eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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eWORK AND eBUSINESS IN ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 5th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON PRODUCT AND PROCESS MODELLING IN THE BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY— ECPPM 2004, 8–10 SEPTEMBER 2004, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction Edited by

Attila Dikbaş Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Raimar Scherer University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

A.A.BALKEMA PUBLISHERS LEIDEN/LONDON/NEW YORK/PHILADELPHIA/SINGAPORE

Copyright © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the information contained herein may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written prior permission from the publisher. Although all care is taken to ensure the integrity and quality of this publication and the information herein, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers nor the author for any damage to property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication and/or the information contained herein. Published by: A.A.Balkema Publishers, a member of Taylor & Francis Group plc http://balkema.tandf.co.uk/ and http://www.tandf.co.uk/ This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/. ISBN 0-203-02342-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 04 1535 938 4 (Print Edition)

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Table of Contents Preface

xii

Organization

xv

Keynote papers The future forces of change for the construction sector—a global perspective R.Flanagan Vectors, visions and values P.S.Brandon Help wanted: project information officer T.M.Froese The next generation of eBusiness and eWork—what is needed for the systemic innovation? An executive summary of the EU supporting research and innovation. B.Salmelin

2 16 29 38

Product modelling technology Virtual building maintenance: enhancing building maintenance using 3D-GIS and 3D laser scanner (VR) technology V.Ahmed, Y.Arayici, A.Hamilton & G.Aouad Supporting standard data model mappings R.W.Amor Virtual building environments (VBE)—applying information modeling to buildings V.Bazjanac A persistence interface for versioned object models D.G.Beer, B.Firmenich, T.Richter & K.Beucke Semantic parameterized interpretation: a new software architecture for conceptual design systems A.Eir Harmonization of ISO 12006–2 and IFC—a necessary step towards interoperability A.Ekholm

41

50 58

73 92

108

A novel modelling approach for the exchange of CAD information in civil engineering B.Firmenich Integration of product models with document-based information T.M.Froese Aligning IFC with the emerging ISO10303 modular architecture. Can AEC community take advantages from it? R.Jardim-Gonçalves, K.Farinha & A.Steiger-Garcao Optimization of project processing in the steel construction domain E.Holtzhauer & H.Saal Location sensing for self-updating building models O.Icoglu & A.Mahdavi Modeling cast in place concrete construction alternatives with 4D CAD R.P.M.Jongeling, T.Olofsson & M.Emborg Pilot implementation of a requirements model A.Kiviniemi & M.Fischer A combined product-process model for building systems control A.Mahdavi FIDE: XML-based data model for the spanish AEC sector J.M.Molina & M.Martinez A framework for concurrent structure analysis in building industry A.Niggl, R.Romberg, E.Rank, R.-P Mundani & H.-J.Bungartz IFC supported distributed, dynamic & extensible construction products information models M.Nour & K.Beucke Product definition in collaborative building design and manufacturing environment H.Oumeziane, J.C.Bocquet & P.Deshayes Implementation of the ICT in the Slovenian AEC sector T.Pazlar, M.Dolenc & J.Duhovnik Adding sense to building modelling for code certification and advanced simulation I.A.Santos, F.Farinha, F.Hernández-Rodríguez & G.Bravo-Aranda Towards engineering on the grid Ž.Turk, M.Dolenc, J.Nabrzyski, P.Katranuschkov, E.Balaton, R.Balder & M.Hannus Managing long transactions in model server based collaboration M.Weise, P.Katranuschkov & R.J.Scherer A software generation process for user-centered dynamic building system models G.Zimmermann & A.Metzger Process modelling technology

123

136 144

155 167 178 191 206 222 233 249

261

270 284

296

311 326

Embedded commissioning for building design Ö.Akin, M.T.Turkaslan-Bulbul, I.Gursel, J.H.Garrett Jr, B.Akinci & H.Wang The development of a technical office organization structure for enhancing performance and productivity in fast track construction projects T.A.H.Barakat, A.R.J.Dainty & D.J.Edwards Innovative production planning system for bespoke precast concrete products V.Benjaoran, N.Dawood & R.Marasini Process and information flow in mass customisation of multi-story housing T.Olofsson, L.Stehn & E.Cassel-Engqvist RoadSim: an integrated simulation system for road construction management S.Castro & N.Dawood Connet Turkey—gateway to construction in Europe A.Dikbaş, S.Durusoy, H.Yaman, L.Tanaçan & E.Taş Modelling collaborative processes for Virtual Organisations in the building industry M.Keller, P.Katranuschkov & K.Menzel Process modelling in building engineering M.König, A.Klinger & V.Berkhahn Space competition on construction sites: assignment and quantification utilising 4D space planning tools Z.Mallasi & N.Dawood Project planning: a novel approach through a universal e-engineering Hub—a case study of seismic risk analysis G.Augenbroe, Z.Ren, C.J.Anumba, T.M.Hassan & M.Mangini A decision support model for material supply management for the construction industry J.Perdomo, W.Thabet & R.Badinelli Modeling processes and processing product model information based on Petri Nets U.Rueppel, U.F.Meissner & S.Greb A building material information system: BMIS—in the context of CONNET– Turkey project E.Taş, L.Tanaçan, H.Yaman & A.Dikbaş

343 358

371 384 395 408 417

432 447

463

480

495

507

Ontologies Managing changes in the AEC industry—how can ontologies help? Q.Y.Cai & F.F.Ng An ontology-driven approach for monitoring collaborative design knowledge Y-C.Lai & M.Carlsen Setting up the open semantic infrastructure for the construction sector in Europe—the FUNSIEC project C.Lima, B.Fiès, C.Ferreira da Silva & S.Barresi

518 528 540

Practical use of the semantic web: lessons learned and opportunities found R.V.Rees, W.V.Vegchel & F.Tolman Supporting ontology management through self-describing concepts T.E.El-Diraby

555 569

eWork and eBusiness An assessment methodology for eBusiness and eCommerce in the AEC sector A.Grilo, R.Maló & R.Jardim-Gonçalves The digital dormer—applying for building permits online J.P.van Leeuwen, A.J.Jessurun & E.de Wit An inquiry into building product information acquisition and processing A.Mahdavi, G.Suter, S.Häusler & S.Kernstock Usefulness and ease-of-use assessment of a project management tool for the construction industry B.Otjacques, G.Barrère, F.Feltz & M.Naaranoja Development and implementation of a functional architecture for an eengineering Hub in construction Z.Ren, C.J.Anumba, T.M.Hassan & G.Augenbroe Legal and contractual issues—are they considered in RTD achievments M.A.Shelbourn, T.M.Hassan & C.D.Carter Modeling of ERP system solutions for the construction industry M.O.Tatari, B-Y.Ryoo & M.J.Skibniewski Construction informatics themes in the framework 5 programme Ž.Turk

585 594 607 621

633

648 660 670

Collaborative working Virtual pools of resources eliminate idle or missing equipment in AEC companies G.Antoniadis & K.Menzel DIVERCITY: distributed virtual workspace for enhancing communication and collaboration within the construction industry Y.Arayici & G.Aouad Cooperation and product modelling systems S.Blokpoel, R.R.M.Jongeling & T.Olofsson Linking early design decisions across multiple disciplines R.Drogemuller, J.Crawford & S.Egan State of the art of the implementation of Information Management Systems in the construction industry in Spain N.Forcada, M.Casals & X.Roca Agent-enabled Peer-To-Peer infrastructure for cross-company teamwork A.Gehre, P.Katranuschkov & R.J.Scherer

686

695

707 719 731

744

Virtual communities: design for collaboration and knowledge creation I.L.Kondratova & I.Goldfarb The design framework—a web environment for collaborative design in the building industry M.Huhn Collaborative work practices in Turkey, five case studies A.Sanal Architecture for collaborative business process management—enabling dynamic collaboration S.Zang, O.Adam, A.Hofer, C.Hammer, M.Jerrentrup & S.Leinenbach Comprehensive information exchange for the construction industry J.Díaz

761 771

780 793

807

Mobile computing Mapping site processes for the introduction of mobile IT S.L.Bowden, A.Dorr, A.Thorpe & C.J.Anumba Mobile field data entry for concrete quality control information I.L.Kondratova Issues of context sensitivity in mobile computing: restrictions and challenges in the construction sector K.Menzel, K.Eisenblätter & M.Keller A context based communication system for construction D.Rebolj, A.Magdič & N.Č.Babič MOBIKO—mobile cooperation in the construction industry based on wireless technology R.Steinmann

817 831 843

862 873

Knowledge management Support for requirement traceability in design computing: an integrated approach with building data modeling I.Özkaya & Ö.Akin Interlinking unstructured text information with model-based project data: an approach to product model based information mining S.-E.Schapke & R.J.Scherer Live capture and reuse of project knowledge in construction: a proposed strategy C.E.Udeaja, J.M.Kamara, P.M.Carrillo, C.J.Anumba, N.Bouchlaghem & H.Tan Development of product family structure for high-rise residential buildings using industry foundation classes T.Wallmark & M.M.Tseng

885

900

913 923

Construction site and project management Assistance to building construction coordination by images S.Kubicki, G.Halin & J.-C.Bignon Gesprecons: eSafety and risk prevention in the construction sector J.M.Molina, M.Martinez & I.García Intelligent Construction Sites (ICSs) T.Mills, Y.Jung & W.Thabet Organizational point of view for the use of information technology in construction projects P.Praper Virtual reality at the building site: investigating how the VR model is experienced and its practical applicability S.Woksepp, O.Tullberg & T.Olofsson Evaluating competitiveness in construction industry: an alternative frame A.Y.Toprakli, A.Dikbaş & Y.Sey

941 952 964 974

980

994

Seismic risk and environmental management Analyses of Izmit earthquake by means of remotely sensed data: a case study, Yalova city S.Kaya, F.Bektas, C.Goksel & E.Saroglu Do phased Environmental Management Systems actually benefit SMEs? L.L.Hopkinson & C.Snow Software based knowledge integration for seismic risk management R.Pellegrini & P.Salvaneschi Real-time earthquake prediction algorithms S.Radeva, R.J.Scherer & D.Radev

1004

1013 1021 1031

IT supported architectural design Hybrid approach to solve space planning problems in building services G.Bi & B.Medjdoub A computational architectural design approach based on fractals at early design phases Ö.Ediz & G.Çağdaş APSIS architectural plan layout generator by exhaustive search B.Kisacikoglu & G.Çağdaş Architectural parametric design and mass customization S Boer & K Oosterhuis

1042 1055

1063

1082

S.Boer & K.Oosterhuis A model for hierarchical floorplan geometries based on shape functions G.Zimmermann & G.Suter

1101

E-learning and education Parametric representation of functional building elements with reference to architectural education M.Aygün & İ.Çetiner Life long learning for improved product and process modeling support p.Christiansson E-learning with puzzle collages C-H.Lin, T-W.Chang, L-C.Yang & S-C.Chen

1115

Author index

1144

1119 1133

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Preface

The global community has stepped into the next revolutionary phase of the long-term evolution of the information society and is now facing a new challenging phenomenon: Ambient Intelligence—providing and getting the right information to the right people in the right configuration at the right time anywhere. Our business processes have started to change. New working methods are available and asked for; new forms of organizations have been proven to be efficient and effective—the vision of the previous decade have been conquering practice. Ambient intelligence is the final keystone for a breakthrough and the industry-wide business revolution, in particular for our one-of-a-kind multishareholder and hence very complex projects. Intelligent management of the right information has become the focus of research. Computing power is now available on the Web and basic technologies—like P2P, Grid, Agents and Web services—have been developed to ripeness by the informatics community for application in AEC/FM. Apply it to your benefit—this is the offer of the informatics community—and also the challenge. Making intelligence happen requires more than solely utilizing the basic technologies and computing power on the Web. It means algorithms, either numerical or reasoning ones and it means enhanced semantic data structures, in which the information and knowledge is integrated and can be retrieved on request—when and where and how desired. Intelligence does not mean merely powerful numerical algorithms for solving and simulating complex engineering systems—as understood in computational mechanics. In this context intelligence means autonomous problem specification, decision preparation for problem solving and to some extent even problem solving itself. Such systems, not necessarily located on one computer and eventually distributed throughout the Web, should be capable of recognizing, deciding, retrieving and providing any piece of information, not only explicitly stored data, and at the same time support the co-operation with the end-user to serve him/her intelligently and polite. Data structures and hence product and process modelling are as important as the respective algorithms to make this happen, in particular for recognising the context, which is the prerequisite for any autonomous action. Data structures, i.e. data schemata must inherit meanings, semantics must be more than an identifier. They have to encapsulate knowledge on the objects. This knowledge must be re-usable in a flexible way and provide for reasoning to interrelate it with knowledge on other objects and their status described by the object data in order to build up the current context. Recognizing the effective state and crystallizing

the particular problems and various actors in an instantaneous process we are able to finally provide the right and focused information. This makes ambient intelligence happen. Research on and building of ontologies besides product data models have increasingly been the focus of research activities in AEC/FM. However, do ontologies really replace product data models? Or if not, do they subsume them? It is neither of them. Ontologies extend product models adding a new functionality, namely carrying knowledge, which is simply another objective. The main objective of product models is the very generic representation of real world objects as well as their respective general relationships to form a generic object net from the singular units, the objects to model a very generic skeleton for any kind of application. Other extensions to the generic product model are already on the way. For instance, product models are favoured, being the anchor for project documents and structuring the document information space. Data and text mining methods are increasingly applied to identify the representative semantic items of the documents and mapping them to the semantics of the product model in order to interpret the meaning of the document, i.e. recognizing its information contents and further multiinterlinking it with the product model. Again, being accessible via a VR building environment, ambient intelligence makes document information tangible. The user is no longer required to search for the right document in order to get the right information, he only has to identify the building object in his VR model and the information system provides him with the right information at any place and any time. The power of the automatic selectiveness depends upon the capacity and power of the underlying contextsensitive system—and again context-sensitivity is first of all determined by logic reasoning on product and process models based ontologies. We can subsume generic product models and ontologies as well as any other knowledge-related extensions of product models to be intelligent product models. In recent years, the quality of product models has reached a level that allows for the design of reasoning systems to check architecture and engineering systems consistency as well as conformity with building codes and guidelines. The few existing and very successful examples have to be considered first attempts, looking at the great variety of reasoning methods provided by basic informatics—this new area has just been touched on. However, the results gained are more than promising. The consistency checking methods are an important pre-requisite for co-operative and concurrent working, namely the consistency problems arising from long-term transactions in complex data bases, as it is the case in our AEC/FM data bases. We have now the confidence that they can be handled, but practically sufficient solutions still need valuable research and development efforts to cope with the whole AEC/FM domain. In this context, the numerical and reasoning algorithms are utilised in a new, separate information process, namely the information configuration process, so that we can now distinguish among processes on three different levels. Besides modelling the tangible work processes such as the production, organizational as well as the planning and controlling processes, we have to consider the intangible communication processes supporting formal information management and information logistics as well as the configuration processes to determine e.g. the user’s information needs, critical notification events or the optimal configuration and presentation of the information. In the future our research efforts will more and more shift from basic product and tangible

process modelling to enhanced intelligent product modelling and information process modelling. In recent years, new business concepts and modelling techniques have been developed for the virtual enterprise that have demonstrated their proficiencies in several best practice cases. Again ambient intelligence and additionally mobile computing are expected to provide for a push to flexible adopt the formal business models in AEC/FM practice. It will be of utmost importance to the industry to extend these organisational models to efficient autonomous teamwork across enterprises anywhere and in any team. Flexible systems and automatic configuration methods are required to install immediately operable virtual teams within short lead times, that are supported by sound organization structures, team-focused information spaces and corresponding information logistics. Virtual enterprises will no longer be limited to strategic alliances providing interoperability on a corporate and/or product level, but will also be able to significantly reduce the management cost of true interenterprise collaboration on the team level. Focusing on a few selected but outstanding topics of today’s research on Product and Process Modelling the papers of the ECPPM 2004 draw a very good overview on the current state of the art in practice, emerging new business models as well as on the cutting edge technologies available for architecture, engineering and construction. It thus provides for solid fundament to explore the outlined possibilities of applying ambient intelligence in our domain. The Istanbul Technical University, Turkey has been selected to host the ECPPM in 2004. After holding the ECPPM 2002 in the former candidate state of Slovenia, the EAPPM therewith again takes a clear stand for integrating researchers from all over Europe and aligning the various activities in product and process modelling for a better future. Today, Turkey is potential new EU member state of great importance and an agile economy. Moreover, it is the bridge between Europe and Asia and it has been a melting pot of cultures for more than 3000 years. In Istanbul the ECPPM 2004 again introduces a new platform to share knowledge and transform it into an active, fimctional asset ready to be shared, integrated and traded. Latest research results and businesses applications in the areas of eWork and eBusiness, product and process modelling, collaborative working, mobile computing, knowledge management, ontology will enable research and industry organisation to develop new lines of services and usher in a new breed of research areas. The committees of ECPPM 2004 have selected the best papers and organized attractive sessions for their presentation. The number of abstracts submitted was again unusually high and their quality was remarkable. Numerous people have made conference and the proceedings possible. We thank the authors, the scientific committee members and the ITU Project Management Centre for their contribution, support and encouragement in compiling this book. Sincere gratitude to each and all of them. Attila Dikbaş and Raimar Scherer Istanbul and Dresden, June 2004 eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikba§ & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

ECPPM 2004 Organization

CONFERENCE CHAIR Attila Dikbaş, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey STEERING COMMITTEE Raimar Scherer, University of Technology Dresden, Germany Ziga Turk, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Gülsün Sağlamer, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Nüzhet Dalfes, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Yildiz Sey, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey EDITORIAL BOARD Amor, R., University of Auckland, New Zealand Andersen, T., FMRI Consultant, Denmark Augenbroe, G., Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Bjoerk, B-C, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland Böhms, M., TNO, Netherlands Cervenka, J., Cervenka Consulting, Czech Republic Christiansson, R, Aalborg University, Denmark Çağdaş, G., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Dağ, H., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Drogemuller, R., CSIRO, Australia Ekholm, A., Lund University, Sweden Fischer, M., Stanford University, USA Froese, T., University of British Columbia, Canada Fruchter, R., Stanford University, USA Giritli, H., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Goncalves, R., Universidade Nova Lisboa, Portugal Haas, W., Haas+Partner Ingenieurges. mbH, Germany Kalay, Y., Berkeley University, USA Kanoğlu, A., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Katranuschkov, R, TU Dresden, Germany Lemonnier, A., ADEI, Spain Menzel, K., TU Dresden, Germany Mitchell, J., Graphisoft, Hungary

Moore, L., University of Wales, EG-SEA-AI, UK Rezgui,Y., University of Salford, UK Sağlamer, A., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Skibniewski, M., University of Purdue, USA Smith, L, Federal Inst. of Tech., IABSE WC6, Switzerland Steinmann, R., Nemetschek, Germany Thomas, K., Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland Tzanev, D., University of Sofia, Bulgaria Baslo, M., Istanbul Technical University, Project Management Center Ergun, Z.N., Istanbul Technical University, Project Management Center PROGRAM COMMITTEE Amor, R., University of Auckland, New Zealand Andersen, T., FMRI Consultant, Denmark Anumba, C., Loughborough Uni., UK Augenbroe, G., Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Bjoerk, B-C., Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland Böhms, M., TNO, Netherlands Borkowski, A., Polish Acad. of Sciences, Poland Cervenka, J., Cervenka Consulting, Czech Republic Christiansson, P, Aalborg University, Denmark Coyne, R., University of Edinburg, UK Drogemuller, R., CSIRO, Australia Ekholm, A., Lund University, Sweden Fischer, M., Stanford University, USA Froese, T., University of British Columbia, Canada Fruchter, R., Stanford University, USA Garas, F., Consultant, UK Garrett, Jr., J., Carnegie Mellon University, USA Goncalves, R., Universidade Nova Lisboa, Portugal Gudnason, G., Icelandic Building Research, Iceland Haas, W., Haas+Partner Ingenieurges. mbH, Germany Hannus, M., VTT Technical Res. Centre of Finland Howard, R., Technical University of Denmark Juli, R., Obermayer Planen+Beraten, Germany Kalay, Y., Berkeley University, USA Katranuschkov, P, TU Dresden, Germany Llambrich, A., ADEI, Spain Lemonnier, A., ADEI, Spain Liebich, T., AEC3, IAI, Germany Mangini, M., Geodeco S.p.A., Italy Martinez, M., AIDICO Constr. Tech. Inst., Spain Mitchell, I, Graphisoft, Hungary Moore, L., University of Wales, EG-SEA-AI, UK Nolan, J., European Commission, Belgium Rezgui,Y., University of Salford, UK

Skibniewski, M., University of Purdue, USA Smith, L, Federal Inst. of Tech., IABSE WC6, Switzerland Sozen, Z., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Steinmann, R., Nemetschek, Germany Storer, G., Consultant, UK Tzanev, D., University of Sofia, Bulgaria Vanier, D., National Research Council, Canady Winzenholler, J., Autodesk, Germany Wix, J., AEC3, IAI, UK Zarli, A., CSTB, France LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE Akkoyun, I., ITU, Project Management Center Artan, D., ITU, Project Management Center Aslay, Z., ITU, Project Management Center Baslo, M, ITU, Project Management Center Çağdaş, G., ITU, Faculty of Architecture Çelik, Ç., ITU, Project Management Center Dağ, H., ITU, Informatics Institute Erdem, A., ITU, Faculty of Architecture Ergun, Z. N., ITU, Project Management Center Gökçe, Umut, ITU Project Management Center, TU Dresden Göksel, Ç., ITU, Faculty of Civil Engineering Ilter, T., ITU, Project Management Center Oraz, G., ITU, Faculty of Architecture Öney, E., ITU, Faculty of Architecture Sanal, A., ITU, Faculty of Architecture Taşli, R., ITU, Faculty of Civil Engineering Yaman, H., ITU, Faculty of Architecture

Keynote papers

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

The future forces of change for the construction sector—a global perspective Roger Flanagan The University of Reading, UK ABSTRACT: All organisations, whether they are engineering and design consultants, contractors, or manufacturers and suppliers in the construction sector, need a strategy to survive, grow and succeed in a rapidly changing world. This paper identifies nine drivers that are impacting construction organisations. These drivers emanate from political, environmental, technological, social and economic changes impacting the global economy. In facing change, there is a need to balance the internal juxtaposition of change and continuity. The error made by some organisations is that they see all the new technology and materials and feel it must be used as soon as possible. Stopping to develop a strategy is important; it provides the framework to implement a plan for the future whilst maintaining the goals and the direction of the organisation.

1 INTRODUCTION The challenge for all organisations is facing, managing and implementing change, whilst at the same time ensuring profitability and maintaining customer satisfaction. Construction organisations need to recognise today, the oppoijunities of tomorrow. Realism must prevail; construction is predominantly a local business using mainly local labour and complying with local requirements. The developed countries will have different needs to developing, and newly industrialised countries. For example, India’s need is to have an efficient industry that can provide work for the people, whereas in the USA, with its higher cost base, the need is to build efficiently by exploiting technology, more mechanisation, and off site pre-fabrication wherever possible. Our lives have been transformed by electronics and information technology but, most of all, by the processes of change itself. Knowledge has become pivotal and globalisation has changed the face of competition. Local issues will always be important, but construction sectors around the world are not immune from the global issues that impact upon the economy, demand for their services, and quality of life. Drivers can be defined as those forces that cannot be changed and are an inevitable result of development in the broadest sense. The drivers of change involve social, technological, economic, environmental and political trends. Many countries have undertaken futures studies and Foresight studies with the aim of identifying the drivers that will influence construction in the next 20 years. Studies from 10 developed countries (Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,

The future forces of change for the construction sector

3

Singapore, Sweden, UK and USA) were analysed, from which nine key drivers were identified for the purposes of this paper; it is possible to identify many more drivers. Each country is influenced by local needs and challenges, with different emphasis between the developed and developing world. However, organisations need to consider the drivers of change and ask: ‘How will the drivers affect our business in the future, are they a threat or an opportunity, how should we react to the challenge?’ 2 THE DRIVERS 1 Urbanisation, growth of cities, and transportation 2 Ageing population 3 Rapid technological and organisational change 4 Environmental and climate change 5 Shift from public to private 6 The knowledge economy and information overload 7 Technologies for tomorrow 8 People, safety and health 9 Vulnerability, security, corruption and crime 2.1 Urbanisation The move from rural to urban communities, and the change from agricultural to industrial societies in all parts of the world is putting pressure on infrastructure and changing patterns of settlement. Between 1990 and 2025 the number of people living in urban areas is projected to double to more than 5 billion (UN, 1996). In 1800, only 2% of the world’s population was urbanised; this rose to over 30% in 1950, and 47% in 2000; a population that was growing three times faster than the population as a whole. Figure 1 shows that the percentage of urbanisation is predicted to be over 60% by 2030. Growing urbanisation creates congestion, puts pressure on utilities, and results in many social issues. In many cities built since the Industrial Revolution there is a decaying infrastructure that is not meeting increased demand. By 1900 only 12 cities had 1 million or more inhabitants, by 1950, this had grown to 83 cities. In 2004, there are over 410 cities with over 1 million people (UN). The current stock of infrastructure cannot cope, and modification, modernisation and refurbishment will be required to the existing infrastructure, with particular emphasis on the environmental impact. This dilemma is typical of many countries around the world.

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Figure 1. The growth of urbanisation (The Population Institute, 2004). People are more mobile, using roads, rail and air more frequently. In the UK, the average person travelled 5 miles per day in 1950, and 28 miles in 2001. Projections suggest this could reach 60 miles a day by 2025 (Cabinet Office, 2001). New airport development is fraught with social and environmental problems as airport development increases urbanisation, putting pressure on available land. Increased airport capacity will involve new regional airports with technology to cope with noise levels.

The future forces of change for the construction sector

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2.1.1 Growth of cities Congestion is an increasing problem in urban areas, impacting the economy and the environment. European research showed that congestion costs between 1–2% of GDP (Cabinet Office, 2001). New methods of car parking will be required on streets and in car parks. Automatic (electro-mechanical) parking without manual assistance is being used in congested city centres, based on an underground silo system making maximum use of limited space (Trevipark, 2004). 2.1.2 Transportation Modernisation and retrofit is required for existing transport infrastructure. Engineers will retrofit roads with new technologies rather than reconstruct them; interactive vehicle-road systems will be widespread. Underground road construction will be inevitable as cities become more crowded. According to one report, it is anticipated that 10% of the trunk road network in the UK will be tunnelled by 2050. However, the report highlights the cost of tunnel maintenance—about 10 times that of an equivalent surface road. Restricting tunnels to cars and lighter vehicles can improve operation and reduce construction cost by around 40%. (RAC Foundation, 2002). This trend is also evident, for example in Sweden, the Gota Tunnel, and the ‘Big Dig’ in Boston. Tunnelling must be seen in the future as a viable option if all social and environmental costs are included. Light rail systems and people movers will be used increasingly in urban areas. Rail infrastructure is in need of renewal and improvement to take account of high speeds, greater density of use, improved safety measures and modernisation of control systems. Maglev (magnetically levitated) trains, that allow speeds of up to 350 km per hour, have experienced a long period of research, but development and application is now proceeding. For example, China is considering 250 km of rail extensions north and south of Shanghai using a maglev system. Greater demand management is needed including price tolling and inter-modality, maintenance planning and durability. Advanced transport telematics (ATT), will become prevalent, specifically concerned with improving safety and efficiency in all forms of transport and reducing damage to the environment. ATT allows efficient management and improvements in many areas of road transportation, such as demand management and automatic debiting, driver information and guidance, pedestrian and vehicle safety; monitoring of vehicle emissions; trip planning; integrated urban traffic control; public transport; and freight transport. 2.2 Ageing population The developed world has an ageing population whilst populations are getting younger in the developing world. According to the United Nations, the number of persons aged 60 years or older was estimated to be nearly 600 million in 2000 and is projected to grow to almost 2 billion by 2050, at which time the population of older persons will be larger than the population of children (0–14 years) for the first time in human history (UN, 2004).

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The majority of the world’s older persons reside in Asia (53%) while Europe has the next largest share (25%). Figures 2 and 3 show the percentage of population over 60 in different countries across the world.

Figure 2. Percentage of population over 60–2002 (UN, 2004).

Figure 3. Percentage of population over 60–2050 (UN, 2004). One of every 10 persons is now aged 60 years or older; by 2050, the United Nations projects that 1 person of every 5 and, by 2150, 1 of every 3 will be aged 60 years or older. The percentage is much higher in the more developed than in the less developed

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regions, but the pace of ageing in developing countries is more rapid, and their transition from a young to an old age structure will be more compressed in time. Few facilities are built to cope with an ageing population, so infrastructure will need to be built for an inclusive population and to meet a growing need for more healthcare facilities. An increasing number of people with severe disabilities are living longer and wanting to live independently. Design companies and construction organisations will need to think and work differently to meet this demand. 2.3 Rapid technological and organisational change The new kind of economy will create many more business opportunities, the rate of change will make it more difficult for an organisation to profit from an investment before a new competitor or development erodes the temporary competitive advantage. We are more used to the idea of firms seeking an environment in which they can put down roots and flourish, than to the idea of firms being created for an intentionally brief life to exploit an idea before being washed away by a new wave of innovation (Chatham House Forum, 1998). Technology enables almost anything to be done; deciding what to do becomes the critical skill. In the broadest sense of technology, our capacity to perform tasks, and our ability to perceive and interact with complicated, remote, huge or tiny, abstract or concrete things will be unprecedented. Personal computers will not be the main source of information. Instead of buying a computer, most people will buy devices with computers in them (embedded systems): those devices will talk to each other (interoperability). The big breakthrough will come when all communication technologies become integrated. Then you will have an all-in-one device that communicates. Agile, knowledge-deploying firms may be able to build sustainable positions in the new environment, but they will do so in an innovative way. The electronics industry talks of ‘copetition’—co-operation merged with frenzied competition. In design consultancy businesses, the high cost of developing the integration of CAD and visualisation will mean that development and application costs will be shared between competitors. 2.4 Environmental and climate change There is an increasing environmental awareness by governments, industry, clients and the general public. Global environmental problems are high on political agendas with increasing environmental legislation at a national, supranational and international level. Ozone depletion, pollution, depletion of resources, and global warming are all common topics of concern. Climate change will affect physical and biological systems in many parts of the world. The earth’s climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the build-up of greenhouse gases— primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed. Although uncertainty exists about exactly how earth’s climate responds to these gases, global temperatures are rising. A change in a regional climate could alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies. Flooding of settlements near low-lying coastal areas and rivers will be prevalent causing

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severe damage to buildings and infrastructure and putting greater pressure on the repair and maintenance sector of the industry. Energy demand is expected to increase for space cooling and decrease of space heating, according to location. Energy supply may be disrupted in the same way as other infrastructure. 2.5 Shift from public to private There is an increasing trend towards private funding of public infrastructure. Infrastructure projects such as power, telecommunications water and sewerage, and transport facilities have a number of characteristics: they lack portability, are rarely convertible to other uses, and investments in them are difficult to reverse. Infrastructure projects require very large capital investments, and have long development and payback periods. There has been a change in the forms of financing over the last few decades with a shift from public to private sector financing. For example, the UK government implemented a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and there has been a major privatisation of utilities companies. The number of BOT, BOOT, BOO, and public/private partnerships has increased. The ‘public good’ nature of infrastructure projects makes them sensitive to public opinion and political pressure. The mechanisms to attract private finance into infrastructure provision are becoming more complex and more acceptable with the multilateral development agencies and institutional investors embracing the BOT concept. The message for construction is that there is no shortage of projects around the world, there is a shortage of bankable projects. This new form of procurement will grow in size, importance, and complexity. Ways will have to be found for large companies and SMEs to meet the challenges of the shift from public to private. 2.6 The knowledge economy and information overload The know-how of people is one of the critical determinants of competitiveness, both at a company and national level. Rapid technological changes mean that the traditional skill bases are no longer enough and the future will be characterised by skill shortages and skill gaps. High obsolescence of knowledge will have to be tackled in the context of an increasingly ageing workforce. There will be at least 1 billion university graduates in 2020 compared with a few million in 1920. There will be several billion more sophisticated customers by 2020, who will be better informed and more demanding than ever before. (Chatham House Forum, 1998) Learning matters, for individuals, companies, industry and the economy as a whole. The tradition has been to measure success by economic growth and by the level of capital. In today’s knowledge economy, knowledge capital is more important. Knowledge capital is ‘the source of economic value added by the organization, over and above the return on its financial assets’ (Strassman, 1998). Investment in education and training helps form the human capital—‘the knowledge, skills, competencies, and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social, and economic well-being’ (OECD, 2001)—that is a vital element in assuring economic growth and individual advancement and reducing inequality.

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Technology gives us more and more access to information, so life gets more and more chaotic. ‘Information chaos’ prevails and we need to help people find the information that they want, when they want it. 2.7 Technologies for tomorrow Technology is a word that frightens some, excites others and prompts a feeling of inevitability in the rest. There have been major advances in materials and technologies in general. Extensive research has been undertaken into the use of composite materials, providing lightweight, strong materials that do not rely on the earth’s non-renewable resources. For example, soya and castor seed oils that are cheaper, bio-degradable and an economic multiplier of using local products (ACRES, 2002). Many of the new/smart materials are finding their way into the construction sector, having been first developed for other industries such as automotive, aeronautic and defence. These new materials, combined with the incorporation of intelligence, herald exciting scientific advances. Smart or intelligent materials or structures are those that recognise their environment and any changes and can adapt to meet those changes. System integration, mass and energy reduction are just some of the benefits of using smart materials. The technology of intelligent or ‘smart’ materials uses the knowledge of a number of different technologies such as materials science, biotechnology, biomimetics, nanotechnology, molecular electronics, neural networks and artificial intelligence. Four new technologies are considered in this paper: 1 Biomimetics 2 Smart materials and structures 3 Nanotechnology 4 Embedded intelligence—the application of information and communication technologies. 2.7.1 Biomimetics Biomimetics has been defined as ‘the abstraction of good design from nature’. This relatively new science advocates a radical approach of copying nature—biomimicry. Biomimetics needs the collaboration of the scientist and the engineer. The biologist understands the organisms and systems within nature whilst the engineer looks at the design, the strength and durability characteristics. Nature has already produced ‘smart’ materials, ones that interact with their environment, responding to changes in a number of ways. For example, plants have the ability to respond to changes in temperature, sunlight etc. in order to make maximum use of their environment. The feathers of a penguin are perfectly designed to be light but able to keep the bird warm in sub-zero temperatures. Imagine a cladding that could do the same—light and strong with efficient insulation that adapts to the environment. Biomimetic engineering could provide clothing that is light, responsive and strong and could be used in harsh site conditions. Mimicking nature could produce new designs in civil engineering that are lighter, stronger and with greater adaptability to a changing environment. New adhesives, based on those produced in nature (the blue mussel), could revolutionise the building process. Buildings could be ‘glued’ together, giving stronger,

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faster and cleaner construction techniques. The possibilities for the use of biomimetics appear to be endless, but the research needed to achieve effective, efficient and viable materials will not happen overnight. 2.7.2 Smart materials and structures Extensive research has been undertaken into the use of composite materials, providing lightweight, strong materials that do not rely on the earth’s non-renewable resources. These new materials, combined with the incorporation of intelligence, herald exciting scientific advances. Smart or intelligent materials or structures are those that recognise their environment and any changes and can adapt to meet those changes. System integration, mass and energy reduction are just some of the benefits of using smart materials. The technology of intelligent or ‘smart’ materials uses the knowledge of a number of different technologies such as materials science, biotechnology, biomimetics, nanotechnology, molecular electronics, neural networks and artificial intelligence. These technologies are inter-related. Just as stone implements triggered the Stone Age, alloys of copper and tin triggered the Bronze Age and iron smelting triggered the Iron Age, the new generation of materials will have a revolutionary effect. Smart materials can be further defined as (Jane and Sirkis, 1994): – Materials functioning as both sensing and actuating. – Materials that have multiple responses to one stimulus in a co-ordinated fashion. – Passively smart materials self-repairing or standby characteristics to withstand sudden changes. – Actively smart materials utilising feedback. – Smart materials and systems reproducing biological functions in load-bearing structural systems. Sensor materials should have ‘the ability to feedback stimuli such as thermal, electrical and magnetic signals, to the motor system in response to changes in the thermomechanical characteristics of smart structures’ (Jane and Sirkis, 1994). Actuators should also react to the same stimuli, but their reaction should be to change shape, stiffhess, position, natural frequency, damping and/or other mechanical characteristics. 2.7.3 Nanotechnology Nano as a prefix to any measure is a one billionth. For example, a nanosecond is one billionth of a second; a nanometre is one billionth of a metre etc. The essence of nanotechnology is the ability to create large structures from the bottom up, that is by starting with materials at a molecular level an building them up. The structures created— ‘nanostructures’ are the smallest human-made objects whose building blocks are understood from first principles in terms of their biological, chemical and physical properties. Diamonds are lightweight, very strong and have a number of materials properties that would make an ideal choice of materials for many items, from aeroplanes to cars. However, although its versatility and strength are ideal its cost/availability is not.

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Nanotechnology may provide the answer to this by taking manufacturing down to atomic scale. Manufactured products are made from atoms if the atoms in coal are rearranged, the result is diamonds; atoms of sand are rearranged then get computer chips are ‘born’. Rearranging the atoms in dirt, water and air produces grass (Merkle, 1997). A shatterproof diamond could be purpose ‘grown’ to provide an ideal component in the electronics, manufacturing, and construction sectors. 2.7.4 Embedded intelligence A number of industrial applications are beginning to emerge that exploit the newly emerging Internet capabilities of embedded systems. Embedded systems differ markedly from desktop systems, being fitted with just enough functionality to handle a specific application, enabling them to be produced at low-cost. Such systems have a more limited processing speed, CPU power, display capability and persistent storage capability. The challenge for developers is to produce embedded systems that are able to provide network fiinctionality within these constraints. The future is where all electronic devices are ubiquitous and networked with every object, whether it is physical or electronic, electronically tagged with information pertinent to that object. The use of physical tags will allow remote, contactless interrogation of their contents; thus, enabling all physical objects to act as nodes in a networked physical world. This technology will benefit supply chain management and inventory control, product tracking and location identification, and human-computer and human-object interfaces. In the construction sector auto-ID technologies will have a huge impact on the supply chain, the design and construction process, and facilities management (Marsh et al., 1997). 2.8 People, safety and health 2.8.1 People in a two-speed world We have a two-speed world with a widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘havenots’. Large areas of the world have missed out on the information revolution, threatening to widen the gap between rich and poor—see Figure 4. We need to bridge the digital divide. According to a World Bank report ‘a global explosion of knowledge is underway which may lift hundreds of millions of the world’s poor out of poverty, or it may create a widening knowledge gap, in which poor countries lag further and further behind’. – The richest 20% of the world’s people consume 86% of all goods and services while the poorest 20% consume just 1.3%. The richest 20% consume 45% of all meat and fish, 58% of all energy used and 84% of all paper, has 74% of all telephone lines and owns 87% of all vehicles. – The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed countries. – 2/3rds of India’s 90 million lowest-income house-holds live below the poverty line.

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– The estimated additional cost of achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive health care for all women, adequate food for all, and clean water and safe sewers for all is roughly US$40 billion a year—or less than 4% of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world. The message for construction organisations is that more focus will be required on regional markets. For example, China has the knowledge and capacity to build innovative and complex structures, but it lacks the finance and the managerial efficiency. Hence, finance and managerial systems help to bridge the gap. The developing world needs appropriate technology, rather than leading edge advanced technology. Local power generation, waste water treatment, and fresh water supply will need to be designed for local provision. Affordability is key, both of the capital plant and the community’s ability to pay for the service.

