A Private Tree By-Law’s Contribution to Maintaining a Diverse Urban Forest: Exploring Homeowners’ Replanting Compliance and the Role of Construction Activities in Toronto, Canada

Many municipalities are working to protect and grow their urban forest, including adopting private tree regulations. Such regulations typically require property-owners to apply for a permit to remove trees and, if the permit is granted, plant replacement trees. Even with such regulations, many private trees are removed each year, particularly on residential property. Property-level construction activity, including expanding building footprints, replacing an older home with a new one, and increasing hardscaping, is emerging as a key driver of residential tree loss. This study addresses whether homeowners who receive a permit to remove one or more trees comply with the requirement to plant replacement trees to better understand the effect of private tree regulation. We explore this question through a written survey of homeowners who received a tree removal permit and site visits in Toronto (Ontario, Canada). While 70% of all survey participants planted the required replacement trees 2 to 3 years after receiving the permit, only 54% of homeowners whose permit was associated with construction planted. Additionally, most replacement trees were in good health but were dominated by a few genera. We also found significant differences in replacement planting and tree survival across the city’s 4 management districts. This study highlights that if resources supporting private tree regulations are limited, tree permits associated with construction should be prioritized for follow-up. Additionally, guidance about diverse species to plant should be communicated to ensure that private tree regulations are supporting the long-term protection of the urban forest.

Stakeholder involvement in the innovation process: An example in medical robotics, the ROBO-K project

In the field of medical robotics, many studies have called for the integration of end-users in the innovation process. The objective is to identify the factors that facilitate (or not) the use of the designed robots and thus try to guarantee their diffusion in the care services. This recommendation was followed in the ROBO-K project. The ROBO-K project proposes the design and development of a mobile, interactive robot dedicated to gait rehabilitation. This project was initiated by BA Healthcare, a medical robotics company. The design of a robot was accompanied to achieve the targeted therapeutic objectives by taking into account the requirements related to the needs of the patients and the practitioners; the care activity and the institutions involved. A follow-up by the social acceptability of the technology led to focus the innovation process on a co-construction activity involving all stakeholders. This co-construction activity was decisive, as it guided the definition of functional expectations and the technical specifications of the prototype developed. It was completed by a test phase of the prototype (in a care situation for 5 months). The results show the relevance to involve all the stakeholders in all the design and development phases of the robotic device. However, they underline the difficulties or limits linked to this type of approach in terms of innovation.

EXPERTS’ IDENTIFICATION OF POST-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION CONCEPTS RELEVANT TO BUILDING PERFORMANCE

Post occupancy evaluation is an approach in determining building performance based primarily on users' views. These views are sorted and evaluated by experts in the building industry for better design solutions. The Architects’ Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) upholds this view by providing post occupancy analysis and evaluation under phase 7 as a post construction activity in the professional payment schedule. However, minimal guidelines were set for easy adoption in the post-occupancy evaluation of buildings by ARCON for general application. To this end, this study aimed to identify the POE performance indicators and criteria relevant to building performance to guide future evaluations. The building typology considered was an architecture department building in a university. The quantitative survey involved ten architects selected through purposive sampling, and the SPSS descriptive statistics analysed data. The study considered forty criteria under three performance indicators: Design Quality (DQ), Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), and Quality of Building Support Services (QBSS). The experts rated twenty-four of the performance criteria to be relevant; thirteen were rated as moderately relevant, while three were below moderately relevant. The study recommended that proximity to sports facility and place of worship under accessibility should not be considered in POE of this building typology.

Flyover Development Risk Analysis: Review of The Construction Phase Efforts to Minimize Environmental Impact

The increase of road segments are needed to overcome traffic congestion in Special Capital Region of Jakarta. Flyover is one of the efforts made to add road segments. The construction of flyovers will change the initial landscape and initial environmental tone. This change affects environmental, social, and economic conditions. All risks in construction activity must be managed to minimize their negative impact. Risks management starts with risk analysis by identification significant impact. This research aims to analyze the risks arising from the construction of flyovers. This analysis was carried out on the Becakayu flyover, which only began operating in 2017. Environmental risk is calculated based on parameters of opportunity, magnitude, level, frequency, and sensitivity of risks that may arise. Based on the results of the analysis, it was found that the construction of flyovers had a moderate risk to the environment during the construction phase. To minimize the risks that may arise, it is necessary to manage the risks that may arise through the construction process that meets the standards, the use of well-maintained equipment, the use of hazard signs, and the measurement of environmental quality during the construction phase.

Construction Activity as an Element of Suburban Zone Development

The dynamic process of suburbanisation in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, causes changes in the scale of the construction activity, mainly in the communes surrounding large cities. Although, in Poland, suburbanisation processes were initiated with the system transformation, and the first spatial planning law was adopted only in 1994. In addition, building permits were issued in an unplanned manner, regardless of future consequences. As a result, housing development, despite its high intensity in suburban zones, is dispersed and chaotic. The aim of this study is to juxtapose the construction activity with the guidelines governing this sphere contained in strategic and planning documents, with the example of the suburbs of Toruń. On the basis of the statistical data, and the planning and strategic documents at different levels, it is shown that construction activity, because of its interference in space, is indeed an important element shaping suburban zone development; there is a burning need for the appropriate, i.e., sustainable and long-term, planning of this process. This planning may be boosted by considering the potential development scenarios for the analysed communes belonging to the Toruń suburban area set out in this study.

