"House Rating Schemes" provides information to students, architects and researchers in the field of the built environment. It reviews current House Rating Schemes (HRS) used in different countries and investigates how these schemes assess the thermal performance of a house. It challenges the way that these schemes assess building energy efficiency and their inability to evaluate free running buildings which do not need an energy load for heating and cooling indoor environments. Finally, the book proposes a new index and method for HRS in which the efficiency of a house design can be evaluated with reference to its thermal performance in both free running and conditioned operation modes. The book deals with various approaches and methods for rating buildings on the basis of different indexes, with implications for both energy efficiency and thermal comfort. It also guides readers through a computer simulation program for developing a rating system that evaluates and ranks building energy efficiency.

This book provides a unique guide to value management and sustainability in construction to researchers and professional. The book provides a better understanding of the concept of value management, the basis of sustainable construction and thereafter, demonstrates how using the principles of value management can help to achieve successful construction projects that are financially viable, socially beneficial and do not damage the environment. The book serves as an introduction to value management for scholars and researchers at all levels; and also as a practical guide for construction professionals, employers and other stakeholders in the construction industry.

This book provides readers an understanding of the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) for international construction operations. In an extended case study, it primarily focuses on Chinese construction firms (CCFs) based in Singapore. In this regard, the book explains the differences and similarities between Risk Management (RM), Project Risk Management (PRM) and ERM in the construction industry, and examines their linkages for international construction operations in a broader context. The explanation elaborates on how companies may adopt and implement RM, PRM and ERM as appropriate in their various operations, both in their home market as well as in overseas host markets. The book also reviews the whole spectrum of work relating to organizational behavior (OB) as one of the key underpinnings for companies to evaluate and implement ERM. It will benefit practitioners from the industry as well as academics interested in the implementation of ERM practices in international construction operations.

This study presents exploratory work and seeks to identify and evaluate the success and failure factors that could form a guideline for further study and to some extent help professionals to understand some critical aspects that impact project performance concerning construction in India. A total of 55 attributes affecting the performance of construction projects are analysed in terms of their level of influence on four key performance criteria - schedule, cost, quality, and no disputes - using a two-stage questionnaire survey. These attributes are then further analysed, interpreted and evaluated. Based on the critical success factors obtained from the study, a neural network model-based predictive model for project performance has been developed. The performance prediction models have been derived for all four project performance criteria. Further, a hypothesis that 'project success' is influenced by 'success traits' has also been formulated. The hypothesized positive inter-relationships between success traits and project success have been tested using the structural equation modelling technique. Besides supporting the intuition of past researchers in recognizing 'coordination' as a key success factor, this study has revealed that coordination is not an isolated and independent activity, but is a typical management function with an inherent role in all major management activities. Key elements affecting coordination have also been identified and their influence on coordination effort has been studied. Furthermore, the present study has also identified three broad skill groups required of effective project coordinators. The results are validated through case studies of live projects and structured interviews with experts in the field of construction management.

Covers the entire process of risk management by providing methodologies for determining the sources of engineering project risk, and once threats have been identified, managing them through: identification and assessment (probability, relative importance, variables, risk breakdown structure, etc.); implementation of measures for their prevention, reduction or mitigation; evaluation of impacts and quantification of risks and establishment of control measures. It also considers sensitivity analysis to determine the influence of uncertain parameters values on different project results, such as completion time, total costs, etc. Case studies and examples across a wide spectrum of engineering projects discuss such diverse factors as: safety; environmental impacts; societal reactions; time and cost overruns; quality control; legal issues; financial considerations; and political risk, making this suitable for undergraduates and graduates in grasping the fundamentals of risk management.

This book highlights current research and developments in the area of Structural Engineering and Construction Management, which are important disciplines in Civil Engineering. It covers the following topics and categories of Structural Engineering. The main chapters/sections of the proceedings are Structural and Solid Mechanics, Construction Materials, Systems and Management, Loading Effects, Construction Safety, Architecture & Architectural Engineering, Coastal Engineering, Foundation engineering, Materials, Sustainability. The content of this book provides necessary knowledge for construction management practices, new tools and technologies on local and global levels in civil engineering which can mitigate the negative effects of built environment.

