PERFORMANCE OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS IN COLDER CLIMATES

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 131-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Gorgolewski ◽  
Craig Brown ◽  
Anne-Mareike Chu ◽  
Adrian Turcato ◽  
Karen Bartlett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Building Performance ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Building Management ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Occupant Satisfaction

Building performance evaluations (BPEs) were carried out for nine Canadian green buildings using a standardised assessment framework. The aim was to explore and measure the discrepancies between the operational performance of the buildings and their predicted performance, as well as to identify lessons for their owners, design teams and the construction industry. The objective of this paper is not to report individual buildings in detail (we refer the reader to the individual building reports) but to report on some general lessons that came from doing this study. Overall these buildings performed well compared to benchmarks. However, the findings suggest that occupancy is not well understood and often incorrectly predicted during design, and that this affects various aspects of performance, including energy and water use. Also energy and water use modelling is often undertaken principally for building code/green rating compliance purposes and does not necessarily represent an accurate prediction of likely operational use. Combined with variations in occupancy this can lead to considerable discrepancies in performance from the modelled values. This may be understood by experts but is often misleading to building owners and others. Water use is often not well predicted and also not carefully managed in buildings and there is a lack of understanding of what constitutes good water performance. Overall, it is important to recognise that each building has its own individual “story” that provides necessary context for effective management and improvement of the building during its ongoing life. It is proposed that a BPE process allows that context to be better understood, and enables more effective decision making about building management, improvements, occupant satisfaction, energy use, etc.

Impact of Fidelity in 3D Space Visualisation Across the Construction Asset Lifecycle

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-28
Author(s):  
Noha Saleeb
Keyword(s):  
Human Perception ◽  
Virtual Spaces ◽  
3D Space ◽  
Building Models ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Published Research

3D virtual building models are used to help clients reach decisions during concept and detailed design phases. However, previously published research provides evidence for discrepancies between human perception of virtual and physical spaces; thus perceiving each virtual dimension (height, width, depth) differently from its physical counterpart, with varying percentages. This can affect clients' effective decision-making during coordination if 3D virtual representations are not perceived identical to their physical equivalent. This paper discusses the impact of these discrepancies beyond the design phases and into the whole lifecycle, construction and operations. Moreover, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis provides evidence of relationships between the physical and virtual perception differences in dimension, discussing possible factors contributing to perception discrepancies affecting the individual viewer, in 2 main areas 1) 3D authoring software 2) psychophysical factors. Possible solutions are also proposed to accommodate for the discrepancy between physical and virtual spaces.

scholarly journals Assessing building performance in residential buildings using BIM and sensor data

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 176-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Rogage ◽  
Adrian Clear ◽  
Zaid Alwan ◽  
Tom Lawrence ◽  
Graham Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Performance Data ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Building Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Building Maintenance ◽  
Building Management ◽  
Building Information

Purpose Buildings and their use is a complex process from design to occupation. Buildings produce huge volumes of data such as building information modelling (BIM), sensor (e.g. from building management systems), occupant and building maintenance data. These data can be spread across multiple disconnected systems in numerous formats, making their combined analysis difficult. The purpose of this paper is to bring these sources of data together, to provide a more complete account of a building and, consequently, a more comprehensive basis for understanding and managing its performance. Design/methodology/approach Building data from a sample of newly constructed housing units were analysed, several properties were identified for the study and sensors deployed. A sensor agnostic platform for visualising real-time building performance data was developed. Findings Data sources from both sensor data and qualitative questionnaire were analysed and a matrix of elements affecting building performance in areas such as energy use, comfort use, integration with technology was presented. In addition, a prototype sensor visualisation platform was designed to connect in-use performance data to BIM. Originality/value This work presents initial findings from a post occupancy evaluation utilising sensor data. The work attempts to address the issues of BIM in-use scenarios for housing sector. A prototype was developed which can be fully developed and replicated to wider housing projects. The findings can better address how indoor thermal comfort parameters can be used to improve housing stock and even address elements such as machine learning for better buildings.

scholarly journals Immune Responses to SARS-CoV2 Mirror Societal Responses to COVID-19: Identifying Factors Underlying a Successful Viral Response

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 485
Author(s):  
Shahar Lev-Ari ◽  
Benjamin Rolnik ◽  
Ilan Volovitz
Keyword(s):  
Immune Responses ◽  
Adaptive Immune System ◽  
Emerging Pathogens ◽  
Self Similarity ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
The Individual