Figure 4. The widening gap between the richest and the rest. Human capital is an increasingly important asset; the tacit knowledge of a business rests within its workers. Therefore, the health and work environment of construction workers needs to become more important. The overall ‘cost’ of accidents and near misses on a typical building site can amount to some 8.5% of the contract price; applied to the UK’s £84bn annual output, this is a significant cost (Minister of State for Work, Department for Work and Pensions 13 September 2003). An HSE report calculated that one third of all work fatalities happen in construction and construction workers are six times more likely to be killed at work than employees in other sectors (HSE, 2003). New construction processes will lead to greater mechanical assistance for construction workers and the elimination of dirty, dangerous and debilitating activities through the provision of advanced mechanisation. They will benefit safety (due to better ways of working) and job satisfaction (due to changes in the nature of the work accompanied by new rules for site management procedures). Short-term contracts, self-employment and job mobility will increase, creating demands for personal pensions and rental stock. Teleworking will increase, but human interaction will remain fundamentally important.

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New employment patterns with the old idea of the ‘employer and employee’ are becoming obsolete. No one can feel secure in the sense of lifetime employment. Only those who learn new skills will achieve long-term employability. Service providers are growing in importance with outsourcing to specialist providers. 2.8.2 Safety A focus on safety from a design and construction perspective by companies is encouraged by insurance companies and legislation, and is important to employers, employees, and public attitudes. Ultimately, safety by design will be viewed as part of the normal design process. Accident and illness prevention plans need to be built into schemes at the design stage in response to design-led safety information required by clients. Scheme safety requirements will also include information feedback reporting to originating scheme designers and to a master industry reference database. Training, advances and greater use of personal protective equipment and clothing, and using technology will combine to make the construction process safer. Better safety policies and regulations will control risks associated with construction sites and environmental decisions. Virtual reality will simulate site working environments for safety training and to help minimise vehicle movements and risks in general. Modular design, offsite prefabrication, ‘lntelligent site vehicles’ and use of robotics will reduce the number of traditional tradesmen required, leading to fewer people on-site and a reduction in accidents. Automation will also reduce the need for scaffolding and the number of people working at height. More off-site work could tackle the problems of quality, safety and speed of construction. 2.8.3 Health Over 1 billion people in the world are without safe drinking water. Almost 3 billion people (roughly half the world’s population) are without adequate sanitation in developing countries. Technology has the solutions to provide safe drinking water, but cost is the issue. 2.9 Vulnerability, security corruption and crime Different designs are being studied that minimise the impact of bomb-related threats. Structures are being designed such that a column collapse would only result in the collapse of a single floor or area without causing the collapse of the floors below it. Reinforcement of the columns in existing buildings by the use of fibre glass or carbon fibre materials is being researched and also how to minimise the impact of shattered glass. Experts are investigating the effects of the introduction of an aerosol agent into the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system through the development and installation of devices that are designed to kill microorganisms or filter harmful chemicals.

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2.9.1 Corruption Levels of investment, both, foreign and domestic depend on the quality of the business environment of a country. The business environment among others is a function of the rule of law, in particular the stability of rules and regulations governing business transactions, political stability and transparency. Corruption increases the uncertainty of doing business because it erodes the rule of law and is associated with high levels of bureaucratic red tape. Some describe corruption as a tax that adds to the cost of doing business. Various business surveys have concerned themselves with the prevalence of corruption in everyday business operations. An empirical analysis of transition economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia showed that investment levels in countries with high levels of corruption were 6% lower on average than in countries with medium levels of corruption (21% and 27% respectively) (The World Bank, 2000). 2.9.2 Crime Crime is a growing industry with crime and terrorism becoming increasingly important for the built environment. The events of September 11th have highlighted the importance of life safety. Prior to that, building protection related to terrorism primarily focused on the threat of bombs detonated inside vehicles. There is now a more extensive range of threats, particularly those of a biological and chemical nature. 3 THE MESSAGE The best way to predict the fiiture is to create it—ignore the future at your peril! We have enormous potential for the future. This includes technology, improvements in communication, availability of capital, and increases in the quantity and availability of information and knowledge. These require a capacity to invent and seize opportunities, and innovative thinking. Innovation is the means by which firms can exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or service and gain a competitive advantage. The drivers above relate to a snapshot in time; they will change over time and in importance and impact. The impact on the developing world will be different to the developed world. For example, in the developing world the results of desertification, deforestation, hunger and depravation will all ultimately impact the developed world. For design and construction organisations they represent both a threat and an opportunity. REFERENCES ACRES (2002) Affordable composites from renewable sources, University of Delaware, Center for Composite Materials, USA Cabinet Office (2001) Transport: trends and challenges. Performance and innovation Unit, Cabinet Office, Her Majesty’s Government 13 November 2001 Chatham House (1998) Open Horizons Report from the Chatham House Forum. Royal Institute of International Affairs. London. ISBN 1-86203-094-4

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Jain, A.K. and Sirkis, J.S. (1994) Continuum damage mechanics in piezoelectric ceramics, in Adaptive structures and composite materials: analysis and application, Garcia, E., Cudney, H. and Dasgupta, A. (Eds). Presented at ASME 1994 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Chicago, November 6–11, pp. 47–58 Marsh, L., Flanagan R. and Finch, E. (1997) Enabling technologies: a primer on bar coding for construction. The Chartered Institute of Building, ISBN 1 85380 081 3 Merkle, RC. (1997) It’s a small, small, small, small world, MIT Technology review Feb/March issue OECD (2001) The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD RAC Foundation (2002) Motoring towards 2050—an independent inquiry RAC Foundation for Motoring, London Strassmann, P.A. (1998). The value of knowledge capital. American Programmer, 11(3), pp. 3–10 The Population Institute (2004) Website: www.population-institute.org Trevipark—http://www.trevipark.co.uk UN (1999) World Urbanization Prospects, The 1999 Revision, Population Reference Bureau, UN UN (2004) World population trends on web site: http://www.undp.org/popin/wdtrends/a99/a99cht.htm UN Population Division (1996) World urbanisation prospects, New York, 1996 Urban Task Force (2000) Our Towns and Cities: the future. Urban White Paper, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London, UK, 183pp

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Vectors, visions and values P.S.Brandon Research Institute for the Built & Human Environment, University of Salford, Salford, UK ABSTRACT: This paper explores the circumstances which are coming together to produce revolutionary change to the way in which construction processes are being exercised. It argues that we are close to the ‘tipping point’ where a small change can have a dramatic effect. It then goes on to explore the nature of change in this context and the issues related to research and development which will aid this process. It argues that for change to occur then there must be technological development which can be measured and can give a sense of direction, then there needs to be a vision to provide the will to make things happen and lastly the change must be in line with the values which a particular society holds dear. Vectors, visions and values lie at the heart of the changes which the research community must address but perhaps the greatest of these are values.

1 INTRODUCTION One of the pre-occupations of this age is the desire to see into the future. This is understandable because the speed of change is so great that if you do not prepare then you begin to lose out in some way. This is particularly true of organisations and the concept of the ‘learning organisation’ (Senge, 1990) to prepare for change is now an established metaphor for this preparatory process. We need to learn in advance in order that when change occurs we have the tools and culture to adapt to its requirements. This has been taken a stage further with foresight studies where the scientific and technological base of whole countries has been marshalled to examine future possibilities and to prepare a research agenda to match. Over thirty countries have undertaken such exercises over the past thirty years and many have found it enormously helpful. In many cases it has been the process that seems to have been the great benefit. To get several hundred experts to engage in such a process begins to change the culture of the country towards a desire for self improvement. Within such foresight exercises there has often been sector groups looking at the needs and possibilities for major industries and of course construction being one of the major manufacturing industries of the world has received due attention. Flanagan and Jewell (2003) summarise the results of such exercises (See Table 1). Some aspects need to be interpreted because, for example, Information Technology may be assumed by some countries to be embedded in all the various aspects and therefore it does not necessarily require to be shown as a separate item. However it is, of course, a major issue. Likewise

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the improvements in process, whether design, manufacture, assembly or occupation can be found within many of the assumptions made about where improvements will occur. This kind of exploration sometimes using scenario planning (Ratcliffe, 2004) is healthy for any discipline and reveals the maturity of the industry in terms of its realisation of, and the willingness to, change. It can be argued that once a corporate view takes hold, caused by sufficient people seeking and adopting the new view, that change can be rapid and revolutionary. It may be that construction is reaching such a point when it comes to the adoption of Information Technology and process improvement. 2 THE TIPPING POINT Malcolm Gladwell (2001) in his international best seller entitled ‘The Tipping Point’ identifies a phenomenon whereby an activity or a technology suddenly emulates the kind of behaviour that we see when we talk of an epidemic in medical terms. It is a significant point in time when there is a dramatic moment when everything can change at once. The situation moves from incremental to revolutionary change in what appears to the observer a very short space of time. Gladwell attempts to identify three characteristics required for this phenomenon. Firstly, contagiousness where the concept or idea suddenly becomes the

Table 1. Comparison of Foresight issues from various countries (Flanagan and Jewel). Australia Canada Finland France Germany Ireland Singapore Sweden UK USA Globalisation

Yes

Innovation/ R&D Exports/ Competitive ness

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Repair & maintenance —existing stock

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Integration— processes & people

Procurement

Yes Yes

Construction and production processes

IT

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

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and project delivery Service provider People/ workplace/ culture

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

New technologies

Yes

Environment/ Yes whole life/ sustainability

Yes

Urban/city development

Yes

Governance— codes & standards

Yes

End-user demands

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

accepted wisdom and produces a new paradigm which the vast majority follow. Secondly, a period where little causes can have big effects and thirdly, where change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment. He applies this to many instances where social behaviour becomes revolutionary but the same can also be said of technology. It was the introduction of the personal computer which suddenly made the power of that computational machine available to the masses which in turn led to changes in communications and the way people undertook many of their normal activities whether it be leisure, or communication with friends or purchasing travel tickets or discovering knowledge. The world changed in the space of less than one working lifetime to something quite new. Partly it was contagious as the word was passed on as to what this technology could do for the everyday life of people and once imparted it was difficult to stop. Partly it was the fact that a relatively small but significant piece of software, the internet, enabled people to access knowledge and interact with it through the machine at their office or their home. Partly it was the dramatic possibilities which were seen suddenly by so many that help create a critical mass of activity which brought the investment, intellectual capital and imagination to produce the information infrastructure we have today. Of course there were many factors which aided and abetted the change but viewed from a distance these major drivers created an epidemic in human behaviour which still continues today.

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3 THE TIPPING POINT FORIT IN CONSTRUCTION So what happened to the Construction Industry and the application of Information Technology? Here is an industry which appears ripe for reaping the rewards of improved communication. It requires vast stores of inter-disciplinary knowledge, it can be aided enormously by visual imaging of a finished product and the simulation of performance when at the present time the cost of physical prototyping is just too prohibitive. The recent short term forecasts for when the industry might get its act together e.g. when its supply chain will come ‘on-line’ have all proved much too optimistic. There have been significant mini epidemics, for example when contractors of all sizes suddenly found the benefit of the mobile phone to communicate in a geographically distant and often dirty and noisy environment. The industry was one of the first to take this technology on board in a big way. But what about the big changes where collaborative working in design, manufacture and operation are seen and exercised through a virtual model for the benefit of all stakeholders in the process: where remote sensing and control allows machines to manage and direct activity in what are often dirty and hazardous environments: where ordering and purchasing all resources can be done electronically: where it is possible to try before you buy and know what you are going to get and why. The industry is sometimes described as the world’s largest but here you see this great industry locked into its craft technology which in principle has not changed for millennia. The management of large projects has become more complex, certainly so has some of the structures which are now designed (Gehry, 2002) and in many cases they could not be built except for the support of computer technology. However the wide scale adoption of the machine to harness its power in a way that can be seen in, say, the aircraft industry, is just not in place despite the excellent aspirations and investment made by enlightened clients such as British Airports Authority. Where there is movement it comes from collaboration between individuals such as the way in which the Frank Gehry Partnership has worked with Dassault Systemes to adapt software originally designed for aircraft design to meet the aspirations of one of the world’s great architects. It is interesting to see that it was another industry that provided what was needed to achieve a new free form structure which has excited the world. These breakthroughs are relatively minor outbreaks of a benign driver which pave the way for what might be. The epidemic is still to come. There are signs that mass breakout is possible soon and this conference identifies the work of some of the ‘thought leaders’ in the field. It addresses what is happening, what might happen, what should happen and what should definitely not happen! Although the term ‘thought leader’ seems to have Orwellian overtones it does capture one important aspect. It identifies the power of thought and the imagination to provide visions of the possible. This aids the first ingredient of the ‘tipping point’, that of contagion. So what of the other two ingredients? If we can identify little causes which can have big effects then we may be well on the way to radical change. A view of the industrial/social world we live in would provide us with the following trends which coming together might provide the spark for ingredient number two. As with all epidemics it is impossible to predict but somewhere in the soup

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of ideas and developments lurks a minor change which will revolutionise the way the construction industry works. • Convergence: The last decade has seen a massive change in digital technologies which has seen all forms of media whether it be visual imagery, radio, television, audio, personal computers or telephone communications all come together in one digital representation. Mobile phones today now have the capacity to bring most of these aspects together. It does not end there. Society across the world is changing and despite resistance in some quarters there is much more sharing of knowledge leading to a common or converging viewpoint which may in the long run lead to globalisation of values. The seduction by western values is seen by many to be one of the downsides of such open access which is controlled by a few. Will the construction industry come together in a way we have never seen before? • Connectivity: Alongside the convergence through technologies has been the vast increase in communication and the access we have in the developed world to all forms of information. We can now be ‘connected’ anytime any place anywhere and with the development of ambient computing this is going to extend still further. With connectivity comes contact, access and the inability to hold on to and protect specialist information for more than a short period. The hold of the professions and their ‘fortresses of knowledge’ protected by their examination systems and barriers to entry begins to disappear and boundaries between knowledge disappear. Connectivity allows us to change quickly and for the ‘virus’ of change to move through the population unfettered, unleashing a contagion of ideas which can tip us into a new and unknown situation. • Culture: As the technologies converge and connectivity allows the spread of the contagious idea then it needs a receptive culture within which it is easy to ‘breed’. The present generation of university leavers are the first cohort of graduates who have been through the complete school system where information technology was an integral part of the curriculum from the very first year of entry into education. To them it is the norm whereas to previous generations it had to be learnt and absorbed and systems had to be re-learnt to embrace change. The information technological change is now endemic in society as a whole and it is even stranger to be outside it than to be in it. • Creativity: Do computers release creativity or constrain it? In past generations the need to standardise and formalise to use the machine was prevalent. Now this is changing as the nature of the machine becomes more flexible and adaptive. There is still a long way to go and the culture has changed so that there is mutual give and take between machine and user to which both are becoming more accustomed. The games industry is a leading example where the users speak the language and seldom seem to have to read any rule book before they can participate at a high level. This natural take up needs to extend to industries like construction. • Content improvement: As the content of what is provided through the technology improves so it is more likely that more people will want to use it. When that content of knowledge or access becomes indispensable for normal living then the technology also becomes indispensable. In the developed nations we are getting close to this situation as our financial, employment, consumerism etc is being built around electronic processing. For the construction industry we have some way to go but the industry is a

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laggard in the race towards electronic business and falls sharply behind transport, banking and other sectors. • Collaborative working: When the stakeholders need to work together for maximum efficiency and they are geographically separated then the drive for integrated communication and sharing becomes paramount. In addition the real benefits often arise when the stakeholders work together and it is just not possible for one organisation to act alone. The benefits of airline booking of tickets would not be as successful if each company developed its own system which could not speak to the others. Where the benefit is of this nature it may be necessary for Government or a major player in the software industry to take the lead. In addition there must be willingness for all parties to work together in pre-competitive research to establish the platform. • Content: With the growing developments in the hard technologies comes an increased impetus to provide the content for users to find the technology even more usefiil. The entertainment industry has been one of the first to realise the potential for extra services and education is following close behind, often using the same technology. It has been argued that the distribution networks required for the content may create a monopoly of knowledge, not unlike the half a dozen or so global film distributors who control the films made available to us for general viewing. This could be dangerous as we then leave the access to knowledge and the values that the knowledge conveys in the hands of a few. • Cost reduction: As quickly as a new refinement to the technology takes hold then an improved version is produced. This highly competitive market creates a leap frogging effect which sometimes leaves the purchaser bewildered and unable to invest without substantial risk. However the overall impact is for more computing power to become available to each individual which in turn enables him or her to do more for the same cost and in some cases to be more flexible in their use of the technology, thus removing some of the barriers to use. • Common Standards: This may be a temporary factor in the tipping point agenda. The technology is moving so fast that the hurdles we see now to inter-operability are likely to disappear and the issue will become unimportant. However for the time being the move towards standards for inter-operability such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) is opening the opportunity to exchange information and to integrate processes together. This in turn allows the collaborative working around a single model which has long been the holy grail of the IT model builders. We may well find within the above list that key activity which will tip the balance and bring the construction industry to the fore in e-business. It is likely to be a combination of many of the above but one new development could well take us into a new digital craftsmanship to replace the old. If this is about to happen and many think the time is ripe then we need to consider future possibilities and what it might be like to live in this new world. What will be the advantages and the pitfalls? To do this we need to consider the manner in which we approach the subject. This can be considered under three headings namely, vectors, visions and values. All three share a degree of inter-dependence but all three have significant lessons to teach us.

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4 VECTORS A vector is defined in one dictionary as ‘a quantity completely specifled by magnitude and direction’. It is the realm of quantitative research and the fruitful field of the PhD student. By measuring and refining and postulating and experimenting we see how we might change the status quo and determine what factors contribute to our understanding of an item or aspect. Even in qualitative research we often seek the quantification of our findings through surveys and other mechanisms although in most cases we would hesitate to say we have ‘completely specifled the magnitude’. It is also the field of systems which specify how things behave, often in an integrated way. It has been the mechanisms by which scientific method has enabled us to advance. By nature it tends to be reductionist, reducing the problem to something which we can handle and understand although often we lose the impact on other aspects of the world we live in. It is often the field of the short term, dealing with the problems as we see it today. If we take the information technology developments we can see how harnessing the technology coupled with an understanding of science to aid in imagination, manufacture and use has produced significant developments. If we link this with the idea of ‘direction’ then we move into what will form the next research agenda. The European Fifth Framework project called ‘ROADCON’ (‘Strategic RTD Roadmap for ICT in Construction’, 2001) attempted to identify where we are now in terms of IT and the roadmap of where we should be going—the direction. This is a summary of what was listed: • Applications – Current: These are dedicated to specific engineering functions andproject/building life cycle stages. – Future: Total life cycle appraisal supported by user-friendly functional applications and persistent data ensuring holistic decision making. • Products and Components – Current: Have little ‘added value’ to the building operation. – Future: A mixture of high and low value components acting intelligently. • Knowledge re-use – Current: Relies on industry wide sharing of experiences and fiindamental understanding of complex systems interacting at all levels. – Future: Experience and previous solutions are available in personal and departmental archives but new solutions are regularly re-invented in every project. • Information access – Current Company and project data available via LANs and web based technologies. – Future: Ambient access provided, anytime, anywhere, by industry wide communications infrastructure, distributed and embedded systems, ambient intelligence and mobile computing. • Project Information and Communication technologies

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– Current: Based on ICTs which augment the creation and sharing of humaninterpretable information. – Future: Based on model based ICT enabling context awareness, automation, simulation and visualisation based on computer interpretable data. • Nature of technology – Current: Invasive technology where the user has to adapt to proven and emerging technologies. – Future: Technology is human-centred based around design and build paradigms promoted by ICTs that enhance the social condition of individuals in the society. • Data Exchange – Current: Available at file level between different applications and companies based mainly on proprietary formats at low semantic level. – Future: Flexible inter-operability between heterogeneous ICT systems which allows seamless interaction between all stakeholders. • Processes – Current: Business processes are driven by lowest cost but there is a growing awareness of customer perceived value which is not supported by prevailing business models. – Future: Performance driven process assuring compliance with clients’ requirements and emphasis on customer perceived value. • Collaborative teams – Current: Teamwork between distributed experts in participating companies is supported by web-enabled document management systems in ‘project web sites’. – Future: Virtual teams combine distributed competences via global collaboration environments that support cultural, linguistic, social and legal transparency. • Systems Flexibility – Current ICTs require customisation to meet the varying needs of users and has to be tailor-made for new situations requiring manual maintenance, configuration and support. – Future: Adaptive systems are created which learn from their own use and user behaviour, and are able to adapt to new situations without manual maintenance, configuration and support. The above list suggests where development might take place to overcome some of the difficulties we face today and provide a working environment which is more finely attuned to the needs of human beings. It is technology centred and is looking for technical solutions. To obtain these solutions then quantitative measures are needed for the science to produce the tools and the technology to make use of scientific discovery. Much will be based on an understanding of the natural sciences and the engineering necessary to make the science useful. In this broad sense the work is in the realm of the vector, ‘quantities

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completely specified in magnitude and direction’. Without measurement and direction through an understanding of what is possible these advances could not take place. But is this all? What else needs to be considered? Here we come to the realm of the vision. 5 VISION It is possible to have an over abundance of technical solutions but without change occurring. In the early days of information technology the term ‘solutions in search of a problem’ was often used. By this was meant that the technology was advancing so fast that it was outstripping the ability of society to assimilate it in a meaningfiil way. Often its use was lost on the community it was meant to benefit, or worse, the creator had designed something which genuinely had no use for the foreseeable future. In the former case it is critical that society has some vision of what it wants to achieve in order for it to take advantage of the new tools. To do this it needs a vision. One dictionary definition of vision is ‘lntelligent Foresight’. In this sense, then, the intelligence gathered from the vectors can be used to give an insight into the future. The difference between ‘foresight’ and ‘forecasting’ is that forecasting attempts to predict the future (whether it is events, technological advances or expected dates for occurrence) whereas foresight tries

Table 2. Visions and themes for the Australian Construction Industry 2020 (Hampson & Brandon). Potential impacts Design & Communication

Process & manufacture

5. Information & communication technologies

6. Virtual prototyping process

7. Off-site manufacture

8. Improved manufacturing

1. Environmentally sustainable construction

Strong

Medium

Strong

Strong

2. Meeting client needs

Strong

Strong

Weak

Strong

3. Improved business environment

Strong

Medium

Weak

Medium

4. Improvement of labour force

Strong

Medium

Strong

Strong

9. Research and innovation

Strong

Strong

Strong

Strong

to provide guidelines for policy makers about the directions they should follow. In one case (forecasting) the industry asks ‘how do I respond to these events?’ knowing they are

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powerless to do anything about them and in the other (foresight) the industry asks ‘what do I need to achieve these goals?’ It is the difference between saying the future is inevitable and we just have to predict what will happen and on the other hand saying we can influence the future, we are not just helpless bystanders. The most recent foresight study is the Construction 2020 Vision arranged through the CRC Construction based at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, involving all the major organisations and professions in the industry. Several hundred people attended workshops and completed questionnaires in which they identified their vision for an improved Australian Construction industry. The final summary report of these deliberations (Hampson & Brandon, 2004) reveals the integrated nature of the aspirations of the industry. Table 2 shows the broad outline of the nine visions or themes distilled from all the responses made. On one axis it can be seen that it is the ‘environment’ in which construction takes place which is the key issues. (Environment here means the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an individual or community). These include the needs of the workforce, a sustainable environment, responding to clients’ needs, an improved business environment and research and development. On the other axis are the technologies which might well aid the improvement in the environments identified and these include process issues and those related to ICTs. The strength of relationship does of course vary between the two. What is interesting here is that it is not the technologies which dominate. In fact in the analysis of responses it was the improved business environment and environmentally sustainable construction which headed the list. The technologies, although considered important, were seen as a means by which the other issues could be achieved. In other words, it was the people issues which were really considered to be important, whether it was now (as in the case of the business environment) or in the future (as in the case of sustainable development). This suggests that visions of the future as expressed in peoples’ aspirations are more about quality of life rather than mere technological advance. This may well be something we should note as we invest our time and energy into issues of self improvement. In fact the drive is towards values rather than solutions to current technological problems. This is also more evident as people are asked to look into the longer term future rather than the short and medium term. What we see is a shift to values the more we leave the baggage of the present behind. 6 VALUES At the heart of values are the belief systems to which we hold. These in turn are arise from or are created by the culture in which we live. In democratic societies, at least, these are partially enshrined in the legislation and regulation which the people have determined to represent those values. Whilst in past times these matters were largely stable and often confined by national or other boundaries, this is not so true today. The internet and other technologies do not recognise such boundaries and can pose a threat to those who hold strong beliefs. We are moving into a period when values are becoming a key issue in development and world politics as globalisation begins to be the mantra of the many.

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When we consider the research agenda for countries the question of values is often forgotten in our desire to improve the systems and technologies with which we work. When the Australian community calls for a better business environment, what is it calling for? Does it mean ‘more profits for all’ and if so does this mean that someone else will suffer? Does it mean a fairer distribution of risk, in which case who wins and who loses, assuming the present system is unsatisfactory. Does it mean that those with technology win and those without lose? It is a very complex issue but one that is fiindamental to the well-being of the people we seek to serve. Our research cannot be undertaken, and a new tool produced, without considering whether people want it, whether it has negative as well as positive contributions to make or whether it supports or undermines the values of the society in which it is to be used. These matters are critical in the information sciences. Knowledge is not neutral, it empowers some and can disempower others. At the same time the technologies used to convey knowledge use models, which by definition, are not fiilly representative of the object or system they try to represent. They represent the item but they do not convey it in its entirety. We are moving to the creation of a virtual world where we aim to create reality within a machine. As we move in this direction we begin to touch on some very key and sensitive issues. How do we really know that this new world truly reflects our own? Even if it does—are we interpreting it in the right way? In the real world it only affects a small number of individuals and changes can be made and the model adapted. Computer models on the other hand are designed to be used time and time again by many people who do not necessarily communicate with each other. Mistakes become fossilized and values become frozen to the point where an oppressive tool may have been created. The author, as a programmer, many years ago was concerned by some of the knowledge he was placing in some computer programmes. In several programming languages the expression ‘IF…THEN’ was common. IF a certain set of circumstances existed THEN a certain action was taken. At the time we were writing into the programme well recognised techniques and best practice but what if our knowledge increased or society did not want to implement that action when that set of circumstances occurred? In a simple program it could be changed but not before many had used it or still continued to use it. In a complex program the piece of knowledge became embedded so deep that it was often impossible to find it and extract it and change it. It became part of the system and it was almost impossible to detect the manner in which it influenced the full model or program. This became even more acute when Knowledge Based Systems came into being. We captured the knowledge of ‘experts’ and we made that available to those who were less expert. The knowledge of the expert and to some extent his or her value system was now built into the model. We tried to devise ways round this by designating some knowledge as stable (but who says so) and some as unstable and therefore made more explicit and easy to change. This can work in relatively small systems dealing with focussed applications but the trend is towards integrated systems and greater ‘intelligence’ for the machine. In other words we will be leaving more of the decision making to the machine. What algorithms will the machine use and how many of these will represent values? When we begin to have ‘conversation’ with the machine how do we know what mechanisms it is using to guide us towards a particular solution?

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This is but one example of where technology is taking us into the value systems arena, although some would argue that we have been there for some time. These are not trivial matters. As we allow machines to intrude on our privacy and on our decision-making are we going to be constantly challenging its reasoning powers as we do in debate and conversation? How will we get all of us to ‘buy in’ to what it is doing when the users are not a coherent homogenous group who can exercise some kind of democratic power? We are already talking about ‘jacking in’ computers direct into the brain. This raises even greater questions about at which point the brain leaves being human and becomes a machine and who provides its value system, man or machine? This must seem like science fiction to some but it is coming upon us fast. In our research we must ask the question about what we are creating and how this really ties in with the aspirations of our fellow human kind to have a reasonable quality of life. There should come a point when every piece of research but particularly research in terms of knowledge and processes should require a set of questions to be asked about how it impacts upon the society which it seeks to serve. 7 CONCLUDING REMARKS This paper has attempted to raise some fundamental questions about the research we do, particularly in the field of information and communication technologies, but also in the way we do it. It has recognised the great debt we owe to scientific method and the reductionist approach which has provided advances from which we have all benefited. This is the realm of the vector where measurement reigns supreme. It has also recognised the importance of looking to the future to provide further direction to our efforts. Here studies are finding increasingly that it is quality of life issues which now dominate, rather than technology. Technology is seen as enabler but needs to be kept in its place. The need to know the general direction we are heading in is a key to investment and efficient utilisation of resources. The faster the speed of change then the greater the need to envision where we are going. With an increase in speed, so must the headlights become stronger! As we move toward quality of life then we begin to embrace the values of people and their aspirations. The vision for the future must address these issues. Finally these values need to be subject to constant debate and exploration and the technology must be sufficiently transparent and flexible to adopt the conclusions of the debate or else we will create a monster of horrific proportions. Whether these approaches result in the tipping point is unknown. It is likely that it is the combination of scientific method scenario planning and a response to values which will provide the changes that will see Construction move in a way which has been seen by many industries. These issues around construction are now reaching a crescendo of movement which seems to suggest that this point is near and we need to consider what part each of us should play. In conclusion vectors underpin our understanding of the future and provide material for our visions; visions allow us to provide scenarios in which we can mould events and seek to match the aspirations of society; values underpin all that we do and unless these are part of the foregoing processes then we may be undermining the very progress we are trying to achieve. Values should dominate if the tipping point is to provide us with a

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technological base which will be human centred and serve humankind and our industry well. REFERENCES Flanagan, R. & Jewell, C. 2003. A Review of Recent Work on Construction Futures. London.: CRISP Commission 02/06, Construction Research and Strategy Panel Gehry, J. 2002. Gehry Talks. Architecture+Process. USA: Universe Press Gladwell, M. 2001. The Tipping Point. UK: Abacus Hampson, K. & Brandon, P. 2004. Construction 2020-A Vision for Australia’s Property and Construction Industry. Australia: CRC for Construction Innovation, QUT, Brisbane Ratcliffe, J. 2004. Imagineering the Future—the prospective process through scenario thinking for strategic planning and management; a tool for exploring IT futures in Designing Managing and Supporting Construction Projects Through Innovation and IT solutions (Editors Brandon, P. Heng Li, Shaffii, N. & Shen, Q.) Malaysia: CIDB ROADCON: Strategic RTD Roadmap for ICT in Construction. 2001. European Fifth Framework Project. (IST-2001-37278) Senge, P. 1990. The Fifth Discipline—the Art andPractice of the Learning Organisation. London: Random House

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Help wanted: project information officer T.M.Froese University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.Canada ABSTRACT: Innovations in information technologies promise significant improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of designing and managing construction projects. Yet the new demands that these information technologies create for expertise and management tasks may be more than typical project personnel can accommodate. This paper explores the potential for introducing a new role into the project team— that of a project information officer. The paper is organized in the form of a hypothetical job description for such a position. It first described the duties of the project information officer relating to the implementation of an information management plan, the specific project systems to be used, and new approaches to overall project management. The paper then discusses the organizational role, skills and qualifications, and the compensation and evaluation issues for the position.

1 INTRODUCTION Current trends in information technology (IT) are yielding a wide range of new computer-based tools to support the architecture, engineering, construction and facilities management (AEC/FM) industries—everything from project collaboration Web sites to virtual building environments. These tools promise great increases in the effectiveness and efficiency of designing and managing construction projects. However, no one claims that these improvements will come without cost in terms of new skills and work tasks that will be required of many of the project participants. These new requirements are often required of senior project designers and managers. Yet the reality of the AEC/FM industry is that these people will rarely be in the position to take on these new requirements. They can typically be characterized as busy, highly effective people, and in the spirit of “putting first things first” (Covey 1990), taking the time to learn and implement new IT will rarely be at the top of their priority list, regardless of the expected benefits. Moreover, trends towards the integration of information resources create new requirements for project-wide information coordination, which must be administered by someone. To address these practical barriers to IT innovation, we suggest that a new role is required for AEC/FM projects—that of a Project Information Officer. This paper explores the anticipated roles and requirements of the Project Information Officer in the form of a hypothetical job description for such a person.

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2 HELP WANTED: PROJECT INFORMATION OFFICER A position is available for a Project Information Offlcer (PIO) for a large AEC/FM project. The PIO will be responsible for the overall information management on the project, information technology strategy and implementation, information integration and coordination for the project, and related training activities for project participants. 3 DUTIES OF THE PROJECT INFORMATION OFFICER The duties required of the PIO are organized into three main categories: implementing an information management plan, project systems and areas of expertise, and assisting in the implementation of a unified approach to project management. Each of these is discussed in the following sections. 3.1 Implementing an information management plan for the project The PIO will be responsible for implementing an overall information management plan for the project. The information management plan will address three primary elements: project tasks, information transactions, and overall integration issues. For each of these elements, the plan will analyze information requirements, design information management solutions, and produce specific information management deliverables. Each of these tasks is described more fully below. The level of detail required for the breakdown of project tasks and transactions described below will be as needed to achieve an effective overall project information management system. In general, this will be at a level where distinct work packages interact with each other, not the level at which work is carried out within the work packages themselves (for example, it will address the type and form of design information that must be sent to the general contractor, but not the way that individual designers must carry out their design tasks). 3.1.1 Elements of an information management framework The information management plan is based upon an overall information management framework that adopts an underlying process model for AEC/FM projects. This model views projects in terms of the following elements (illustrated in Figure 1): • A collection of tasks carried out by project participants (all tasks required to design and construct the facility, including tasks relating to archiving project information, providing information to facility users/operators, etc.). • A collection of transactions that communicate information between tasks. • A collection of integration issues—issues relating to the interactions between the tasks and transactions as a whole rather than as a set of individual elements. This also includes issues relating to information integration across organizational boundaries,

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integration of legacy and existing technology with plans for new and ftiture technology, and so on. The model considers these elements across all project participants. The information management tasks described below are carried out for each of these project elements. 3.1.2 Analysis of information management elements As the first step in developing the information management plan, the PIO will analyze each element (tasks, transactions, and integration issues) to assess the overall information requirements, as follows: • Define each task, transaction, or integration issue, including identifying participants, project phase, etc. This should correspond largely to an overall project plan, and thus it may not need to be done as a distinct activity. • Assess the signiflcant information requirements for each element: Determine, in general terms, the type of information required for carrying out the tasks, the information communicated in the transactions, or the requirements for integration issues. With traditional information technologies, information requirements generally correspond to specific paper or electronic documents. With newer information technologies, however, information requirements can involve access to specific data sources (such as shared databases) that do not correspond to traditional documents. • Assess tool requirements: Determine key software applications used in carrying out tasks, communication technologies used for transactions, or standards used to support integration.

Figure 1. Elements of an information management framework that considers projects in terms of tasks, transactions, and overall integration issues. From an information perspective, tasks are

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associated with computer applications and transactions are associated with documents. • Assess the information outputs: Determine the significant information produced by each task. This typically corresponds to information required as inputs to other tasks. 3.1.3 Design of information management elements Given the analysis of the project information requirements (as established in the previous section) the PIO will design the information management strategies and solutions for the project and formalize the requirements that the overall plan will place on each of the project elements, as follows: • Formalize information input and output requirements: the requirements analyzed previously will be formalize as the information required as inputs for each task, and the information that each task must commit to producing. • Requirements for tools, technologies, standards, etc.: establish the basic requirements, constraints, and recommendations for the software tools used to support individual tasks, communication technologies used for transactions, and data standards adopted to support integration, etc. • Staffing requirements: define roles and responsibilities relating to information management. • Work practices and procedures: establish requirements and constraints on how various work tasks are carried out in order to assure information management requirements can be met. In deciding from among alternative solutions for the above strategies, an overall costbenefit analysis approach will be followed. This may not be a straightforward process, however, since the costs involved in improving information management elements may be incurred by parties that are different from those that receive the resulting benefits. 3.1.4 Deliverables of the project information officer The PIO will be responsible for the following specific outputs: • Information management plan documents: The requirements for information management strategies and solutions as described in the previous section will be formalized into a documented information management plan for the project. This will include the minimum requirements that individual tasks and participants must meet, and additional optional recommendations. • Implementation of the information management plan: The PIO will be responsible for all aspects of implementing the information management plan. This includes coordination among all key project participants (for example, holding regular information management coordination meetings), carrying out administrative duties for the plan, monitoring conformance and results, and so on.

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• Training: The PIO will organize the training necessary for project participants to carry out the information management plan. This will be especially necessary in the case of new information technology. • Provide project information technology resources: The PIO will be responsible for acquiring and supporting any information technology resources (computing hardware and software) that are best provided for the project as a whole, as opposed to individual participants (for example, this may include a project collaboration web site, but not specific CAD software). •Provide information management and technology support for project participants: The PIO will act as a resource available to all key project participants on issues relating to information management and technology. 3.2 Project systems and areas of expertise It is anticipated that the specific types of information systems used during project will be as described in the following list. The PIO is required to have a basic expertise in all of these areas, and to include each of these with in the information management plan. • Project document management and collaboration web site: a web site will be established for the project that will act as the central document management and collaboration vehicle for the project. This will include user accounts for all project participants, access control for project information, online forms and workflows, messaging, contact list, etc. A commercial service will be used to create and host the site. • Classification systems, project break downs structures and codes, and folder structures: much of the project information will be organized according to various forms of classification systems. These range from the use of industry-standard numbering schemes for specification documents, to the use of a project work breakdowns structure, to the creation of a hierarchical folder structure for documents placed on the project web site. The PIO must have familiarity with relevant industry classification systems such as OCCS (OCCS Development Committee 2004), and will be responsible for establishing the project classification systems. • Model-based interoperability: many of the systems described below work with modelbased project data, and have the potential to exchange this data with other types of systems. The project will adopt a model-based interoperability approach for data exchange for the lifecycle of the project. The PIO must be familiar with the relevant data exchange standards, in particular the IFCs (International Alliance for Interoperability 2004), and must establish specific requirements and policies for project data interoperability. The PIO must also establish a central repository for the project modelbased data (a model server). • Requirements management system: a requirements management tool will be used to capture significant project requirements through all phases of the project and to assure that these requirements are satisfied during the design in execution of the work. • Model-based architectural design: The architectural design for the building will be carried out using model based design tools (e.g., object-based CAD). Although this improves the effectiveness of the architectural design process, the primary

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motivation here is the use of the resulting building information model as input to many of the downstream activities and systems. • Visualization: using the building information model, which includes full 3-D geometry, there will be extensive use of visualization to capture requirements and identify issues with the users, designers, and builders. This may include high-end virtual reality environments (e.g., immersive 3-D visualization), on-site visualization facilities, etc. • Model-based engineering analysis and design: the building information model will be used as preliminary input for a number of specialized engineering analysis and design tools for structural, building systems, sustainability, etc. • Project costs and value engineering: the building information model will be used as input to cost estimating and value engineering systems. These will be used at numerous points through the lifecycle of the project (with varying degrees of accuracy). • Construction planning and control’. the project will make use of systems for effective schedule planning and control, short interval planning and production engineering, operation simulation, esource planning, etc. Again, the systems will make use of the building information model and will link into other project information for purposes such as 4-D simulation. • E-procurement: project participants will make use of on-line electronic systems to support all aspects of procurement, including E-bidding/tendering, project plans are rooms, etc. • E-transactions: on-line systems will be available for most common project transactions, such as requests for information, progress payments claims, etc. These will be available through the project web site. • E-legal strategy: project policies and agreements will be in place to address legal issues relating to the electronic project transactions. • Handoff of project information to facilities management and project archives: systems and procedures will be in place to ensure that complete and efficient package of project information is handed off from design and construction to ongoing facilities operation and management, as well as maintained as archives of the project 3.3 Assist in the implementation of a unifled approach to project management It has been argued that there is a fundamental mismatch between emerging IT solutions for AEC/FM and current project management practices (Froese and Staub-French 2003). The IT solutions rely on a high degree of integration and collaboration, whereas current practice makes heavy use of decomposition and modularization to minimize interdependencies between project tasks and participants. IT developers must strive to accommodate current practice, yet project management practice may also need to adapt in order to take full advantage of the capabilities offered by emerging IT solutions. The proposed project will adopt these modifications and use a unified approach to project management. In this unified approach, the work is still carried out by defining distinct work packages and assigning these to individual project participant groups.