This book describes principles, quantitative methods and techniques for financing, planning, and managing projects to develop a variety of constructed facilities in the fields of oil & gas, power, infrastructure, architecture and the commercial building industries. It is addressed to a broad range of professionals willing to improve their project management skills and designed to help newcomers to the engineering and construction industry understand how to apply project management to field practice. Also, it makes project management disciplines accessible to experts in technical areas of engineering and construction. In education, this text is suitable for undergraduate and graduate classes in architecture, engineering and construction management, as well as for specialist and professional courses in project management.

Created in partnership with the Home Builders Institute (HBI), the workforce development arm of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the Residential Construction Academy Series is the only program based on the National Skill Standards for residential construction. Step-by-step illustrations and an easy-to-read writing style make RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION ACADEMY: FACILITIES MAINTENANCE, 3RD the powerful tool readers need for any facilities maintenance course. This edition walks readers through a straightforward approach that describes common maintenance tasks in detail, like carpentry, wiring, groundskeeping, appliance repair, painting, plumbing, and HVAC. Enhanced chapters on basic math and blueprint reading give readers the most comprehensive training available. Plus, each section emphasizes safety and highlights the skills readers can build that employers are searching for. RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION ACADEMY: FACILITIES MAINTENANCE, 3RD is the manual readers need to develop a solid foundation in facilities maintenance.

This book gathers peer-reviewed contributions presented at the 1st International Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction Management (SECON'20), held in Angamaly, Kerala, India, on 14-15 May 2020. The meeting served as a fertile platform for discussion, sharing sound knowledge and introducing novel ideas on issues related to sustainable construction and design for the future. The respective contributions address various aspects of numerical modeling and simulation in structural engineering, structural dynamics and earthquake engineering, advanced analysis and design of foundations, BIM, building energy management, and technical project management. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable, up-to-date tool and essential overview of the subject for scientists and practitioners alike, and will inspire further investigations and research.

This book presents the proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Engineering, Project, and Product Management (EPPM 2017), highlighting the importance of engineering, project and product management in a region of the world that is in need of transformation and rebuilding. The aim of the conference was to bring together the greatest minds in engineering and management and offer them a platform to share their innovative, and potentially transformational, findings. The proceedings are comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and advanced in their approach with an appeal not only for academicians and university students but also for professionals in various engineering fields, especially construction, manufacturing and production.

This book addresses carbon footprint calculation and mitigation in various industrial sectors. There are numerous sectors whose carbon footprints need to be calculated, and effective ways to mitigate the greenhouse-gas emissions from these sectors need to be found. This book highlights the carbon sequestration potential of the Western Ghats ecosystems, the carbon footprint of Spanish households and residential buildings, and agricultural products in Canada; it also includes a case study on urban carbon footprints.

This book presents select proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Construction and Building Materials (ICSCBM 2018), and examines a range of durable, energy-efficient, and next-generation construction and building materials produced from industrial wastes and byproducts. The topics covered include alternative, eco-friendly construction and building materials, next-generation concretes, energy efficiency in construction, and sustainability in construction project management. The book also discusses various properties and performance attributes of modern-age concretes including their durability, workability, and carbon footprint. As such, it offers a valuable reference for beginners, researchers, and professionals interested in sustainable construction and allied fields.

