere and concerted effort towards effective management of the studied factors could not only stem down their adverse effect on project completion delay but equally enhance construction project implementation if the model is tenaciously implemented

Drivers and barriers of virtual reality adoption in UK AEC industry

Purpose: Virtual reality (VR) offers unique features of a three-dimensional (3D) model during early design stages in the virtual environment with immersive functions. Although the potential of VR is to increase the effectiveness and productivity of the project phases from initial concept design to detailed design preparation. VR adoption in the United Kingdom (UK) Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector is slow compared to other sectors. This research focuses on ascertaining the drivers and barriers of VR in construction projects in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts an online survey design. It uses Bristol Online Survey (BOS) to create a structured questionnaire that is used to assess UK construction professionals using a convenience sampling technique. Therefore, researcher uses descriptive and inferential technique for data analysis and presentation based on Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze the questionnaire. Findings: The research findings revealed the most significant barriers to VR adoption in UK construction industry were lack of skills/expertise and cultural change. Hence, the main drivers of VR adoption as rated by the professionals in the UK construction industry are improved safety, improved quality and improved productivity. Practical implications: The identification and assessment of the drivers and barriers to VR adoption could advance VR adoption among construction professionals and other stakeholders of the UK AEC sector. This could also be extended to developing countries, given the status of VR as being in the developing stage. Originality/value: This study provides valuable insights to construction professionals and stakeholders to plan actions that could enhance the drivers and mitigate the barriers of VR. This study's main contribution is to group and classify various drivers and barriers into easily understood categories, in order to potentiate the drivers and reduce the barriers effectively. The groupings could be used as benchmarks in similar studies in developing countries

RE-DIRECTING CONSERVATION RISKS TO DISASTER RISKS IN CONSERVINGWORLD HERITAGE SITES INMALAYSIA

Although a host of researches have fished-out attributes collectively defining Conservation Risks (CR’s) at World Heritage Sites (WHS’s) in Malaysia, these attributes are reported to threatening WHS’s thereby posing as potential Disaster Risks (DR’s) to the WHS’s. These fished-out CR attributes however somewhat fall within the confines of ‘hazards’ (as conceived by some researches and policy documents on DR’s) leaving out the other two variables (vulnerability and capacity) which alongside hazards, collectively define DR’s. This study as such, intends to explore the studies on CR in Malaysia with a view to aligning these studies to a DR approach in conserving WHS’s in Malaysia. Literature is sourced and reviewed by means of document analysis. Interpreted inferences drawn will be used presenting results. Findings reveal that attributes CR while bearing semblance to attributes of DR however predominantly qualify to being hazards both originating from nature and human induced. It is recommended that adopting the full concept of DR to WHS involves exploring the other two variables (vulnerability and capacity) which alongside DR attributes qualified to being hazards will collectively define DR at WHS’s both in Malaysia and beyond

Exploring training factors as incentive tools in safeguarding cultural heritage of Malaysian traditional settlements

Training and education has become one of the key aspects in improving incentives programme, thus leading to improved cultural heritage preservation within heritage sites. The study investigated the relationship between the importance of training as a tool on incentivizing cultural heritage in selected traditional settlements in Malaysia. Data were collected through a survey from a total of 63 respondents in both Morten and Chitty Village situated at Melaka Historic City and was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 by means of running an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The 10 indicator items studied for tangible heritage training have satisfactory factor loadings ranging from 0.59 to 0.77 and distribute across 2 extracted factors having satisfactory cumulative variance of 58.36 per cent. Furthermore, the themes of the distributed indicator items enabled the labelling of the 2 extracted factors to being ‘soft skills’ and ‘hard skills’ for tangible heritage training. Similarly, the 9 indicator items studied for intangible heritage training have satisfactory factor loadings ranging from 0.41 to 0.90 and distribute across 2 extracted factors having a satisfactory cumulative variance of 64.42 per cent. Furthermore, the themes of the distributed indicator items across the 2 extracted factors enabled the labelling of the factors to being ‘intangible arts’ and ‘legislation’ for intangible heritage training. These results found that the ‘explored’ indicator items are fit to be used in further structurally modelling both tangible and intangible heritage training as non-financial incentives in sustainably preserving traditional settlements. The implication of this research is its serving as an information support tool for such intended modelling purpose