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However, there is much more emphasis on a continuously evolving project deliverable, where this deliverable is initially the building information model, which expands with new information over time until, during the construction phase, the building information model is used to drive the production of the physical building itself. The focus of the individual work tasks, then, is to draw necessary information from the building information model and add new content back into the building information model or new components into the physical building. Information technology plays a critical component of this new unified approach to project management, since it relies on the ability for project participants to collaborate on the building information model. More specifically, the approach uses the following standard views as the primary conceptual structures that are shared and are common to all prqject participants (these are illustrated in Figure 2): • The project lifecycle view: a time-based view that organizes project information into well-defined project phases. • The workflow view: a process-based view that organizes project information into work packages and tasks. • The product/deliverable view: views project information in terms of the specific information or physical components of the overall project.

Figure 2. Schematic illustration of three primary views of project information and their interrelationships in a unified approach to project management. The PIO will work with project managers to help design and implement a unified approach to project management that can fully leverage the opportunities offered by the project IT.

4 ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE

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The PIO may be an employee of the project owner, lead designer, or lead contractor organizations, or may work as an independent consultant/contractor. Regardless of employer, the PIO will be considered to be a resource to the project as a whole, not to an individual project participant organization. The PIO will be a senior management-level position within the project organization (i.e., not a junior technology support position). The PIO will report to the owner’s project representative and will work with an information management committee consisting of project managers and information specialists from key project participants. Depending upon the size of the project, the PIO will have an independent staff. In addition to the information management committee, liaison positions will be assigned within each project participant organization. 5 SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS Candidates for the position of PIO will be required to have a thorough understanding of the AEC/FM industry, information management and organizational issues, data interoperability issues, and best practices for software tools and procedures for all of the major project systems described previously. Candidates with be expected to possess a master’s degree relating to construction IT and experience with information management on at least one similar project. 6 COMPENSATION AND EVALUATION Advanced construction IT offers great promise for improving the project effectiveness and efficiency while reducing risk. Not all of these benefits directly reduce costs, yet the overall assumption is that the costs of the PIO position will be fiilly realized through project cost savings. This will not be a direct measure, but will be assessed on an overall qualitative basis through an information management review processes that examines the following questions of the information management and technology for the project: • To what degree was waste (any non-value-adding activity) reduced? • What new functionality was available? • How efficient and problem-free was the informa tion management and technology relative to projects with similar levels of IT in the past? • What was the level of service and management effectiveness offered by the PIO? • What is the potential for future improvements gained by the information management practices on this project (i.e., recognizing the long learning curve that may be associated with new IT)?

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7 CONCLUSIONS The description of a PIO role and an overall project information management context described in this paper is preliminary, incomplete, and overly idealistic. Many of the tasks and technologies described here are currently in place on construction projects. However, the position of a project information officer and information management procedures of the nature described here could go a long way towards easing some of the significant practical barriers that stand between emerging IT solutions and real improvements to construction projects. Next steps would include collecting best practices for information management on construction projects, further development and refinement of an information management process, and greater inclusion of overall information management practices as part of IT research and development projects. REFERENCES Covey, S. (1990) The 7 habits of Highly Effective People, Fireside: New York. Froese, T. and Staub-French, S. (2003). “A Unified Approach to Project Management,” 4th Joint Symposium on Information Technology in Civil Engineering, ASCE, Nashville, USA, Nov. 2003. International Alliance for Interoperability (2004), IAI International Home Page, URL: http://www.iai-international.org/iai_international/ (accessed June 3, 2004). OCCS Development Committee, (2004). “OCCS Net, The Omniclass Construction Classification System”, web page at: http://www.occsnet.org/ [accessed June 24, 2004].

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

The next generation of eBusiness and eWork—what is needed for the systemic innovation? An executive summary of the EU supporting research and innovation B.Salmelin Head of Unit DG Information Society, New Working Environments ABSTRACT: The presentation is building on three main pillars: Firstly the policy context of the EU is described, in the context of industrial competition and the new innovation processes. Secondly the presentation is looking in detail to the drivers the knowledge, networked economy is bringing to the sustainable economical growth and thirdly describing the IST research programme, and also the new thinking of the EU regarding new research policy instruments favouring the full deployment of the European research capacity. The EU has set it policy goals towards 2010 in the well-known Lisbon Agenda. It is an important document form several perspectives: It sets the ambition of Europe towards sustainable growth, competitiveness and high-quality jobs. The timeline was set to incorporate the enlargement process which is halfway done now, increasing the social cohesion policy implications. However the real issue is how to receive the Lisbon goals. In the speech it is shown that the need for breaking from the past paradigms is evident, and this view is backed up by some recent studies on the productivity growth due to new paradigms. The growth reported by using modern ICT technologies in an innovative, systemic way is reported to be several tens of percent, in average. This brings challenges to organisational behaviour and their fiiture developments. Virtual organisations have been talked about for tens of years, but are there really those, in the meaning of organisations being at the same time capturing the advantage of being small, thus flexible and at the same time large, thus effective? Not so many. Perhaps the construction sector itself is leading the way towards the new organisation formats. We can not either forget the role of entirely new forms of organising the work, like in and by professional communities rather than fixed organisations. The networking and connectivity together with advanced collaboration tools lead to entirely new possibilities to build virtual (e.g. design) tams across traditional boundaries, and even continents. The 24 hours continuous work paradigm is very close, and promising. What is required though on policy and legislation levels? Do we need to reconsider the IPR issues when approaching these new paradigms not to inhibit innovation?

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Some key projects running in the field of new working paradigms are described to illustrate the possibilities the technology is providing already today, not to talk about tomorrow. The third part of the speech continues precise information of the experiences the EU has from past projects in the field, the achievements and also the experiences of the first and second call of the IST programme where themes like networked business and mobile work were present. The third call which is closing these days is elaborated in the perspective of the longterm goals of the EU in constructing new undertakings and instruments to capture better the whole innovation process, which has moved from sequential to strongly parallel, more dynamic and multidisciplinary than ever before. Here a new approach to the building of the research and innovation agenda is described. The unit New Working Environments of DG Information Society has started a set of research communities, interacting in a multidisciplinary way. The communities consist of industrial and research actors, policy makers and those who are needed to cover the whole innovation process. This set of communities, called ami@work (Ambient Intelligence at work) are now in the start-up phase, but already encompassing more than 600 people being actively involved. The site can be found under www.amiatwork.com, which is inviting you all to participate in those communities closest to you. As example of supporting the innovation process on national base is also described, to illustrate the needed interactions for full efficiency. Industrial and research community participation is encouraged to make the interactions and thus the whole innovation process more effective. The fourth IST call, which is to be published at the yearly IST 2004 conference, this year in the Hague, The Netherlands is discussed as the whole IST research work programme 2005–2006, which is investing in IST research some 1,8 Billion EURO in the forthcoming two years. New themes are approaching, and the background thinking leading to this is described. Last but not least the path towards the 7th EU research Framework programme is described. The proposal from the Commission is to double the research investment to match with the goals of 3% of research of the GDP following the Lisbon agenda goals. New instruments like technology platforms are debated, as well as the balance between the long-term (individual) research versus the current collaborative research schemes. The state of the play and the rationale of the choices will be discussed. Also the next steps opening participation possibilities for the industry and research sectors are described to encourage the common way to meet the sustainable growth goals.

Product modelling technology

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Virtual building maintenance: enhancing building maintenance using 3D-GIS and 3D laser scanner (VR) technology V.Ahmed, Y.Arayici, A.Hamilton & G.Aouad School of Construction and Property Management, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom ABSTRACT: The renovation and refurbishment market is rapidly expanding within the construction industry, bringing the role of the Facilities Management (FM) department to the forefront. Operating and maintaining a facility however, takes the biggest proportion of the lifecycle cost of a building, which can be costly and time consuming. The wide spread and use of advanced technologies within the construction industry can be used to drive the productivity gains by promoting a freeflow of information between departments, divisions, offices, and sites; and between themselves, their contractors and partners. The paper describes a scope in the INTELCITIES project undertaken by 75 partners including 18 cities (Manchester, Rome, Barcelona, etc), 20ICT companies (Nokia, IBM, CISCO, Microsoft, etc) and 38 research institutes (University of Salford from UK, CSTB from France, UPC from Spain, etc) across Europe to pool advanced knowledge and experience of electronic government, planning systems, and citizen participation across Europe. The scope includes capturing digital data of existing buildings using 3D laser scanning equipment and showing how this data can be used as an information base for enhancing the refurbishment process and maintenance. Furthermore, the paper discusses the state of the art for operating and maintaining facilities, describing the prevailing methods of building maintenance, highlighting their limitations with proposed alternatives, such as 3D Geographic Information Systems “3D GIS” to enable the spatial analysis and static visualisation of critical of query outputs and 3D laser scanning technology for obtaining the digital information of existing buildings for construction maintenance.

1 INTRODUCTION The new-construction market has been shrinking, while the renovation and refurbishment market is rapidly expanding in the construction industry (Mahdjoubi and Ahmed, 2004). Operating and maintaining a facility takes the biggest proportion of the lifecycle cost of a building. The growing emphasison lifecycle considerations through new forms of project

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relationships, together with the increasing refurbishment, retrofit and renovation of existing buildings (instead of new build) is bringing the role of the Facilities Management (FM) department to the forefront. Furthermore, previous research had shown that there would be no substantial change in aggregate demand for housing over the next decade (Simmonds and Clark, 1999). Therefore, organisations need to be able to quantify costs and communicate management information about their facility and infrastructure (Wix, 2003). To do this, they are turning to new information technologies to drive productivity gains. The most successfiil companies promote a free-flow of information between stakeholders. Typically, construction facilities require maintenance and occasional repairs on a regular basis, due to deterioration and aging. This is to keep them functional and in a satisfactory appearance. In fact, many organisations own a large variety of buildings and other types of constructed facilities, which need regular maintenance, occasional renovation and rehabilitation, and sometimes reconstruction of new facilities. Often, these organisations face a crucial dilemma, regarding the urgency and prioritisation of works and associated costs (Rosenfeld and Shohet, 1996). However, not many companies have utilised information technology to increase the efficiency of the refurbishment process for building maintenance. The above issues are addressed in the INTELCITIES project, which has a focus on the prevailing methods of building maintenance, highlighting their benefits and limitations. The paper also describes a proposed approach for the use 3D Geographic Information Systems ‘GIS’ and 3D laser scanning system, to enable the analysis and static visualisation of critical query outputs for building maintenance. 2 THE INTELCITIES PROJECT The INTELCITIES (Intelligent Cities) Project is a research and development project that aims at helping achieve the EU policy goal of the knowledge society. INTELCITIES project brings together the combined experience and expertise of key players from across Europe, focusing on e-Government, e-Planning and e-Inclusion, e-Land Use Information Management, e-Regeneration, Integration and Interoperability, Virtual Urban Planning, etc, (http://www.intelcitiesproject.com/). The overall aim is to advance the possibilities of e-Governance of cities to a new level through the development of a prototype of the IOSCP (Integrated Open System City Platform), as a clear and easily accessible illustration of a shared civic place in virtual space continuously available to all—whether officials, decision-makers and other professionals, such as planners, developers, politicians, designers, engineers, transport and utility service providers, as well as individual citizens, community groups/networks and businesses, through a wide range of interfaces. This paper focuses on the e-Regeneration work package of the project. The objectives of the package are to: 1. Produce a city vision for the post industrial city in the knowledge society and set of targets for systems to enhance regeneration. 2. Produce a system to support improved decision making about strategic planning of cities.

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3. Produce a system to support development planning processes and that engage citizens in planning regeneration. 4. Show how these systems could be integrated with other city systems. 5. Report on how a holistic approach to all elements of building, refurbishment and urban planning and design can lead to successful, sustainable cities. The objective 5 specifically is addressed in the paper. The task, which is defined to achieve the objective 5, is the building data capture using the laser scanner technology and investigate this technology to enhance the refiirbishment process and maintenance. Figure 1 illustrates the vision, which is beyond the INTELCITIES project, for the use of 3D laser scanner for maintenance and refurbishment process. In the INTELCITIES project, the laser scanner technology is aimed at showing how it can be used for building refurbishment and maintenance. In figure 1, the first step centres on the creating VR models subject to the requirements of use and usage of the VR models such as building redesign and renovation, building survey and evaluation, reverse engineering, fabrication and construction inspection, health and safety, and urban planning and analysis. In the second step, integration is the main concern. Therefore, integration of the laser scanning system will be endeavoured with the GPS systems for linking the OS (Ordanance Survey) data or for linking the local authority data, with the GIS system for accomplishing the full integration of VR and GIS and with the Workbench for interactively analysing the VR models produced through laser scanning system.

Figure 1. Show how laser scanner technology can be used for maintenance and refurbishment process in the INTELCITIES project. In the third step, it is aimed at building data integration that is related to developing a conceptual model of nD modelling (Lee et al, 2003) system and associating it with the other data structures including relational databases and object-oriented databases to illustrate how data can be integrated to support intelligent city and construction systems.

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The rest of the paper considers DSS (Decision Support System) and delves into the integration of the 3D laser scanning technology with GIS system for building maintenance. In the next section, the existing methods of building maintenance and their limitations are explained in order to justify the integration of the 3D-GIS and the 3D laser scanner systems. 3 PREVAILING METHODS OF BUILDING MAINTENANCE AND THEIR LIMITATIONS Planning and control of building maintenance works are commonly performed using traditional media, such as paper-based plans and sketches. Other techniques have also emerged as decision support systems (DSS) and integrated environments. In recent years, major efforts were devoted to the development of decision support systems (DSS) to address building maintenance issues. Several of these systems have been developed to assist managers and decision-makers in planning building maintenance activities. Each DSS has its own functionality and designed for its unique purpose. These tools range from renovation design to initiation of renovation projects. Rosenfeld and Shohet (1996) have developed a unique DSS, which is capable of suggesting various building/facility-upgrading alternatives. This system was demonstrated on a 25-year-old dining facility in a military base that had suffered serious structural damage due to foundation problems. This system has proved valuable for the maintenance work. It provided managers with alternatives depending on the input criteria, including full descriptions of building evaluation and end-results. However, it only provides information on the general condition of the facility, including costs and subsequently life span of facility depending on how much money is available or what alternative is chosen. Underwood and Alshawi (2000) developed an integrated construction environment for the UK construction industry—the Simultaneous Prototyping for an Integrated Construction Environment (SPACE). MAINTenance ForeCASTing in an Integrated Construction Environment (MAINCAST) (Underwood and Alshawi, 2000) is an amplification of SPACE, which forecasts building element maintenance of a project as part of a fully integrated environment MAINCAST and was developed to assist the facility manager/owner (Client) in facility/project management by automatically generating detailed maintenance valuations, outlining the required maintenance during every operational year of the projects life, etc. However, these media suffer from several limitations. Firstly, it is difficult to identify the refiirbishment and renovation tasks. Secondly, it is also difficult to monitor the various tasks, because of the complexity of the operation tasks. The Rosenfeld and Shohet system DSS for instance is not capable of enabling managers and decision-makers to view the facility and see the damaged elements or locate them. Overall, the main limitation of these DSS systems is related to their output. They usually provide the results in a text format or tables and, in some cases, bar charts. This form of output is often not appropriate for decision-makers to visualise the results of their queries, especially when lay-clients are involved in the communication process. These tools have yet to adopt spatial analysis techniques such as GIS technology in their operation. A GIS enables the

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spatial analysis and static visualisation of critical of query outputs (Enache, 1994) was critical of the failure of current DSS systerns to make use of advances in GIS technology. In addition, it does not allow them to visualise the final changes, before starting the maintenance work. Clearly, there is a need to improve the management of information and tasks about building maintenance. 4 3D-GIS AND LASER SCANNING TECHNOLOGY AS VR— EMERGING TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are collections of computing techniques and databases that support the gathering, analysis and display of large volumes of spatially referenced data (USEPA, 2002). On the other hand, the innovation consists of a laser scanner controlled by a laptop computer. The scanner is targeted to the physical objects to be scanned and the laser beam is directed over the object in a closely spaced grid of points. By measuring the time of laser flight, which is the time of travel of the laser from the scanner to the physical objects and back to the scanner, the scanner determines the position in three-dimensional space of each scanned point on the object. The result is a cloud of points thousands of points in three-dimensional space that are a dimensionally accurate representation of the existing object (Schofield, 2001). This information can then be converted in a 3D CAD model that can be manipulated using CAD software, and to which the design of new equipment can be added. 3D Laser Scanner is currently used for a variety of sectors range from industrial applications for process automation in automotive industry, steel industry, robotics, etc, to mining, archaeology, survey, urban planning and railway, tunnel and bridge construction (Arayici et al, 2003). In recent years, however, the emerging GIS systems have presented organisations and management sectors with significant advances in making informed decisions. Ehler, Cowen, and Mackey (1995) argued that linking GIS with DSS systems has enabled the user to make well-informed decisions, based on the problem at hand. Also, Modis (2001) reported that tools, which are based on GIS technology, have ofFered managers and decision-makers substantial benefits, including usability, accuracy, and efficiency. Consequently, organisations around the world are reaping considerable benefits by capitalising on spatial technology solutions. GIS applications in (DSS) provide an enhanced means of resolving complex geo-analytical problems. Furthermore, systems based on 3D GIS technology are starting to supersede the early GIS systems (Jordan, 2000), (Song et al, 2002, 2003). Although still in its infancy, this emerging technology could clearly support the planning process of building maintenance projects. 3D modelling capability of GIS could also enable managers to foresee changes and modifications in an improved manner. However, despite the evident advantages of 3D technology to this type of planning and construction work, its fiill benefits could not be realised without an improved visualisation of the output. Indeed, the results of 3D GIS systems are usually displayed as a static cardboard model, which does not allow users to explore and rapidly visualise the results of their queries.

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Combining 3D GIS with advances in the Laser Scanner VR technology could provide decisionmakers more robust tools to visualise in real-time the 3D GIS environment. Verbree et al. (1999) argued that VR technology offers new and exciting opportunities to visualise 3D GIS data that, in turn, improve DSS usability and enable users to walk through 3D environments. It allows them to see building elements and appreciated proposed changes in a real time environment. Sidjanin (1998) demonstrated that linking GIS and VR oifered great capabilities for decision-making, as it could produce real-time and realistic visualisation of spatial data. In addition, VR interface could improve understanding of GIS spatial analyses and handling of queries on the data, as well as navigating through the dynamic map model and for using GIS functions. Similarly, the ability to rapidly sketch and visualise design ideas has been stressed as an important task in urban design (Smith, 1998). Hence the VENUE Project was conceived as a means of experimenting with links between GIS and 3D visualisation tools (ibid). The project demonstrated that a set of urban features can be visualised as building block outlines in 2D ArchView (based on Ordnance Survey base data). Removing building sub-divisions and line vertex generalisation enabled the production of 3D VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) model by assigning a height attribute in ArchView. This approach is on a macro scale in relation to buildings but can be extended to a more detailed micro scale application suitable for building maintenance (Camara and Raper, 1999). In line with the foregoing, it can be established that there are several approaches that have successfiilly linked 3D-GIS with the Laser Scanner VR technology as a means of enhancing decision support. These successful developments further exposes the possibility of employing this combination to enhance current building maintenance DSS. The following section describes a proposed methodology, which is partly inspired by the work of (Mahdjoubi and Ahmed, 2004). 5 METHODOLOGY The aim of this section is to propose a framework which includes a series of analytical tools that will enable various stakeholders in the building maintenance sector to make informed decisions relating to building maintenance works. This framework, which is depicted in Figure 2, includes: 1) The development and population of a geo-spatial project database with the digital data of existing building captured with the laser scanning equipment. 2) The analysis of complex building information maintenance options within a knowledge repository environment, digital building data captured by the laser scanner is retrieved with 3D GIS system for the analysis. 3) The visualisation of the project information through a range of different interconnected graphic windows. The laser scanner VR model can be visualised in different platforms including workbench. The geo-spatial project database will describe the geometries of both the building frame and its components. Simple open geometric descriptions will be used, but each entry will

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also be associated with data on inventory information such as name, supplier, date installed/replaced, number of previous replacements, etc. The procedure for the development will be based on establishing a robust objectoriented database management system (OOMS). The system will enable the capture of all geo-spatial information of the building frame and components using laser scanner. Inventory information relating to each frame and component will also be captured within the relational

Figure 2. The Virtual Building Maintenance System Framework. structure of the database. Such information will be accessible in real-time with some of the attributes (e.g. component supplier information) hyperlinked to the World Wide Web. Sequel to the development of the OODM, information captured will be linked to a knowledge repository developed purely for rule base and/or case-based interpretation of possible building maintenance schedules. This component of the VBM system will facilitate the generation of alternatives based on user-specified queries. GIS software will be used to generate and analyse thematic developments relating to the building properties and associated maintenance management strategies. ArcGIS 3D analyst, for example, enables users to effectively visualise and analyse surface data. Using the 3D spatial analysis capabilities of the tool, a range of possible scenarios of a building can be evaluated. Surfaces can be viewed from multiple viewpoints, queried, interrogated for visibility and viewed for the creation of a realistic perspective image. Furthermore, the evaluation can also be extended to display static images of building components that require immediate or 'near-future' maintenance based on the realtime information captured within the OODM and the knowledge repository. However, a final selection of the most appropriate software will be based on the most suitable representation (i.e. raster or vector) of the captured data. The VR environment will be developed using the laser scanner technology which also provides data models in different formats including the Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML). This approach is complimentary to previous work done on the information infrastructure developed through the OSCON, VIRCON and HyCon projects and the ongoing research for nD modelling project (Lee et al, 2003). Therefore, the results of the spatial analysis obtained within the 3D GIS environment can be evaluated

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in real-time with the options of viewing building maintenance alternatives developed from querying the knowledge repository. 6 BENEFICIARIES The research is of potential benefits and practical applications to the construction industry and professions. It will provide a better support for evaluation and visualisation of building maintenance works so that informed policies can be effectively targeted. It will benefit construction companies, facility and estate managers, and all those concerned with building maintenance issues. The ultimate beneficiaries of this work will be professionals and stakeholders of the construction industry involved with the: • building maintenance, • improved predictability of building maintenance requirements, • reduced maintenance planning and execution time, • increased safety, • Increased productivity.

7 SUMMARY This paper provides an overview of the e-Regeneration package of the INTELCITIES project, which aims at helping achieve the EU policy goal of the knowledge society. INTELCITIES project aims to bring together the combined experience and expertise of key players from across Europe, focusing on a number of built and human environment issues including e-Government, e-Planning and e-Inclusion, e-Land Use Information Management, e-Regeneration, Integration and Inter-operability, Virtual Urban Planning, etc, (http://www.intelcitiesproject.com/). This project recognises the need for integrating visualisation techniques and systems for building maintenance and refurbishment. In particular, the vision for the use of laser scanner equipment for building refurbishment and maintenance is addressed (see figure 1) and a framework for integrating such 3D GIS and Laser scanner systems is developed to assist the flow of information. Lastly, the beneficiaries of such integration are summarised. For the time being, the integration of 3D GIS and Laser scanner technology is being conceptually modelled. Once this is completed, it will be implemented. REFERENCES Arayici, Y., Hamilton, A., Hunter, G. (2003) “Reverse Engineering in Construction”, the conference of World of Geomatics 2003: Measuring, Mapping, and Managing, Telford, UK Camara, A.S., Raper, J. (1999) spatial multimedia and virtual reality. London, Taylor & Francis. Decision-Support Model. Application of the performance concept in building—International

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Ehler, G., Cowen, D., Mackey, H. (1995) Design and Implementation of Spatial Decision Support System for Site Selection. ESRI, International User Conference, 1995, May 22–26, 1995, Palm Springs, (California), ESRI Enache, M. (1994) Integrating GIS with DSS: A Research Agenda. URISA Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 1994 Jordan, L. (2000) Web Accessible 3D Viewing Next Step for GIS Virtualising the 3D Real World multi-view interface for 3D GIS. Computer & Graphics, 23, pp. 497–506. Lee, A., Marshall-Ponting, A.J., Aouad, G., Wu, S., Koh, W.W.I., Fu, C., Cooper, R., Betts, M., Kagioglou, M. Fisher, M. (2003) Developing a vision of nD-enabled construction, Construct IT, University of Salford, UK Mahdjoubi, L., Ahmed, V. (2004) “Virtual Building Maintenance: Enhancing Building Maintenance using 3D GIS and Virtual Reality (VR) Technology”, Conference of Designing, Managing, and Supporting Construction Projects through Innovation and IT solutions (INCITE2004), February 2004, Langkawi, Malaysia Modis (2001) IT Resource Management. (accessed on 28 November) Rosenfeld, Y. Shohet, I.M. (1996) Initiation of Renovation Projects: Techno-Economic Sidjanin, P. (1998) Visualisation of GIS Data in VR Related to Cognitive Mapping of Environment. IEEE Computer Society: conference on Information Visualisation, 1998, July, London: IEEE Computer Schofield, W. (2001) Engineering Surveying 5th Edition: Theory and Examination Problems for Students, ISBN 07506 4987 9 Simmonds, P., Clark, J. (1999) UK Construction 2010-future trends and issues—briefing paper Smith, A. (1998) The Venue Project: Adding 3D Visualisation Capabilities to GIS. Society, pp. 339–349. Song, Y., Hamilton, A., Trodd, N.M., (2002) technical Design Issues of Linking Geospatial technology for 3D Visualisation, Interaction and Analysis, in the Proceedings of the Conference on GIS Research in the UK, pp. 256–262. Song, Y., Hamilton, A., Trodd, N. (2003) Developing an Internet based Geographic Visual Information System, In the proceedings of the GIS Research in the UK 2003 Conference, 9th– 11th April 2003, City University, London. Underwood, J. Alshawi, M. (2000) Forecasting Building Element Maintenance within an Integrated Construction Environment. Automation in construction 9 (2000) pp. 169–184 Usepa (2002) GIS-Visualization (VIS) Integration Efforts. United States Environmental Protection Verbree, E., Van Maren, G., Germs, R., Jansen, F. Karaak, M. (1999) interaction in virtual world views-linking 3D GIS with VR. Geographical Information Science, 13(4), pp. 385–396 Wix, J. (2003) Domain/Facilities Management within the International Alliance of Interoperability, UK

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Supporting standard data model mappings R.W.Amor Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand ABSTRACT: Very little work has been done on specifying a standard mapping between the overlapping semantic specifications in the standardized data models used in architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C, e.g., IAI-IFC and ISO-STEP standards). However, several companies have developed bespoke mappings from these standards into their design tools, and back out again. With this approach it is difficult to understand how complete their mappings are, and what assumptions are made in the development Of the mappings. Yet for semantic mappings, as distinct from mappings over geometric representations, this has a profound implication for the correctness of the resultant data. In this paper the development of a suite of mapping support tools is discussed to illustrate the level of support required to ensure semantically correct mappings across data models.

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Problem statement The specification of a semantically correct mapping between any two standard data models used in the A/E/C industries is an enormous task. Data models have in the order of 500 entities and many thousands of relationships and attributes (e.g., IFC 2.x, IAI 2004). The mere task of sitting down and describing which entities are related to each other is daunting, let alone managing to encompass the full semantic coverage of the contents of each of these entities. Yet without some definition of a mapping to be implemented it is basically impossible to guarantee the correctness of any implemented translator for a standard data model. It is clear that human experts are needed to perform this task, knowledgeable in both schemas being mapped between. Yet even for such experts the management problem of describing a mapping over such large schema forces a requirement for some computerized support. This support comes in the form of notations and environments to specify what is equivalent between two schema in a form that can then be used to generate the code to actually perform the mapping. In the last decade there was an active research community developing approaches to mapping languages in engineering domains (Khedro et al 1996; Verhoef et al 1995; Eastman 1999: Chapter 11). Several of those efforts have been pursued in the development of the ISO mapping standard EXPRESS-X (Hardwick and Denno 2000), and in the development of mapping tables (ISO 1993). These mapping approaches are now being utilised on a wide range of standard data models available from ISO 10303 STEP, ISO 13584 Parts libraries and catalogs, CIS/2

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(Crowley and Watson, 2000) and lAI’s IFCs (IAI 2002). However, every mapping between two of these standard data models will be duplicating the work of previous attempts. If it were possible to specify a mapping in an easily comprehensible manner, and there were tools that industry experts could use to agree on the correctness of the defined mapping, then a consensus on major mappings between schema could be developed and published in much the same way that standard schema are published today. This paper examines what tools would be required to reach this position. 2 A FRAMEWORK OF TOOLS To manage the task of developing a mapping between two data models there is a requirement for a range of support functions for the specifier. These include: • A graphical mapping notation to enable the specifier to visually comprehend the mapping being described between subsets of the data models. • A mapping specification environment to enable navigation through, and partitioning of, the space of mappings specified. Such a tool can also determine what has, or has not, been mapped between. • Automated mapping support to enable a significant proportion of the mappings required between two schemas to be automatically determined.

Figure 1. VML-G: a graphical mapping formalism. • A mapping interpreter to allow evolving mappings to be tested on partial sets of data. • A verifier to check the correctness of the developing mapping specification. Such a verifier would offer support from basic syntactic checking across the data models through to a more comprehensive semantic analysis of the proposed mapping. The development of such a support environment is described in the following sections. With this environment in place it is then possible to move on to providing standard mappings between the major standard schemas which exist in our domain.

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3 MAPPING NOTATIONS In order to describe the equivalences which exist between data structures in two different schema it is necessary to have a notation for the specification. A range of notations have been developed and utilised ranging from straight specification within a standard programming language (such as C or Java), through ISO mapping tables (ISO 1993), and the evolving ISO mapping language EXPRESS-X (Hardwick and Denno 2000). In many respects these approaches are analogous to the use of the EXPRESS language to specify the conceptual data structures for a schema for a particular domain. These approaches provide for a complete and detailed specification of how the mapping between portions of the schemas will have to be realised. However, they do not provide a way to gain an overview of the mappings which have been developed between two schema or the completeness of any particular mapping. Where schema have several hundred classes in them this is of major concern to the specifier. In the same way that EXPRESS-G is used as a high-level notation for describing the basic structures within a schema, and to view various subsets of a schema, a graphical mapping formalism will allow a high-level overview of the mapping between schemas to be presented. A range of graphical formalisms have been developed at the University of Auckland to represent mappings to different classes of users. Figure 1 shows a programmer level formalism for specifying mappings between UML styled class diagrams in two schema. The VML-G language (Amor 1997) shown in Figure 1 uses a wiring approach to denote a mapping between attributes, or classes, in a schema and an icon representing that particular mapping. The mapping icon provides three areas in order to separate general mappings between attributes and classes from the specification of invariants, which direct when the mapping is applicable, and initialisers, which describe starting values for particular attributes of a newly created object. As can be seen in Figure 1 the specification of the actual mapping is hidden from view and presented as a classification to either a straight equivalence (=), an equation (eqn), a functional equivalence (func), or a procedurally described equivalence (proc). By examining such a graphical mapping specification it is very easy to verify that all attributes are being handled in the mapping, and by examining the invariants across several mappings it is possible to verify that all possible conditions are being modelled. It also allows a high-level specification of the equivalences between portions of a schema without concentrating on the detail of how to achieve the mapping. The author contends that any textual mapping notation needs to be supported by a graphical formalism which allows for a high-level overview of the mappings which are being specified. 4 MAPPING SPECIFICATION ENVIRONMENT If a simple textual notation is used to describe a mapping then it can be developed in any textual editor. However, if a graphical formalism is going to be utilised to specify a mapping then it needs to be supported

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Figure 2. A business level mapping specification environment. by a more comprehensive specification environment. Such a specification environment must allow for both graphical and textual notations to be viewed and the consistency between these views to be maintained under edits to either view. In Figure 1 the specification environment for VML-G allows for classes from the related schema to be viewed within a window, for a mapping icon to be placed in the window, and for wiring from attributes and classes to be drawn to the mapping icon. In this environment each window represents a particular mapping, and by navigating the various windows a specifier can examine the full set of mappings developed. The specifier can also switch to a textual view to see the full mapping specification and any edits made to the textual view are propagated back into the graphical view. From a programmer level support perspective this is very useful, but it does not tie to real data to help checking. In Figure 2 a business level specification environment is shown (Li et al 2002). Within this environment the schemas being mapped between are visualized as business forms and a wiring approach is used to specify the mappings between various fields in the forms. In this environment the specifier can view not just the data schema in a format close to its business use, but also exemplar data within each of the fields. Tied to this is

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the ability to run each of the partial mappings specified and hence to view the result of the application of the specified mappings in the other business form. 5 AUTOMATED MAPPING CREATION While the tools highlighted in Figures 1 and 2 clearly provide for greater comprehension and checking of the mappings which are being described it is also clear that detailing the mappings between schema which comprise several hundred classes is going to take a long time. In order to ease this workload it is useful to consider approaches which will allow for the automated specification of the mapping (or a portion of the mapping) between two schema. This is an area of ongoing research with many approaches being considered (see Rahm and Bernstein 2001 for a survey of approaches). This sort of tool is also useful to handle mapping between versions of particular product models. For example, the IAI have produced six versions of the IFC in the last seven years and the CIS/2 LPM is expected to be updated every year. The mapping between consecutive versions of a particular schema tend to be fairly minor which make for an easier problem when considering automated mapping creation. This problem is also closely related to that of schema evolution in object-oriented databases (Banerjee et al 1987, Lerner and Habermann 1990, Eastman 1992, Deux 1990, Zicari 1992, and Atkinson et al 2000). A previous student developed a hybrid mapper utilizing structure and name comparison to automate the creation of mappings for IFC versions (Amor and Ge 2002). This demonstrated that approximately 80% of

Figure 3. Voting in an automated mapping tool.

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an IFC schema could be automatically mapped to the next version. An examination of points where this hybrid mapper failed illustrated that diiferent approaches to identifying mappings performed well in different settings. To explore how this might be utilized in automated mapping creation there has been a project (Bossung 2003) to develop an infrastructure to allow multiple matchers to vote on their proffered mapping for particular parts of an inter-schema mapping. Figure 3 shows a screen snapshot of this tool where three matching tools (a Levenshtein matcher, a partial name matcher, and a type matcher) bid for their mapping for a partial structure match. With this tool the user can examine the highest ranked mappings for any portion of the schema and select between the mappings being offered. Further work on this tool is looking at rematching mappings based on selections (changes) made by the user of the tool. 6 MAPPING INTERPRETER AND CODE GENERATOR In order that the specified mappings can be enacted it is necessary to generate code for each mapping. Within a tool which supports visualization of mapped exemplar data this has to take the form of an interpreter for individual snippets of the mapping. Every mapping tool must be able to generate the full mapping specification in some target language. With a high-level mapping specification language, as demonstrated in Figures 1 and 2, the mapping code generator allows for the creation of code in a number of target languages from bespoke languages such as VML (Amor 1997) and EXPRESS-X (Hardwick and Denno 2000) through to generic mapping languages such as XSLT and even straight into programming languages such as C and Java. 7 MAPPING VERIFIER As detailed in the introduction, developing a high-level mapping provides the specifier with a way to ensure that the semantics of the data in two schemas is going to match. However, due to the size of the schemas being developed this is still a difficult process. The provision of a graphical formalism helps in checking, as do support environments which map exemplar data based on the developing mapping. But, to ensure a correct mapping has been developed requires a comprehensive testing regime based around nontrivial exemplars. While the IAI and ISO do have a certification process and testing suites the approach is certainly not as rigorous as would be expected in a field such as software testing. The author suggests that the testing of a round trip mapping should be considered as the main form of verification for mapping specifications. While implemented translators for geometric models (e.g., DXF, IGES, etc) are known, and assumed, to have errors this is not such an issue as human interpretation is used to determine the semantics of a translated geometric model. However, for an object-based model such errors are far more serious. A round trip mapping which does not preserve individual objects and their original parameters has changed the specification of the building to almost any tool which uses this data.

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8 CONCLUSIONS The development of mappings between two schema is a large and very important process when developing translators for the various standard schemas being used in the construction industries. To ensure correct specifications requires not just an expert in the various schema being manipulated, but also a range of support tools to help the specifier through the process. A range of these support tools have been developed and described briefly in this paper. However, to take the industry to the next stage where they can have confidence in the translators and mappings which exist requires that further rigor is injected into the mapping testing process. It is also recommended that a range of certified mappings be developed between the main “standard” schemas being developed for the industry as well as between the various versions of the schema which have been produced. REFERENCES Amor, R.W. & Ge, C.W. 2002. Mapping IFC Versions, Proceedings of the EC-PPM Conference on eWork and eBusiness in AEC, Portoroz, Slovenia, 9–11 September, 373–377. Amor, R. 1997. A Generalised Framework for the Design and Construction of Integrated Design Systems, PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 350 pp. Atkinson, M.P., Dmitriev, M., Hamilton, C. & Printezis, T. 2000. Scalable and Recoverable Implementation of Object Evolution for the PJama1 Platform. Persistent Object Systems, 9th International Workshop, POS-9, Lillehammer, Norway, 6–8 September,292–314. Banerjee, J., Kim, W., Kim, H. & Korth, H. 1987. Semantics and Implementation of Schema Evolution in Object-Oriented Databases, Proceedings of the 1987 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data. San Francisco, USA, 311–322. Bossung, S. 2003. Semi-automatic discovery of mapping rules to match XML Schemas, Department of Computer Science, The University of Auckland, NewZealand, 71 pp. Crowley, A. & Watson, A. 2000. CIMsteel Integration Standards, Release Two, 5 Volumes, Steel Construction Institute and Leeds University, UK. Deux, O. 1990. The story of O2. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE), 2(1), March, 91–108. Eastman, C.M. 1999. Building Product Models, CRC Press, Orlando, FL, USA. Eastman, C.M. 1992. A data model analysis of modularity and extensibility in building databases, Building and Environment, 27(2), 135–148. Hardwick, M. & Denno, P. 2000. The EXPRESS-X Language Reference Manual, ISO TC184/SC4/WGH N117, 2000–06–28. IAI. 2002. International Alliance for Interoperability, web site last accessed 18/6/2004, http://www.iai-international.org/. ISO 1993. Guidelines for the documentation of mapping tables, ISO TC184/SC4/WG4 M105, 1993–09–10. Khedro, T., Eastman, C., Junge, R. & Liebich, T. 1996. Translation Methods for Integrated Building Engineering, ASCE Conference on Computing, Anaheim, CA, June. Lerner, B.S. & Habermann, A.N. 1990. Beyond schema evolution to database reorganization, Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA), Ottawa, Canada, October, 67–76.

