Industrial Activity Land Suitability Assessment Using Delphi and AHP to Control Land Consumption¨: The Case Study of Bordj Bouarreridj, Algeria

Studies and research on land suitability for the localization of economic and industrial activities in cities are attracting academics and local policies concerned with urban planning and organization in order to make urban areas more accommodating. The current paper aims to demonstrate the ability of visualization and simulation techniques to assist planners in preserving urban real estate by combining the Delphi method with one of the multi-criteria hierarchical analysis decision-making techniques. The city of Bordj Bouarreridj in Algeria was chosen as the case study and, with the participation of experts, a set of criteria were adopted to determine land suitability. Three criteria were selected in the first phase with the use of the Delphi method. In the second phase, we applied the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AH, a hierarchical analysis method. During the third stage, the obtained results were translated into the GIS program to derive the spatial suitability map. The following are among the most important achieved results: 13.38% (521.793 km2) of the area was regarded to be of high suitability, 67.54% (2,634.758 km2), achieved moderate suitability, 12.94% (504,794 km2) attained low suitability, and 6.14% (239,685 km2) were found to be not suitable at all.

Towards a Building Techniques of a BREP Model Starting From a Meshed Surface

For several years, research has been brought to reconstruct a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model from a 3D mesh or point cloud produced by scanning techniques or CAD software. This process, which recreates the geometry of a real part is called Revere Engineering (RE). In the industry, RE enables designers and engineers to virtually simulate, test and validate products before the manufacturing process. Therefore, it is common to use a reconstruction algorithm to rebuild a CAD model of a real object with high quality. This technique solves several problems of exchanging geometric models in engineering, computer vision, computer graphics, 3D animation, medical, mechanic, virtual/ augmented reality, etc. Therefore, CAD model reconstruction promotes the integration of 3D data without recopying or manual transformations and facilitates the visualization and simulation of the deformed model behavior. The aim of this work is how to rebuild a CAD model starting from a deformed mesh. The complexity of this problem requires to be split into several complementary parts. 3D surface reconstruction is considered as the most difficult step to obtain this geometric model. This paper consists in presenting an original method to reconstruct a CAD model surface (NURBS surface) starting from a triangulation (meshed surface) as a main step of the geometric model reconstruction.

An analysis of the application areas of augmented reality technology in the construction industry

PurposeThe paper aims to analyze the application areas of augmented reality (AR) in the construction industry to enhance its usage level. The objectives are to assess the level of awareness of hardware and software devices of AR, examine the application areas of AR and reveal lagging areas in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA survey of construction professionals engaged in the built environment was sent a well-structured questionnaire in the study area. The professionals involved are project managers, architects, engineers, builders and quantity surveyors. The sampling technique used in selecting those professionals was convenience sampling. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the retrieved data.FindingsThe five most applied areas of Augmented Realities are Visualization and simulation of construction works; Project documentation; Project planning, monitoring and modification. The other two areas include on-site real-time information retrieval and health and safety measures. The findings also revealed the difference in the opinions of professionals among the variables. The results showed that there is significant difference in the opinions of the professionals regarding the application areas except one, that is automated measurement. Automated measurement has the same converging opinions of all professionals engaged in the study.Originality/valueThe study gives deep insight into possible areas where AR can be used in construction. The awareness level of hardware and software devices of AR was revealed by showing that those devices are upcoming in their usage. The areas of application of AR in construction are in their nascent stage. When there is proper implementation of this technology it will improve management in construction, minimize health and safety issues, and enhance the efficiency of workers through visualization and simulation.