Costing, Adobe Technique as a Sustainable Construction System in the City of Cuenca

Adobe is an old material used in construction but over time, this construction system has lost space and preference among population. Hence, the need to seek alternatives as professionals in the construction area to encourage the use of the Adobe technique has raised. Thus, the present study made a cost of the items involved in the construction of houses from the adobe based on the theoretical references. In addition, it established a unit price analysis that identifies the particularities of this system focusing on an analytical, descriptive-conclusive methodology whose data are analysed from the results of applying a survey (n = 96) to the inhabitants of the rural sector of Cuenca and construction experts (n = 11). The average price of the construction of houses with Adobe is $ 38,357.23 dollars for a house of 150 m2 taking into account that the real costs and the construction activity are sensitive to changes in the population and market prices.

Carbon footprint of a multi-storied residential building during the construction process

Construction Industry indicates development of the country and it helps in the economic growth which adds productivity and quality of life of citizens. During the manufacturing and the construction processes, there is use and combustion of fossil fuels which results total 39% of total carbon footprint. So, studying carbon footprint for construction companies becomes very important. Many different studies are carried out with giving number of alternatives to reduce the amount of carbon footprint. However, this research is focused mainly on multi-storeyed residential building in renowned city in India, shows the carbon emissions produced by a construction activity right from the material production to the actual execution process. Different Greenhouse gases contributing carbon footprint were also studied & incorporated. Various activities accounting to emissions were listed and their carbon footprint value (in the form of Carbon Dioxide equivalent) was calculated by bottom-up method. The manufacturing of various construction materials and usage of electricity during execution phases of a building causes very bad impact on the environment. The greatest contributors of the carbon footprint are onsite electricity use and building materials manufacturing. Therefore, use of green concrete, renewable energy, prefabricated construction materials and low emission construction equipment & vehicles can help in reducing the values of Carbon Footprint by the construction industry.

The First Successful Rigless Monotrip Gas Lift Completion in Mahakam Field

Pertamina Hulu Mahakam (PHM) has applied the Mono Trip Gas Lift (MTGL) completion technique with 27 wells that have been completed by drilling rigs. To improve efficiency, PHM assigned a Hydraulic Workover Unit (HWU) in September 2020 to execute the first rig-less MTGL in the Mahakam field, which is economically feasible based on an internal study. Since HWU has never performed the MTGL cementing, some collaborative works must be done to identify backlog and establish solid procedures for perfect execution. Besides, top of sediment (TOS) was found 16-21 m inside the tubing, which hindered access to the most bottom production zones. Moreover, this project is the first MTGL conducted inside a 7” casing which allows a maximum of 3 barrels per minute (bpm) flow rate (according to packer specification). The flowrate limitation could potentially create higher TOS inside the tubing. Hence, we agreed to utilize a 3.5” landing joint and to apply a higher flow rate for displacing cement as per simulation with rigorous risk assessment and mitigations. As a result, the job was completed in 11.6 days without a lost-time injury, contributing to 12% PHM saving, while the TOS was tagged 13 m above the top of the landing collar by 1.9” macaroni. Despite its success, some lessons are captured as our recommendations, such as improving the sweeping efficiency of the MTGL wiper plugs, establishing a solid system for vital data of cementing job, and developing the infrastructure by HWU contractor to perform the job more successfully. This paper strongly recommends the rig-less operation as an alternative way to reduce the costs of well construction activity. A proper operation can be achieved by learning the lessons, closely managing and monitoring entire job stages. Finally, it encourages partnership and synergy for a better result.

Seismic Analysis of Building Resting on Sloping Ground

In India, for example, the north-east states. The scarcity of plain ground in hilly areas compels construction activity on sloping ground resulting in various important buildings such as reinforced concrete framed hospitals, colleges, hotels and offices resting on hilly slopes. The behavior of buildings during earthquake depends upon the distribution of mass and stiffness in both horizontal and vertical planes of the buildings. Various models were analyzed using staad pro. after all result and comparison it is found that buildings with set back and step back patterns give more stable pattern during earthquake.

Recycled C&D waste- An energy efficient and sustainable construction material

Construction and demolition (C&D) wastes are generated with construction or demolition activities and consists of non biodegradable materials such as cement concrete, bricks, plaster, steel, rubble, woods, plastics etc. Large use of natural recourses for the production of construction materials such as concrete is a prime concern for sustainability. In order to minimize the environmental impacts in terms of energy consumption, pollution, waste disposal and global warming construction industries has started to look for new alternative sources which are capable of substituting the use of natural materials, also some attempts were taken to utilize the waste generated from the demolition of structures and construction activity. The main benefits from the recycling of C&D waste are conservation of natural resources, reduction in energy consumption, solution for waste disposal crisis, environment preservation. Its use reduces reliance on primary aggregates and lowers the environmental impact of construction.