The book presents the latest studies on the work-life balance of millennial (also known as Generation Y) building professionals in Singapore and South Korea. Its main goal is to compare and contrast the workplace attitudes of millennials, and to provide guidelines that help supervisors in the construction industry manage their employees' expectations regarding work-life balance. Accordingly, it explains and links various principles regarding work-life conflicts, work-life enrichments and the work-life interface. Furthermore, the book introduces readers to coping strategies, a dimension that has not yet been explored substantially and has the potential to contribute significantly to the study and understanding of work-life balance. The book makes recommendations for the top management on assigning a capable leader to drive the changes in the organization, and on empowering the leader to implement effective strategies for promoting work-life balance, especially for the millennials who are now playing an increasing central role in the global construction sector.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of building design and construction, as presented by researchers and engineers at the International Conference BUILDINTECH BIT 2021, Innovations and Technologies in Construction, held in Belgorod, Russia, on March 9-10, 2021. It covers highly diverse topics, including building materials, industrial and civil construction, structural mechanics and theory of structures, computational methods and IT in construction, organization and technologies of construction production. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

In recent years, a number of global claims have failed because they were presented without any systematic analysis, justification or proper calculation of losses. Hence, "Global Claims in Construction" highlights these issues as well as the importance of understanding causation, factual necessity and the courts' attitude and approach to global claims.
"Global Claims in Construction" addresses the principles of global claims and their calculation methodologies in detail through extensive references to literature, case law and a real world case study. It aims to be a valuable resource for professionals working in the construction industry, as well as students in construction and engineering."

Let's take a spin in the fascinating world of cars! In this engaging nonfiction title, readers learn about cars of all kinds--from the Model T roadster to electronic cars--through automobile history, the innovative way automobiles changed the way people travel, and the parts cars need in order to work properly to ensure automobile safety and keep pollution down. With detailed images and diagrams, informational text, and compelling facts, readers will want to learn everything they can about cars!

This book discusses offshore platform integration technology, focusing on the floatover methodology and its applications. It also addresses topics related to safety and cost-effectiveness, as well as ensuring the success of a project through careful planning and established detailed operation procedure/working manuals, which are rarely found in the published literature. Unlike other publications in this area, the book not only includes details of technology development, but also presents real project cases in the discussion to make it more comprehensible. Each topic is illustrated with carefully created sketches to show the complex operation procedures.

This book gathers the proceedings of the EPPM 2019 conference, and highlights innovative work by researchers and practitioners active in various industries around the globe. Recent advances in science and technology have made it possible to seamlessly connect and integrate various elements of engineering systems, and opened the door for innovations that have transformed how we live and work. While these developments have yielded enhanced efficiency and numerous improvements in our current practices, the problems caused by the increased complexity of these integrated systems can be extremely difficult. Accordingly, solving these problems involves applying cross-disciplinary expertise to address the heterogeneity of the various elements inherent in the system. These proceedings address four main themes: (I) Smart and Sustainable Construction, (II) Advances in Project Management Practices, (III) Toward Safety and Productivity Improvement, and (IV) Smart Manufacturing, Design, and Logistics. As such, they will be of interest to and valuable to researchers and practitioners in a range of industries seeking an update on the translational fields of engineering, project, and production management.

This insightful volume shares design ideas to help builders, planners and architects create mass-produced affordable housing that pushes suburban development in more sustainable, liveable directions. The author argues that improving the quality of design in our new homes and communities for greater resiliency, sustainability, and equality, we can build neighborhoods and communities where residents feel more connected t their homes and to one another. Through text, photographs and illustrations, the book reviews prototypical American housing design, then suggest ways to both learn from the past as well as adapt for new environmental imperatives, demographic changes and lifestyle needs. Written by a practicing architect with 25+ years of experience optimizing residential design, this pioneering approach to suburban building will inspire readers to view mass produced housing through a new, modern lens.

The building performance evaluation (BPE) framework emphasizes an evaluative stance throughout the six phases of the building delivery and life cycle: (1) strategic planning/needs analysis; (2) program review; (3) design review; (4) post-construction evaluation/review; (5) post-occupancy evaluation; and, (6) facilities management review/adaptive reuse.
The lessons learned from positive and negative building performance are fed into future building delivery cycles. The case studies illustrate how this basic methodology has been adapted to a range of cultural contexts, and indicates the positive results of building performance assessment in a wide range of situations.
*Practical advice on assessing and monitoring building performance.
*Illustrated with practical case studies.
*Written by a unparalleled team of international experts.