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Li, Y., Grundy, J.C., Amor, R. & Hosking, J.G. 2002. A data mapping specification environment using a concrete business form-based metaphor, In Proceedings of the 2002 International Conference on Human-Centric Computing, IEEECS Press, 158–167. Rahm E. & Bernstein, P.A. 2001. A survey of approaches to automatic schema matching, The International Journal on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 10(4), 334–350. Verhoef, M., Liebich, T. & Amor, R. 1995. A Multi-Paradigm Mapping Method Survey, CIB W78—TGIO Workshop on Modeling of Buildings through their Life-cycle, Stanford University, California, USA, 21–23 August, 233–247. Zicari, R. 1992. A Framework for schema updates in an object-oriented database systems. Morgan Kaufmann Series In Data Management Systems, 146–182.

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Virtual building environments (VBE)— applying information modeling to buildings V.Bazjanac Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A. ABSTRACT: A Virtual Building Environment (VBE) is a “place” where building industry project staffs can get help in creating Building Information Models (BIM) and in the use of virtual buildings. It consists of a group of industry software that is operated by industry experts who are also experts in the use of that software. The purpose of a VBE is to facilitate expert use of appropriate software applications in conjunction with each other to efficiently support multidisciplinary work. This paper defines BIM and virtual buildings, and describes VBE objectives, set-up and characteristics of operation. It informs about the VBE Initiative and the benefits from a couple of early VBE projects.

1 INTRODUCTION Most manufacturers thoroughly test their products before delivering them to the market. In some industries the testing is done on physical prototypes, in other it is done virtually; in many industries it is done both ways. Manufacturers know exactly how their products are going to perform or hold up before these products are built and sold. For example, car manufacturers extensively test prototypes (both virtually and on the track) and know how the new models will perform before they start manufacturing them, even if they do not disclose all information in public. NASA thoroughly tested all new space vehicles in the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs in simulation and launched them only after all problems were proven in simulation to have been solved; when unforeseen problems developed later (such as during the Apollo 13 mission), NASA was able to analyze and resolve problems in simulation. In most developed countries the buildings construction industry, sometimes called the Architecture-Engineering-Construction-Operations (AECO) or Architecture-EngineeringConstruction-Facilities Management (AEC/FM) industry, is the second largest industry. Yet, virtually no testing of the primary product of the industry—the building—is done before irrevocable and often very costly decisions are made. True, pre-manufactured components are often tested at least in some ways before delivery; mock-ups of critical parts of a building are built and tested at times; various types of the building’s performance are occasionally simulated; and extensive visual simulations (including “walk-throughs” and “fly-bys”) are becoming the norm. But no testing of the whole building in all of its aspects of performance is performed before the building is delivered. Commissioning constitutes only a partial substitute for testing and is of little help if the

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building in question needs substantial redesign and/or reconstruction to perform as originally expected. The product conception-construction-delivery process in most other industries follows the “designtest/verify-manufacture-deliver-warranty” script In contrast, the AECO industry seams to employ the “convince-build-pray” modus operandi. The designers convince the client by demonstrating a few selected performance aspects (usually cost and image) he/she can understand—but the designers cannot guarantee—that the building will work to the client’s expectations; the builders build the building, and then everyone awaits to see how the building will work once it is occupied and in use. They hope for the best, but fear the worst. At best, everybody is eventually relieved (even if some feelings have been hurt in the process); at worst, almost everybody involved faces legal consequences. Given that the “standard of practice” for how buildings are procured and delivered has not substantially changed in more than a hundred years, no other modus operandi can really be expected. Most (building design) decisions are made without testing their effect first. Whatever testing takes place in the design and construction phases is limited to only a few aspects of performance (i.e. it is intended to aid only specific types of decisions); it is infrequent and usually lacks follow up. It is slow and often delays the building procurement and delivery process it is expected to expedite. It is often very costly and is seldom required, or even accounted for, in contracts. Obviously, tests and comprehensive verification of performance are very difficult to attain when each product is essentially a very costly “one of a kind,” and when it takes a long and laborious multidisciplinary effort to design and build it. It does not help that the product is also very complex and complicated, and that smaller scale partial replicas can reproduce only a few of the performance aspects of the product, and even those mostly only as approximations. In similar situations, decision makers in other industries use software that can simulate the product’s performance that is of interest—they build virtual products they can experiment with and test with computers. It is clear that the AECO industry will be able to test its product (i.e. buildings) in a comprehensive manner only virtually—it will have to first build virtual buildings, test them (and make the necessary design and planning modifications) and physically construct them only after that. The industry has been using industry specific software more than just occasionally for about 20 years, ever since the first versions of AutoCAD appeared on the market and in schools of architecture and engineering. Today, industry use of software extends well beyond CAD with “downstream” applications that model performance relevant to or resulting from different parts of a building’s life cycle. However, unless they belong to an integrated suite of software tools, these applications have little to do with each other— they are “unaware” of each other, often describe essentially same data in different ways, and do not exchange or share data. This is resulting in an unnecessary generation of duplicate data, and is causing a lot of unnecessary errors and omission, cost and delays (Bazjanac 2001). The creation of virtual buildings and their productive use in experimentation and testing will require additional software and, more importantly, organized coordination among all software that may be used. Some leaders of the AECO industry have realized this and have formed a slew of new organizations and consortia in the last decade

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designed to bring “new technology” and “software interoperability” to the industry. These include the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI 1995), the Building Lifecycle Interoperable Software consortium (BLIS 2000), the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA 2002), FIATECH to “bring technology to capital projects” (2002), the Construction Users RoundTable (CURT 2003), the Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE 2003), to name just a few in North America. Perhaps one of the most important of these to date is the IAI, because it developed the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), the first open object oriented comprehensive data model of building that provides rules and protocols for definitions that span the entire life cycle of a building. IFC are also the only such model that is an international standard (ISO/PAS 16739). All major CAD vendors have developed their internal “intelligent” data models of buildings; these are designed to support the work of and data exchange within a particular vendor’s suite of tools and are thus limited in scope, are dissimilar and proprietary. Nonetheless, together with non-proprietary developments, these are all beginning to move the users of industry specific software from defining buildings as sets of lines and text that must be interpreted by the observer to defining buildings as information models. Definition of buildings as information models will be the foundation in creating virtual buildings with software that can seamlessly access data from the information model, manipulate/use them, generate new data, and return them to the information model. 2 DEFINITIONS: BUILDING INFORMATION MODELS AND VIRTUAL BUILDINGS 2.1 Building information models Building information modeling (BIM), used as a verb, is the act of creating a Building Information Model (BIM—a noun). While it was apparently a term originally used by Autodesk staff internally, Jerry Laiserin was the first to widely publicize it in the industry (Laiserin 2002). Used as a noun, a BIM is an instance of a populated data model of buildings that contains multidisciplinary data specific to a particular building which they describe unambiguously. It is a static representation of that building (i.e. it uniquely defines that building in a section of time)—it contains “raw” data that that define the building from the point of view of more than one discipline. Data contained in a BIM are also “rich:” they define all the information pertinent to the particular building component. A threedimensional “surface” model of building geometry alone that is used only in visualization is usually not a BIM. A BIM includes all relationships and inheritances for each of the building components it describes; in that sense it is “intelligent.” A data set that defines only a single “view” of a building (i.e. that describes a specific single type of performance), such as a data set that, for example, includes all data a structural engineer may need for structural calculations (but nothing more) is, by itself, not a BIM.

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2.2 Virtual buildings A virtual building is a BIM deployed in software. It simulates the behavior or performance of a building or building component(s) entirely within a computer system, without any physical construction of the building or any of its components. A virtual building constitutes the use of data that are contained in a BIM to reproduce the behavior or performance of a building or building component(s) with accuracy appropriate to the reason for reproduction. The BIM is deployable by a suite of software that can reproduce behavior or performance in a comprehensive way and, as appropriate, over time. A virtual building is a dynamic building representation, even if a particular single “view” of the building is static. Any software that can access and use data contained in a BIM to simulate some form of behavior or performance of the building can be part of a virtual building software suite. Different software within the same suite can depict behavior or performance at different levels of detail, as long as each is appropriate for the “view” it represents. The software is operated by qualified professionals who are experts in both the use of a particular software application that is part of that suite and in the industry discipline that application belongs to. Virtual building operators need this dual expertise to properly resolve or interpret issues that arise from limitations of software, lack of reliable data and/or professional conventions. 3 DATA DEPOSITORY AND ACCESS ISSUES It takes an enormous amount of data to define everything even in small and “simple” buildings. The amount of data to describe a building increases manifold with increase in building size and complexity. The temptation to reduce the amount of data by discarding data in which one has no interest is countered by the realization that each datum is potentially of interest to someone else. As explained above, a BIM contains data that define building status in section of time. To reduce the physical size of a BIM, instead of replicating data available externally (such as manufacturers’ product data for some of the building components), it only includes pointers to external data bases where such data are available. In the case when a building definition depends on results generated by a software application, instead of capturing the entire (usually large) submission from that software, the BIM contains only data that enable the regeneration of the submission (i.e. the BIM captures only the data needed to reproduce the input for that software). Virtual buildings generate enormous amounts of data on their own. These are measured and/or simulated time based data that are critical to the definition of building behavior and performance. When used in a virtual building, a BIM also includes pointers to data bases that keep such data externally. The shear amount of data that define a building can pose problems in data exchange. Standard file exchange is impractical when the file includes a complete BIM. Model servers which facilitate partial model exchange (i.e. exchange of only some of the data) can solve that problem: The (very large) BIM file is resident in a model server, and

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“clients” query for and extract only data needed by a particular application. The extracted data, given proper authorization, can come from any part of the BIM: a specific individual datum or data sets that represent a particular “view” (or a set of “views”) of the building. Depending on the location of the model server, the data can be accessed directly or via web services. File exchange usually requires implementation of the same version of the building data model by both the generating and receiving software. Data model versioning is typically irrelevant to model servers. 4 VIRTUAL BUILDING ENVIRONMENTS Despite recent eiforts by the leading CAD vendors and the new industry organizations to promote building information modeling as the way to define buildings, an overwhelming majority of building procurement projects is still done the same “old way” by defining and representing buildings in “dumb” 2-D and text documents and with little, if any, use of contemporary IT technology. This is true even though technology exists now that can make professional work in most of the industry disciplines much more efficient and effective than it is today. The industry in general is resisting efforts to change toward information modeling and creation and use of virtual buildings. The causes for this resistance are found in several pragmatic reasons: steep learning curves, lack of time and adequate funding, and shortcomings of software. Most software applications that are specific to the AECO industry share a common characteristic: Their proper use requires intricate knowledge of the application and expertise in the corresponding industry discipline. Obtaining such level of knowledge and expertise for all industry software that is used for a given project is very difficult and often prohibitively expensive. End users that have the task to create a “real life” project BIM and use interoperable and non-interoperable software with it can face very steep learning curves and software that is sometimes at best in beta status and cannot easily do what the user expects it to do. They are under pressure to meet tight “regular” deadlines, and seldom have any meaningful additional resources to do their work on a given project in a way different than before. After briefly trying information modeling, their typical response is: “This does not work (for me/for this project/for my office/at all).” They then revert to the “old ways” of working and using “dumb” software. Often overlooked is the impact of the “old way” of procuring buildings on multidisciplinary teams that are assembled to work on a given project. As currently practiced, their work is unnecessarily difficult: Communication is far from efficient, data exchange is costly and ridden with errors and omissions, data sharing is not practiced and is often practically impossible, and their work is “behind schedule” almost by definition. In addition, their group experience and knowledge is seldom reused in another project and is usually lost after the project is over. The work of multidisciplinary teams could become much more efficient and effective with the use of BIM and virtual buildings. BIM development and the use of virtual buildings today usually require help. This help is now beginning to be available in the form of Virtual Building Environments that are designed to assist end users of industry software and serve as a “break through”

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mechanism to get building information modeling and virtual buildings deployed in the industry. 4.1 What is a virtual building environment? A Virtual Building Environment (VBE) is a place where a group of industry software is operated by industry experts who are also experts in the use of that software. The primary purpose of a VBE is to facilitate expert use of appropriate software applications in conjunction with each other. A VBE employs software applications that, as a group, define a building, its parts, its behavior and its performance. It involves simultaneous or near-simultaneous simulation and display of data generated by multiple sources. A VBE facilitates the manipulation of data that are used in the planning, design, construction and operation of a building. It makes it possible to conduct experiments on the building or its parts, without first erecting them. In summary, a VBE is a physical place (i.e. a location) that facilitates expert creation of and use of virtual buildings. Ideally, a VBE follows a building’s entire life cycle, and the selection of software changes correspondingly from that related to design, to that related to construction, to that related to commissioning, to that related to operation and maintenance, and eventually to that related to demolition. The selection of software and participating experts supports broad definitions of design, construction and operations. For example, the construction and maintenance processes can be planned and modeled along with the building itself to evaluate constructability and maintainability early in a project. Similar to a selected group of software, a VBE involves a group of experts. Group members have the experience, expert knowledge and skills in both software applications and industry disciplines the software is related to. They understand the relevance, the meaning and the quality of data used in a particular industry project, as well as the implications of decisions made in the use of software. They can solve problems and define tasks appropriate to specific applications, and can create “work-arounds” within a particular application if the application cannot deal with the problem or data as defined. When a VBE is employed in a specific industry project, the group of experts contains those that have expertise, knowledge and skills relevant to the particular project. From the VBE perspective this group of experts is temporarily extended (for the duration of the project) by staff or others from organization(s) that are working on the particular project or are involved with it. From the project perspective these experts join the project team temporarily to assist the team so it can more effectively use software needed for the project, create the BIM and test its designs, solutions and/or plans in a virtual building. 4.2 VBE objectives Other industries, such as automotive and aero-space, have reaped significant benefits from the use of IT. Virtual building environments should help experience and demonstrate explicit benefits from the use of contemporary IT in the building procurement process: the use of groups of software to solve multidisciplinary problems, the use of comprehensive project data depositories that contain all project data (including historical), the automation and semi-automation of repetitive tasks, prompt access to expert knowledge, instantaneous distribution of complete data sets to all who need them,

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seamless and instantaneous multi directional exchange or sharing of interdisciplinary project information, virtual collaboration, concurrent engineering, and much more. They can provide support to many different types of industry projects that can benefit from the use of virtual buildings. These, among many other, include architectural, engineering and interior design projects to test design alternatives, refine decision, control building cost, and explain and communicate results; new construction and reconstruction projects to foresee and prevent problems in construction and its sequencing, detect insufficient or missing information, and test and explain cost effective substitutions and/or deviations from design documents and specifications; energy conservation projects to test alternatives in heating, cooling and illuminating a building, as well as alternative building energy management strategies; in building security and safety training to explore “what-if” scenarios, prepare first responder teams to provide most effective response in different emergency and disaster situations, and to test different response plans; in capital facilities projects to minimize risk to owners and operators by providing much more complete and reliable information about a given building’s design and construction and its operation throughout its life cycle. A VBE can be described as a “resource center” or a “center of excellence” that can serve as: (a) an industry specific software deployment center for industry projects (b) a center of education, and (c) a knowledge and technology development center 4.2.1 Software deployment center for projects As a software deployment center a VBE provides immediate expert help in the use of established and new industry software. VBE experts can help industry project staffs select the right software for the project, “hold (their) hands” (i.e. demonstrate how to use the software to accomplish specific tasks) as they start using the software, and advise them in the selection of proper choices they may make in the use of software. Some of the industry software on the market today is still in initial stages of maturity. Such software cannot successfully perform all of the tasks end users expect it to perform, or it cannot perform its tasks if a building is unusual (i.e. not trivial), complex, complicated or large. VBE experts can find ways around some of these problems (i.e. develop “work-arounds”) and report specific software shortcomings and its causes directly to software developers, so software can be improved. In that way a VBE can become an important factor in making industry software more mature and robust. Some of the interfaces of otherwise robust industry software to a data model (such as IFC) or other software may not work properly under all circumstances. VBE experts can detect and identify causes of such software interface problems and work with interface authors to correct them. Many organizations are hesitant to acquire costly new software their staffs do not know how to use, even if it is recommended to them for a specific project. A VBE provides an opportunity to use such software for the project without purchasing it, experience firsthand the benefits from using it, and learn how to use it before purchasing it. Thus a VBE can help spread and expedite the use of productive software in the industry.

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4.2.2 Center of education A VBE provides opportunities to accumulate relevant knowledge and provides opportunities to share knowledge and learn. Few industry professionals have currently the knowledge and experience needed to operate groups of software at the level that is required when dealing with complex and complicated issues and problems. All too often project personnel are unable, hesitant or not in position to start learning on their own. A VBE provides opportunities to members of commercial design and engineering office staffs, construction managers, building operators and officials, code checking and enforcement officials, and others to create a BIM and operate a virtual building under expert supervision, as they are productively working on their project. This provides them with the initial experience of successfully doing that, which in turn may lead to the formation of an in-house partial VBE in their organizations. Industry-wide use of BIM-generating and virtual buildings software requires the support of professional consultants that are at ease with this technology. A VBE provides a framework to teach a new generation of such consultants by including them in the work on VBE projects (i.e. industry projects temporarily conducted at a VBE). It provides opportunities to consultants to join project teams and learn new skills (by participating, without compensation, in the work on such projects) which they will then be able to competently offer to the industry. Professional industry workforce will have to develop additional skills that will enable it to effectively utilize the new technology in daily work. With very few exceptions, these skills are not taught systematically in today’s professional schools, and many of their graduates do not know or understand this technology and are ill at ease with it. The lack of faculty members at institutions of higher learning who are knowledgeable in this area of industry technology is one of the main reasons for that. A VBE provides opportunities to faculty on leave of absence to work directly on such projects, learn and assemble information needed for the development of new courses and curricula. 4.2.3 Knowledge and technology development center A VBE also serves as a center of knowledge that is needed to identify and solve problems that arise from the use of the new technology. These include problems encountered in information modeling of complex buildings, in massive or selective data exchange, in finding “work arounds,” and in support of newly emerging industry tasks, to name a few. A VBE provides a frame-work for research and development that will help software developers deliver more useful software. If not properly staged and controlled, intense exchange of project data can be actually counter productive. Issues of staging and control of industry data exchange are not yet well understood. A VBE provides opportunities to determine the proper sequencing between project information developed in different industry disciplines and that needed by software applications not in those disciplines. Without proper sequencing of data exchange, the use of some software may yield meaningless results. The limits of data exchange, data sharing and inter-operability among industry software are not clear at present. A VBE provides opportunities to explore and learn what these limits might be, and to explore and define ways of circumventing such limitations.

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As a technology development center a VBE provides talent to engage in limited software development when such development is needed and is not provided by the industry. When a group of critical industry software (i.e. “mission critical” software that is the primary software used in professional work of an industry discipline) would be well served by new middle-ware, the talent at a VBE may develop and disseminate such middle-ware. If a “mission critical” application lacks the interface to make it interoperable and its vendor cannot afford to develop it, a VBE may provide a framework to develop the interface. When manufacturers cannot agree on a common format for their products, a VBE may provide a framework to develop common product data bases for access by industry software. As need arises to make additional “mission critical” software interoperable, existing data models of buildings (such as IFC) will have to be extended to expand their fimctionality. A VBE may provide the necessary framework and expertise to develop and implement new data model extension schemata. 5 VBE INITIATIVE To promote the idea and stimulate the formation of virtual building environments, the Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and VTT (Technical Research Center of Finland) kicked off the VBE Initiative at the end of June 2002. The Initiative is an attempt to plan and create initial virtual building environments that will eventually spread worldwide expert interdisciplinary deployment of multiple industry specific software. Since most governments, with noted exceptions of those in Finland and Singapore, have shown little real interest and support to change how the AECO industry operates, the change will have to come from within the industry. The AECO industry will have to experience and learn the benefits from developing and using BIM and virtual buildings step by step, one project and project delivery staff at the time. It will have to learn how to improve the way it operates today. The VBE Initiative is a pragmatic strategy to start that process. The main goal of the Initiative is to propagate and operate virtual building environments, create a global network of Virtual building environments, and to promote opportunities these offer to AECO firms and organizations—opportunities to bring their “real life” projects to a VBE, to have VBE experts help their staffs do their project tasks more effectively, and to learn new things in the process, all at minimal (affordable) cost. Those who take advantage of these opportunities will have a chance to experience how to reduce professional and overall project delivery costs while increasing the value of their work and product, deliver the building sooner, or operate the building at a much lower cost with measurably fewer problems. To be able to properly support experts that are needed for the operation of a VBE, institutions that host a VBE need modest longer term funding not related to or coming from industry projects. Thus, another goal of the VBE Initiative is to stimulate seed funding for virtual building environments. The Initiative has several additional goals that may affect and change how the industry will operate in the future. These range from showing how to change and/or enhance

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current industry processes to enabling industry soflware interoperability, and from providing help to “real life” industry projects to educating professionals. Some goals, such as assisting “real life” industry projects, are short term; others, such as helping educate new generations of professionals, are longer term. Because experts and talent needed to operate a VBE are still scarce, initial virtual building environments are by necessity hosted at academic institutions and research laboratories. If the VBE network is successful, the skill and expertise will gradually shift to the industry; the support virtual building environments can provide now will become less unique and the need for it will gradually diminish. With time, as the AECO industry in general becomes more skillful and trusting in the use of the new software and technology and effectively changes its work processes, the need to “hold hands” and assist project staffs, and to serve as centers of education may completely dissipate. 6 VBE PROJECTS The success of the Initiative so far has varied from country to country. The government in Finland established a VBE at the Tampere University of Technology, and the major Finnish property owner, Senaatti, has started several VBE pilot projects there. The Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has started a number of pilot projects in Australia. Seed funding for virtual building environments has been developing very slowly in USA. The work of experts at quasi-VBE facilities is instead mostly fiinded from requests for specific expert service not otherwise available to the industry. In these cases the multidisciplinary work is typically limited to only a small number of disciplines and software (i.e. a small number of “views” of BIM), such as architecture, visualization, mechanical engineering and building energy performance simulation and assessment, or quantity take-off, construction process scheduling and visualization. Opportunities to provide effective VBE support will greatly increase in USA once a vendor supplies interoperable cost estimating software the results from which the industry can trust.

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Figure 1. Aurora II design alternatives A (top) and B, compared for construction and life cycle costs. (By courtesy of Jiri Hietanen of the Tampere University of Technology.) Still mostly in initial phases of development, existing virtual building environments seem to share a global characteristic: limited number of resident experts. By necessity, all virtual building environments in existence so far started “small,” offering VBE experts only in a few of industry disciplines. When needed, other VBE experts are hired as external consultants (if available); this increases the cost to the project and sometimes delays its progress. In June 2004, two years after the kick-off of the Initiative, its original authors organized a VBE workshop at Stanford University. The workshop showed that several pilot VBE projects are now in progress in different parts of the world. On two projects

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that started earlier than others the first phase of work has been completed (both dealt with the schematic phase of architectural design). Aurora II VBE project at the Tampere University of Technology compared two design alternatives (Fig. 1) at the project development stage when conventional methods of analysis, based on schedules of spaces and some qualitative information from the building program, yield construction cost estimates expected to be within ±20% and life cycle cost estimates within ±25% of later actual costs. By creating virtual buildings for the two alternatives and discussing them simultaneously with the project client in an iRoom (a three-screen interactive workspace originally developed at Stanford University), VBE experts decreased the inaccuracy of the early construction cost estimate to within ±3% and the life cycle cost estimate to within ±5% (Laitinen & Hietanen 2004).

Figure 2. Glare test for a typical office in the e-Lab building using photometrically accurate lighting simulation. The VBE project for the e-Lab at the LBNL (Bazjanac 2002) used virtual building experiments to demonstrate various types of energy performance of typical office and laboratory spaces, as well as the building envelope. Using a suite of 10 different directly and indirectly interoperable simulation and visualization tools it showed in advance to the future occupants of these spaces and the client (US Department of Energy) how these spaces will fiinction (Fig. 2). 7 NEW JOB DESCRIPTIONS When CAD software started being embraced in the AECO industry some 20 years ago, it changed the nature of professional staffs in architecture and engineering. Offices replaced

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large numbers of “pencil and paper” draftspersons with fewer (albeit somewhat higher paid) CAD operators, who produced more drawings faster. This increased the volume of work and output per payroll unit and soon made offices who switched to CAD more competitive in the market. Information modeling and virtual buildings will inevitably change the office landscape once again. The most important new job position will be the Virtual Building Coordinator. This position will require substantial knowledge in modeling and software use relevant to the different industry disciplines that are part of that office’s business. Qualified candidates will be often hard to find and pricey; this role may have to be filled by special consultants. The CAD draftsperson will be replaced by a BIM modeler. This position will require skills in the use of computers and BIM authoring software. The current VBE experts will evolve into “high power” consultants: cost estimators, energy performance analysts, construction managers, etc. They will have the ability to determine the right course of action to resolve a specific project issue, modify and/or interpret information in external data bases, create “work-arounds” for software in their specialties, effectively communicate and explain information, and more. Another new job position will be that of a BIM keeper. Holder of this job will be responsible for the maintenance, safeguarding and administration of a BIM through the life time of the BIM. This position will require at least modest skills in information modeling and substantial knowledge of collaborative engineering. 8 PRESSING VBE ISSUES Some of the technical issues that surfaced in initial BIM authoring and the use BIM accessing software, such as data incompatibility, data model and software limitations, and problems in file based exchange, were reported earlier (Bazjanac 2002). It is now becoming increasingly clear that there are other major obstacles that are slowing down the process of moving toward industry wide use of information modeling and virtual buildings. These include poor quality of some of the BIM authoring and accessing software (that is buggy, immature and/or not robust), difficulties in reaching industry wide agreements in the definition of BIM “views” and/or in implementation of standard data model definitions in software, the small number of interoperable industry specific software, issues in data sequencing when populating a BIM, problems in managing different resolution of the same data as needed by different software, and more. The complete lack of aids for end users is glaring: there are no manuals, templates, case studies published in sufficient detail, nor anything else to guide a newcomer in the initial use of this technology. Missing also is a better understanding of measurable benefits from the use of information modeling and virtual buildings, and of ways to measure them. Recent work at CIFE (Fischer & Ju 2004) is beginning to address these issues.

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9 CONCLUSIONS The AECO industry is finally beginning to use IT, BIM and virtual buildings more effectively. Virtual building environments are a strategy to spread the use of this technology throughout the industry. A VBE provides opportunities to organizations in the industry to get help: a structure (an organized way to do it), software, facilities and experts who can guide the work related to building information modeling and virtual buildings required by “real life” industry projects. It is now up to industry organizations to bring their projects to VBE centers and take advantage of these opportunities. The VBE Initiative represents the beginning of a global VBE network that will hopefully help the entire industry take advantage of the new technology. That will lead to different sets of industry processes, thorough testing before building, and (eventually) much better designed, built and working buildings. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank Ari Ahonen from Tekes (the Finnish National Technology Agency), Prof. Martin Fischer from Stanford University, Jiri Hietanen from the Tampere University of Technology, Arto Kiviniemi and Tapio Koivu from VTT and Stephen E. Selkowitz from LBNL for their ideas and direct and indirect contributions in the formulation of virtual building environments. This work was partly supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Building Technology, Building Technologies Program of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098. REFERENCES Bazjanac, V. 2001. Acquisition of building geometry in the simulation of energy performance. In R.Lamberts et al. (eds), Building Simulation 2001, Proc. intern. conf., Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1: 305–311.ISBN 85-901939-2-6. Bazjanac, V. 2002. Early lessons from deployment of IFC compatible software. In Ž.Turk& R.Scherer (eds), eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Proc. fourth Euro. conf. product process modelling, Portorož, SLO: 9–16. Balkema. ISBN 90-5809507-X. BLIS. 2000. Building Lifecycle Interoperable Software. http ://www.blis-proj ect.org CABA. 2002. Continental Automated Buildings Association. http://www.caba.org/ CURT. 2003. Construction Users Round Table. http://www.curt.org/ FIATECH. 2002. http://www.fiatech.org/ Fischer, M. & G.Ju. 2004. Case studies of the implementation and valuation of Virtual Building Modeling (VBM). CIFE SEED project (in progress), Stanford University. http://www.stanford.edu/~fischer/ VBECIFE0604 IAI. 1995. International Alliance for Interoperability. http://www.iai-international.org/ Laiserin. 2002. Comparing pommes and naranjas. The LaiserinLetter(tm). Issue 15. http://www.laiserin.com/

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Laitinen, J. & J.Hietanen. 2004. Aurora II project. VBE workshop. Stanford University. http://www.stanford.edu/~fischer/ VBECIFE0604 OSCRE. 2003. Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate. http://www.oscre.org/

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

A persistence interface for versioned object models Daniel G.Beer1, Berthold Firmenich2, Torsten Richter1 & Karl Beucke1 1 Informatik im Bauwesen, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany 2 CAD in der Bauinformatik, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany ABSTRACT: Object models of current planning applications are very complex, huge and individually structured. Complexity increases, if they are versioned for distributed processing. Such models have to be made persistent. This paper proposes a persistence concept for such purposes. The concept is independent from a specific persistence schema and database. For a pilot implementation alternatives are discussed briefly and a specific persistence schema for a chosen database are described.

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Distributed processing of common planning material The distributed synchronous and asynchronous processing of a common planning material is in the focus of current research (DFG 2004). New publications in the field of CAD show concepts for the distribution of the planning material abstracted as objects and object versions (Firmenich 2002): Work starts by loading a valid structured subset of object versions from a common project in the planner’s private workspace (Beer & Firmenich 2003). Object versions of the workspace can be modified or deleted and new object versions can be created independently from the project and the network with the help of an integrated planning application (Beer et al. 2004). At the end of the work (long transaction: from hours up to days) object versions are stored in the common project. Operations to ensure consistency are described in (Firmenich 2002). A corresponding system architecture for the distributed processing is shown in Figure 1. It is based upon a project—workspace approach. 1.2 Objective and content The unversioned model of the planning application has to be stored into (loaded from) the persistent model of the common project. The second section describes the general stmcture of object oriented planning application model. This is the base for the persistence mechanism. Requirements on the persistence mechanism are deduced.

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Figure 1. System architecture for the distributed processing. The persistent model of the project will be described in the third section. Versioning and the selection of subsets that influences the persistence schema have to be considered. Possible persistence schemas and data stores will be discussed and compared with each other. A suitable persistence schema and data store is chosen for a pilot implementation. The description of the persistence layer and a pilot implementation in the fourth section concludes this contribution. 2 MODEL OF THE PLANNING APPLICATION 2.1 Object types and structuring The model of a planning application is very complex. There are many objects representing a lot of elements of a complex building. These objects are instances of a wide range of classes as we can see for example in the IFC model (IFC 2004). This huge variety of classes also results from different planning applications for specific planning tasks involved in the common project. Thus, the objects are structured diversely. It is not certain that all applications use a common labelling and it can not even be assumed that there is one.

Figure 2. Types of object attributes.

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2.2 Versioning Most planning applications do not support versioning. The workspace manages an unversioned model to use such applications. The transformation between unversioned model of the workspace and versioned model of the project is described in (Beer et al. 2004). 2.3 Attributes As shown in Figure 2, objects (a) can have attributes of different types: – Atomic values (f1) can not be decomposed anymore. Examples are strings or numbers as well as objects that can be represented by strings, for example dates. – Objects (f2). There is a 1:1 relation to another object (b). – (Un)ordered sets of objects (f3). There is a 1:n relation to other objects belonging to a set (s). – (Un)ordered relations of objects (f4). There is a 1:n relation to object tuples belonging to a relation (r). To reduce complexity, only binary relations are considered in this contribution. Relations of higher order can be treated analogously. 2.4 Inheritance Objects can inherit attributes from a super class. This has to be considered if objects extending a super class have to be made persistent. 3 PERSISTENT MODEL OF THE PROJECT 3.1 Versioning Each object of the planning application model is stored as an object version in the common project (Beer et al. 2004). The mathematical foundations of this model are described in (Firmenich 2002). An example is given in Figure 3.

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Figure 3. Versioned model of the project (example). Object versions (a4, b2) are elements of set M. The version history is stored as ordered pairs of object versions ((a2, a4)) in the relation V. Dependencies between object versions are stored as ordered pairs of object versions in relation B. These three sets can be interpreted as a graph. The version history is shown by dashed arrows, the dependencies are shown by continuous arrows. 3.2 Subsets A uniform access to differently structured objects is needed for the selection of subsets from the project model. Therefore the native attributes should be used as the least common base of all objects. As shown below (see Subsection 4.2) an object wrapper can unify attributes with a common semantics. A set algebra respectively a language is a flexible and easy way to describe subsets (Beer et al. 2003). The feature logic (Zeller 1997) is a set algebra that uses attributes or so called features. Thus, feature logic is well qualified to be used for object access via attributes. Table 1 shows important operations that are partially based upon object’s attributes. 3.3 Persistence schema A persistence schema tailored to feature logic is given in (Firmenich 2002). The schema is shown in entity relationship notation in Figure 4. With the help of this schema, the operations shown in Table 1 can be implemented straightforward. Objects are stored as elements of a domain (domain). They are identified via a generated name. Atomic features are elements of the domain, as well. Values of atomic features are stored in Atom. Features are stored in Feature. The connection between object, feature and value is a relation of Relslot.

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The schema requires a decomposition of objects into object’s identifier (name), objecfs attributes and attribute’s values. Solutions for mapping objects to

Table 1. Feature logic operations. Operation

Symbol

Description

Extraction

f(S)

Value of the feature f of the object set S

Selection

f: S

Objects, whose feature f has the value S

Existence

f: T

Objects that have a feature/

Divergence

f↑

Objects that have no feature f

Agreement

f↓g

Features f and g have same values

Disagreement

f↑g

Features f and g have different values

Complement

~S

Complement of S

Union

Either R or S

Intersection

R∩S

R and S

Implication

R→S

If R then S

Equivalence

R↔S

Only if R then S

Term equiv.

R=S

Equality of R and S

Figure 4. Feature logic persistence schema.

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tables (Keller 1997) are known. They are discussed briefly and compared with the feature logic schema in the following. This is done for all supported attribute types (see Subsection 2.3). Generally, queries against the data store are generated from feature logic terms with the help of a interpreter (Richter et al. 2003). The feature logic persistence schema is tuned for that purpose. Thus, the user has to ‘speak’ feature logic, instead of formulating query expressions against the data store. Mappings for the different types of attributes, object versions and inherited attributes are discussed briefly and compared to the feature logic persistence schema in the following paragraphs. Advantages and disadvantages of the feature logic persistence schema are discussed in the last paragraph of this subsection. 3.3.1 Mapping of atomic attributes The feature logic schema is used for mapping atomic attributes (f) to tables: They are stored with their values (x, shown by a rectangular shape) as strings in different tables (Fig. 5). The feature ‘type’ stores the type of the object.

Figure 5. Mapping of atomic attributes.

Figure 6. Mapping of object attributes.

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3.3.2 Mapping of object attributes Example (Fig. 6): Object a has an object attribute h of type B with value b. There are different concepts for mapping object attributes respectively 1:n relations or so called references to tables: – Single table aggregation (Fig. 6a) (Keller 1997) Mapping: The attributes of the referenced object are stored in the same table as the attributes of the referencing object to avoid references. Advantages: Objects can be retrieved with a single table access. Disadvantages: Attribute values of multiple referenced objects are stored multiple. If the reference is deeper than one hierarchy step every change of referenced types causes an adaptation of all referencing types. A dot notation or a similar naming convention for the attributes of the referenced objects has to be used (for example h.g). Furthermore, it is hard to formulate queries using reference types. – Foreign key aggregation (Fig. 6b) (Keller 1997) Mapping: A separate table for referenced types is used. Object identifiers (b) link from the referencing to the referenced object.

Figure 7. Mapping of set attributes. Advantages: This schema is more flexible and better to maintain as variant a. Referenced objects can easily be queried. Disadvantages: A join operation or at least two database accesses are needed. It is difficult to achieve referencing from referenced objects. – Feature logic schema (Fig. 6c) (Firmenich 2002)

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Mapping: The mapping is similar to variant b. The difference is that all objects are stored in one table. Tables Atom, Domain and Feature are omitted in the example. 3.3.3 Mapping of set attributes A set includes a number of other objects (elements). An example is shown in Figure 7. There are different concepts for mapping set attributes to tables: – Foreign key association (Fig. 7a) (Keller 1997) Mapping: The identifier of the set is inserted into the set element table (attribute own). Advantages: The mapping schema does not collide with normal forms. Hence, it allows reasonable maintenance cost. The space consumption is nearly optimal. Disadvantages: Reading a set costs a join operation or two read operations. – Feature logic schema (Fig. 7b) (Firmenich 2002) Mapping: Set elements are represented by tupels (elmc, Fig. 7c) that are included in the set (s). They have a reference to the set element itself (c). The specific features ‘elm’ (element) and ‘in’ (included) are used. Sorted sets (sequences) are possible with the help of the specific feature ‘i’ (index). Tables Atom, Domain and Feature are omitted in the example. 3.3.4 Mapping of relation attributes A binary relation includes a number of pairs of other objects. An example is shown in Figure 8. The feature logic schema is used for mapping binary relations to tables: – Feature logic schema (Fig. 8a) (Firmenich 2002) Mapping: Elements of the relations are represented by tupels (elmru, Fig. 8b) that are included

Figure 8. Mapping of relation attributes.

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Figure 9. Mapping of object versions. in the relation. They have a reference to the elements (r and u). The specific features ‘in’ (included), ‘src’ (source) and ‘dst’ (destination) are used. Sorted relations are possible with the help of the specific feature ‘i’ (index). Tables Atom, Domain and Feature are omitted in the example. 3.3.5 Mapping object versions Object versions are part of the persistent model. An example shows Figure 9. The feature logic schema is used for mapping the version history to tables: – Feature logic schema (Fig. 9) (Firmenich 2002) Mapping: A revision (b2) of an object version (b1) is stored as the value of the specific feature ‘rev’ (revision). Tables Atom, Domain and Feature are omitted in the example. 3.3.6 Mapping of inheritance Objects can inherit attributes from a super class (Fig. 10). There are different concepts for mapping object inheritance to tables: – One table for one inheritance tree (Fig. 10a) (Keller 1997) Mapping: The union of all attributes of all objects in are used as columns of a single table. Null values represent unused fields in each record. Advantages: Reading/writing of base class descendants needs only one database operation. Schema evolution is straightforward and easy as long as the inheritance hierarchy does not become too deep.

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Figure 10. Mappingof inheritance. Formulating queries for all objects of the inheritance is fairly easy. Disadvantages: The waste of space depends on the inheritance depth. The deeper the hierarchy and the bigger the difference between the union of all attributes and the attributes of an average object, the bigger the waste of space. – One table for every class (Fig. 10b) (Keller 1997) Mapping: The attributes of each class are mapped to a separate table. An object identifier links derived classes with their parent. Advantages: The pattern provides a very flexible mapping. The space consumption is nearly optimal. Schema evolution is straightforward. Disadvantages: The mapping is performance expensive in terms of database operations. The costs rise with the depth of the inheritance hierarchy. Queries are hard to formulate as the mapping generally requires accessing more than one table. – One table for one inheritance path (Fig. 10c) (Keller 1997) Mapping: The attributes of each class as well as the attributes inherited from parent classes are mapped to separate tables. Advantages: The mapping needs one database operation to read or write an object. The space consumption is optimal.

