Jonas Šaparauskas

Conceptual modelling of sustainable Vilnius development

Abstract This research consists of 5 stages: comparative description of the sustainable urban development in developed countries and in Vilnius; a comparison and contrast of sustainable urban development in developed countries and Vilnius; a development of some of the general recommendations as how to improve the efficiency levels for a sustainable Vilnius; submission of particular recommendations for the city of Vilnius; a multiple criteria analysis of sustainable urban developments components and a selection of the most efficient version of sustainable urban development life cycle. The obtained results have partially confirmed the available data, and interesting trends of the development of established cities have been noted. In order to demonstrate the application of the above research, concrete examples of Vilnius will be considered in this paper.

Application of DEA method in efficiency evaluation of public higher education institutions

AbstractPublic higher education sector is under a growing pressure worldwide to increase efficiency and improve the quality of its activities. Limited financial resources as well as detailed regulations and supervision of their spending are the important features of the public higher education sector. Another important and debated issue is the division of public money among higher education institutions (HEI). It is therefore crucial to create stimuli for the rational management of public funds by HEI and for the quality improvement of HEI services. One of the proposed ways to achieve the desired result is the comparative efficiency assessment of HEI activities. Setting clear reference points for HEI, such assessment may be treated as a substitute for market competition.This paper describes a comparative efficiency study of 19 Polish universities of technology. Detailed analysis of potential input, output and environmental variables describing the HEI efficiency model was carried out. The study used the C...

Selection of Facade's Alternatives of Commercial and Public Buildings Based on Multiple Criteria

An appropriate mechanism for supporting design management practices at an early stage of project is crucial in terms of adding value over scope, time and total investment strategic decisions. The clients are not only interested in value for money in relation to the investment in project development but costs associated in operation and maintenance over project life cycle as well. These criteria make possible to evaluate design solutions which can be characterized by quantitative and qualitative criteria which possibly have different weight, dimension and direction of optimization (maximisation or minimization). The purpose of this article -- is to compare different designs of building or its structure and to select the best alternative using criteria of optimality. Case study is demonstrated by selecting the best facade system to cover the building. For this purpose four alternatives of building facades are under consideration. Two criteria (out of three) indicate that for the case study the most preferable facade‘s alternative is gas silicate masonry, covered by Rockwool and “Minerit” facade plates.

EVALUATION OF CONSTRUCTION SUSTAINABILITY BY MULTIPLE CRITERIA METHODS

Abstract Sustainable construction is a relevant subject in contemporary world because it is one of approaches achieving sustainability in all the spheres of society development. The authors reveal difficulties which emerge in creating the indicator system for sustainability evaluation, searching for information concerning indicators and in making mathematical calculations. After thorough analysis of research papers, specific databases and other information sources an algorithm for indicator system creation was suggested. The set of construction sustainability indicators for a particular country was built, the values of indicators were defined and then several decision‐making methods were applied. According to a general index of construction sustainability, a conclusion was drawn about construction state in the context of sustainable development.

A MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT FORMATION

Life in any modern city of the world is concentrated mostly in a particular ever‐changing environment. Micro, meso and macro environments have a direct impact on sustainable urban development opportunities. This may facilitate sustainable urban development or, on the contrary, it may create constraints. Micro, meso and macro environments must be considered as an aggregate of forces influencing sustainable urban development and combining both the factors that have a direct impact and those whose impact is indirectly. This researches aim was to develop a model of sustainable urban development formation by undertaking a complex analysis of micro, meso and macro environmental factors affecting it and to present recommendations for the increase of its competitive abilities.

An integrated fuzzy ANP–QFD approach for green building assessment

One of the major concerns in the construction industry is the sustainability of building projects. There are various trade-offs between functionality and design, which often lead to an issue of whether sustainably designed buildings would meet stakeholder requirements. This paper provides a novel integrated structure for assessing green buildings realistically based on stakeholders’ fuzzy preferences. In particular, the paper uses the analytic network approach (ANP) to evaluate the correlation matrices in a quality function deployment (QFD) framework. A case study on green building index assessment in Malaysia illustrates the proposed integrated method. Sensitivity analysis validated the customerstakeholder agreement towards the design of the green building. Cluster analysis was also used to group design specifications prior to the analysis.

Proposing a neural network model to predict time and cost claims in construction projects

AbstractDespite broad improvements in construction management, claims still are an inseparable part of many construction projects. Due to huge cases of claim in construction industry, this study argues that claim management is a significant factor in construction projects success. In this study, the most possible causes of these emerging claims are identified and statistically ranked by Probability-Impact Matrix. Subsequently, by classifying claims in different cases, the most important ones are ranked in order to achieve a better understanding of claim management in each project. In this regard, a new index is defined, being able to be applied in a variety of projects with different time and cost values, to calculate the amount of possible claims in each project along with related ratios with respect to the cost and time of each claim. This study introduces a new model to predict the frequency of claims in construction projects. By using the proposed model, the rate of possible claims in each project can...

Critical factors of the application of nanotechnology in construction industry by using ANP technique under fuzzy intuitionistic environment

AbstractNanotechnology plays a significant role in construction industry. The construction industry has been employed nanomaterials to improve the performance of construction components and the safety of the structure and to reduce the energy consuming and the cost of maintenance. In other words, nanotechnology has a substantial impact on the construction industry. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and evaluate the critical factors of the application of nanotechnology in construction in order to concentrate on the most critical factors. However, several techniques have been developed to prioritize the evaluation criteria. Analytical network process (ANP) technique, a branch of multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods, is a powerful tool to rank a limited number of criteria. This technique takes into account both tangible and intangible criteria in the process of formulation of a decision making problem. This method is capable of handling all types of independence and dependence relationships. On...

Integrated multi-criteria evaluation of house’s plan shape based on the EDAS and SWARA methods

With this article we strive to create a theoretical valuation model based on multiple criteria mathematical methods by selecting a basic shape of single-family residential house‘s plan. Most of the researches and analysis discuss the interfaces of architectural shapes of the buildings with sustainability only in the buildings with unique design. Meanwhile, the model comprising a selection of a basic shape of the singlefamily house was not implemented. Our study evaluated the individual parameters associated with selection of the house shape: compactness, safety, material input, variability of premises and spaces. The SWARA (Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis) method is applied in the calculation of the relative importance of the criteria and the EDAS (The Method of Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution) method was used to prioritize the alternatives.

Steep increases in biomass demand: the possibilities of short rotation coppice (SRC) agro-forestry

AbstractAt current usage levels, short rotation coppice (SRC) biomass could be considered as an untapped resource. There is a worldwide interest to extend its sustainable production significantly in a decade to come. However, the cultivation of energy crops is very site-specific and the exploitation of SRC biomass is a relatively new trend in biomass application for heat and power production with little information on its cultivation patterns and appropriate combustion technologies. In fact, documented biomass conversion technologies’ impacts in the energy sector and their commercialisation are limited. This paper aims to present a summary of technical characteristics for different biomass conversion technologies. These characteristics are not necessarily unique to all types and possible modifications of the biomass conversion technologies applied for many countries. However, the lack of technical knowledge have created situations that were previously impossible to be solved without the aid of numerous re...