Serkan Kivrak

Computer-aided decision-making in construction project development

AbstractOne of the most difficult problems in construction is taking objective decisions. A decision-making process is very complicated and time consuming (due to the complex nature of construction projects). Many experts with extensive knowledge of construction industry take subjective decisions related to verbal methods of decision-making. Difficulties are related mostly to the creation of a set of relevant criteria, providing answers to the decision-makers questions. A set of proper criteria and mathematical tools (such as computer calculation algorithms with multi-criteria analysis) could significantly improve objective decision-making. The paper presents ESORD – an informatics tool allowing to establish a hierarchy (ranking) of different types of solutions on the basis of mathematical calculation. The authors present a comparison of different methods used for multi-criteria decision-making.

Factors affecting environmental sustainability of urban renewal projects

ABSTRACT Urban renewal programmes offer an opportunity to improve the environmental sustainability of urban areas by creating well-designed and well-constructed built environments. In this study, the contributions of built environment design elements to environmental sustainability were evaluated through a questionnaire survey with the participation of 323 people who previously worked in urban renewal projects. Implementing factor analysis, interrelated elements have been gathered under five factors: ‘transportation and accessibility’, ‘conservation of natural resources’, ‘built environment quality’, ‘supporting social life’ and ‘high-density usage’. To identify the importance weights of these factors, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis was carried out with 40 academics and practitioners. Based on the results, ‘conservation of natural resources’ was found as the most important factor affecting the environmental sustainability of urban renewal projects. It is expected that the results of this study shall guide a wide range of urban renewal stakeholders, extending from designers to citizens, along the path of creating environmentally sustainable cities.

A semiotic analysis of cartoons about occupational health and safety issues in the construction workplace

The construction industry in developed and developing countries is almost always among industries with poor safety records. In decreasing the numbers of safety incidents, society’s perception of construction workers, who are the central part of the occupational health and safety issue, can be an important learning tool for these workers in terms of self-criticism. Therefore, society’s perception of the responsibility of workers for occupational health and safety is presented by means of cartoons. For this objective, seven cartoons exhibited in the International Construction Accidents Cartoon Contest held in Turkey are examined through the General Theory of Verbal Humour, a semiotic analysis method. As the main finding, construction-based occupational health and safety perceptions of countries were found not to change significantly. Consequently, these results can have a function in guiding workers and worker unions to revise and manage the general perception of society about them. Moreover, such cartoons can be used as a lingua franca for occupational health and safety training in international construction projects where multinational migrant workers are employed.

İnşaat Projelerinde Kör Noktalardan Kaynaklanan İş Kazalarını Önleme Sistemi

Insaat sektoru is kazalari acisindan en riskli sektorlerden biri olarak bilinmektedir. Insaat sektorunde is sagligi ve guvenligi istatistiklerine gore yuksekten dusme ve ekipman kazalari, is kazalarinin buyuk cogunlugunu olusturmaktadir. Bu tip kazalara neden olan en onemli etkenlerden biri insaat ekipmanlarinda ve doseme bosluklari gibi tehlikeli yerlerde var olan kor noktalardir. Bu calismada insaat projelerinde kor noktalardan kaynaklanan is kazalarinin onlenmesine yonelik bir is guvenligi sistemi gelistirilmistir. Sistemde sensorler, RFID (Radyo Frekansi ile Tanimlama) ve GPS (Kuresel Konumlama Sistemi) kullanilmistir. Sistem, temsili laboratuvar-santiyede test edilmistir. Test sonuclarina gore, sistemin santiyelerde kor noktalardan kaynaklanan is kazalarini azaltmada onemli katkilar saglayacagi ongorulmustur.

İnşaat Proje İmalatlarında Artırılmış Gerçeklik Teknolojisi Uygulamaları

Bilgi teknolojilerine yeni bir bakis acisi getiren artirilmis gerceklik, gercek dunyanin sanal dunyadan gelen bilgi ile zenginlestirilmesidir. Artirilmis gerceklik, gelecekte insaat projeleri uygulamalarina onemli katkilar saglayacak yenilikci teknolojilerden biridir. Bu calismada, artirilmis gerceklik teknolojisi kullanilarak insaat projelerinde calisan isci, ekipman operatoru, muhendis ve yoneticilerin yapimini veya kontrolunu ustlendikleri imalat islerinin bastan sona asamalar halinde bilgilendirildigi bir sistem gelistirilmistir. Akilli gozluk ile olusturulan sistemde kullanicilar, yapimini ya da kontrolunu ustlendikleri islerle ilgili egitim ve yapim yontemlerine santiyede isin basindayken ulasarak imalat ile ilgili gerekli bilgilere aninda erisebilecektir. Bu sekilde hatali imalat yapmaktan ya da imalatin dogrusunu ogrenmek icin zaman ve para harcamaktan sakinmis olacaktir. Sistem, tugla duvar imalatinin asamalari kullanilarak test edilmistir. Sistemin insaat proje imalatlarinin kalitesini artirabilecegi d olayisiyla sektore onemli katkilar saglayacagi ongorulmektedir.

Implementing Augmented Reality in Construction Projects

Augmented reality, which has been designed to improve the services in many application domains such as school education, military warfare, military trainings, industrial maintenance, retail and medical, can be defined in the simplest form as augmenting the real world with information from the virtual world. The main aim of this study, which presents an overview of an ongoing project, is to develop an innovative method by making a construction worker, foreman, equipment operator or a site engineer watch a very comprehensive and informative animation which will enable the said staff to perform or supervise all the phases of the activity he or she is in charge for in a more efficient, productive, safer and qualified manner by means of smart glasses using augmented reality systems. Basic trainings about the system will be given to target group, i.e. construction workers, foremen, operators, site engineers and managers working in the construction sites to apply the system on sites after all the system was tested. After the testing, to determine the effectiveness of this system, semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires will be conducted among the mentioned target group. Therefore, the potential benefits of this system to the construction industry can be determined. There are relatively few studies about the implementations of augmented reality technology in construction. The outputs to be attained in the end of the study have the potential of improvement of time, cost, quality and safety parameters.