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Disadvantages: A polymorphic scan of all objects given by their super class includes some tables. Inserting a new subclass means updating all polymorphic search queries but the structure of the tables remains untouched. Adding or deleting attributes of a super class results in changes to the tables of all derived classes. Queries are hard to formulate as the mapping generally requires accessing more than one table. – Feature logic schema (Fig. 10d) (Firmenich 2002) Mapping: The attributes of each class as well as the attributes inherited from parent classes are mapped to the same table. Tables Atom, Domain and Feature are omitted in the example. 3.3.7 Feature logic schema The feature logic schema was chosen for the pilot implementation. Advantages: – There is only one schema for all classes. It is independent from the typing. Thus, the schema is very flexible and easy to maintain. – There is no redundancy. The schema fulfils the requirements of the normal forms. – Objects can be used in different sets or relations with the help of tupel elements. They are stored only once. – Queries can be formulated very easy with the help of an extended feature logic (Beer et al. 2003). The query is transformed with the help of a database independent compiler (Richter et al. 2003). – References can be traversed via recursive queries (Price 2002). They are encapsulated by operations of an extended feature logic (Beer et al. 2003). Disadvantages: – Objects can be retrieved only via multiple table access. – Set and relation elements have to be loaded in a step after the set respectively the relation itself. This results in multiple queries. They may be optimised and executed as batches by the data store. 3.4 Data store Different types of data stores for a pilot implementa tion have been investigated. – Files/file system: The file input/output mechanism is relatively slow compared to RAM access. Furthermore, there are no adequate methods for queries on files. That is why file formats like XML are not qualified. – Relational database management systems (RDBMS) have been proven for commercial use and are technologically well established. They are well qualified for the use of mass data. RDBMS offer a very flexible and easy data access via a standardised query language (SQL). RDBMS can store relations in tables. Thus, the object oriented application model has to be mapped to the persistent relational model. The relational model corresponds with the feature logic persistence schema.

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– XML databases offer new concepts. They are very generic so that such databases are slower than relational database management systems. XML databases do not offer a better access to objects stored than RDBMS. – Object oriented database management systems (ODBMS). Currently available systems do not support the flexible selection of subsets with the help of a powerful query language. – Java Data Objects (JDO) is a persistence standard for Java objects. It defines interfaces that allow for data store independent persistency. Different types of data stores can be used depending on the commercial implementation that is used. However, the selection of subsets is limited. – Specific databases for engineering applications are in the focus of current research (Biltchouk & Pahl 2003). The objective is the straightly access to engineering objects. Such data stores may be used in the fiiture. A RDBMS has been used for the pilot implementation. 4 PERSISTENCE LAYER 4.1 Properties – Flexibility: Existing objects without persistency convention as well as new objects designed for this purpose are supported (see Subsection 4.2). – Independency: The persistency layer is independent from the data store used by a pilot implementation. The proposed system architecture (Fig. 11) shows interfaces and adapter classes that implement general fiinctionality. – Performance: Memory access is much faster than file system access. Furthermore, the storage of objects can be done in parallel with the running application so that the loading of objects has to be optimised. – Maintenance: The schema used is a very simple schema for all classes. That is why redundancy is no problem for maintenance. 4.2 Attribute access Objects to be made persistent have to publish all necessary attributes to be stored. Attributes have to be read for storing into project model and to be written for loading objects from the project model. There are different concepts for implementation: – Reflection: The programming language Java™ (Horstmann & Cornell 2002) offers a mechanism called reflection that delivers all public attributes. Private attributes can not be accessed. Objects can not be made persistent completely. Public attributes may not be sufficient to recreate the object.

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Figure 11. Persistence concept. – Interface: Objects to be stored have to implement an interface that defines methods for attribute access. This can be done in the source code (manually) or the compiled code. This is called source/ byte code enhancing. The mapping information has to be provided in a separate file (Jordan & Russel 2003). However, existing classes possibly must not be changed so that they can not implement an interface. – Conventions: Naming conventions, like JavaBeans™ for reusable software components, offer a standardised attribute and method access. However, most existing classes do not fulfil such conventions. – Wrapper: Classes that wrap existing classes and that fulfil a given interface are well qualified. The mapping between public attributes, attributes behind methods and persistent attributes is very flexible. Only those attributes needed to recreate an object have to be stored. They can differ from the object’s attributes and they can be named in a standardised way to have a common view on common attribute names. Specific attribute names outside a standard are possible, too. It is assumed that the persistence wrapper class returns the attributes of the wrapped class as well as the inherited attributes of its super class(es), too. For the access to the object’s attributes the wrapper concept in combination with the interface concept is used. Thus, it supports existing objects as well as new designed objects. Wrapper classes for all application defined classes implement a specific persistence interface PersistenceCapable (Listing 1, simplified: no exceptions, most important methods). The PersistenceCapable interface defines methods for the exchange of attributes and their values via strings. Thus, the type conversion is not a generic task of the database but can be done in the wrapper object individually. This increases maintenance because of the independency of the data types offered by the database used. Furthermore, the wrapper concept allows for a common structure of different structured objects.

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Standardised attribute names are possible by changing their original names (e.g. IFC conform names) as well as specific context dependent named attributes. interface PersistenceCapable { // Atomic properties Proplterator getAtomicProperties() ; void setAtomicProperty( String name, String value ); // Aggregations Proplterator getAggregationProperties() ; void setAggregationProperty( String name, String objID ); } interface Proplterator { // Iteration boolean iterate(); // Property information String getName(); Class getType(); Object getValueO ; boolean isChangeable (); }

Listing interface.

1.

PersistenceCapable

and

Proplterator

4.3 System architecture The persistence concept (Fig. 11) has three layers: The Atomizer, the PersistenceSchema and the DatabaseManager. They are managed by the PersistenceManager. The simplified interface is shown in Listing 2. The concept is independent from the persistence schema and the database used. A specific PersistenceManager class manages all persistence classes and instantiates specific classes for a specific schema anddatabaseused. Persistence-Capable classes can be registered to wrap existing objects (method registerPCClass). The PersistenceManager can store (a set of) objects and version relations (e.g. method storeObject) as well as load an subset of the persistent model described by a query (method load). The return values are persistent identifiers created by the project (case store) respectively pairs of persistent identifiers and associated objects (case load). Storing (a set of) objects the PersistenceManager calls the Atomizer’s decompose methods (e.g. method decomposeObject) to add the object information to the persistent schema managed by the Atomizer. The Atomizer (Listing 3) has the task of a serialiser. It decomposes the object graph into object types and attributes with atomic values. The object graph is traversed by

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object references (Fig. 2). Sets and binary relations are supported. They have to be distinguished because there are different container classes (Set, Map) defined by Java. A specific persistence schema is managed (method setPersistenceSchema). The created persistent identifier of already decomposed objects is used for all other references of this object. The Atomizer can store a schema (method store) and load a subset of the persistent model described by a query (method load). The return values are void (store) respectively pairs of persistent identifiers and associated objects (load). The class information is stored as the value of a specific feature type to instantiate the object. The Atomizer interface is implemented by the Atomizerlmpl class. interface PersistenceManager { // Registration void registerPCClass( Class pcCls, Class objCls ) ; // Persistence functionality String storeObject(Object o); String storeSet (Set s); void storeObjectVersionRelation( String PIDl, String PID2 ); Map load(String query); }

Listing 2. PersistenceManager interface. interface Atomizer { // Persistence schema void setPersistenceSchema( PersistenceSchema ps ); // Decomposition and storage String decomposeObject(Object o) ; String decomposeSet(Set s); void store (); // Loading and recomposition Map load(String query); }

Listing 3. Atomizer interface. The PersistenceSchema (Listing 4) is called by the Atomizer (e.g. method addObjectSchema) to store a specific type of attribute (Fig. 2) and create specific schema information (Figs 5–10). The schema can be stored (method storeSchema). Loading subsets from the persistent model described by a query a new schema is created (method create—Schema). Objects represented by the schema can be received via method getObjects. Attributes and attribute values for a specific object identified by the persistent identifier (objID) are returned by method getProperties. The PersistenceSchema is

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implemented by PersistenceSchemaAdapter class. For the used feature logic schema (Fig. 4) a specific class PersistenceSchemaFL was implemented. This allows for changing the schema used. interface PersistenceSchema { // Create schema from object tree String addObjectSchema(Class type); void addAtomicPropertySchema( String objID, String name, String val ); void addNonAtomicPropertySchema( String objID, String name, String vID ); String addSetSchema(Class type); void addSetElementSchema( String setlD, String elmlD ); void addObjectVersionRelationSchema( String PIDl, String PID2 ); // Store/ load schema to/ from database void storeSchema(); void createSchema(String query); // Schema information Set getObjects(); Map getProperties(String objID); }

Listing 4. PersistenceSchema interface. interface DatabaseManager { // Initialisation void init(String driver, String url, String user, String pwd ); // Reading from database ResultSet load(String sql) ; ResultSet loadBatch( String sql, StringU batch ); // Writing to database void store(String sql); void storeBatch( String sql, String[][] arguments ); }

Listing 5. DatabaseManager interface.

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The DatabaseManager (Listing 5) defines methods for accessing a database. The Database-ManagerAdapter implements relational database access. Specific classes (e.g. DatabaseManager-Oracle) support specific database access. 4.4 Pilot implementation The interfaces described above have been implemented. An ORACLE database and the feature logic schema are used.

Figure 12. Example: Object a to be made persistent. class PCA implements PersistenceCapable { // Attribute of type A private A a; // Object instantiation createObject () {a=new A (...);} // Atomic attribute access Proplterator getAtomicProperties() { return new Propertylterator () { int i=0; boolean iterate() {return i++size=(storeys.apartment->size).div(20)+1”. The lowercase initial indicates the association name of the class with the same name starting with uppercase to be navigated to in the constraint e.g. ‘apartment’ navigates to ‘Apartment’ from the ‘Storeys’ context.

Table 4. Summary of constraints enforced on the high-rise product family structure on Storeys context. No. OCL invariant constraint expression 1

self.fire->size=(storeys.apartment->size). div(20)+1

2

if self.coreType=‘A’then apartment.core->forAll (oclIsKindOf(CoreA))

3

if ((apartment.flat.select->(self.oclIsKindOf (FlatB))->size)>120 then apartmentcore.forAll (self.isKindOf(CoreA))

Under the building family structure in Figure 7, it is also possible to change between ‘Core A’ and ‘Core B’. Typically, this should not be allowed, as the core is generally designed as a repetitive structure intended to be the same for all floors. To enforce a such constraint, the core type could be defined as an primitive module of attribute of Storeys and constraints could be added, e.g. for the context of ‘Storeys’, “if Storeys.coreType=‘A’ then apartment.core->forAll (oclIsKindOf(CoreA))”. For instance, if we determine that the use of more than 120 type B flat requires usage of Core A due to structural engineering requirements, this can be enforced in the ‘Storeys’ context using “if ((apartment.flat.select->(self.oclIsKindOf(FlatB))->size) >120 then apartment.core.forAll(self. isKindOf (CoreA))”. 4 DISCUSSION The developed framework of building family structure presents several cost- and timesaving benefits. Firstly, it can help to reduce building design time and improve design quality through re-use of design modules. With development of industrialized building and prefabrication, this allows benefits of prefabrication such as higher quality and shorter construction cycles to be realized with better economies of scale. The ability to re-use and improve modules within the building family in the design function serves to enable sharing of the knowledge about product variety and commonality, not only

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between different designers but also to developers and building users. By representing these structures design data, members of the design team can make more informed decisions regarding the design variety and define which structures that should be re-used across building projects which can help to sustain productivity improvements. Furthermore, the ability to represent variety information facilitates automation of tasks such as determining bills of material/bills of quantities for different variants of the building as well as simplifying plan checking on a family level of building design, which can further shorten the design time and improve estimation accuracy. This can also help designers to generate better design alternatives which can bring savings in material usage, and improve sales by quickly adapting the design to changing market requirements.

Figure 8. Use cases of implemented building family structure design system.

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To implement the framework, a set of proposed use cases for an implemented system for the building family structure is given in Figure 8. These use cases could be implemented as an integrated extension to CAD environments using its Application Programming Interfaces, for example the ObjectARX™ for AutoCAD® series (Kramer 2000). The object instance of the building product family can be used to generate a complete representation of the building, which can be viewed as a single IFC representation if fully integrated. This final specification is then to be used in the downstream construction process. To facilitate information sharing, IFC models can be managed using IFC model servers or other means for repository functionality. IFC models can be edited using building CAD tools or other design software. To facilitate systematic consideration of customer needs in the product family, a framework which represents ftmctional requirement of a building should be mapped to the building product family as constraints to indicate how customer requirements are translated to a modular building structure. Although the full implementation of the software has not been completed, we expect additional benefits to be realized through further development and refinement of the design framework and incorporation of more industrial design knowledge into the building family model. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research is jointly funded by the Innovation Technology Commission Project UIM/119 of the Hong Kong SAR Government and Tecton Ltd., a subsidiary of P.K. Ng & Associates, Hong Kong. The authors are grateful for the support of Calvin Wong and Elvis Li of Tecton Ltd. In addition, the authors wish to thank the members of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute at HKUST for their feedback, particularly Pow Wa Siu. REFERENCES Du X., Jiao, J., Tseng, M.T. 2000. Architecture of Product Family for Mass Customization, Management of Innovation and Technology. ICMIT 2000. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference, 12–15 Nov. 2000 1:437–443 Du, X., Jiao, J., Tseng, M. 2001. Architecture of Product Family for Mass Customization, Concurrent Engineering: Research and Application, 9(4):309–325 Du, X., Jiao, J., Tseng, M.M. 2002. Graph Grammar Based Product Family Modeling, Concurrent Engineering: Research and Application, 10(2):113–128 Filos, E. 2000. Moving construction towards the digital economy. In Gonçalves, R., SteigerGarção, A., Scherer, R., Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Product and Process Modelling in the Building and Related Industries, Lisbon, Portugal, 25–27 September 2000 Filos, E. 2002., European collaborative R&D project related to the “Smart organization”. A first evaluation of activities and implications for construction. In Turk, Z., Raimar, S. (ed.), eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction; Proceedings of European

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Conference of Product and Process Modelling in the Building and Related Industries in Portoroz, Slovenia, 9–11 September 2002. Lisse: Balkema, pp. 27–32 Eisele, J., Kloft, Ellen (ed). 2002. High-Rise Manual—Typology and Design, Construction and Technology, Basel: Birkhauser Fruchter, R. 2002. Metaphors for knowledge capture, sharing and reuse. In Turk, Z., Raimar, S. (ed.), eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction; Proceedings of European Conference of Product and Process Modelling in the Building and Related Industries in Portorož, Slovenia, 9–11 September 2002. Lisse: Balkema pp. 17–26 Hop, F.U. 1988. Modular House Design—The Key to Complete Construction Efficiency, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Jiao, J., Tseng, M, Duffy, VG., Lin, F. 1998. Product Family Modeling for Mass Customization, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 35 (3–4): 495–498 Kramer, B. 2000. ObjectARX™ Primer, New York: Autodesk Press Liebich, T., Wix, I, Forester, J., Speeding-up the building plan approval—the Singapore e-plan checking project offers automatic plan checking based on IFC. In Turk, Z., Raimar, S. (ed.), eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction; Proceedings of European Conference of Product and Process Modelling in the Building and Related Industries in Portoroz, Slovenia, 9–11 September 2002. Lisse: Balkema pp. 467–471 Meyer MH, Tertzakian R, Utterback J.M. 1997. Metrics for managing research and development in the context of the product family, Management Science. 43(1):88–111 Rumbaugh, I, Jacobson, L, Booch, G.1999. The Unified Modeling Language Reference Manual. Massachussets: Addison-Wesley Santos, I.A., Hernandez-Rodriguez, Bravo-Aranda, G., A normative product model for integrated conformance checking of design standards in the building industry. In Turk, Z., Raimar, S. (ed.), eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction; Proceedings of European Conference of Product and Process Modelling in the Building and Related Industries in PortoroS, Slovenia, 9–11 September 2002. Lisse: Balkema pp. 473–480 Sarja, A. (ed.). 1998. Open and Industrialized Building, London: E & FN Spon Simpson, T.W., Jonathan R.A. M., Mistree, F. 2001. Product Platform Design: method and application. In Research in Engineering Design, London: Springer-Verlag 13(1):2–22 Suh, N.P.2001. Axiomatic Design—Advances and Applications, New York: Oxford University Press Ulrich, K.T., Eppinger, S.2004. Product Design and Development—Third Edition, New York: McGrawHill-Irwin Warmer, J.B., Kleppe, A.G.1999. The Object Constraint Language—Precise Modeling with UML, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley Longman Inc. Warsawski, A.1999. Industrialized building systems, London: E & FN Spon Wix, J. & Liebich, T. 2001. Industry Foundation Classes Ifc 2x. http://www.iaiev.de/spezifikation/IFC2x/index.htm. Wong, Chi Kuen Calvin (proprietor). Patent Publication Number: 1021475. International Patent Classification: B04B, B04H

Construction site and project management

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Assistance to building construction coordination by images Kubicki Sylvain, Halin Gilles & Bignon Jean-Claude MAP-CRAI, (Research Centre in Architecture and Engineering, Nancy, France) ABSTRACT: This communication describes a research theme about new tools to assist architectural design and building construction focus on the use of imagery. The article focuses on specificities of architectural design and building construction stage as collaborative activities. We suggest here two different potentialities of building site imagery. The first consists in a use to assist coordination between actors during construction stage, while the other one describes specificities of a knowledge management tool (pathology prevention assisted by images). We present finally the prototype set up to illustrate meeting reports and diffuse information to the operation’s actors.

1 INTRODUCTION Nowadays, many changes have happened in the AEC sector concerning concurrent engineering work methods. Many studies attempt to characterize specificities of prqject and design in architecture, in order to introduce new tools. This article is part of the concurrent engineering research works of CRAI (Nancy School of Architecture). We present here a research theme, which is an extension of works on tools propositions for architectural design concurrent activity. These works also studied the role of images in architectural design. Our communication focuses on the use of building construction digital imagery. We will describe the specificities of architectural design activity and particularly the differences between “initial and technical design” in architecture and the building construction stage. These first statements will allow us to describe how the image can assist these activities in which many actors are involved. We will suggest a method to build and use a building construction image base, describing relevant information needs. We will talk about image collection problems (sources, index methods) and about possible uses of these images in coordination (or communication) and in knowledge management. We will present in the next part the experiment being developed at the moment, which will illustrate the meeting reports. Our goal is to use the images as a communication tool (around the meeting report) and to manage technical information thinking of future uses (building site image based system to prevent construction anomalies). Finally, we will talk about recent evolutions and conclude on these works.

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2 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES The architectural design is the object of many works aiming at appreciating its specificities as design activity [Simon 1990, Al Hassan 2002]. Building works construction develops specific problems too that we will attempt to characterise here. Our general research goal is to suggest new tools to assist these activities. We are particularly interested in collaboration around design and construction stages. We will now describe particularities of these two activities of the architectural project and used tools. 2.1 Architectural and technical design stage Architectural design is the place where a creative activity encounters an engineering activity (technical or user constraints). Design is generally supervised by the architect, first project designer, commissioned by the client. The architect surrounds himself with other specialist actors to resolve and anticipate project aspects that he can’t master such as technical design (structure, fluids…). Architectural design activity consists of a mechanism of proposition-validation of solutions between actors, in order to find a satisfying solution to the building project. Exchange documents are principally plans, technical notes or schemes. This stage can be assisted by specific “profession tools” (e.g. CAD tool for architects). Groupware tools can assist collaboration between designer teams. These tools allow users to group documents or to manage the tasks of each participant During the first stage of the project, actor coordination is very often implicit because there are not many actors and those who exist know each other well. Work mode is coupled and actors work principally in a synchronous way. 2.2 Building construction stage This first stage of the project described above in is followed by the building contractors consultation. Then comes the building construction stage. During this stage, the three actor groups described before stay stable. The client role is resumed in a building work progress validation task. The design team often engaged a coordinator, responsible for task realisation progress. The work group expands and includes every building contractor. Actor relations become more hierarchical and distant because of the aim of respecting deadlines and costs. Work and data exchange is made sequentially and actor meetings are based on validation of an asynchronous work. The principal tool for assisting this stage is the “building construction meeting report”, great link and communication tool between actors. It contains textual information and progress charts which help everybody in task realisation comprehension. There are not many computer-based tools employed to assist this stage in the AEC domain. But we think that the sequential character of activity during building construction is propitious for the integration of workflow tools (task management, materials supply…). This work mode is the result of a gap existing between different actors: there is no durable link between them. This is due to the re-composition of teams at each project and

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to the coordination mode based on contracts. This characteristic penalizes the group because actors use specific tools! 2.3 Design assistance tools Characteristics of architectural project collaborative activity described here have been analysed in works developed in the MAP-CRAI [Malcurat 2001, Hanser 2003]. A model representing the variety of these exchanges has been proposed following a logic guided by the “representation of relations between actors, activities and documents during the project” [Hanser 2003]. More other, we are at present seeing the development of quality charts: designers and architecture studios need methods and tools to assist them… In this context, reflexions about new tools are based on two principles: – Architectural design assistance to increase project quality, – Assistance to the collaborative work between design/ construction teams based on appropriate tools (communication and project management quality). In part IV, our propositions are developed on these two basic principles. 3 THE IMAGE The image is, nowadays, a support largely used to carry information. The reasons for the efficiency of the image are well known and numerous. We are particularly interested in the following characteristics: – Considerable physiological sensibility of the person whose perception is predominated by visual images, – Great aptitude to memorization of images, – Great capacity of image encoding, – Instant global message, – Proof effect, – Iconic seduction. [Bignon 2002] 3.1 The image in architectural design Image plays an important role in architectural design mechanisms. It’s both the first material of creation and a tool to comprehend a problem. It’s also the principal media used to transmit architectural doctrines. This visual culture of architects leads them to develop a specific meaning called “visuo-spatial” [Gardner 1992]. In this specific work practice, meaning mechanisms are very often built by image. Research works have been developed in MAPCRAI around this theme. Their objective is to study the possible uses if images to access information during the architectural design process: from idea emergence to project realisation.

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According to the moments of design, the image can play different roles. We are interested here in two major functions: the image as reference (in the early stage of design) and the analogous image (the designer will search for and identify possible solutions by making correspondence between the image of an object or a work and the imagined solution to a project.) [Halin et al. 2003]. A study of the use of image as information search support has been developed to access building product information [Nakapan 2003]. The information search by image uses image search for “user needs” formulation. The user formulates his request by choosing or rejecting images. This request is analysed to permit products selection. This process needs to use a common ontology for image index and product index. We introduce here a particular work issue based around building construction images. 3.2 Building construction images benefits The particularity of building construction image is that it shows an object being fabricated. We must distinguish between two different uses: Image illustrates the building construction’s general progress, or particular “works under construction”. (Note: We called “work under construction” a basic part of the building being built). In this case, image plays aproof role. Image can transmit information contained or be a tool to access other related information (illustrated by images). It therefore enables the user to capitalise on knowledge of the terrain. 3.2.1 Works realisation proof Generally, the photo taken of the building construction site at a precise moment is a building construction progress statement. Image is proof of this progress and can be used in different cases (actor communication, archiving…). We introduce here a relation between particularities of images taken on building site and the “building construction meeting report”. This document is the basis of the coordination in the building construction stage. A brief analyse of its content permits us to find the same notions: particular work progress statement, building work or actor interface details. Nowadays photos sometimes illustrate meeting reports. Architects largely accept the role of image to increase communication quality but not everyone agrees on its regular use in the meeting report. There is some opposition to these propositions, such as some architect wish to produce short meeting reports. We characterise this particular use of building construction images as a vector enabling a project realisation context. We can note too that a particular objective of the setting up of quality charts is the necessity for each actor to globally understand the context of its intervention. Taking into account this environment (global work progress, actor interfaces) lead to the auto coordination of actors. Now we will see how these building construction images can serve knowledge management tools.

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3.2.2 Capitalisation of a terrain knowledge An image base built and used in the building construction stage must be completed by semantic information. Every future use is conditioned by the development of an index ontology (based on coordination). We suggest two different levels: knowledge comprehension assistance (e.g. image as representation of a specific problem) and image as a guide to link the user to other information. Using the image to represent a phenomenon or an object is not innovative. We would say here that such practices are current among architects, who take photos of their realisation or building site. Their goal is to capitalise knowledge and skill. The use of an index method will allow future search in the image base (e.g. precise operation or particular work image search). Based on these propositions, we suggest using image in order to formulate a request, and so assisting the designer when he is not able to formulate a design problem (vague need) for himself. The interest of search by image in architectural design activity and particularly of assisting a vague problem formulation has been developed in a PhD work [Nakapan 2003]. The request formulation assisted by image could guide the user to other information (the content of this information is to define in relation to image specificities). 4 PROPOSITION OF A METHOD AROUND THE MEETING REPORT A tool has been developed to experiment the use of image in a construction operation. 4.1 Objectives We have set up a tool allowing users to illustrate the meeting report by images of the construction operation. A study of the meeting report general structure has been developed in order to define exactly the experimental context. We have made fundamental hypotheses. Independently of the form of the document, we can target in its structure two types of information that interest us directly: the progress notion and the particular points. General construction progress relates to tasks or particular work realisation. Particular points refer to details or comments about a specific work. The model presented (Fig. 2) explains the constitution of the document and the different parts that comprise it. Our proposition consists of illustrating the information of “progress points” and “particular points”. The textual information illustrated by the image becomes our index source. The content of the text is linked to the concepts of task (activity), actor and document (a point concerning a specific document, e.g. plan). The specificity of the AEC domain implies the notion of “built work” which is present in all information on the meeting report. Figure 1 is a general scheme of the method developed. It represents the two different spaces of image uses: coordination and capitalisation.

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Figure 1. Experiment principle. Figure 2 presents the conceptual data model of the meeting report document. We will describe the prototype developed based on this model.

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4.2 Experiment description through model description First, the model represents the structure generally observed of the meeting report document: actors presence table, general observations, particular points and progress points (or table). We suggest illustrating particular and progress points with an image that will be indexed in relation to the point content. The implementation of this model in a database has allowed the development of a meeting report tool interface. At present, the index stage is “manual”, the user must choose index terms in two categories: “build work” and “actor”. In the future, we envisage text analysis functions to allow a direct concept extraction from the meeting report text. In the context of this experiment we are doing the data capture but we are developing too a user-friendly interface in order to define a meeting report assistance tool for building construction coordinators. 4.3 Scenarios of use by building construction actors We have set up a web server to diffuse our parallel meeting report to each participant. Users can consult the basis of the meeting reports related to their intervention. For each point in the meeting report, an image can be visualised (small view or big image download). A contextual menu on the image sends users to other images by “proximity criteria” that we will now describe: – “Work under construction” statement proximity. The tool suggests displaying images of the same building work on previous progress states (e.g. week before). – The geographical proximity of built work. With such a function, the user can identify other works in the same area at a specific time (e.g. before, at the same time or coming later). For example it allows the identification of interfaces between actors and risks. – Actor’s proximity. Who works in the same area? What building works are concerned? etc. We think that such information will develop the consciousness of a common work and increase communication between actors. Our hypothesis is that these dynamic navigation functions will allow the user to obtain contextual information about the building project and better situate his own intervention. In our experiment, this function of “proximity” search around images will allow us to better evaluate the potential of images such as a project context visualisation help tool. How can image serve building progress while allowing or increasing the actors auto coordination? Figure 3 shows a view of the web user interface developed (the visualisation of a meeting report). 4.4 First assessment The research work presented here has been approached in different ways. An investigation among architects has allowed us to analyse their needs and their attempts concerning new tools.

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This investigation has shown a real interest in the use of photography, and everybody agrees with its technical character. On the other hand, we have noted the existing needs and the interest in new computerbased tools to assist design and realisation teams. The tool developed is in an initial statement (prototype). At the present it only allows users to manage “particular points” and “progress points” in the meeting report. In the present version, the user can only insert one image and we notice that it’s too limited in some cases. In fact, for some details two photos could increase the comprehension: a large view of the building work and a “closed” view of the detail.

Figure 2. Meeting report data model.

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Figure 3. Web user interface. Concerning the “web user”, the interface is in its first version. We simply display information of a point as a table containing a text, a photo and other information (geographical area and progress) (Fig. 3). We note some limits of the interface. First in the comprehension of areas: a classification by areas would be clearer. Secondly, we envisage graphically signaling the progress statement of a building work, particularly to show the works behind schedule… Finally, we will develop the “proximity links” described above in to increase the dynamic use of the tool. 5 RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES Focusing on coordination around the meeting report we can imagine other methods. The image could be set in relation to a theoretical progress statement (such as a Gantt diagram or digital mock-up) in order to show possible problems in construction progress.

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Beyond this proposition of an everyday use of the photo, we immediately notice the bringing-in of this media into the building life cycle. Many ways of thinking are open too in the patrimony management. For example, illustration of building work sequences enables us to keep a trace of what has been made and how it was made… Thus, “building works” construction information can be reused later, particularly when building works are hidden by other works in the final state of the building (e.g. pipes passages). We underlined too the interest in image in knowledge management. We are at present setting up the structure of a construction risks prevention tool (called here “pathology prevention”). The “search by image” described in part 3.1 seems to be adapted here to allow the user to access information. The designer could navigate without a precise request and be informed about possible pathologies (function of materials used, build works or actors). Technically the search engine could answer the requests (formulated by the image) making the link between two ontologies: one indexing image and the other one indexing a pathology case. 6 CONCLUSIONS Introductive parts of this article show that the study described here follows other research works which allow us to characterise cooperative activity of “design and realisation stages” in the architectural project [Halin, Hanser]. These studies allowed us too to demonstrate the major role of image in architectural design activity as an information vector adapted to the architect cognitive reasoning. [Bignon et al.]. This article presents a research work focused on construction coordination and knowledge management. Our propositions are based on the building construction image or photography as information vector and navigation tool. We want to demonstrate here the place of image as an accessibility vector to a particular work environment: the building construction. The sequential tasks of building construction, precisely described in many documents (progress charts…) are important characteristics to give sense to images. This temporal aspect is very important for every future use. The information content in the meeting report “particular points” is very interesting too because it introduces the particularity linked to the works building stage: e.g. pathology, risks and defects. The proposed functionalities of assistance tools follow these two particular properties of images: general progress and particular points. A first proposition consists of tools oriented “building construction coordination” (workflow), and a second type of tool focuses on assisting designers during the initial design stage bringing terrain knowledge (e.g. pathology risks information). The prototype developed is at present tested on two building sites and will allow us to verify hypotheses described in this article concerning the assistance to the actor coordination by image. A parallel functionality will be developed and available for users concerning the pathology information tool (described in part V).

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REFERENCES [Abeid 2003] ABEID (Jorge), ALLOUCHE (Erez), ARDITI (David), HAYMAN (Michael).— Photo-Net II: a computer-based monitoring system applied to project management.—in “Automation in Construction” 12 (2003) 603–616.—Elsevier Ed.—2003. [Al Hassan 2002] AL HASSAN (E), TRUM (H.) and RUTTEN (P.)—Strategic Briefing. A Conceptual Process Model for Building Design.—In proceedings of DDSS’O2, 6th Conference, Ellecom, Netherlands, pp: 168–185.—2002. [Bignon 2002] BIGNON (J.C.)—Modelisation, simulation et assistance a la conceptionconstruction en Architecture—Habilitation a diriger les recherches, Nancy—2002. [Gardner 1992] GARDNER (H.)—Multiple Intelligence: The Theory in Practice.—New York, Basic Books. Ed.—1992. [Grezes 1994] GREZES (Denis), HENRY (Eric), MIC-QUIAUX (Dominique), FORGUE (Michel).—Le compte rendu de chantier, rapport final de recherche.—Plan Construction Architecture, 1994. [Halin et al. 2003] HALIN (G.), BIGNON (Jean-Claude), SCALETSKY (Celso), NAKAPAN (Walaiporn) and KACHER (Sabrina)—Three approaches of the use of image to assist architectural design.—In proceedings of CAADRIA 2003 (Computer Aided Architectural Design Research In Asia), Bangkok, Thailande.—2003. [Hanser 2002] HANSER (Damien), HALIN (Gilles), BIGNON (Jean-Claude).—Toward a user adaptive vision of architectural projects. Conference eCAADe, Education in Computer Aided Architecture and Design, p.238–245,—Varsovie—septembre 2002. [McCready 1992] McCready (S.)—There is more than one kind of workflow software.— Computerworld,—November 1992. [Simon 1990] SIMON (H.A.)—Sciences des systemes, Sciences de 1’artificiel.—Paris, Editions Dunod—1990.

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Gesprecons: eSafety and risk prevention in the construction sector J.M.Molina, M.Martínez & I.García AIDICO, Volencia, Spain ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of Gesprecons: a platform for collaborative work on safety and risk prevention in the construction sector. Gesprecons system provides support in the generation and application of the Health and Safety Plan. It provides the integration of on-site availability of the documents, activity plans, test data, inspections and results, that may have any relation with safety assurance in building and construction companies. For that, pre-structured context-focused quantity and quality test data, simple access to technical knowledge (standards, codes for practice, text books, co-operate company knowledge, contract specification and of course agreed alterations kept in multi-media notes, etc.) have to be provided in order to enable comparison according to best practice and state-of-the-art.

1 INTRODUCTION The high rate of misfortune accidents within the workplace is one of the main challenges faced by the construction sector. This is caused by three fundamental elements: The need of specific organisation activity, the lack of information related to industrial health and safety received by contractors and other employees responsible for safety procedures, as well as related legislation regarding to risk prevention and finally the simultaneity of different activities with numerous companies at every stage of work. This situation joined to the intermittent participation of all the agents involved in each construction site creates a very complex situation to guarantee that labour risks information at every specific phase of the work site is enforced by the safety coordinator. On the other hand, in nowadays competitive industry, it is a matter of fact that differentiation can give the companies the key to get the leadership. Safety assurance in the working environment in the construction industry is an issue that can help the companies to get that differentiation. Safety on construction sites demands the close interaction of the construction-site players and public authorities, laboratories and project surveyors. Codes, standards, regulations as well as guidelines have to be quickly at hand, interpreted and understood in a common sense in order to ensure safety continuously. The right decision taken at the right moment can avoid serious accidents thus preventing from damages and even deaths. Gesprecons defines a cooperation model among the different work construction representatives from the safety perspective: facultative guidelines, safety coordinator during building phase, constructors, sub-contractors, personnel delegates, personnel

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designated by the companies in security matters (according to the prevention law), and the employees. This approach provides personnel dedicated to the control of health and safety and risk prevention at the construction site with a tool that allows decreasing the number of labour accidents existing within this sector. Therefore, it could guarantee the application and fulfilment of the current safety normative by the personnel in charge of assuring the achievement of the Health and Safety Plans (HASP). In order to reach each subcontractor and agents involved in the work construction, the model is based on the use of mobile and static Internet technology, as well as communication through SMS to facilitate contact with autonomous personnel. The system transmits information regarding labour risk prevention and safety alerts detected by the integration of data capture sensors in the construction site. In a higher level, the system is able to react to possible consults that the user might encompass at the workplace. This is accomplished by linking the consults to a Safety Plan database and a risk prevention database specific for building work activities. In order to provide the different stakeholders with the updated information at every moment, a huge effort has been done in the part of the documentation for the information systems for Gesprecons. The information has been structured in two categories: construction labour and risk prevention. In both cases, current way of working, documentation, bibliography and experienced people have been consulted in order to provide the final users with the most useful information and as well structured as possible. 2 OBJECTIVES The main objective in the development of Gesprecons platform is to offer a remotely accessible collaborative tool for the creation and subsequent application of the HASP. This main target can be detailed in the items described below. – In a general point of view it aims at decreasing the current high level of misfortune accidents between the workers within the construction site thus decreasing the level of deaths and serious injuries. – It intends to promote the Health and Safety law fulfilment in two aspects: the creation of HASPs and its correct execution. This is done by means of facilitating the knowledge of the contents of the law. Currently the preparation of most HASPs consists of copying a previous project and slightly adapting it to the new environment. Later on, the application of the preventive measures imposed by this HASP is very low and difficult to control. Gesprecons facilitates the creation of the plans and supports the responsible agents for its application. – As a positive side effect, the use of Gesprecons increases the construction companies competitiveness. Most of them are SMEs, thus having difficult access to the research on new technologies. Gesprecons facilitates them the advantages provided by technology. – One major issue is the exoneration from responsibilities. This is a very important point, because the responsible agent for the application of the risk prevention measures (Safety Coordinator) has to demonstrate his part of the work in case of accidents. Gesprecons, by keeping register of all the transactions, contributions, warnings, alerts,

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etc. will provide a legal framework to demonstrate his part of the work was accomplished. – In a naturally collaborative environment as the construction sites, where a rather high number of different companies have to share their work space in a short period of time, it is very important to ease the coordination amongst the different stakeholders. This is usually called eColaborative work and Gesprecons provides the framework for it. – In line with the previous point, it is also an important issue to ease the communication flow amongst all the participants at the construction site. Gesprecons provides a common panel to exchange information, either related to HASP or to any other matter in the construction site. – The general Labour Risk Coordinator usually works in several construction sites at a time. This tool provides him with a tool to concentrate the management of all the different construction sites he is working on in one only location. – Gesprecons intends to provide a tool to establish and control work flows in the building work amongst the participating stakeholders. Thus allowing to define the flow of documents, alerts, hierarchical relations, etc. – One major concern is to get an application likely to use. It is a difficult environment and the barriers to apply new technologies are very high, as the working people are not very well prepared. In order to get people using it the application must be very friendly and provide real help in the daily work. – Promote the eWork in the construction industry. It is an industry naturally distributed, each company is working in several sites at a moment. Thus it is an ideal scenario for the application of eWork. Gesprecons platform will extend the office to the construction site, giving seamless connection to the workers. – Furthermore, and apart from all the previous objectives, Gesprecons is only the first step towards the development of a platform for the collaborative work in the whole life cycle of building. Thus including work plan scheduling, quality control, risk prevention control, eProcurement, facility management, etc.

3 METHODOLOGY In order to reach the ambitious objectives stated in the previous section, the application has been carefully designed and developed according to the following steps: – Information compilation. Firstly a hard task of research in the building problem was performed. This research was mainly focused on the Health and Security field. – Process modelling. Then the processes included in the application were modelled using standard representation languages. – Data modelling. Thirdly a data model was deployed to cover the information needs within the problem. – Web tool development. Finally, the tool was developed as a web tool. In the following subsections these four steps are described giving more detail of the actual procedures of development.

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3.1 Information compilation The information compilation task is a major issue within this kind of project. The group needed to

Figure 1. Gesprecons data model. gather all the key information. For the final outcome to be an useful tool it must improve and ease the current way of working and at the same time take into account all the legal compulsory issues. In order to reach these objectives, it is crucial to have all the relevant information. In the project this information has been acquired from all the different involved sources: Firstly all the legal information [1,2,3], including normative, laws, procedures, have been analysed; then the main current software applications used in the sector with similar aims have been tested; also the most updated bibliography related to Health and Safety has been consulted [4,5,6,7] and finally and probably the most important, the potential users have been contacted and questioned about their expectations of such a system. The Spanish Law Ley 31/1995 for Labour Risk Prevention, which transposes the European Framework Directive 89/391/CEE, established the obligation for the constructor: To plan the preventive action from an initial risks evaluation, and to evaluate

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the risks inherent in the selected work tools, substances, and work places conditioning. This obligation has been developed in the chapter II, articles 3 to 7 of the Real Decreto 39/1997, Regulations for the Prevention Services. 3.2 Process and data modelling In order to develop an application that covers the Risk Prevention Tasks the actual processes have been modelled. To this end, all the compiled information has been analysed. Special attention has been paid to the comments from the potential users. This being so because they provide the real taste of the current processes. By analysing the information managed within the processes, a data model has been defined. This data model consists of the data structures needed to perform all the operations in the Risk Prevention. It is shown in Figure 1. 3.3 Web tool development The platform has been developed in the form of a web accessible application. The objective was to maximize the accessibility to the application. By developing a web application the users will access through any device equipped with an Internet browser. Furthermore, updates in the application will not affect the users, as it needs not be reinstalled in their PCs, thus producing a dynamic system. The application development has been done following the criteria of technology independence and cost minimization, always keeping the level of performance. This way, the programming has been done with JAVA, the database system is MS SQL Server, and the applications server is Apache Tomcat which allows for encrypted connections through https. One important issue to be commented is the use of web services in the development of the alerts service. In order to provide independence between the communication module and the rest of the application, they have been implemented as separated parts which communicate through web services. This way changes in mobile technology (as the very close use of UMTS) will not affect the application validity. 4 DEVELOPMENTS In this section the main functionalities offered by the application are described. It is important to highlight that one of the main issues taken into account has been the usability. For this reason the design of the user interface has been specially studied. The main criteria for the design have been: – To offer access to most important functionalities in every screen. – To reduce the number of steps to reach a determined function. – To show the user the path he has followed to reach a function. – To make the functionalities easy to use. – Allow different profiles.