The book presents recently developed efficient metaheuristic optimization algorithms and their applications for solving various optimization problems in civil engineering. The concepts can also be used for optimizing problems in mechanical and electrical engineering.

The book presents a mixed research method adopted to assess and present the Toyota Way practices within construction firms in general and for firms in China specifically. The results of an extensive structured questionnaire survey based on the Toyota Way-styled attributes identified were developed and data collected from building professionals working in construction firms is presented. The quantitative data presented in the book explains the status quo of the Toyota Way-styled practices implemented in the construction industry, as well as the extent to which these attributes were perceived for lean construction management. The book highlights all the actionable attributes derived from the Toyota Way model appreciated by the building professionals, but alerts the readers that some attributes felled short of implementation. Further findings from in-depth interviews and case studies are also presented in the book to provide to readers an understanding how these Toyota Way practices can be implemented in real-life projects. Collectively, all the empirical findings presented in this book can serve to enhance understanding of Toyota Way practices in the lean construction management context. The readers are then guided through to understand the gaps between actual practice and Toyota Way-styled practices, and the measures that they may undertake to circumvent the challenges for implementation. The book also presents to readers the SWOT analysis that addresses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats towards the implementation of the Toyota Way in the construction industry. The book prescribes the Toyota Way model for use in construction firms to strategically implement lean construction management. The checklist presented in the book enables readers to draw lessons that may be used additionally as a holistic assessment tool for measuring the maturity of firms with respect to their Toyota Way implementation. Consequent to this, management would then be in a better position to develop plans for Toyota Way implementation by focusing on weak areas, strengthening them, and thus increasing the likelihood of success in the implementation of the Toyota Way. In a nutshell, this book provides a comprehensive and valuable resource for firms not only in the construction industry but also businesses outside of the construction sector to better understand the Toyota Way and how this understanding can translate to implementation of lean construction/business management to enhance profitability and survivability in an increasingly competitive global market place.

This book explores the reconstruction after the 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake, on the basis of the author's first-hand experience that has been validated with empirical evidence. Unlike other advocacy and academic literature, the book takes readers close to the ground where the activities took place. This book describes Nepal's efforts to rebuild private housing from the preparatory to the concluding stages, and the obstacles faced and overcome along the way. It assesses the consequences of the policy level decisions and also examines the relevance, utility and future use of damage assessment surveys that were carried out in the country. In addition, lessons from the housing grant payment through the banking system, impending reasons for housing non-compliance to building standards, experimentation with resilient resettlements and unresolved issue of urban regeneration have been also delved in. The ground realities revealed that the aid architecture requires further carving out. The last three chapters have attempted to capture the macro level picture of the reconstruction and recovery endeavors: contribution to national economy, structural resilience and comparative overview of Nepal's delivery in global context. As an intimately involved professional with the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, Dr Shrestha is the authority from whom a holistic understanding can be attained regarding the response of Nepal's state and society to the Earthquake. His study will have ramification at national and global scale in handling with inescapable natural calamities. Kanak M. Dixit, Journalist and Heritage Conservationist Dr. Shrestha's book provides rare insight and perspective on the issues and challenges of governance during the complex journey to reconstruction and future resilience, reflecting his long and intense engagement in the post disaster recovery and reconstruction. Vivek Rawal, Director, People-in-Centre, Ahmedabad, India This collection of balanced insightful essays methodically explores topics such as government decisions and aid during the earthquake recovery combining lived experience and a research approach to reveal lessons and future considerations. Loren Lockwood, Former National Coordinator, Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform Nepal

At some point, most home-owners have to make a choice: whether to move or extend their property. In the case of the latter, there is a further choice - to put the whole matter into other hands or to try to understand the processes involved so that the whole business is carried out efficiently and cost-effectively. Those working or planning to work in the construction industry also need to be reminded of the pitfalls of local authority requirements, building control and planning, and this text provides an account of the necessary action.