The adaptive immune system was sculpted to protect individuals, societies, and species since its inception, developing effective strategies to cope with emerging pathogens. Here, we show that similar successful or failed dynamics govern personal and societal responses to a pathogen as SARS-CoV2. Understanding the self-similarity between the health-protective measures taken to protect the individual or the society, help identify critical factors underlying the effectiveness of societal response to a pathogenic challenge. These include (1) the quick employment of adaptive-like, pathogen-specific strategies to cope with the threat including the development of “memory-like responses”; (2) enabling productive coaction and interaction within the society by employing effective decision-making processes; and (3) the quick inhibition of positive feedback loops generated by hazardous or false information. Learning from adaptive anti-pathogen immune responses, policymakers and scientists could reduce the direct damages associated with COVID-19 and avert an avoidable “social cytokine storm” with its ensuing socioeconomic damage.

scholarly journals Construction diploma design on VIM-technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Anatoly Druzhinin ◽  
Oksana Davidenko
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
State Level ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Design Engineering ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
Engineering Cost ◽  
And Training

The development of the construction industry of Ukraine as a basis for economic transformations through the introduction of information technology (IT), put forward appropriate requirements for specialists. There is a need at the state level to solve the problem of need and development in the labor market of competencies of specialists for the construction industry in the implementation of VIM technologies, creating a single information model in the construction of Ukraine, which would combine architectural, design, engineering, cost, ecological components with access to cost-effective decision-making for the life cycle of the object and, accordingly, the introduction of innovative technologies in the education and training of competent professionals.

scholarly journals A MODEL TO REDUCE EARTHMOVING IMPACTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 490-512
Author(s):  
Hassanean S.H. Jassim ◽  
Jan Krantz ◽  
Weizhuo Lu ◽  
Thomas Olofsson
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Competing Demands ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Heavy Duty Diesel ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
Rule Based Approach ◽  
Allocation Methods

Meeting increasingly ambitious carbon regulations in the construction industry is particularly challenging for earthmoving operations due to the extensive use of heavy-duty diesel equipment. Better planning of operations and balancing of competing demands linked to environmental concerns, costs, and duration is needed. However, existing approaches (theoretical and practical) rarely address all of these demands simultaneously, and are often limited to parts of the process, such as earth allocation methods or equipment allocation methods based on practitioners’ past experience or goals. Thus, this study proposes a method that can integrate multiple planning techniques to maximize mitigation of project impacts cost-effectively, including the noted approaches together with others developed to facilitate effective decision-making. The model is adapted for planners and contractors to optimize mass flows and allocate earthmoving equipment configurations with respect to tradeoffs between duration, cost, CO2 emissions, and energy use. Three equipment allocation approaches are proposed and demonstrated in a case study. A rule-based approach that allocates equipment configurations according to hauling distances provided the best-performing approach in terms of costs, CO2 emissions, energy use and simplicity (which facilitates practical application at construction sites). The study also indicates that trucks are major contributors to earthmoving operations’ costs and environmental impacts.

scholarly journals The Market as a Decision-Making Mechanism in a Democracy

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Evangelopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Effective Protection ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level ◽  
Voting Mechanism

In my paper I attempt to show that the market is an effective decision-making mechanism in a modern democracy. On the other hand, in a contemporary democratic society, the state must have a limited role, only on the formation of the collective choice through the majority rule. The majority rule is required for the proper functioning of social organization, with the voting mechanism within a framework of strict limitations imposed by individuals with high-level constitutional backing for the effective protection of the individual rights.

scholarly journals Can mindfulness be helpful in team decision-making? A framework for understanding how to mitigate false consensus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Selart ◽  
Vidar Schei ◽  
Rune Lines ◽  
Synnøve Nesse
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Team Processes ◽  
Team Decision Making ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
False Consensus ◽  
Team Decision ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
The Individual

Mindfulness has recently attracted a great deal of interest in the field of management. However, even though mindfulness – broadly viewed as a state of active awareness – has been described mainly at the individual level, it may also have important effects at aggregated levels. In this article, we adopt a team-based conceptualization of mindfulness, and develop a framework that represents the powerful effect of team mindfulness on facilitating effective decision-making. We further discuss how a conceptualization of team mindfulness may mitigate the process of false consensus by interacting positively with the following five central team processes: open-mindedness, participation, empowerment, conflict management, and value and ambiguity tolerance. A false consensus constitutes a cognitive bias, leading to the perception of a consensus that does not exist. In essence, we argue that, although a conceptualization of team mindfulness does not guarantee effective decision-making in itself, it may successfully reduce false consensus when coupled with these five team processes. Accordingly, this article contributes to the theory and practice of team decision-making by demonstrating how a conceptualization of team mindfulness can be helpful in the increasingly complex and ambiguous situations faced by contemporary teams.

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