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The development of the platform has comprised two main parts: The database generation and the application implementation. In the following subsections these developments are detailed. 4.1 Information database As previously introduced, there has been a hard work in the side of the database contents preparation. Not only in the selection of that information, but also in its structuring. The information is divided into two types: construction labour, and construction risks. The former is composed of the elements that describe a construction process: phase, activity, materials, machinery, and tools. The latter is composed of the concepts related to safety issues: risk, prevention measure. Of course both types of information are interrelated, in fact any of the construction elements may have several risks and each risk several preventive measures.

Figure 2. Information system structure. Table 1. Database figures. Concept Phase

Number

Relations 16

20 activities

250

7 materials 8 machinery 45 risks

Machinery

74

12 risks

Materials

36

7 risks

130

14 measures

1200

–

Activity

Risk Measure

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Figure 2 shows the structure of the information database. The concept is that a construction work is divided into phases. Each phase consists of a set of activities. In each activity a set of materials and machinery are used. All of the construction elements (phase, activity, materials,…) can trigger a set of risks. And finally a set of preventive measures must be applied in order to remove or at least reduce the risk. All the information related to construction labour and risk management has been studied and fitted into the scheme shown above. The database is accessible and the system administrator can easily do changes, such as adding new items, deleting others or modifying the existing ones. So, once this structuring was agreed, the next step was to organise all the compiled information according to it. Table 1 shows some representative figures about the database. This shows the huge amount of work dedicated to the information system in the application. The first column of the Table 1 shows the different types of elements contained in the database. The second column shows the number of elements contained in the database for each type. And finally, the third column shows the average of relations that each element has with each of the other elements.

Figure 3. Gesprecons login screen.

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4.2 Application The main objective of the application is to offer support to a user in the generation of the HASP for a construction site. Furthermore, the aim is to allow for the collaborative participation of several users in the creation and later treatment of the HASP. Figure 3 shows the login screen for the application. Depending on the user identification the application addresses the user to a different interface, one is addressed to the system administrator, and another one to the normal user. By means of the first view, the system administrator can maintain the system. This includes two main operations: Administrative management, the administrator can sign up, delete or modify the data of the user companies; and information database maintenance, here the administrator can update the contents of the database including new elements or modifying the current ones. The second view is the user interface and provides access to the main functionalities of the system. The contents shown in the different screens depend on the user profile. The system allows for the users to access to different construction works with different profiles. This way a user can be the main safety coordinator in one construction and only a participant in the HASP creation in another one. The list of functionalities offered to the user is the following: – Make the HASP in a collaborative way. The platform main aim is to allow the preparation of the Health & Safety Plan in a collaborative way. To this end, the system allows the users to define the hierarchy they want to follow amongst the different companies participating in the preparation. – Gesprecons platform assists in the HASP execution. It can automatically send alerts notifying the affected workers of a hazardous situation at the construction site. It can send notifications about beginning or ending of phases, risks, etc. – Gesprecons allows for a coordinated management of the construction schedule. This way several companies can work in a construction in a collaborative way using the system as a communications tool. – One usual task for the H&S coordinator is to check the actual fulfilment of the preventive measures in the construction site. This task is performed by means of the preparation and fulfilment of the appropriate checklists. A checklist contains the set of conditions that each preventive measure must accomplish. Gesprecons assists in the preparation and later fulfilment of such checklists. Furthermore, it allows the user to access from the construction sites through mobile devices.

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Figure 4. User main page. – The web accessibility provided by Gesprecons allows user to access remotely to the system databases so disposing at every moment and place of information about regulations in Safety and Risk prevention. Both figures below show the look of the user interface. Figure 4 is the main screen that the user finds when he logs into the system. This screen provides the user with the most important information (pendant measures, recent alerts,…) and facilitates the access to the main functionalities. Figure 5 shows the graphical visualization for the HASP schedule. It is a nice tool for the user to get a fast overview of the global planning. Besides it also provides access to the screen for modifying the elements just clicking on the bar. It shows each type of element in different colour. 5 BUSINESS BENEFITS The use of the platform Gesprecons in the construction industry offers a list of benefits for all of the participant stakeholders. On the one hand it provides the implicit benefits of an eWork application, namely distributed, collaborative and remote work. On the other hand, it provides some specific benefits related to the particular sector it is aimed at. Following these benefits are explained, detailing which are the main aspects for each of the main groups of agents participating in the health and safety assurance in the construction sector.

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Firstly for the construction companies, which must accomplish the Health and Security Law. They are the main actors in this scenario. They have the strength to force the other participants to perform a complete and detailed monitoring of the HASR The benefits that apply directly for them are: – It allows them easily generate and execute the Health and Safety Plan. – The expertise needed to prepare the plans is lower because the tool provides advice, knowledge management and reusability of previous work. – Collaboration workflow with their subcontractors can be defined. – The invested money on the application of the HASP can be reduced. One of the main benefits in this line is the automatic detection of overlapping preventive measures, thus reducing the costs.

Figure 5. Gantt diagram view. Secondly, another big benefited from the system is the Safety Coordinator, whose main advantages are stated below: – He can exonerate his responsibilities because the system keeps registry of his actions, mainly the communications and actions requests to the other participants in the construction work. – He can consult and modify the HASP at any moment and anywhere with an Internet connection. – He can easily know at every moment who is the person responsible for any activity, thus facilitating his communication tasks.

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Finally, the system provides high safety improvements for the workers on the construction site: – They have a safest working environment. – They have an easily accessible channel to throw an alert in case of any emergency.

6 CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER WORK The application of these new work methods provides the involved companies with a significant improvement in their internal management, documentation, and resource management. More specifically, this tool eases the interaction amongst different agents and facilitates a common environment for health and safety management at the construction sites, thus reducing substantially labour accidents. Currently the application is at a first trial period. The initial feedback from the users has been very positive and some constructive suggestions have been reported. In the next months, after taking into account the suggestions from the test users, the platform will start its exploitation phase. Apart from the modifications suggested by the test users, there is a set of improvements already planned. These improvements are focused on the openness of the system. For instance to allow the application to import data from standard formats, to allow the calculations of budgets, etc. Another improvement will be focused on the connectivity. This way the system will be done more accessible, i.e. through advanced mobile devices. To this end the application will be configurable, and the contents will be displayed depending on the connected device. The target devices will be mainly pocket PCs and third generation advanced mobile phones. The final aim of the group is to develop a multidiscipline platform for collaborative work in the construction sector. Gesprecons is the first step. Following steps will add new functionalities to the platform, for instance to assure the Quality procedures fulfilment. Furthermore, the next steps are addressed to the improvement of the application. Indeed the work is already under development in different work lines. On the one hand to add mobility to the system in order to make it accessible from the construction site. On the other hand, to provide the system with capabilities for workers’ situation detection in order to perform selective actions depending on the presence of workers in a given area. REFERENCES [1] Ley 1627/1997, Disposiciones minimas de seguridad y salud en los lugares de trabajo. [2] RD 39/1997 de 17 de enero. Reglamento de los Servicios de Prevención. [3] Ley 31/1.995, de 8 de noviembre, de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales. [4] Manual Básico de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales. Cuadernos Cinco Días. Centros de Estudios Financieros. 1999. [5] Guia práctica para la prevención de riesgos laborales en obras de edificación. Generalitat Valenciana. Conselleria de Economia, Hacienda y Trabajo. 2003.

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[6] Manual de Seguridad y Salud en la Construción. Pedro-Antonio Beguería Latorre. Colegio de Aparejadores y Arquitectos Técnicos de Gerona. 1998. [7] Manual de seguridad y de riesgos laborales y de la protección del medio ambiente. Mutua Universal. CIE. Dossat2000. 1999.

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Intelligent Construction Sites (ICSs) T.Mills, Y.Jung & W.Thabet Department of Building Construction, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA ABSTRACT: This paper introduces and explores the concept of Intelligent Construction Sites (ICSs) supported by current technical tools grouped within an Information Technology (IT) Toolbox. An ICS is more than intelligent site utilization; it is a concept similar to Intelligent Buildings, i.e., active electronic processes and information systems that contribute to the overall operation of the construction plant for its intended purposes. ICSs are designated construction sites that use advanced IT tools to the maximum extent possible. Informational intelligence that contributes to the identification of an ICS is categorized into four broad domains: Digital Imagery Processing, Electronic Data Interchange, Process Modeling and Visualization, and Virtual Collaboration. Tools that support these domains are identified and their contributions within these domains for supporting construction operations are addressed. The nature and extent of these domains is discussed and the associated digital tools that make up an ICS toolbox are profiled. An example that maps Intelligent Tool utilization among the four domains of intelligence and each tool’s contribution toward optimizing a solution to a specific field problem is initiated. The paper concludes by identifying ICS transfer mechanisms and challenges that can be encountered as efforts are made to determine a site intelligence quotient (IQ) or site IQ.

1 INTRODUCTION The lack of accurate, reliable, and timely information exchanges between parties, due to industry fragmentation has historically created inefficiencies, cost overruns, and interparty disputes that too often characterize the construction process. The perceived fact that many actors in the construction process consider each project a customized one-off activity, designed and built by different parties who then go their separate ways, reaffirms the opportunity and need for standardized and repeatable procedures for information exchange. Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) both express industry beliefs that information technology (IT) should have a positive influence on direct field performance. The owner communicates to the designer, who in turn communicates to the constructor, who then communicates instructions to field trades, workers and suppliers. The work that is produced is then inspected and results are relayed back to the constructor who may then be required to affect any corrective work. The dynamic nature of this information exchange frequently results in the inability to predict necessary actions. The resultant inactions that may occur reduce on-site performance. The outcome

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of this fragmentation on overall on-site performance is manifested in problematic and productivity reducing activities such as untimely changes, non-productive labor tasks due to wrong or absent information, disputed change orders, accidents, double handling of material, incorrect material availability, and so on. Of all these problem areas, changes have the most profound effect on altering performance. In addition, many parties can initiate a change in the process, and therefore, it is essential to incorporate uniquely intelligent IT tools to affect a positive outcome on performance, particularly from a productivity position. Egan’s 2002 follow up report “Accelerating Change” recognizes that IT and the Internet are important enablers toward this end (Sun and Howard 2004). For purposes of this discussion, the term “performance” follows Oglesby (1989) definition as encompassing productivity, safety, timeliness, and quality. Changes are a standard part of the building process and are based on informational exchanges and accurate and timely communication among the engaged parties, but they cannot be predicted. Although the construction industry is increasingly adopting IT tools to improve performance, construction is still struggling with inefficiencies and reduced productivity due to ineffective information exchanges. In an effort to utilize IT to improve performance, it becomes necessary to identify and define an IT toolbox that can be developed and used to improve on-site performance. The objective of this paper is to identify and investigate existing information technology tools, categorize them within specified domains and demonstrate how they may be integrated and utilized as on-site problem solvers, thus creating an intelligent construction site (ICS). By identifying the intelligent tools and their transfer mechanisms, an ICS can be defined and designated intelligent. The concept of a site intelligence quotient (IQ) or site IQ is also presented. 2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) IN CONSTRUCTION IT is a term that encompasses all forms of information technology and is commonly understood as software applications, computer enhanced operational methods and techniques used to create, store, exchange, use and archive information in its various forms including data, voice, images, multimedia content, and other informational forms, including those not yet conceived. In the latter 1990’s the Internet has been intensively explored as a 24/7 platform that allows push/pull information exchanges between architects, engineers, construction managers, and construction companies regardless of site location. These project specific websites (PSW) or automated communication sites are only one of many IT tools (Unger 2002, Dawood 2002). There are many other IT tools used to simplify and solve some of the complexities of informational exchange within construction. Sun and Howard (2004) have compiled an extensive inventory of IT strategies and tools, all revolving around shared project databases, which are available to the construction industry as enterprise process enhancers. Among the on-site tools referenced are: 3D representations, bar coding for material handling, laser positioning system for field measurements, videoconferencing, mobile computing processes, etc. With the advent of virtual sites, the limitation of tools for use at a specific location, office or field, is being mitigated. What once may have been an office

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function can now often be handled from a remote location. IT has reduced the time/distance dimension and resulted in opportunities for ICS. 3 INTELLIGENT CONSTRUCTION SITES (ICSs) Traditionally an “intelligent building” is defined by the latest software applications and IT hardware within telecommunications, electronics, security, automation, and building energy control systems (Stein and Reynolds 2000). Similar to an “intelligent building,” an ICS is a designated project site, Figure 1, which

Figure 1. Intelligent Construction Site (ICS) diagram. Table 1. ICS tool domains. Digital Imagery Processing

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

• Dynamic Scheduling • Decision Support System

• Electronic Forms • Electronic Inventory • Positioning Systems

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Virtual Collaboration • Web-based project management

• 3D Visualization • Interactive virtual walk-throughs and virtual construction

• Electronic document management • Electronic plan rooms

• 4D Scheduling

uses an accessible collection of IT tools in meaningful support of on-site operations. In its most advanced forms the ICS optimizes a diversity of cost effective IT tools to provide a proactive performance enhancing project site, in effect an intelligent construction site. To allow for extended on-site IT integration, and create a more intelligent construction site, it is important for users to identify and understand these intelligent tools. Denotation of these tools into categorical domains provides an outline for tool accessibility and future usage. Therefore to aid in their understanding an operational hierarchy of intelligent tools and their task utilization opportunities are presented. These tools, as shown in Table 1, have been synthesized within four domains that comprise ten operative functions within on-site construction management. Table 1 presents the four domains as; 1) Digital Imagery Processing; 2) Electronic Data Interchange; 3) Process Modeling and Visualization; and 4) Virtual Collaboration. Within each of these domains are broad operational functions and technical tools. As stated earlier, the diversity and effectively integrated use of these tools provides for increasing levels of site intelligence. 3.1 Digital Imagery Processing (DIP) In its simplest form, DIP can be characterized by capturing field images using digital cameras for later user processing. Several techniques, each with increasing knowledge sophistication and intelligence levels are available for on-site usage. An example of these intelligent tools/techniques that are operative within a DIP domain are; 1) dynamic scheduling using real time web cams or time-lapse video recording/playback; 2) digital still/motion capture and Internet image distribution and database archiving for subsequent knowledge management. 3.2 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) This domain is uniquely defined as electronic data acquisition and exchange using automatic data collection instruments/devices and field-placed data sensors, and archiving the data on permanent storage media. Among the intelligent tools that perform various tasks within this domain are; bar coding devices for material control; web-cams linked to project specific websites; pocket-PCs with electronic forms for automated data entry and reporting; and wireless networks that incorporate RFID devices.

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3.3 Process modeling and visualization Process modeling and visualization provide affordable IT tools that quickly and realistically depict data in a visual format. The strength of these tools is their capability of transforming voluminous amount of construction related spatial data into a graphical and visual manner that instantly improves comprehension. Significant on-site performance gains can be expected as a result of increased field accuracy and process clarity. There is considerable work being done in areas of 3D visualization, virtual construction environments, and 4D scheduling. Although there are some aspects of this domain to performance enhancements true process modeling is weak and lacks the integration with visualization due to constrains brought about by the absence of common process vocabularies. Therefore the strengths of this domain are in product sequence animations, and virtual environments. 3.4 Virtual collaboration Virtual collaboration allows the project team to share a 24/7 virtual site available to all actors on any construction project. The capabilities of virtual collaboration tools include shared documents linked to a project database accessible through a PSW; teleconstruction capabilities using web-cams; and shared process and product models developed from VRML or 3D animations. The concepts of online web-chats and web conferencing have become more integrated into people’s work-lives and more and more people are using simple web technologies to communicate in text, sound, and visual methods. Among the ICS collaboration functions and tools are: Web-based Project Management, Electronic Document Management, and Electronic Plan Rooms. 4 THE INTELLIGENT CONSTRUCTION TOOLBOX OR IT TOOLBOX The construction industry is communication dependent and currently comprises a diverse mixture of electronic and paper based information exchanges. Unlike manufacturing, construction is a collaborative activity in all phases including not only assembly work but work that occurs prior to and after the assembly processes. The authors define an Intelligent Construction Toolbox, or IC Toolbox, comprised of a collection of current available IT tools that would allow for performing different tasks and processes under the four domains described above. The authors consider a baseline ICS IT toolbox to include a telephone, a fax machine, and a personal computer linked to the Internet with a basic email account. Anything beyond this baseline is a smarter and more ICS. Figure 2 shows a collection of available intelligent technical tools, and the linkages between the tools and the defined domains based on the different levels of integration that exists for problem solving using these tools. As depicted in Figure 2, the four domains contained within the ICS are connected to the avialble technical tools using one-to-many relationships. The technical tools support multiple domains. Each domain contained within the IT Toolbox are interrelated with

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other domain tools. For example, digital prototyping is a tool that has primary capabilities for use within the domains of Digital Imagery Processing and Process Modeling and Visualization. The objective of an ICS is to have access to IT tools and for the user to select the right tool for the right task at the right time. Notwithstanding improvement in e-communication, information delivery and field processing, construction remains a traditionally paper-bound enterprise. Communication among field office participants is done electronically yet the actual presence of information within in the field environment is predominately paper-based. No one is constructing by looking at the actual electronic object. Paper drawings are used to extract information for construction, assembly, and placement. Due to changing stakeholders, the construction process requires a set of unique, yet standardized electronic tools for on-site information exchanges and performance improvements. An identifiable set

Figure 2. Intelligent Tool Box showing domain, function, and tool structure.

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of standard, yet customizable tools is available within the defined domains of the ICSs IT toolbox. 5 PROBLEM SOLVING USING THE IT TOOLBOX ON AN ICS Adrian (2002) notes that approximately seventy-two percent (72%) of the construction workforce’s nonproductive time can be attributed to the lack of information or due to information that is not available when needed to allow work to continue without delay, disruption or error. Forty percent (40%) of this lost time can be characterized as waiting for either instructions or resources, while twenty-two percent (22%) of lost productivity is the result of late, inaccurate or poor information exchanges. The other ten percent (10%) is a result of rework or defects list corrections. The absent of efficient and accurate information exchanges are consistently generating non-productive field activities. Table 2 shows a matrix of opportunity for solving many of these performance deficiencies through the avocation and implementation of ICSs domain intelligent tools. The primary benefit of an ICS using tools from the IT toolbox are the reductions in communication times and the costs associate with using a paper based documentation, which has an inherent delivery and accessibility time lags. The potential problem of the construction site is an ineificient communication flow through a paper-based system that relies on a baseline ICS.

Table 2. ICS Task/Tool selection matrix. Domains Non-productive tasks Waiting on instructions Rework Late or inaccurate information Multiple material handling Punch list work

DIP EDI Process modeling & visualization

Virtual collaboration

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Figure 3. Multiple material handling task solution using Intelligent Tools. The IT toolbox can assist managers by producing a more ICS through the prevalence of using domain specific IT tools for resolving on-site problems. It is conceivable that an effective ICS can reduce on-site errors, minimize rework, improve safety and security, and provide a highly efficient supply of materials and products to the site. Figure 3 outlines an example strategy for an ICSs IT tool selection to solve an information flow problem that is resulting in multiple material handling. A specific inquiry is required to determine what tools are available and what tools can be used to assist in solving the problem. In this example the material is bar coded and identified upon receipt and installation through a mobile computer equipped with a bar code reader. The inventory data is linked to an e-form to a custom database accessible through an internet based PSW. Another task may require different tools to solve the specific operational concerns. For instance, many stakeholders initiated changes during the process and a simple change that is not relayed to the appropriate field personnel in a timely fashion can result in more extensive costs by having to do rework without compensation. Thus poorly communicated changes that lack accurate and timely information exchanges will accrue addition non-productive activities. The availability of IT tools can have the potential to quickly provide the needed information in a usable format at the right time. The primary goal of the IT toolbox is to provide an ICS with the ability to correct informational exchange problems in a manner that improves performance.

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6 SITE INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT (IQ) To achieve an Intelligent Construction Site with a relative high IQ requires an extensive array of IT tools and the ability to effectively deploy these tools in a manner that benefits on-site performance in areas of productivity, safety, quality, and timeliness. The more extensive the IT toolbox and the more cross domain capable, the higher the Site IQ. One should be careful to not equate an ICS with a higher IQ to an ICS that has higher performance due to a higher degree of IT tool utilization. This is equivalent to having book sense but no common sense. One must always remember a tool is designed to improve not hinder performance. Care must be taken to select the right tools and prevent the accumulation of too many tools as a smart toolbox may make a dumb site. Thus to create an intelligent ICS, several tasks must be addressed and successfully implemented. Among these task implementation requirements are: • An analysis of project complexities and operational uncertainties, • Identification of on-site operational strategies, • The examination and valuation of systematic ICS IT domains, • The determination of needed internal ICS functional techniques, • The identification of needed on-site IT tools to meet the defined IT needs, • The stocking of an ICS IT toolbox that meets the on-site operational strategies, • The deployment of these tools in appropriate combinations to enhance on-site performance. A successful ICS uses collaborative and systematic efforts to identify and evaluate on-site shortcomings and fills its IT toolbox accordingly By careful understanding of the IT toolbox domain/ftmction/tool structure a user should be able to effectively select the right tool for the right task. As several IT tools may successful operate within the four interdependent domains, an ICS needs to understand its on-site/off-site information needs, its operational concepts, information exchange parameters, tool technology, and deployment strategies to create an ICS that’s truly intelligent. 7 CONCLUSION The Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry has adopted and considered a wide array of useful, meaningful, and accessible information tools in support of construction operations. To understand the operational benefits from these tools, their informational contributions in making an ICS are explored. The breadth and depth of intelligent tool usage yields the site IQ.

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REFERENCES Abeid, J. and Arditi, J. (2002). Linking Time-Lapse Digital Photography and Dynamic Scheduling of Construction Operations. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 4, 269– 279. Adrian, J. (2000). Ten New Themes for Productivity Improvement, Construction Productivity Newsletter. Vol. 18, No. 6. Dawood, N., Akinsola, A. and Hobbs, B. (2002). Development of automated communication of system for managing site information using internet technology. Automation in Construction 11 (2002)557–572. Egan, J. (1998). Rethinking Construction. London, HMSO. Latham, M. (1994). Constructing the Team. London, HSMO. Olgesby, C., Parker, H. and Howell, G. (1989). Productivity Improvement in Construction. New York, McGraw-Hill. Stein, B. and Reynolds, J. (2000). Mechanical and electrical equipment for buildings. New York, Wiley. Sun, M. and Howard, R. (2004). Understanding I.T. in Construction. London, Sporn Press. Unger, S. (2002). The trend towards an Internet-based communication standard in the A/E/C industry. A Construct-ware White Paper, Atlanta, Constructw@re.

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Organizational point of view for the use of information technology in construction projects P.Praper Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Maribor, Slovenia ABSTRACT: Not one project is carried out as whole by only one company. The companies may have different roles in projects: they could be investor, main contractor or subcontractor. Setting up the organizational schema of the project is a hard and responsible task of the main project system. The communication and responsibilities must be set up simultaneously with the setting up of the organizational schema. The IT technology used on the side of the main project system has open enough that other participant in process can be incorporated into it and on the other side the IT technology used should be flexible enough that in can adapt to the defined role. In this paper the conclusions and guidelines are made on the data and characteristics of the projects, phases of the projects and organizational schemes. The data was gathered in a relation database by project manager during the project lifecycle.

1 INTRODUCTION In this paper, the business model is construction SME’s, where the project manager usually works on several projects at the same time. It is well known, that the construction industry is fragmented and construction projects include diverse enterprises ranging from engineering to construction, to material production, to several pre and post construction services. There are many different points of view on the project and at least as many organizational approaches: from pure project organization to matrix and functional approaches (Litke H. 2002). When we take into consideration the whole project life cycle it is essential to clarify the roles of the participants. The definitions of roles in particular project is especially important because the construction companies are in different roles; from investors on the market to main contractor to subcontractor. Also the term project manager is often confusing while as on the same project the designers have a “project manager”, the building company has a “project manager” and the investor also has a “project manager”. When we talk about IT in project management it is wrong to isolate only some activities or phases. IT support must in the first place take into consideration the whole project cycle, although it is possible support only for required areas. On the other hand it is essential to classify and standardize the project management process. At

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present there are no sufficient standards for important tasks in planning and management. (Kuhne C. & C.Leistner 2002) The purpose of this paper is based on case studies to open some dilemmas and reasons and to clarify the relations important in this process. 2 PHASES AND ORGANIZATIONAL HIERARCHY Construction projects have many different and independent people or institutions involved within a particular phase or in several phases of the project. There are several classifications of the investment project phases and relations among them. The most overall division of the whole project life cycle includes the concept of the project, design, building and exploitation. When we talk about a construction project, often only the Design planning, Cost estimating and scheduling, Technical design, Invitation to bid, Building, Project billing and controlling are mentioned (Kuhne C. & C.Leistner 2002). But when we consider the project manager’s point of view towards the whole life cycle of the project it is obvious that the real estate procedures such as acquiring real estate, breaking up an estate and geological research play important roles in time, cost and quality estimation. The relations among them are usually much more complex than they look on the first sight. On the basis of the different professions involved, legislation and stages of the construction project, the following supporting processes have to be added into whole life cycle of the project: – Initiative, Start up – Real estate procedures – Spatial plan procedures – Evaluations of all activities – Agreements – Supervision – Exploitation, maintenance. All of the above phases require collaboration and the exchange of documentation, and all of them produce documentation of the project When we talk about successful realization of the cost, quality and time plan, all the phases have to be managed and IT is the tool of optimization. According to Hauc the project includes the project and all systems included in the project. (Hauc A. 2002) The project system consists of: main system, managing system and execution system. The main system, that is usually investor or beneficiary, develops a vision for the project, copes with operational and strategic chance on the project and sets the general direction of the project. Managing system has the task of coping with the complexity of developing and implementing a management system for the project, maintaining oversight of the efficient and effective use of resources designing and developing the management functions, organizing, motivating, directing and controlling, the project, ensuring the

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communication process involved in the project works effectively. The project manager is part of managing system and must both: lead and manage. The execution of the activities is the task of external executants and internal executants—subcontractors. They are chosen from inside the company or on the market according to the rules of tender. On a project as a whole we can define a project system, but executants of a particular task see only their subscriber and supervisor. 3 CASE STUDY With aim of optimizing the management process we have started to collect project management data from the projects. The basis were MS Excel tables that every project manager have had on their computer and later also on networks. The upgrade to a relation database was logical progress, where all employees registered every event and document to form, that was related to the database. For this purpose we have developed a simple and practical project management tool called ITvPR, developed simultaneously with the progress of the project. Microsoft Access has been chosen for Database engine. Even thought it is not considered a real database engine, it has several advantages: like Excel it is part of MS Office, easy to use, widespread all over the world and it can be exported to more powerful database engines such as SQL Server. The database consists of several entities: companies, prqjects, persons involved in the process, send and received post, offers, traveling costs, cash flow, contracts, and invoices. Over three years time in database there were about 100 project managed by 6 project managers. Projects have been deeply analyzed from the inside, i.e. from project manager’s side. Comparison of them all would exceed this paper, so here are descriptions and organizational schema of two of them. First is the investment in new shopping, second is the reconstruction and adaptation of a castle into a library. Both projects have similar budgets and useful business area, but other characteristics such as complexity, speed, repetition and organizational approach are quite different. The shopping center is a new building for known users in as short a time as possible (less than a year from initiation to the realization). The project management spent approximately 1790 hours; there were 15 contracts with direct subcontractors and they made out 55 invoices. Reconstruction of the castle into a library started in 2001 and it is scheduled to finish in October 2004. The project is financed by the Ministry for culture and 4 municipalities. Until now the project management has spent approximately 2825 hours; there were 64 contracts with direct subcontractors and they made out 158 invoices.

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4 ORGANIZATIONAL SCHEME Figures 1 and 2 show the relationships, main phases, participants and deciding levels of the described projects. At the top of each figure there the authorities and legislation that give the principle rules and framework for the specific location. Under them are the diversified levels of the participants in the process. The connections among them show who commissioned whom. Some link cross, which means conflicts. The collision of interest is especially problematic when the commission is given across two or more levels as is the case in the first project. Contractors who subscribe to different decision levels are also quite problematic. In such cases one usually subscribes quality while the other one is the financier. Another problem of the project pointed out in Figure 2, is that the role of project management is not well defined. The investor in this case is a public institution, so all commissions are contracted with this public institution, so the external project management have only a consultant’s role and cannot give effect to commissions.

Figure 1. Shopping center project.

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Figure 2. Renovation of castle into library project. When we view the figures from left to right we can see the time component of the project. From both figures it is evident that at beginning of the project, the project manager was already in contact with the authorities and the beneficiary and so was well introduced to their wishes and constraints. The orders, documentation and payments use the same connections as the deciding and commission connections and this is why they are so important. 5CONCLUSIONS The collaboration on the project involves multiple groups and departments inside and outside the company. The type and size of organizations taking part in the construction projects can be very different. When the company buys or develops IT support for project management it has to consider their own role in the project’s life cycle and in the organization concept because the collaboration with other participants is essential. The beginning of the project is however the most important phase and has a major impact on the results of the project, although it represents only a minor financial part. The task of the project management is to define, on the basis of experience and knowledge, the organization of the project and IT support. At a beginning of the project the main concept of information and communication technology have to be already defined and contractors who enter into a particular phase just have to accept rules. That is why it is so important that the main investors such as Ministries, Municipalities, financial institutions, residential ftmds and construction companies are aware of the benefits of good organization and together with project managers and

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consulting engineers should understand the importance of the standardization of project management and organizational levels that can then be IT supported. However the responsibility and control of the project is up to the project manager who has an interest for IT support while it means good results in cost, quality and time sense. He must define the organizational scheme so that it has fewer and fewer crossings and commissions over diiferent decision levels. REFERENCES Bennett J. 1985. Construction project management, UK: Butterworths. Litke H. 2002. Projekt—management. Freiburg im Breisgau: Haufe. Hauc A. 2002. Projektni management. Kuhne C. & C.Leistner2002. Benefits of using product and process model data in project management. Proceeding of ECPPM 2002. Netherlands: Balkema. Psunder I. 1998. Strategy of quality in building projects. Proceedings/14th World Congress on Project Management. Ljubljana: Slovenian Project management organization.

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Virtual reality at the building site: investigating how the VR model is experienced and its practical applicability S.Woksepp NCC Construction Sverige AB and eBygg—Center for Information Technology in Construction, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden O.Tullberg Department of Structural Mechanics, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden T.Olofsson eBygg—Center for Information Technology in Construction, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden ABSTRACT: The paper presents an investigating on how a visualised Virtual Reality (VR) model is experienced and assessed by the workforce at a building site. It also provides insight of the basic information flow requirements. The questionnaire involved a total of 93 participants, all of whom were involved in the building project. The VR model in question was realistic, as the majority of the participants were positive about using it in their profession. The participants also felt that the information flow at the building site was insufficient today and that a VR model can have a beneficial effect on information transfer and co-operation. Further studies using VR modeling in construction is necessary to provide knowledge for practical implementation.

1 INTRODUCTION “Designing all but the simplest of products and artifacts on paper has now had its day. Moving to VR affords greater clarity and understanding, facilitates simulations and testing, and as a result, great savings”. Cochrane(1997) The most common way of distributing technical information at a building site is by means of 2D CAD drawings. It is often necessary to consult more than one drawing to perform a single task on a site. There is a clear need for ready access to these drawings in updated, correct form. In addition, the information should be easy to understand in order to avoid misunderstandings and costly mistakes. The use of Virtual Reality (VR) offers one possible solution. However, there has been little empirical investigation of VR

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technologies by companies in the construction sector (Whyte 2001). To determine whether VR can provide a useful complement to traditional building techniques and to 2D CAD, the requirements for the practical use on daily basis have to be determined. In addition, the design of a VR model also needs to consider the specific needs from different groups of the users, i.e. construction workers, site managers, designers and other persons or groups involved. Even if VR has been shown to be effective for visualising information in many other contexts, its broadbased use within the construction industry is yet to come. However, many research centers and government laboratories have provided the opportunity for construction companies to make use of their VR facilities. An example of VR system used by the construction companies is Bechtel’s WALKTHRU (WALKTHRU 1991) available since 1980s, which uses real-time animated images and links together three-dimensional graphics packages and engineering databases (Retik & Shapira 1999). Roupé et al. (2001) examined how users experienced a detailed VR model of an office building. Although their study targeted users of office premises and thereby related to the building design, it provided indications of how individuals who are not accustomed to VR technology experienced a VR model. The results suggested that the tested VR model was perceived as being realistic. Calderon et al. (2000) studied communication between members of design and construction teams, their clients and other, indirect stakeholders. However, there is a lack of adequate research on the use of VR during the construction phase and that VR so far has relatively few practical applications in this area. The result presented in this paper is a part of the project “Applied Virtual Reality for Large and Complex Buildings” (VR/lcb), (Woksepp 2001, Woksepp & Tullberg 2001). It is an effort to quantify the attitudes of using VR at the construction site with statistical analysis. The questionnaire was designed with funnel technique, which involves starting with general questions, or statements to which the participant is to respond, followed by indepth questions or statements designed to study the respondents’ attitudes toward specific issues (Dahlström 1970). All the statements and questions have a set of reply alternatives. The framing of the statements and questions used in the questionnaire accounts for the standard of attainment in this type of context (Lantz 1993). 2 VR SYSTEM AND VR MODEL The software and hardware used in the study are commercial and available on the market. The investment can be described as reasonable, i.e. suitable not only for large but also for small and medium-sized enterprises. The VR model used was a prototype of “Centralhuset”—a hotel and office block completed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in November 2003. The model was produced by including a number of different 3D modelling tools, such as 3D Studio (Autodesk™), SolidWorks (SolidWorks™), AutoCAD (Autodesk™) and Xsteel (Tekla™). The VR model, visualised in Division MockUp (PTC™), describes the construction of “Centralhuset”, in particular its steel structure, foundations, adjacent surroundings, frontage, beams and floor components and the incoming rail tracks.

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For the VR demonstrations, two PCs were employed: a 256 Mb RAM/18 Gb HD 1 GHz SGI Zx 10 with a Wildcat II 5110 graphics card and a 256Mb RAM/18Gb HD 866 MHz Compaq SP750 with a Wildcat Pro 4110 graphics card. The VR visualisation can be described as desktop immersive. A Proxima UltraLight X350 projects the VR model on a screen, while a Magellan Space mouse is used to navigate in the Virtual Environment. The VR equipment was chosen for its functionality, price, flexibility and full compatibility with CAD. Division MockUp (PTC™) was used for the VR visualisation. Approximately 10,000 objects were used to produce the VR model of “Centralhuset”. The VR model in the study included the following environments: – the adjacent surroundings, – the excavation, the piles and foundation, – the steel structure and the prefabricated floors, – parts of the facade, – the railway station, – the site office, the crane and – a proposal for office space.

Figure 1. The steel structure.

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Figure 2. Foundations and piles.

Figure 3. A proposal for office space. Figure 1–3 shows some of the included environments in the VR model. The input to the VR model came from 2D CAD drawings and some 3D CAD model of the steel structure. Although the model is extensive, the size of the resulting VR files is only 85MB. To date, approximately 350 man-hours have been spent to create the virtual prototype, at a cost of approximately EUR 35,000.

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3 RESEARCH AIM The questionnaire was designed to study how the visualised VR model of “Centralhuset” in Gothenburg, Sweden, was experienced and assaessed by users and the extent to which a model of this kind could complement the 2D CAD drawings that are generally employed in this kind of context. The operational use of VR at the building site was the primary concern. By studying people who had little or no experience of 3D CAD or of VR, we hoped to reveal the attitudes of the average person working at a construction site rather than those of a 3D CAD or VR expert. 4 METHOD 4.1 Design The questionnaire consisted of 20/21 questions or statements (21 directed at the building owner representatives, NCC Property Development). To obtain a general view of the participants as individuals, the questionnaire started with three questions pertaining to individual characteristics (age, profession and computer skills). Then, statements for investigating participants’ attitudes towards the use of the VR model were presented. Subsequently, various statements relating to the information flow at the building site were presented. The questionnaire closed with a section containing general statements concerning the use of a VR model in the respondents’ own profession. The statements in the questionnaire as a whole have the same formulation for all participants, except in this final section. Here, statements about customer relations were presented for the representatives for the building owners. All statements were expressed as assertions rather than negations. Although leading questions or statements should be avoided in a questionnaire, (as they could reflect the position the researcher, Ekholm & Fransson 1994), we nevertheless decided that an approach of this sort was best for investigating the main questions of the study: 1 How will the VR prototype be envisaged, experienced and assessed by the users, and 2 To what extent can a VR model complement the use of 2D CAD drawings. The questionnaire comprised of nine pages, including a description of its aims, a statement regarding the confidentiality of the results, the questions and statements and space for the participants to write in any additional comments they wished to make. A Likert scale was employed to convert the participants’ responses into numerical data. The Likert technique involves various statements being presented and participants being asked to express agreement or disagreement on a five-point scale: “Strongly agree” (5), “Agree” (4), “Undecided” (3), “Disagree” (2) or “Strongly disagree” (1). A seven point-scale can also be applied using the Likert technique (Trost 2001). Since numerical values represent the participants’ attitudes expressed in points, different values represent different attitudes (Patel & Davidson 1994). The Likert scale was used for all the

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questions in the questionnaire, with the exception of questions relating to personal characteristics, first contact with VR, information flow and the final questions directed at the building owner representatives. The collected results were and converted into numerical values. The mean and the standard deviation for the participant group as a whole were calculated for each statement. The standard deviation indicates how the obtained scores from the participants vary around the mean value (cf. Niles 2002). The results were stored in a database and the statistical analysis was made in Matlab, a numerical software package from MathWorks™. 4.2 Procedure and participants The procedure was to deliver questionnaire to the participants at the building site Centralhuset in groups of 1–20 individuals at a time. The fact that the building was halfcompleted made it particularly easy for participants to compare the VR model with the erected construction, thereby facilitating comparisons of the expressions “Virtual Reality” and “Reality”. The project leader started a test session giving a short introduction of the research project and handing out the questionnaires. The participants began by answering the introductory part concerning the personal details and characteristics. Then, the concept of VR was presented followed by a demonstration of the VR model. The participants continued by answering the remaining questions and statements in the questionnaire. The project leader was present throughout the session to provide support for the participants if any of the questions or statements were difficult to understand. It took approximately 20 minutes for the participants to complete the questionnaire; including the time taken by the VR demonstration. The majority of the people involved in the construction of “Centralhuset” participated in the study. Figures 4 and 5 shows the distributions in occupation and age of the 93 respondents. The construction workers were the most heavily represented category. The age ranged from 20 to 62 years. Differences due to gender could not be investigated, since too few women took part in the study. The majority (53 of 93) of the participants agreed with the statement “I consider that I have good computer skills”. To the statement “This is my first contact with Virtual Reality”, 67 people agreed and 26 disagreed. The majority of the participants that previously had experience with 3D modelling and/or with VR were designers.

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Figure 4. The participants’ occupations.

Figure 5. The age of participants.

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5 RESULTS 5.1 The questionnaire The main goal of the study was to establish whether a VR model could be a practical and reliable information tool at the building site. We also wanted to investigate the possibilities of the VR technology in improving the flow of information and co-operation between the people participating in the construction work at the building site. The result is not conclusive, but can serve as guidance rather than definite due to the limitations of the study. The main results from the study are summarized in Tables 1, 2 and 3. The final part of the questionnaire was the section that generated the most intense discussions. Comments such as “This is great, but how do we implement it in our everyday work?” or “Interesting, but can we save any money by using a VR model at the building site?”. Further research is needed in order to provide answers to these questions. However, the majority of the respondents were positive about using VR models at the building site, as shown in Table 3. Some concerns regarding the financial benefits and of how well they could manage a VR model was expressed. Despite their positive attitude to using VR models, most of participants still felt the need for further investigation of the benefits of VR.

Table 1. Participants’ attitudes towards VR regarding impressions, navigation and co-operation. Virtual Reality (VR)

Mean value

Standard deviation

First impressions at the VR demonstration The VR model provides a better overview of “Centralhuset” than 2D CAD drawings do.

4.57/5

0.54

The Virtual Reality model of “Centralhuset” has an appearance that inspires confidence in it.

4.30/5

0.69

Details show up better in VR than in 2D CAD drawings.

4.12/5

0.68

It is easier for me to explain the details I am involved with professionally using a VR model than using 2D CAD drawings.

4.16/5

0.80

Having the ability to navigate within the VR environment and thus being able to scrutinise the model involved from different angles helps me to understand details.

4.50/5

0.70

The co-operation I have with my colleagues within the same occupational group is facilitated by using a VR model.

4.01/5

0.73

The co-operation I have with colleagues from other occupational groups

4.20/5

0.72

Help of navigation in the handling of details

Co-operation by use of a virtual environment

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is facilitated by using a VR model. Details in areas outside my areas of professional expertise are easier for me to understand with the aid of a VR m odel.

4.30/5

0.73

5.2 Additional comments In addition to answering questions and responding to statements, the participants could also add comments in the questionnaire. Most of the comments related to the degree of detailing and the cost of using the VR model. Other comments related to when the VR model was likely to be feasible. The highest potential of the

Table 2. The participants’ present and desired future access to information. Information handling

Mean value

Standard deviation

I already receive enough information in my job without the help of VR models.

3.55/5

0.77

I’m satisfied with the way information is distributed to me now, without the help of VR models.

3.40/5

0.75

Personal situation

In my occupation, I receive information primarily from the following sources (several alternatives can be selected):

1.

2D CAD drawings

2.

3D CAD drawings

3.

Personal contacts

4.

By telephone

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5.

By fax

6.

Through the internet

7.

LAN (Local Area Network)

8.

From literature, brochures etc.

9.

From other sources

In my future job situation, I would like to receive information mainly from the following sources (several alternatives can be selected):

1.

2D CAD drawings

2.

3D CAD drawings

3.

Personal contacts

4.

By telephone

5.

By fax

6.

Through the internet

7.

LAN (Local Area Network)

8.

From literature, brochures etc.

9.

From other sources

10.

From Virtual Reality models

Table 3. Summary of the participants' attitudes towards using the VR model in their work.

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Final section* Using VR models in one’s own work I think I would benefit from using VR models in my work.

4.30/5

0.68

I could imagine using VR models in my work.

4.28/5

0.75

Convincing me of the benefits of Virtual Reality would require: (several alternatives can be selected):

1.

Nothing, I am already convinced

2.

Successful pilot projects

3.

Economic analysis

4.

VR presentations at the workplace

5.

Better technical knowledge

6.

Other factors

*Two additional questions for the representatives of the building owner are presented in Section 4.2. In addition, all the participants apart from the representatives of the building owner answered the first statement in the “Final section”.

VR model was believed to be when a new task was about to be performed rather than using it all the time. The rest of the comments related to problems associated with keeping the VR model updated and the need for adaptation to the conditions on the building site. The representatives of the building owner responded to two additional statements: – I believe that using VR models can give me a more favourable position in relation to my customers.

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– I believe that by using VR, I can reduce the costs of errors sufficiently to cover the costs of the modeling work. According to Josephson (1990) the reduction of errors is estimated to 10% of the total construction. The estimated cost of the VR model is 2%o. The last question is clearly speculative; however, the statement could give some indication on costs assessment. The first of these two statements yielded a more positive response, as all the participants selected “Strongly agree” or “Agree” (Mean—4.5, Standard deviation— 0.58). The second statement received a response that, albeit it pointed slightly in the direction of agreement (Mean—3.25, Standard deviation—0.63), has to be considered “Undecided”. However, since only four building owner representatives participated, the response is only indicative. A much larger number of participants is needed to ensure reliable responses. 6 DISCUSSION The aim of the questionnaire was to investigate the way work force involved in constructing the “Centralhuset” building in the city of Gothenburg, experienced and assessed the VR model as well as the intended use for information purposes. The VR model focused primarily on the supporting structure, the foundations and the prefabricated floor components of the building. We expected that some of the occupational groups could have more use for the model than other groups. Therefore, we endeavored to perfect the original version of the VR model to make it as suitable as possible for all the occupational groups involved. In the questionnaire, three objective personal characteristics of the participants; age, occupation and computer skills, were determined. No relationship between these characteristics and the views or attitudes that the participants expressed in their responses could be found. Although we did not perform any significance tests, the reasonably high mean values combined with low standard deviations obtained for most of the test items relating to the participants’ attitudes and assessments, indicates a high degree of consensus. This gives a strong indication of the conclusions drawn. 7 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH The results of the study suggest that there is a genuine need to improve the information flow at building sites. The usefulness of technical aids such as VR, appears to be obvious, especially as a complement to the 2D CAD drawings. Indications that can inhibit integration of VR into the building process was also found in limited technical knowledge and financial considerations. The present procedure of distributing information by means of 2D CAD drawings is ineffective. Moreover, planning in 2D rather than directly in 3D considerably increases the cost of producing a VR model. The views of the respondents on the different issues in the questionnaire varied very little, between different ages, occupations and computer skills. Although the construction

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workers were the group whose computer skills were most limited, they were particularly positive in their assessment of the advantages of using VR in the construction process. The fact that they receive information largely from 2D CAD drawings and personal communication may well have contributed to the positive attitude to new and richer forms of communication media. This type of VR model needs to be carefully developed to complement to the information given in 2D, especially in the sections and in details that are difficult to grasp with 2D drawings. Therefore, we recommend that specialists on VR are used to produce and maintain the model of the construction process. It is also important to inspire and give confidence in the technology to people who are going to use the VR model. Otherwise, the model will not be used in practice. The developers of VR system have to adapt their systems to the needs in order to be useful for the construction industry. Further studies regarding the planning and performance of the construction work using VR modeling are therefore necessary to provide the necessary facts for implementation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The study received financial support from IT Construction & Real Estate 2002, NCC AB and Chalmers University of Technology. We are grateful to everyone who took the time to participate in the study and to provide the necessary feedback. Special thanks are also due to the companies at the building site; specifically NCC AB and its sub-contractors, for allowing us to interrupt their work so as to administer the questionnaire. REFERENCES Calderon, C.P., van Schaik, P. & Hobbs, B. 2000. Is VR an effective communication medium for building design? Proceedings of the Virtual Reality International Conference, Laval, France, 18–19 May. Cochrane, P. 1997. 108 tips for the time travelers. London: Orion Business Paperbacks. Dahlström, E. 1970. Interview and survey techniques. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. (In Swedish). Ekholm, M. & Fransson, A. 1994. Practical interview techniques. Stockholm: Norstedts Publishing House AB. (In Swedish). Josephson, P-E. 1990. Quality in building—a discussion about quality error costs, Report 25. Department of Building Economics and Management, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. (In Swedish). Lantz, A. 1993. Interview methodology: To carry out an interview. Stockholm: Studentlitteratur. (In Swedish). Niles, R. Statistics every writer should know: A journalist’s guide to using basic math to understand data and statistical research. http://www.robertniles.com/ (accessed 10/7/2002). Patel, R. & Davidson, B. 1994. The basics of research methodology: To plan, perform and report an inquiry (2nd edition), Stockholm: Studentlitteratur. (In Swedish). Retik, A. & Shapira, A. 1999. VR-based planning of construction site activities, Journal of Automation in Construction 8: pp 671–680.

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Roupé, M., Sunesson, K., Wernemyr, C., Westerdahl, B. & Allwood, C.M. 2001. Perceived meaning in Virtual Reality architectural models. Proceedings of AVR II & CONVR 2001. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 4–5 October. Trost, J. 2001. Enkätboken (2nd edition), Stockholm: Studentlitteratur. (In Swedish). WALKTHRU PC Version 1.0, 3D Simulation, User’s Manual, Bechtel’s Software, 1991. Whyte, J. 2001. Business drivers for the use of Virtual Reality in the construction sector. Proceedings of AVR II & CONVR 2001. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 4–5 October. Woksepp, S. 2001. Virtual Reality in Construction—a state of the art report. Internal publication 02:3. Department of Structural Mechanics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. Woksepp, S. & Tullberg, O. 2001. “Centralhuset”: A Virtual Reality project at the building site. Proceedings of AVR II & CONVR 2001. Chalmers University of Technology, Gorthenburg, 4–5 October.

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Evaluating competitiveness in construction industry: an alternative frame A.Y.Toprakli, A.Dikbaş & Y.Sey Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey ABSTRACT: Competition is defined as the core concept in nonmonopolistic markets and competitive strategy and competitiveness of firms become an important area of interest among researchers. Accordingly, various frameworks and tools for analyzing competitiveness have been suggested mainly for manufacturing industries. Some colleagues also applied these frameworks for construction industry. However, there are some vague points emerged while analyzing competitiveness associated with scale and environment differences of construction industry. This paper analyzes appropriate categorization of construction environments for competitiveness tools application and aims at providing an alternative outline about examining competitiveness.

1 INTRODUCTION The start of the new century has brought new challenges for firms, industries and countries. Throughout its long history, competitiveness is highlighted once more as a crucial concern for enterprises to survive. Accordingly, numerous studies evolved for analyzing competitiveness issues. However, most of these studies aimed mainly for manufacturing industries and produce frameworks for analyzing different aspects of the term. These frameworks are usually employed for construction industry in second hand and scholars commonly apply these models to construction to see the immediate results of these tools. However it is obvious that there are major differences between the manufacturing industries and construction industry. So, application of these manufacturing industry oriented tools makes these analyses weak and suspect regarding construction industry environments. Competitiveness issue is important since it would provide different points of view to construction management studies and related applications. It is seen that despite growing concerns and research conducted about ‘competitiveness’ in construction, it is still a diffuse concept, and subject to many interpretations. These varying interpretations also make the term difficult to define properly and apply fittingly. Moreover, the actual scene about construction industry is usually distorted by these varying competitiveness models and tools and their applications. For this point this paper issues applicability, scope, strengths and weaknesses of some well-known competitiveness models and tools in construction industry and aims at bringing a categorization to business environments of construction industry for the changing characteristics of the competitiveness term.

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2 DEFINITIONS In following subsections, characteristics, environment of construction industry and competitiveness related issues are highlighted. 2.1 Characteristics of the construction industry In literature there are various definitions for the characteristics of the construction industry. The classification made by Sugimoto (1990) provides a more theoretical and fundamental one and the following list is formed to address some well-known and provisional characteristics of construction which diversify it from manufacturing industries. Experience-Good and Customization Characteristics: Customization of construction activities makes the output of construction production an ‘experience good’ and compared to a ‘manufacturing good’, whose quality is evident on inspection before purchase, the quality is understood only by using it after purchase. Specialization and Vertical Integration in Functions: The distinction between different types of firms is defined by Sugimoto (1990) as often blurred through vertical integration in functions. To illustrate, an engineering firm, which is basically considered as a design firm could ‘vertically integrate’ with all sorts of pre-construction activities and engage in project management and contractor branches. Unique bidding basis: According to Ball (1988) speculative construction can be seen as an extension of manufacturing in construction industry but bidding arrangements are special for construction for that every project is priced separately and distinctly in the form of a bid for that particular project. Relative subcontracting system: The subcontracting system is special in the construction industry since it permits the kind of flexibility required whereby various mixes of contractors and crafts must be mobilized to suit the unique requirements of a project. Ambiguity of goods and service production of construction firms: Particular to the specialization of functions of construction firms, there is a difficulty in defining their production: Although the construction industry is usually categorized as a service industry, firms in the construction industry produce both goods and services. International Involvement of Construction Firms: Manufacturing firms usually supply foreign markets in three primary modes: export, foreign direct investment (FDI) including equity-base joint venture etc. However, in construction industry, the ways of serving a foreign market is defined to be less straightforward because of the unique production process and subsequent industrial structure of the industry. Finally construction industry differs from manufacturing industry in referred points. According to Sugimoto (1990), theoretical treatment of construction production has not been sufficient enough to address these ambiguities in a systematic way and if construction industry and its productions are unique, it is theoretically misleading to apply ideas established for other industries to the construction industry and its firms.

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2.2 The environment of construction industry The structure and the environment of an industry directly influence the nature of competition between firms and accordingly the competitive strategies available to them (Porter, 1980). Construction is often reported as being a fragmented industry which is defined as ‘one in which no company has a significant market share and is able to influence considerable outcomes within the industry’. Furthermore, it is also defined as a geographically dispersed projectbased industry with markets that operate from local to the international level. Within this frame, the industry can be characterized as first, geographically dispersed and over-lapping market structures and second, is hierarchically structured in terms of company size (Langford, 2001). 3 COMPETITIVENESS Competitiveness, which is usually handled at three different levels, country, industry and firm level in literature, is a multi dimensional notion and originates from the Latin word ‘competer’ which means involvement in business rivalry for business markets (Momaya, 2004). Currently, institutions and academicians have been very prolific in proposing a definition for competitiveness (IMD, 2003) and this diversity can be seen as an indicator of the popularity of the subject but also of its complex nature. To draw upon the common elements of various approaches Lall (2001) defined competitiveness in industrial activities as a means of developing relative efficiency along with sustainable growth and should be understood more like a process than an absolute state, assessed in a relative sense as well. 3.1 Firm to national level competitiveness The fimdamental principle, which allows the distinction between concept of competitiveness of nations, industries and enterprises, concentrates on where the creation of economic value takes place. In current literature it is assumed that economic value is only created within the context of an enterprise and a nation’s environment hinders or supports this process through its policies (Lall, 2001). Momaya (2004) also states that understanding the competitiveness dynamics at the firm level is crucial for competitiveness. 3.2 Competitiveness related frameworks and models There are various competitiveness related frameworks exist in literature. Porter’s (1990) ‘Diamond Model’, ‘National Competitiveness Indices’ and Lall’s (2001) ‘Competitiveness Triangle’ are apparent ones in national level competitiveness issues. Five competitive forces model, value chain, segmentation matrix and three generic competitive strategies of Porter (1980, 1985) provide a base for industry and firm level competitiveness concepts.

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Most of these models are criticized for being weak or some improvement possibilities such as linked diamond models (Rugman, D’Cruz, 1993). In general, these models are also criticized for having business school or power school approaches (Lall, 2001); static/ dynamic characteristics, and analysis/deterministic point of views. Their scope of application is also varying from one model to another. Toprakli (2004) provides the scope, strengths and weaknesses of some models (Table 1), it is concluded that, qualities depending on microeconomics, ‘five competitive forces’ model and ‘value chain’ provide a backbone for all level of competitiveness studies.

Table 1. Strengths and weaknesses of competitiveness models and concepts (Toprakli, 2004). Scope of application

Strengths

Weaknesses

Diamond framework (Porter, 1990)

National industries

• Provides an analytical point of view • Supposed to be dynamic

• Business school approach • Culture and government impacts are lacking for construction • Multiple diamonds can provide a more realistic framework

Five competitive forces model (Porter, 1985)

Industry and firm • Provides an analytical level point of view • Depends mainly on microeconomics • Can be used in all levels

• Presents a static understanding • Provides an analytical point of view rather than a deterministic one

Value chain

Industry, firm and national level

• Provides an analytical point of view • Have a generic quality and applicable to all levels

• Usually there is a complex procedure to apply

APP model (Momaya, 2004)

Generic application

• Can be used in all levels • Meaningful to practitioners • Have qualitative features

• Presents a static understanding • Entrepreneurship and product issues are not identified.

KPI model (CBP, 1998)

Firm level

• Meaningfiil to practitioners • Can also be used among industries and nations • Systematic questionnaire and presentation

• Presents a static understanding • Based on indicators rather than theory

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TCV model (Shen et al. 2003)

Firm level

• Dynamic methodology through changing weights

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• Lacks theoretical link • Depends solely on indicators • No qualitative side is identified

3.3 Applications of competitiveness frameworks in construction Several authors used theoretical frameworks to analyze construction industry. To illustrate, Betts and Ofori (1992) used Porter’s diamond model (1990) to provide a framework for strategic planning by construction enterprises and Oz (2001) applied it for Turkish Construction Industry. Yates et al. (1991) compare the US national construction industry by using Porter's (1980) five forces model. Huovinen and Kiiras (1994) build up ‘spearhead strategy’ by analyzing several frameworks such as the product-market matrix proposed by Ansoff (1965) and the five competitive forces framework of Porter (1980). Seymour (1987) reviews multi-national enterprise (MNE) theory and general theories such as Dunning’s (1977) eclectic approach which is criticized by Sugimoto (1990) as having a straightforward application of such modes unsuccessful for providing an appropriate interpretation for construction (Ofori, 2003). Lastly, Pheng and Hongbin (2004) extend Dunning’s eclectic approach with specialty advantages and developed OLI+S model to estimate international construction performance. There are also numerous models developed without particular reference to existing theoretical frameworks (Ofori, 2003). To exemplify, Momaya and Selby (1998) developed APP model for quantifying international competitiveness of the Canadian construction industry. The model is also used for firm level competitiveness understanding by Momaya (2004) for a different industry. There are also indicator based quantifying models exist for competitiveness. Accordingly, Hatush and Skitmore (1997) assembled a systematic multi-criteria decision analysis technique for contractor selection. Lai and Guan (2001) developed a model to assess a large contractor’s competitiveness by using several parameters (Shen et al., 2003). The last example of a similar study is conducted by Shen et al. (2003). Their study covers an assessment of contractor’s competitiveness by an examination of multiple parameters which is named as Total Competitiveness Value. Also, starting from 1998, Construction Best Practice (CBP) initiative in UK has developed Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as a comparative benchmark tool for construction industry. Finally, it can be concluded in parallel with Ofori (2003) that ‘there is no perfect framework for analyzing competitiveness for construction’ and ‘not any one in itself is sufficient for all sectors’. Similarly, Segev and Gray (1994) found out that there is no single appropriate model exists for constmction firms and advised to evaluate individual business units in terms of two or three typologies. It is seen that in one side there is a high use of theory in applied competitiveness frameworks for construction industry and on the other side, a gap between the indicator based models and theory. However indicator base and generic models are more meaningful to practitioners. So, there is a need to define a base to categorize relevant competitiveness studies, application areas and their interrelations for construction industry point of view. Furthermore, if Sugimoto’s (1990) conclusion about theoretical

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treatment of construction industry mentioned before considered, defining a new competitiveness framework for construction industry can be argued.

Table 2. Combined environment types: a frame for analyzing competitiveness in construction. Environmental types (Lansley, 1979 & Flanagan, 1994)

Characteristics

Useful models and tools for Competitiveness issues

• Firm level characteristics dominate competitiveness • Suppliers/Buyers (global level) highly important • Financial packages crucial • Importance of configuration and coordination (Porter, 1986) • Impact of global and multidomestic competition (Porter, 1986)

Firm level competitiveness models can be applied

Supra-national level Global environment

Multinational environment • Importance of firm level characteristics increase in competition • Alliance-specific advantages, system-based advantages and culturebased advantages highly important • Suppliers/Buyers (multinational level) • Financial packages important • Government support can be seen

National level competitiveness models can be partly applied. Firm level competitiveness models can be applied

Industry and national level International environment

• National and firm level characteristics dominate (Seymour, 1987) • International and national level suppliers are important • Government supports highly important • Culture, location is highly important

Diamond framework (Porter, 1990)

Common industry/ National environment

Common to all firms in the industry/national environment • Affects firms both directly and indirectly • Affected by demographics, technological and societal changes • The industry’s eisting and potential clients effective

Diamond framework (Porter, 1990) Five competitive forces model

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• Suppliers (national level) are important • Central and local government departments Firm level Competitive environment

• Localized to the firm Value chain (Porter, 1980) • Dealing with industries and markets Five competitive forces model • Structure of demand (Porter, 1985) • Procurement forms used by clients • Suppliers (local), competitors • Availability of materials • Labor and subcontractors

Sub firm level Operational environment

• Unique to each firm • Subcontractors, human resources • Technology

Value chain

3.4 Key findings and suggestion Ofori (2003) stated ‘most of the authors in construction did not critically examine, or suggest refinements to, the frameworks they applied’ which also brings out another question; when they are modified according to the objectives of the construction industry whether it would cause any vital change in the models or not, remaining unanswered. Having analyzed the outcomes of Ofori (2003), and Momaya (2004), authors believe that a competitiveness understanding for construction industry could only be achieved by bringing a classification to the application areas of these models. Though having analyzed firm level competitiveness of software industry in India, Momaya (2004) also noticed that 'Many questions about competitiveness remain unanswered despite rich literature about concept. Some of the key questions such as: how can frameworks and models be adapted for a particular firm in a particular stage of development…remain unanswered’ (p. 53) and proposed a simple graphical matrix of firms’ survival and growth stages for the applicability of competitiveness models corresponding to capability. He adds that ‘There are many frameworks, models, theories on competitiveness; (however) integrated frameworks that can help practitioners to take key decisions on competitiveness are few. There is need for frameworks that can help select right tools from the industry perspective.’ Accordingly, authors suggest for construction industry extending Lansley et al.’s (1979) environment classification (Operational/Competitive/Common-National) by Flanagan’s (1994) three stage construction environment, i.e., international, multinational, global and to obtain a final base to evaluate competitiveness issues in construction (Table 2) which is also presented to take comment by the wider research community.

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4 CONCLUSION Having the main objective as providing an alternative frame about evaluating competitiveness, which has been the growing concern in construction industry and a crucial field of interest among researchers; appropriate categorization of construction environments for competitiveness tools application is suggested in the paper. As understood from the stated vertical classification, better frameworks could be developed for future use in construction industry for researchers and practitioners. Another important point to be emphasized in the suggested categorization is it would help in determining hierarchical weightings for quantitative evaluations in a more systematic way. Considering the chaotic environment of competitiveness related terms and their applications, a process model could also be offered to guide practitioners about competitiveness issues in eonstruction industry. Besides, IT based applications could also be employed related with the developed process models. REFERENCES Ansoff, I.H. 1965. Corporate Strategy. McGraw-Hill, NewYork. Ball, M. 1988. Rebuilding Construction. Economic Change and the Construction Industry. Routledge, London. Betts, M. and Ofori, G. 1992. Strategic planning for competitive advantage in construction. Construction Management and Economics, 10, 511–32. Dunning, J.H. 1977. Trade, location of economic activity and the MNE: A search for an eclectic approach. In Ohlin, B., Hesselborn, P.O. and Wijkman, P.M. (eds) The International Allocation of Economic Activity, Macmillan. London, pp. 395–418. Flanagan, R. 1994. The features of successful construction companies in the international construction market. In Warzawski, A. and Navon, R. (eds), Strategic Planning in Construction: Proceedings of the A.J.Etkin International Seminar on Strategic Planning in Construction Companies, Haifa, Israel, 8–9 June, pp. 304–18. Hatush, Z. and Skitmore, R.M. 1997. Criteria for contractor selection. In: Construction Management and Economics 15 (1), E&FN Spon, London, pp. 19–38. Huovinen, P. and Kiiras, J. 1994. Spearhead strategy for cross-border exports within building market of EES countries. In Warzawski, A. and Navon, R. (eds), Strategic Planning in Construction: Proceedings of the A.J.Etkin International Seminar on Strategic Planning in Construction Companies, Haifa, Israel, 8–9 June, pp. 421–43. Lai, X. and Guan, K. 2001. A study of a large-scale contractor’s international competitiveness. In: Building Science Research of Sichuan 27, Sichuan Institute of Construction Science, China, pp. 73–75. (In Chinese). Lall, S. 2001. Competitiveness, Technology and Skill Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK. Langford, D. and Male, S. 2001. Strategic Management in Construction, Blackwell Science, Oxford. Lansley, P., Quince, T. and Lea, E. 1979. Flexibility and Efficiency in Construction Management, Final Report. Building Industry Group, Ashridge Management Collage, Amersham, Bucks. Momaya, K. 2004. Competitiveness of Firms: Review of Theory, Frameworks, and Models. Singapore Management Review, Volume 26, No 1, 45–60.

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Momaya, K. and Selby, K. 1998. International competitiveness of the Canadian construction industry: a comparison with Japan and the United States. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 25, 640–52. Ofori, G. 2003. Frameworks for Analyzing International Construction. Construction Management and Economics, (June 2003) 21, 379–91. Oz, O. 2001. Sources of competitive advantage of Turkish construction companies in international markets. Construction Management and Economics, 19, 135–44. Pheng, L.S. and Hongbin, J. 2004. Estimation of international construction performance: analysis at the country level. J of Construction Management and Economics, (March 2004) 22, 277–89. Porter, M.E. 1980. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. The Free Press, NewYork. Porter, M.E. 1985. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. The Free Press, NewYork. Porter, M.E. 1986. Competition in Global Industries: A Conceptual Framework. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1986. Porter, M.E. 1990. The Competitive Advantage of Nations. The Free Press, New York. Rugman, A.M. and D’Cruz, R. 1993. The ‘double diamond’ model of international competitiveness: the Canadian experience. Management International Review, Special Issue 2, 17–39. Segev, E. and Gray, P. 1994. A manager’s guide to business unit strategic analysis. In Warzawski, A. and Navon, R. (eds), Strategic Planning in Construction: Proceedings of the A.J.Etkin International Seminar on Strategic Planning in Construction Companies, Haifa, Israel, 8–9 June, pp. 16–34. Seymour, H. 1987. The Multinational Construction Industry. Croom Helm, London. Shen, L.Y., Lu, W., Shen, Q. and Li, H. 2003. A computeraided decision support system for assessing a contractor’s competitiveness. In: Automation in Construction 12 (5), Elsevier B.V., London, pp. 577–87. Sugimoto, F. 1990. Globalization of International Engineering and Construction Firms for Building Their Competitiveness. Unpublished PhD thesis, MIT. Toprakli, A.Y. 2004. Competitiveness in Construction Industry. Unpublished Master thesis, Istanbul Technical University. The World competitiveness yearbook. Lausanne; IMD Geneva: The World Economic Forum, 2003. Yates, J.K., Mukherjee, S. and Njos, S. 1991. Anatomy of Construction Industry Competition in the Year 2000. Source Document 64, Construction Industry Institute, Austin, TX.

Seismic risk and environmental management

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) ©2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Analyses of Izmit earthquake by means of remotely sensed data: a case study, Yalova city S.Kaya, F.Bektas, C.Goksel & E.Saroglu ITU Civil Engineering Faculty, Remote Sensing Division, Maslak-Istanbul ABSTRACT: On 17 August 1999 at 3:02 a.m. local time, the Izmit earthquake occurred on the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) in the northwest Turkey. The surface rupture caused by the 1999 earthquake (Mw: 7.4) comprised four segments: the Gölcük, Izmit-Sapanca and Arifiye-Akyazi segments in the west (about 90km long) and the Gölyaka segment in the east (about 30 km long). The death toll in city centres was 15,851 and reported injuries 43,953 in greater urban areas the death toll was approximately 18,000 in total and reported injuries approximately 48,000. In this study, SPOT HRV (XI and Pan) images obtained before and after the earthquake were used to estimate the area of collapse buildings in Yalova city. The pre-earthquake and post-earthquake images were geometrically corrected and classified separately. Image differences between on 06 June 1993 and 9 September 1999 SPOT HRV Pan images were used to determine changes due to earthquake damage. In addition to this, urban spatial growth of Yalova city analyzed using SPOT HRV images between 1993 and 1999. Results, which were obtained by processing satellite sensor images, compared with government office and ground data.

1 INTRODUCTION The North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) is one of the most important active strike-slip faults in the world and the most important active fault in Turkey. During the 20th century, many destructive earthquakes occurred along this fault resulting in the collapse of 450,000 buildings and the death of over 80,000 people. In this period twenty-five destructive earthquakes (M>6.5) occurred and 7 of these earthquakes originated in the Marmara Sea region (Barka and Nalbant 1998). Between 1939 and 1967, six large fault ruptures formed a westward-migrating sequence of events along a 900-km-long near continuous portion of the NAFZ (Barka 1996). According to recent studies, most of the historical earthquakes in the Marmara sea region occurred on the northern strand of the NAFZ (Ambraseys and Finkel 1991, Barka 1991). Izmit (Kocaeli) earthquake occurred on the NAFZ in the northwestern part of Turkey. The earthquake started at the west, lasted for 12 seconds, paused for 18 seconds and was followed by rupture in the east for 7 seconds. The maximum offset along the surface break was measured near Arifiye, east of

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Sapanca (between Arifiye and Adapazari), where the fault displaced a road horizontally by about 5 m. This earthquake caused heavy damage in a density populated and industrialised region. Some cities affected were Izmit, Adapazari, Yalova, Golcuk, Istanbul, Bolu. The earthquake’s epicentre was located at latitude 41.8° and longitude 29.9°. The heaviest damaged area was around the Gulf of Izmit and the city of Yalova. The dead and injured located approximately 18,000 and 48,000 respectively in city centres (Barka, 1999). The distribution of those who died in city centres was: Golciik (5,025), Izmit (also known as Kocaeli) (4,093), Adapazan (also known as Sakarya) (2,629), Yalova (2,502), Istanbul (981), Bolu (264), Bursa (268), Eskişehir (86), Zonguldak (3) (Sahin and Tari, 2000). Monitoring and mapping change detection of urban area with time were the main objectives of remote sensing study. In addition to this, satellite sensor images can be used for many different application, such as land cover change (Yang 2002, Foody and Boyd 1999, Kaya and Curran 2003), mapping of earthquake damage (Lin et al. 2002, Fu and Lin 2003), earthquake displacement (Massonet et al. 1993), volcano deformation (Massonet et al. 1995), glacier dynamics (Mohr et al. 1998). Also land subsidence monitoring can be evaluated by means of differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (Strozzi et al. 2000, Strozzi et al. 2001). More specifically SPOT HRV data have been applied successfully to the assessment of earthquake damage due to the 1999 event in Golcuk (Turker and San 2003, Kaya et al. 2003, Kaya et al. 2004). Remote sensing techniques provide a rapid and powerful tool to detect natural disasters in the remote, inaccessible and large areas.

Figure 1. Ground photographs of the earthquake (http://www.yalova.gov.tr/).

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The main objectives in this study are (i) to examine land cover change in Yalova city between 1993 and 1999 using SPOT HRV data (ii) to determine heavy damaged areas in 1999 earthquake using these data (iii) to investigate the utilization of SPOT HRV data for determination of earthquake damages in urban area. 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 Study area (Yalova city) Yalova city is located in the northwest of Turkey and southeast of the Marmara Sea. Its geographic boundaries are between 39° and 40° S in latitude and between 29° and 31° E in longitude. The area of the region is approximately 839 km2. According to census data taken from State Institute of Statistics (SIS), the population of the city centre was 87032 in 1990, and 98.661 in 2000. Increase in rate of population in the year of 2000 was 12.54% in city centre. Yalova has become city since 6 June 1996. Altitude of Yalova is 2m and the highest point of the city is 926m. 17 August 1999 earthquake caused considerable damage and deaths in Yalova city. The number of collapsed and heavy damaged buildings in the city centre was 517 and 7606 respectively. The death toll in the city centre was 1449 and reported injuries were 2543. Approximately 50% of buildings and a great percent of the local roads were damaged in 17 August earthquake. Postearthquake ground photographs were shown in f igure 1. After the earthquake immigration has occurred to other cities. The earthquake caused to damage to agriculture such as 30% of the flower and plant greenhouses were destroyed. In order to mitigate effects of the earthquake damages, 17777 tents were pitched up in a total of 10 different areas. 2.2 Classification The overall objective of classification is to automatically categorize all pixels in an image into land cover classes or themes (Lillesand and Kiefer, 2001). Image classification is the process used to produce thematic maps from imagery. Classification can be performed either supervised or unsupervised. For unsupervised classification, the analyst employs a computer algorithm that locates concentrations of feature vectors within a heterogeneous sample of pixels. These so-called clusters are then assumed to represent classes in the image and are used to calculate class signatures (Schowengerdt, 1997). In this study, an unsupervised classification algorithm called ISODATA clustering was used. 50 clusters were selected for ISODATA algorithm. After performing ISODATA clustering, these 50 clusters were merged and five classes (water, sand, urban, agricultural area and forest) were formed (Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Classified SPOT HRV images of 1993 and 1999.

3 RESULTS 3.1 Land cover/use change Yalova which is very important city for agricultural production also has been used as touristic purposes during the summer time for two decades. After becoming city on 6 June 1995, the population of the city has been increasing and this caused expansion of urban areas. In addition, in order to provide increasing accommodation demand, various kinds of structures were constructed and new housing complex were built. 1993 SPOT HRV XS and 1999 SPOT HRV XI data were classified in order to obtain land cover/use classes in the study region. Areal changes in land cover/use were determine using classification results. Classification results of 1993 SPOT HRV XS data showed that the areas of water, sand, urban, agricultural area and green area & forest were 3863.9ha, 18.9ha, 393.2 ha, 2519.2 ha and 2027.9 ha respectively. The results of classified post earthquake image illustrated that the areas of water, sand, urban, agricultural area and green area & forest were calculated as 3867.7ha, 19.2 ha, 487.6 ha, 2448.8 ha and 1999.8 ha, respectively (Table 1). According to these results significant changes had occurred in urban, agricultural, and green & forest categories. Especially, change in urban area was determined as 24%. On the other hand, change in agricultural area was found approximately—2.79% and change in green & forest area was found— 1.39%.

Table 1. Land cover changes between 1993–1999. Classes Water Sand area

Date 1993

Area (ha)

Date 1999

Area (ha)

3863.9

3867.7

18.9

19.2

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393.2

487.6

Agricultural area

2519.2

2448.8

Green area & forest

2027.9

1999.8

3.2 Determination of earthquake-induced heavy damage areas In order to delineate heavy damage areas, two methods were used. In the first method, 1999 SPOT Pan

Figure 3. Merged SPOT HRV Panchromatic and SPOT HRV XI image 1999. and XI images were merged using Brovey algorithm and visual interpretation of the new merged image was performed. In the second method, the difference image was produced by subtracting the pre- and post-earthquake images and heavy damage class was determined by applying level slicing algorithm to the difference image. Wald (2002) describes fusion as ‘a formal frame work in which are expressed means and tools for the alliance of data originating from different sources. It aims at obtaining information of greater quality; the exact definition of greater quality will depend upon application.’ SPOT HRV Panchromatic data which has better spatial resolution was merged with SPOT HRV XI which has better spectral resolution to discriminate characteristic features of Yalova city after the earthquake. The merged image is shown in figure 3.

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According to figure 3, A1, A2, and A3 are the unchanged urban areas in Yalova city after earthquake. B1 and B2 are prefabricated houses which were done to provide accommodation demand for after the earthquake. C1, C2 and C3 are the regions that debris were filled. D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8 and D9 regions which were located in the inner city, south and east of the study area demonstrate heavy damaged and collapsed buildings. Level slicing is an enhancement technique whereby the DNs distributed along the x axis of an image histogram are divided into a series of analyst-specified intervals or slices. It involves the grouping of image regions with similar DN (Lillesand and Kiefer). Examination of level sliced difference image demonstrated spectral mixtures between some land cover/use classes. Spectral mixture occurred between heavy damaged areas, new constructed prefabricated houses, earthquake induced ruin roads and debris field. Therefore, prefabricated houses, ruin roads and debris field were digitized from level sliced difference image to determine the area of heavy damaged buildings in figure 4. The area obtained by digitizing was subtracted from total changed area derived by level slicing and earthquake-induced heavy damaged area found 76, 47 ha. 3.3 Usability of SPOT HRV data Both panchromatic and multi spectral SPOT HRV data in conjunction with ground data were used in a variety of applications such as disaster management, risk analysis and regional catastrophes. SPOT HRV data with repetitive acquisition of the synoptic view images are used to provide immediate and rapid access to disastrous regions. The location and size of the regions which are severely affected in a disaster can be determined using SPOT HRV data. In the study, results obtained from processed image were compared with ground data obtained from www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/. The comparison results were

Figure 4. Superimposed image of level sliced difference image and digitized categories.

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Figure 5. Ground data of the study area (http://www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/). consistent with each other. Ground data of study area acquired on 20 August 1999 is shown in figure 5. 4 CONCLUSIONS Remote sensing technology can be used to provide advance warning for specific hazardous events in the case of natural disasters, to monitor the area of concern or quickly evaluate the damage in order to support the decision-making process in the rescue operations. In this study, collapsed and heavy damaged buildings in the Yalova inner city affected by 1999 (Mw: 7.4) Izmit Earthquake were determined by means of SPOT HRV data. Land cover/use changes before and after earthquake were derived from classification of SPOT HRV XI and XS data. Moreover, heavy damaged areas in the inner city were obtained level sliced difference image of 1993 and 1999 SPOT Panchromatic data. Between the year of 1993 and 1999, urban areas increased 24%; also, the population of the inner city was increased from 87032 to 98661 between 1990 and 2000. However, the population of study area increases mainly at summer time. Rapidly changed areas in the Yalova were determined using panchromatic difference image. One disadvantage of the SPOT HRV data is spectral mixture problem. Heavy damage areas, debris areas and prefabricate houses have similar spectral reflectance; therefore, this caused obtaining similar digital numbers for these categories. The mixture problem in these categories was solved with digitization. As a result, heavy damage areas were found as 76.47 ha. SPOT HRV data were useful for regional scale disaster studies. However, SPOT HRV data has drawbacks while studying local scale disasters. High resolution satellite imagery in conjuction with field surveys should be used in order to investigate earthquake-induced damages in detail.

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REFERENCES Ambraseys, N.N. & Finkel, C.F. 1991. Long-term Seismicity of Istanbul and the Marmara Region, Engineering Seismology Earthquake Report, 91/8, Imperial College. Barka, A.A. & Nalbant, S. 1998. 1700 ve sonrasi Marmara depremlerinin modellenmesi, Aktif Tektonik Araştirma Grubu Birinci Toplantısı, İTÜ Avrasya Yerbilimleri Enstitüsü, İstanbul. Barka, A.A. 1991. İstanbulun depremselliğini oluşturan tektonik yapılar ve İstanbul için bir mikro bölgelendirme Grubu Birinci Toplantisi, İTÜ Avrasya Yerbilimleri Enstitüsü, İstanbul. Barka, A.A. 1991. İstanbulun depremselliğini oluşturan tektonik yapilar ve İstanbul için bir mikro bölgelendirme denemesi, Istanbul ve Deprem Sempozyumu, İnşaat Mühendisleri Odasi, Istanbul, 78–98. Barka, A.A. 1996. Slip distribution along the North Anatolian Fault associated with the large earthquakes of the Period 1939 to 1967, Bulletin of the Seismology Society of America 86:1238– 1254. Barka, A.A. 1999. The 17 August 1999 Izmit earthquake. Science 285:1858–1859. Barka, A.A. & Reilinger, R. 1997. Active tectonic of the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Deduced from GPS, Neotectonic and Seismicity Data, Annali di Geofisia XL: 587–610. Foody, G. & Boyd, D.S. 1999. Detection of partial land cover change associated with the migration of inner-class transitional zones, International Journal of Remote Sensing 20:2723–2740. Fu, B. & Lin, A. 2003. Spatial distribution of the surface rupture zone associated with the 2001 Ms 8.1 Central Kunlun earthquake, northern Tibet, revealed by satellite remote sensing data, International Journal of Remote Sensing 24:2191–2198. Kandilli Rasathanesi, http://www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/, 10 June 2004. Kaya, S. & Curran, P.J. 2003. Monitoring urban growth on the European side of the Istanbul metropolitan area, P.Aplin & P.M.Mather (editors), Proceedings of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society 2003, Scales and Dynamics in Observing the Environment, 10–12 September. Nottingham: UK, (on CD ROM). Kaya, S. Llewellgn, G. & Curran, P.J. 2004. Displaying earthquake damage and urban area using vegetation impervious soil model and remotely sensed data, ISPRS XXth Congress, 12–23 July, Istanbul, Turkey (Submitted). Kaya, S. Muftuoglu, O. & Tuysuz, O. 2004. Tracing the geometry of an active fault using remote sensing and digital elevation model: Ganos segment, North Anatolian Fault zone, Turkey, International Journal of Remote Sensing (submitted). Lillesand, T.M. & Kiefer, R.W. 2000. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Lin, A. Fu, B. Guo, J. Zeng, Q. Dang, G. He, W. & Zhao, Y. 2002. Co-seismic strike-slip and rupture length produced by the 2001 Ms 8.1 Central Kunlun earthquake, Science 296:2015– 2017. Massonet, D. Briole, P. & Arnaud, A. 1995. Deflation of the Mount Etna monitored by spaceborne radar interferometry, Nature 375:567–570. Massonet, D. Rossi, M. Carmona, F. Adragna, F. Peltzer, G. Feigl, K. & Rabaute, T. 1993. The displacement field of the Landers earthquake mapped by SAR interferometry, Nature 364:138– 142. Mohr, J.J. Reeh, N. & Madsen, S.N. 1998. Three dimensional glacial flow and surface elevation measured with radar interferometry, Nature 391:273–276. Sahin, M. & Tari, E. 2000. The August 17 Kocaeli and the November 12 Duzce earthquakes in Turkey. Earth Planets Space 52:753–757. Schowengerdt, R.A. 1997. Remote sensing: models and methods for image processing, Academic Press, San Diego.

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Strozzi, T. Dammert, P. Wegmuller, U. Martinez, J.M. Askne, J. Beaudoin, A. & Hallikainen M. 2000. Land use mapping with ERS SAR interferometry, IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 38:766–775. Strozzi, T. Wegmuller, U. Tosi, L. Bitelli, G. & Spreckels, V. 2001. Land subsidence monitoring with differential SAR interferometry, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 61:1261–1270. Turker, M. & San, B.T. 2003. SPOT HRV data analysis for detecting earthquake-induced changes in Izmit, Turkey, International Journal of Remote Sensing 24:2439–2450. Wald Lucien., 2002. Data Fusion: Definitions and Architectures. Les Presses de 1’Ecole des Mines, Paris. Yalova Valiligi, http://www.yalova.gov.tr/, 10 June 2004. Yang, X. 2002. Satellite monitoring of urban spatial growth in the Atlanta metropolitan area, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 68:725–734.

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Do phased Environmental Management Systems actually benefit SMEs? L.L.Hopkinson Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom C.Snow Mandix*, Cardiff, UnitedKingdom ABSTRACT: Many larger businesses have seen benefits from implementing Environmental Management Systems. These larger businesses have put pressure onto their smaller suppliers to consider similar systems, which for a Small to Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) can prove inappropriate. However, the arrival of new phased approaches hopes to bridge the gap between a full EMS and nothing at all, to provide business benefits to SMEs. But do these systems actually provide any benefits? This study uses case studies and follows the implementation of phased approach EMSs (BS 8555, Green Dragon, and Easy Access for Environmental Management). The case studies show what benefits are seen by adopting environmental management, even to a low level, and highlights the benefits of phased approaches to SMEs.

1 BACKGROUND An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a management tool for understanding, identifying and controlling environmental impacts of a businesses activities, products and services. The first formalized approach was introduced in 1992 with the introduction of British Standard BS 7750 (ENDS 1992). This was then followed by the introduction of the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), which was adopted within the UK in 1995 (ENDS 1995). Following the arrival of EMAS, the European Standards body (CEN) was provided with a briefing to devise an environmental management standard that offered firms a practical alternative to registration under EMAS (ENDS 1995). The resulting draft was formally issued in 1996 and called ISO 14001. This International Standard replaced BS 7750, which was formally withdrawn in 1997. Following the publication of ISO 14001, an entire ‘family’ of ISO 14000 standards were published, each relating to EMS and related environmental management tools (ISO 1998). Uptake of these formalized systems has gathered pace in the years following their introduction. By 1999, nearly 3,000 sites across the EC had registered to under EMAS, but more than three times as many had been certified under ISO 14001 (ENDS 2000).

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For many companies, however, there can be problems with implementing a system, despite all the potential benefits (such as cost savings, increased awareness and compliance with legislation). Major problem areas include a lack of senior level commitment to undertaking such work, a struggle to make all employees aware of the implications of the EMS and resistance to change in working practices (Institute of Environmental Management 1998). Within Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), there is also the problem of limited financial, technical and manpower capabilities to implement adequate enviromnental measures (Chiu et al 1999), as well as external barriers including difficulties in obtaining useful and consistent advice, the high costs of certification to a standard and the lack of drivers to obtain a system (Hillary 1999). SMEs find formal systems such as ISO 14001 too rigid, and as such prefer a system that can be broken down into elements to suit their individual needs (Hopkinson & Jones 2002). For these reasons, phased approaches were suggested. A phased approach of implementation was described in 1995 (Heijdra 1995). Here, the EMS was broken down into six steps to show a simple project approach to implementing such a system. Another approach was the Business Environment Association (BEA) ‘Environmental Healthcheck’, which provided 5 levels *Mandix is a private management consultancy company based in Cardiff.

of accreditation, with certificates provided for each completed level. Despite winning funding from the European ADAPT programme, this initiative folded in 1999. The ISO TC 207 working party (subcommittee 1) did consider adapting ISO 14001 to encompass special issues of SMEs, but decided that no new standards of other documents would be issued. Following this, in 2000, Project Acorn was launched by the British Standards Institution. This project provided a five level approach to implementing an EMS compatible with ISO 14001, with a sixth level providing compatibility with EMAS (ENDS 2001). This project resulted in the creation of the first phased Environmental Management Standard BS 8555, launched in April 2003. On a regional level, the Welsh Green Dragon standard was launched in 2002, again providing a five level approach to implementing an EMS compatible with ISO 14001. With both of these initiatives, SMEs can obtain certificates to show achievement of a particular level of environmental management. A recent report by the European Commission’s Enterprise Directorate indicated that few SMEs have adopted EMSs. This report recommended the promotion of SMEfriendly implementation of EMS, especially using staged approaches (European Commission 2004). Phased EMS approaches have therefore been designed with SMEs in mind, and the European Commission recommends these approaches for encouraging uptake of EMS. However, there has not yet been any reported research on the effectiveness of these systems within SMEs.

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2 PROJECT BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY 2.1 Project background The work presented in this paper is from a two-year European Regional Development Funded project, based in a South Wales Unitary Authority. The work is carried out by Cardiff University in partnership with Mandix. The aim is to assist 40 SME companies in the study area to implement a phased EMS, based upon their specific needs. The project assists in working towards the Welsh assembly Government’s target of 500 companies implementing an EMS (Welsh Assembly Government 2002), and recommends the most appropriate EMS to the company concerned; BS 8555 if the company predominantly has clients within the UK; Green Dragon if the company only works with local Welsh clients or ISO 14001 if the company works internationally. The phased approaches used are based upon formalized systems; hence the methodology is already set. Both BS 8555 and Green Dragon are similar in methodology and are based upon ISO 14001 for ease of upgrade. 2.2 Project methodology The project was designed to run as simply as possible, as follows: • Company recruitment • Initial survey to identify needs • Recommendation by project team of appropriate phased EMS and level • Assistance provided to achieve recommendation • Exit survey at end of project to highlight benefits of the work. Participation in the project was voluntary; therefore the project team could not predict which industrial sectors would participate. To date, the project has enrolled companies from the tourism, construction, manufacturing and commercial sectors of industry. 3 RESULTS It is noted that the results obtained are based upon the project’s first year of operation. Full project results will be published after completion of the project in 2005. 3.1 Initial survey results All project participants were asked to complete an initial survey. This initial survey questioned the company’s motivation for participation, current levels of knowledge on environmental management issues within the company, location of major clients and what initiatives the company has already undertaken. This allowed the project team to recommend an appropriate system and level (based upon information provided upon

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location of major clients), as well as assess the current level of knowledge within the company of EMS. The results presented are based on initial surveys administered to 25 companies during the first year of the project, and represents responses to perceived benefits of implementing an EMS. These surveys were administered to the key contact point established within the company, and were therefore highly placed personnel (i.e. a Managing Director, Proprietor or Quality Manager). 3.1.1 Reasons for implementing the system Participants were questioned on their motivation for implementing an EMS against seven key criteria, based upon experience from previous work (Hopkinson & Jones 2002). Table 1 lists the responses in terms of percentage responses for each criterion. The results of this question show that the SMEs involved were highly motivated towards improving business management, then achieving legal compliance and improving their marketing through such a system. To a lesser extent, the SMEs were not as concerned with improving relations with regulators as many of the companies enrolled reported that they did not have much contact with regulators.

Table 1. Responses to motivation for implementing an EMS. Criteria

Percentage

Management issues To increase efficiency

84

To increase profits and reduce costs

76

To increase benefits to employees

72

Marketing issues To enhance public image

80

To increase benefits to customers

76

Legal issues To improve compliance with legislation

80

To improve relations with regulators

64

Table 2. Percentage responses of the top three ranked criteria. Percentage for rank Criteria

1

2

3

Customer pressure

4

4

0

Marketing reasons

16

4

4

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8

4

4

20

12

12

Material & inventory reduction

8

0

12

Setting targets

8

4

0

Job creation

0

0

0

Reducing energy usage

4

20

8

Reducing water usage

4

4

12

Revealing opportunities

8

16

4

Management efficiency

4

4

0

16

0

12

Pollution prevention

Ensuring legal compliance

3.1.2 What enrolled companies hoped to achieve Participants were asked to give their reasons for implementing an EMS through the project by indicating what they hoped to achieve through the process. Twelve criteria were listed (again based upon previous experience); respondents were asked to rank their top 3 criteria in terms of importance to them. On occasions, some respondents identified 5 key criteria, and ranked these accordingly. Table 2 lists the percentage responses received in terms of the top three ranked criteria. Compared to the results above, there is a slight deviance in issues that motivate companies to participate and what they would hope to achieve from such work. The prevention of pollution is ranked highest on the agenda for SMEs, along with ensuring legal compliance and gaining a marketing edge over competitors. Ranked second highest is the reduction of energy use (an issue which can save SMEs money as well as provide environmental benefits) and revealing other opportunities (entrance into new markets or other benefits). Ranked joint third includes issues such as material and inventory reduction (reducing the amount and variety of raw materials and components that are stored for future use by the company) and reducing water usage (again, an issue which can save money as well as provide environmental benefit), as well as pollution prevention and legal compliance. 3.2 Benefits from implementation These initial results provided the project team with a clear indication of what individual SMEs wished to achieve through the implementation of their phased EMS. An assessment of the work in progress was carried out, using details from initial surveys and baseline reviews, as well as face-to-face assessments from the enrolled companies, carried out on a regular monthly basis. This assessment shows that the following ten key benefits were identified:

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Increased awareness—all participants agreed that, by undertaking such a process, they were made more aware of what environmental impacts their processes/ activities/services made. Only by increasing this awareness can any environmental improvement hope to be sustained within a company. Legal compliance—the large majority of the SMEs participating recognized that they were not aware of environmental legal obligations, and therefore agreed that even a basic EMS process assisted with this respect. All companies participating will be creating a legal register. None of the participants reported any regulatory pressure towards compliance e.g. regular visits by the Environment Agency or other enforcement bodies. Reduction of waste costs through the linkage to free recycling schemes—96% of all participants were able to make use of free of charge recycling schemes e.g. for paper waste, used inkjet and toner cartridges and some glass waste, therefore reducing the amounts of waste sent to landfill and therefore paid for. With the Landfill Tax in the UK set to increase, this aspect can ensure cost savings are realized year after year. Production of electronic tools to reduce paper use dependency—4 companies are set to trade electronically through the creation of company websites and use of email, to help reduce dependency on paper use. This aspect also assisted towards competitiveness within the individual business sector. Wherever possible, archiving and obtaining technical information by electronic means was also suggested, again to reduce paper use dependency and physical storage space. Reduction in energy use through the simplest of means—all participants reported awareness of how to reduce energy use by advising on simple measures such as the purchase of energy efficient alternatives (e.g. lighting, computing, insulation and other relevant equipment). Reduction in water use, even for low water users-all participants also reported awareness of how to reduce water usage, even those who were not heavy users of water for business purposes. This benefit will be reflected more in reduction of costs (or potential reduction in service charges); although all participants did also understand the environmental benefits (especially as drier weather in the study area was more prevalent). Marketing and tendering opportunities—of most benefit to those participants whose major clients were in the public sector. 24% reported this benefit, especially as the Welsh Assembly Government has a Statutory Duty to make a scheme for Sustainable Development, which affects their and other bodies’ procurement practices. Improvement in house keeping activities to reduce degradation of usable raw materials—all participants reported improvements in housekeeping activities, by being advised on what to improve. Many had found that simply moving certain items away from water ingress or other potential weather conditions reduced the amount of spoilage seen onsite. Signposting to academic experts—two companies were able to link to academic experts in order to refine processes and make improvements. Introduction of alternative technologies to make use of problem wastes—one company was made aware of waste-to-energy schemes, which provided additional benefits of ensuring waste was dealt with in a legally compliant manner, and the provision of space heating in a factory where none existed.

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4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the results seen to date, this project shows that implementing a phased EMS can provide a variety of business benefits through environmental improvement to individual SMEs. The phased approach is better suited to SMEs as they are able to work towards achieving actual improvements, without the cumbersome documentation required in a full ISO system. These results are based upon participants who agreed voluntarily to take part in the project—it can therefore be argued that these companies could already foresee some business benefits in making environmental improvements. However, only one company indicated that there was any external pressure on them to implement such a system—in this case, it was group management pressure. None of the other companies indicated any external pressure (group or regulatory) forcing them to implement such a system. There was also little reported customer pressure towards implementing such a system, although 5 companies did indicate that questions relating to company environmental policy had been asked of them during tendering processes. The results clearly show that the majority of the participants were most interested in increasing their efficiency as a business, and upholding their legal and environmental responsibilities. The voluntary participation highlights that SMEs are able to make their business decisions based upon awareness of the issues. Further work in this area is recommended. Effectiveness of phased EMSs in the longterm has not been identified. It is therefore important to identify if companies keep the initiative in operation as integral part of their business. The second year of this project hopes to look into this aspect in further detail. SMEs need to be made aware of the benefits of such an approach, especially in the situation where there is neither regulatory ‘push’ nor customer ‘pull’ to force change. A possible initiative to assist in this aspect could be awareness raising through the Government. For example, the Welsh Assembly Government has set targets for this type of work; investigation into if this target has been achieved is required to assess the effectiveness of such initiatives. REFERENCES Chiu, S., Huang, J.H., Lin, C., Tang, Y., Chon, W. & Su, S.C. 1999. Applications of a corporate synergy system to promote cleaner production in small and medium enterprises. Journal of Cleaner Production7(5)p351–358 ENDS. 1992. BS7750 sets environmental standardization bandwagon rolling. ENDS Report (207) p20–21 ENDS. 1995. Weak ISO draft threatens Europe’s environmental management standards. ENDS Report (240) p25–27 ENDS. 1995. EMAS slow off the starting blocks. ENDS Report (243) p6–7 ENDS. 2000. Japan & UK lead growth in ISO 14001 uptake. ENDS Report (301) p7–8 ENDS. 2001. Late spring for DTI’s Acorn supply chain project for smaller firms. ENDS Report (320) p33 European Commission. 2004. Public policy initiatives to promote the uptake of Environmental Management Systems in Small & Medium sized Enterprises: Final report of the Best Project Expert Group. Brussels, European Commission

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Heijdra, G.1995. Implementing Environmental Management Systems: A project management method. ERP Environmental 1995 Eco-Management and Auditing Conference proceedings, University of Leeds, UK, July 1995, p117–126 Hillary, R. 1999. Evaluation of study reports on the barriers, opportunities and drivers for small and medium-sized enterprises in the adoption of Environmental Management Systems. DTI, London, p1–58 Hopkinson, L. & Jones, P.2002. Innovating ISO 14001 to suit the needs of an SME: A case study. Stimulating Excellence in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMESME) 2002 conf. proc., Essex, UK, May 2002, p166–172 IEM. 1998. Survey 1998: ISO 14001 and EMAS. Institute of Environmental Management Journal 5(4)p1–36 International Organization for Standardization. 1998. ISO 14000–Meet the family! Geneva. ISO. Welsh Assembly Government. 2002. Wise about Waste: The National Strategy for Wales Part One. Wales p58–59

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Software based knowledge integration for seismic risk management R.Pellegrini Enel Hydro—Ismes, Seriate (BG), Italy P.Salvaneschi University of Bergamo, Faculty of Engineering ABSTRACT: The paper describes the knowledge integration approaches followed during the development of the software package SEISMOCARE. The tool (the result of the evolution of a number of projects funded by E.U. and Italian National Research Bodies) supports users of different technical background active in seismic risk analysis and strengthening strategy definition and requires the integration of knowledge sources coming from various disciplines. The following knowledge integration issues are discussed: types of knowledge; how the knowledge integration requirement affected the software engineering process; technical solutions at specification, design and implementation level. The key solutions are the specification of an explicit knowledge model, a two-layer architecture (knowledge model implementation and functions exploiting the model capabilities) and the use of a GIS as implementation environment.

1 INTRODUCTION The evaluation of seismic vulnerability and seismic risk reduction by means of retrofitting of existing building heritage is a significant problem in many countries. Suitable software tools may support the evaluation process, providing environments for data and models integration and scenarios simulation. The development of this type of tools requires diverse types of knowledge, coming from seismology, geotechnical engineering, seismic engineering and risk management. From the information technology point of view, a supporting tool requires the integration of databases and computational components in a GIS based environment. The paper describes the capabilities of SEISMOCARE, a software package developed to support users of different technical background (e.g. experts as well as civil protection authorities), active in seismic risk analysis and strengthening strategy definition. The tool is the evolution of a number of projects funded by E.U. and Italian National Research Bodies. Chapter 2 provides a general overview of the system capabilities. The remaining chapters discuss the knowledge integration issues: what knowledge was integrated; how the knowledge integration requirement and the evolutionary approach of the system

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development affected the software engineering process; how the knowledge was codified and how was the unification of the knowledge accomplished through suitable architectural and implementation choices. 2 SYSTEM OVERVIEW The objective of the system development is to produce a software package for reliable predictions of losses due to earthquakes in a city or region. The software package is essentially a simulator with which the effects of damaging earthquakes in an urban area may be simulated and the losses estimated. It can be used to provide information useful for formulating seismic risk mitigation policies, planning and taking measures, effective both in the long term as well as for emergency response. The forecasted final users are people directly involved in the result of software simulations at various levels of expertise, depending on the type of simulation (adopted models, computing parameters and interpretation of the results). The basic planned features of the system allow its use even by persons not highly specialized. The simulator is composed by the following three basic inter-linked sets of modules: – The seismic hazard set – The vulnerability set – The loss estimation set Each set is a toolbox, including various types of data and models, which may be used according to specific goals and constraints (e.g. available data, costs…). A number of functions exploit the simulation capabilities linking together the basic modules for defined purposes (global simulation, emergency preparedness support, planning support). Through them, the user can explore possible scenarios following the earthquake and simulate the effects of actions on the urban nucleus. The person/machine interface supports: – The detailed control of the simulation step by step (seismic source definition, propagation to the bedrock, site effects modeling, damage computation, losses computation); – A recording functions allowing to execute a sequence of simulations steps in the recording mode, to generate a scenario simulation to be re-executed; – The ability to re-use specific predefined scenarios (e.g. for civil protection support) that were generated through the recording facility; – Special functions to exploit the scenarios for a specific use. A comprehensive set of functions allows supporting the planning activities through the simulation of strengthening actions for seismic reinforcement of buildings. Another set of functions allows supporting emergency preparedness for civil protection. The Seismic Hazard component is used to assist in selecting the scenario earthquake(s) and to generate expected motion parameters at a grid of points on the surface, covering the area of interest for the scenario quake. The module includes the following components:

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– SEISMIC INPUT. It includes the seismicity data (earthquake history catalogues and related parameters (date, magnitude, location, depth, etc) and information related to active faults (type of fault if known, length, activity rate, maximum possible event, etc) as well as the attenuation models estimating the seismic input at bedrock. The result of the computation is the seismic input in terms of bedrock acceleration and/or intensities at the site under investigation (seismic hazard or seismicity measures). The computation of the seismic input at the bedrock may be done in two ways by direct specification of a scenario PGA or by specification of a scenario earthquake(s) at any of the specified potential seismic sources and a subsequent attenuation to the sites of interest. – SITE EFFECTS. This component computes the effects of bedrock motion on the soil deposits at the area of interest and provides estimates of the ground motion at the surface. The vulnerability assessment component assists in defining the elements at risk and producing the vulnerability and damage measures, required for estimating losses. The module includes the following components: – INVENTORY: each catalogued structural object is described through a suitable classification (General buildings, special buildings with high concentration of people, critical facilities, utility buildings, lifelines). For each classified structure, a set of data is included (e.g. exposure occupation density). Each object has to be geo-referenced. – VULNERABILITY: it includes data and models at various levels of detail (e.g. GNDT1 model adapted to compute vulnerability and GNDT2 model) to compute the vulnerability of buildings (masonry and reinforced concrete), lifelines and special structures. The component allows managing all the data coming from the surveys, which are needed by the vulnerability models. It is possible to run the vulnerability models associated to each structural object and use the data to compute the vulnerability indexes. Note that the systems may host models at various level of accuracy, according with the available data. This feature allows the use of the software in real situations according with different possible survey strategies. Moreover, it is allowed to store data about possible strengthening techniques. The system manages rules that modify the vulnerability indexes according to the application of each strengthening technique. In such a way, it is possible to simulate the effects of a strengthening strategy on an urban nucleus. – DAMAGE: it includes data, models and functions for estimating damage as follows: – Direct estimation of building damage without prior computation of vulnerabilities (e.g. by means of the PSI model); – Estimation of damage from seismic input and vulnerability indexes (computed through vulnerability models); – Conversion of damage indexes produced by various models or methods into a uniform damage scale so that the user can compare them. Moreover it is included the module INTENSITY MAPS which is able to manage the computation of damage following a process which takes as input an intensity map and transforms it through amplification at bedrock models and soil effect models. This is

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another way of simulate the structural damage (with no use of acceleration information and Vulnerability/ Damage models). The loss estimation component includes functions related to the management of data that are needed to activate losses models and compute losses through losses models. It also includes types of models, which may take as input the data of damage, intensity and seismic input described using accelerations. The loss estimation module quantifies the loss estimates in terms of: – Built environment damage; – Human losses; – Displaced people; – Direct and indirect economic losses. The software package also includes functions needed to manage the simulator and exploit it. This kind of functions may be added to the simulator without changing the structure of the simulator itself. This is the way to specialise the product and improve its value for the users. An example is the module for EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS SUPPORT, which provides specific functions useful to support the preparedness to deal with emergencies. It may produce additional maps with the following information: – Expected number of safe buildings; – Expected number of safe buildings appropriate for temporary shelters; – Post-earthquake conditions of critical facilities; – Post earthquake conditions of lifelines; – Accessibility/evacuation routes of the urban system (related both to urban and suburban roads and their connection points); – Gathering areas/structures and aid services (locations, availability and accessibility for present conditions). Another example is a module able to use the simulator to generate global scenarios for PLANNING and LOSS REDUCTION SUPPORT. It provides specific functions useful to support the urban planning and loss reduction activities, allowing modifying the existing situation of the urban area and simulating the earthquake effects in the new scenario. It may produce additional maps with the following information: – Effects on the urban area after extensive buildings strengthening actions; – Effects on the urban area in case of removal of dangerous structures. – Simulated scenarios in case of new expansions of the urban area. The system is based on a set of data layers stored into a Geographic Information System (GIS) software needed to give information to the user about the simulation theatre (e.g. administrative borders, active faults, lakes, main roads, motorways, railways, lifelines, seismo-genetic zones). This set of layers and the GIS capabilities act as integration environment. They allow hosting the specific sets of data required by the simulator. The GIS software act also as environment for the person/ machine interface.

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3 TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE The development of the system requires the cooperation of experts, coming from diverse disciplines: seismology, geotechnical engineering, seismic engineering, and risk analysis. Each discipline makes available a large amount of knowledge. Knowledge modules (data and models) have to be selected to cooperate according with the aims of the system (the forecasted users). The knowledge is embodied into three diverse containers: data, models and combination rules. Examples of data are an earthquake catalogue and the related parameters (date, magnitude, location, depth, etc) or a set of data coming from a seismic vulnerability survey of an urban nucleus or again a map of roads at regional scale. A set of seismic vulnerability/damage models may be a models example. The set may include models at various levels of detail to compute the vulnerability and the damage of buildings (masonry and reinforced concrete), lifelines and special structures. Another example is a set of acceleration propagation/ attenuation models to propagate the effects of diverse types of seismic sources. Combination rules describe input/output relations and constraints. The overall functionality of the system is obtained linking together (through input/output relations) a number of data and models. The simulation of the effects of an earthquake starts from a seismic source (e.g. an active fault), propagates through a geographical region, takes into account the contribution of the local soil under the urban nucleus and finally cause the damage status of each building. Many modules may be available to solve a specific simulation step for a defined purpose. The system hosts models at various level of accuracy, according with the available data. E.g., the building damage may be evaluated through a simple damage model based on a building classification. More detailed models are based on data coming from a standard street surveys or a deeper evaluation of the structural properties of the building. The availability of diverse possible chains of data and models requires the definition of constraints. E.g. a specific chain of data and models may be suitable for the simulation of the earthquake effects at regional scale and not at urban nucleus scale and may be appropriate for a shallow earthquake seismic source. The constraints may arise not only from technical problems (the best solution for a given simulation problem) but also from economical ones. E.g. the simulation goal could be a first level, low cost damage ranking of an urban nucleus, given the data coming from a street survey. 4 KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROCESS What does it mean “knowledge integration”? Are there specific requirements to be satisfied to integrate the knowledge? The first requirement, at the beginning of the project, in the specification phase, is to define the goals for the integration. The integration is goal oriented and depends on the intended uses of the system. A second requirement, during the specification phase, is to develop an accurate model of the interesting set of knowledge modules and their relationships.

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The model is the core of the specification. It is used as a co-operation blackboard between the experts of the various areas. Each expert should understand the linguistic tool used to express it. Finally, the knowledge integration issue means to design and implement a system where data, models ad constraints may be chained together to compose in a safe and easy way a useful procedure for a defined goal. The conclusion is that we have to integrate the knowledge through a software engineering process and we have to manage the integration issue during each phase of the process. In the following, we describe how the requirement has been considered during the specification and the design and implementation phases. An additional requirement is that a system of this type cannot be developed through a linear process, but arises from an evolutionary one. A key consideration is that evolution requires some stability point, to allow the convergence and the growth of the system. In our case the stability points are: – The knowledge model at the specification level; – A two level architecture (a simulator implementing the knowledge model and a level of added functions to exploit the model).

5 INTEGRATION AT SPECIFICATION LEVEL INTEGRATION AT SPECIFICATION LEVEL The specification document includes two main contents. The first content describes the intended users and the general scenarios of use. This part sets the general framework of the system, defining the scope of the possible application. It is of great relevance a clear identification of the goals because it affects the types of knowledge we need and the characteristics of the overall system. E.g., in our system there is a requirement to support multiple levels of modeling accuracy for the seismic vulnerability evaluation, according to multiple cost levels for the associated data survey. The second part of the specification (the core part) is not a list of functions or use cases but a model, defining the knowledge modules, the flow of information between them and the associated constraints.

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Figure 1. A fragment of the knowledge model. Fig. 1 shows a fragment of the knowledge model. Rectangles represent the following computational models: 1 A set of vulnerability models; 2 A set of damage models; 3 A model computing the damage, given the vulnerability and a seismic input; 4 A procedure for the conversion to a uniform damage scale. The grey circle represents a persistent data structure. In the example it is a vulnerability/damage data set. White circles represent flows of data. From left to right in the figure: seismic input with site effects, vulnerability and damage. The modeling language is an interpreted Petri net, composed of activities, resources and relations between them. A computational module is an activity; a data module is a resource; activities may have input and output relations with resources and may exchange messages; an activity may have an associated annotation defining constraints. The model is used to interact with the experts, identify the modules to be integrated and link them to other modules. The model is also used to discover problems (e.g. the need of a new module to generate a common scale of the damage score coming from a number of vulnerability/damage models). The model is also the place where to add and integrate new fragments of knowledge as far as the system evolves. 6 INTEGRATION AT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION LEVEL The integration issue is managed at design and implementation level through the following main technical choices: – A two-layer architecture. – The implementation of the person/machine interface in a GIS environment.

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Figure 2. System architecture. The system architecture implements the well-known approach of the separation between the model and the functions exploiting the model (see the Model View Controller pattern or the Jackson System Design approach). The architecture (Fig. 2) is based on two layers: – A simulator – A layer of functions (the tools layer) to exploit the simulation capabilities according to specific goals and contexts. During the evolution steps of the system, the simulator is the more stable part implementing the knowledge model. The tools may be added or modified on top of the simulator, exploiting the simulation capabilities for specialized purposes. The evolution at tools levels may be managed with minor modifications at simulator level. The simulator implements the knowledge model through a relational database (the alphanumeric data modules), a set of GIS layers (the geo-referenced data layers) and a set of procedural modules (the models). The combination rules are encoded procedurally. The simulator in composed by three groups of interlinked sets of modules modelling the seismic hazard, the vulnerability and damage and the loss estimation. The tools layer includes the person/machine interface and a number of specialized tools. The person/machine interface is based on a GIS environment. Through the interface, the user can define a seismic source on a map of a region, propagate the effects and see the results on a coloured map at regional scale. Then the user can focus on an urban nucleus, apply the local soil effects, choose a set of survey data for the assessment of the vulnerability of buildings, choose a suitable model, compute a damage map and visualize a map of losses. The basic capability of the person/machine interface is to allow a step-by-step simulation, choosing among alternative models (with the associated constraints). An additional capability is the execution of a step-by-step simulation in the “recording mode”. The scenarios simulation may include steps of both the simulation scales

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(regional level and urban nucleus). At each simulation scale, it is possible to use all the implemented functions, such as hazard, damage and losses. The sequence of steps may be stored, classified and re-executed later. The recorded scenarios can be used for nonspecialist final users (e.g. for civil protection preparedness). Finally, the “tools” level may be extended adding new applications that exploit the simulation capabilities. The current implementation makes available a tool for emergency preparedness support and another one for planning and loss reduction support. The hardware/software platform is the following: – Personal computer with a Windows operating system; – Microsoft Access Data Base Management System; – Mapinfo Geographical Information System.

7 CONCLUSIONS The tool is the evolution of a number of projects funded by E.U. and Italian National Research Bodies: – CNR (Italian National Research Council)—Progetto Finalizzato Edilizia, “Expert systems and mobile laboratory for seismic risk assessment of buildings” (Cadei 1992); – TOSQA—Earthquake Protection for Historic Town Centers (EV5V-CT93-0305) (TOSQA Report 1 and 2, 1996); – SCENARIO: Time dependent seismic hazard estimate based on multi-parameter geophysical observatory system (PL931989) (Salvaneschi 1996 and SCENARIO 1998); – SEISMOCARE (ENV4-CT97-0588) (Anagnostopoulos 1998 and SEISMOCARE 2001). The tool, during the evolution steps, has been used for seismic risk assessment in a number of situations. Among them: the urban nucleus of the Alfama district in Lisbon, the area of “Quartieri spagnoli” in Naples, the region and the city of Chania, a Greek city on the island of Crete and the town of Genova, Department of Quindío, Colombia. REFERENCES Anagnostopoulos S.A., Bonacina G., Gavarini C., Nisticò N., Providakis C., Salvaneschi P., Sotiropoulos D., Woo G., 1998. Computer aided Reduction of Seismic Risk with Application to existing Cities, Town planning and Construction (SEISMOCARE) SISM-98 Seismic Impact on Structures and Monuments, Cambridge, UK. Cadei, M., Panzeri, P., Peano, A., Salvaneschi, R., 1992. A mobile laboratory with an expert system for seismic assessment of buildings. Proc. of the Tenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, A.A.Balkema, Rotterdam, 6311–6316. Salvaneschi R., Mucciarelli M., Spinelli A., Console R., Valensise G., Stavrakakis G.N., 1996. Time Dependent Hazard Estimate based on a Multi-parameter Geophysical Observatory System XXV General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission (ESC), Reykjavik. SCENARIO Final report, 1998. Environment project PL931989, Time dependent seismic hazard estimate based on multi-parameter geophysical observatory system (SCENARIO).

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SEISMOCARE Final report, 2001. Environment project EV5V-CT97-0588, Computer aided Reduction of Seismic Risk with Application to existing Cities, Town planning and Construction (SEISMOCARE). TOSQA Report 1, 1996. Environment project EV5V-CT93-0305, Eartquake Protection for Historic Town Centres (TOSQA), Task 2: Case studies. Task Report: Survey Data Analysis and Comparative Assessment. TOSQA Report 2, 1996. Environment project EV5V-CT93-0305, Earthquake Protection for Historic Town Centres (TOSQA), Task 5: Develop Vulnerability Methods and propose Strategies for Retrofitting. Task Report: Adapt Vulnerability Methods examined by IGOR to incorporate Retrofit.

eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction—Dikbaş & Scherer (eds.) ©2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4

Real-time earthquake prediction algorithms S.Radeva University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofla, Bulgaria R.J.Scherer Dresden University of Technology, Germany, EU D.Radev University of Rousse, Rousse, Bulgaria ABSTRACT: The paper is devoted on the problem of real-time earthquake prediction. Different kinds of stages of earthquake prediction are observed, and for each of this stages are discussed implementation of existing algorithms M8 and MSc for intermediate-term middle-range prediction. An approach for real-time prognoses, based on classification algorithm of strong motion waves with neural network and fuzzy logic models is suggesting. As input information for the neural network are given the parameters of recorded part of accelerogram, principle axis transform and spectral characteristics of the wave. With the help of stochastic long-range dependence time series analyses is determined the beginning of destructive phase of strong motion acceleration. Developed seismic waves classification gives possibility to determine the method for real time prognoses. For different king of classified waves we suggest different kind prognoses models. The prognoses are realized with the help of neural network, build on the principle of vector quantization.

1 INTRODUCTION A very promising method in earthquake engineering for protection of height—risk and very important structures against destructive influence of seismic waves is anti-seismic structural control. One of the critical problems there is the problem of forecasting in realtime of the behavior of seismic waves. Prognoses for further development of the waves can be made from recorded in real-time data for certain part of destructive seismic waves registrated in three directions. These prognoses are based on general, tectonic, seismic and site parameters. During these prognoses is supposed that waves can be classified as destructive or non-destructive and can be taken decision for switching on the devices for structural control. For making prognoses it is necessary to develop different kind of models. Modeling gives possibility to study the behavior of seismic waves and relationships between their parameters during their spread in soil layers, where for each point the parameters of her displacement are presented with three components in three directions of the orthogonal

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axes. For practical purposes of possible records for displacements, velocities and accelerations as time history, most often accelerograms are used, which are characterized with certain duration, frequency and peak ground acceleration. They are involved in models and systems for estimation of elasticity response spectrum. The most practical usage in structural engineering and design has their peak values, independently of their sign and direction. That’s why the modeling of the behavior of seismic waves is used as input information in the process of calculation of the structural response spectrum. The prognoses of earthquake occurrence can be classified according to the prognoses time duration. The most popular is their dividing into long-term (for next ten years), intermediate-term (for next few years), short-term (for next months-weeks) and real-time. Other kind of prognoses is prognoses of the area of occurrence of earthquake excitation of certain magnitude. Both approaches for prognoses are connected with difficult problems, when are applied the traditional stochastic time series analyses instead of applying methods for crash prognoses, where is dealing with reaching of certain critical threshold, (Kossobokov et al, 2000). Concerning the gap stretch of expected earthquake GLe it is necessary to take the space localization in more wide diapasons. The classification of kind of earthquake prognoses is presented on Table 1.

Table 1. Classification of earthquake prognoses according to time and place determination. Temporal in years

Spatial in sources zone GLe

Long-term

10

Long duration up to

100

Intermediate-term

1

Middle duration

5–10

Short-term

0.01–0.1

Short duration

2–3

Real-time

0.0001

Exact

1

In this paper we fix our attention on real-time prognoses of earthquake excitation, which is very important, because we have to receive very precise estimation of the development of the process. The method for classification is developed for fast estimation of strong motion seismic waves on the base of their main characteristics. The fast estimation of seismic waves is implementing for real-time prognoses, which is based on belonging of prognoses waves to certain class and subclass. 2 INTERMEDIATE-TERM MIDDLE-RANGE PREDICTION An earthquake prediction must specify the expected magnitude range, the geographical area within which it will occur, and the time interval within which it will happen with sufficient precision so that the ultimate success or failure of the prediction can readily be judged. The two basic intermediate-term algorithms M8 and MSc are comparing in this section.

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2.1 Algorithm M8 This prediction method was designed by retroactive analysis of dynamics of seismic activity preceding the greatest, magnitude 8.0 or more earthquakes. Its original version (Keilis-Borok & Kosobokov, 1990) were tested retroactively at 143 points, of which 132 are recorded epicenters of earthquakes of magnitude 8.0 or greater from 1857–1983. The catalog of main shocks canbe described by {ti, mi, hi, bi(e)}, i=1, 2,…, where ti is the origin time, hi is the focal depth, mi is the magnitude and bi(e) is the number of aftershocks with magnitude Maft or more during the first e days. On Figure 1 are shown dependences between two main approaches for earthquake prediction with M8 provided by Keilis-Borok (1) and Gardner-Knopoff (2). According to M8, the prediction is aimed at earthquake of magnitude M0 and larger from the range M0+= [M0, M0+DM], where DM