Attentiveness to Early Warning Drought Information: Implications for Policy Support and Climate Risk Reduction in Ghana

Successful drought planning is dependent on the generation of timely and accurate early warning information. Yet there is little evidence to explain the extent to which crop farmers pay attention to and assimilate early warning drought information that aids in the policy formulation in support of drought risk reduction. A socioecological survey, using a structured questionnaire administered to 426 crop farming households, was carried out in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, Ghana. The data analytic techniques used were frequency tables, relative importance index, and multinomial logistics embedded in SPSS v.20 software. The results show that crop farmers predominantly rely on agricultural extension officers for early warning drought information, with an estimated 78% of them paying little to very much attention to the information. The likelihood ratio Chi-square test showed that there is a significant improvement in fit as X2 (20) = 96.792, p < 0.000. Household status, average monthly income, and age were the significant predictors for crop farmers paying no attention at all to early warning drought information, while household status was the only significant factor among those paying a little attention. The drive to build a climate-resilient society with effective early warning centers across Ghana will receive 60% lower support from crop farmers paying no to a little attention as compared to farmers paying very much attention to early warning drought information. Broader stakeholder engagements should be carried out to harness inclusive support from crop farmers to build a climate-resilient society in Ghana.

Critical Factors Responsible for Time Overruns in Nigeria Building Construction Industry

Time overruns are major problems facing the Nigerian construction industry. It’s of high concern to those who are involved in the construction industry. This study was carried out to identify the major causes of time overruns in the Nigerian building construction industry, by means of a literature review and a questionnaire survey. A total of twenty (20) time overrun causative factors were obtained from the literature. The questionnaire survey was distributed to randomly selected respondents from a combination of clients, consultants, contractors, site engineers, project managers and sub-contractors. In all, one hundred and forty-one (141) questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected respondents (clients, consultants, contractors, site-engineers, project-managers and sub-contractors), one hundred and thirty-two (132) questionnaires were returned out of which three (3) questionnaires were found incomplete and invalid. Only one hundred and twenty-nine (129) questionnaires were found consistent and valid for use in this research. Relative Importance Index (RII) and Severity Index were used to carry out a ranking analysis. Based on the data received, the five (5) most severe factors influencing project handling overtime in Nigeria construction industries are Inaccurate evaluation of projects time/duration (91.9%), Risk and uncertainty associated with projects (91.6%), Complexity of works (87.6%), Weak regulation and control (86.8%) and Lack of financial power with severity (86.3%).

Knowledge Management Influence on Safety Management Practices

Many studies have been conducted in relation with knowledge management (KM), indicating the benefit associated with KM; among which safety management (SM) improvement is one of them. So, the aim of this article is to assess the influence of KM on SM practices in construction industry. In this regard, various factors that affect KM and SM are identified through literature review. Then, a questionnaire survey was facilitated to collect data based on the identified factors. These factors are ranked using a relative importance index (RII) to ascertain the level of importance among its group. Further, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis are carried out to test and measure the strength of the relationship between KM and SM factors. Results indicate that there exists a definite and significant relationship between the factors of KM and SM in construction industry. Overall, the results obtained from the study will assist practitioners and professionals to develop and upgrade KM and SM practices in construction industry.

Risk assessment and ranking in the developing countries’ construction industry: the case of Jordan

PurposeRisk impedes the success of construction projects in developing countries due to planning in an unpredictable and poorly resourced environment. Hence, the literature suggests that practitioners are not fully aware of how important the risk identification process is. Some of the prior studies identified risks in developing countries without highlighting how they can be beneficial to the practitioners in the industry. Therefore, this study highlights this process and identifies the key risks that affect the Jordanian construction industry.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed approach, two rounds of face-to-face interviews that were conducted in Jordan among 12 experts followed by a questionnaire randomly distributed to 122 practitioners. This study utilized the relative importance index, coefficient of variation, and Mann–Whitney (U) to analyze the data. Also, the factor analysis technique was used to identify and regroup the risk factors to further understand the correlation among the risks.FindingsThe result revealed an agreement among contractors’ and consultants’ responses toward allocating risks. Furthermore, several risks can be traced back to the project communication management process, highlighting a deficiency in the process. Also, four-factor groups were established, the first group includes the risk of defective design, late decisions making by other project participants and poor coordination with the subcontractor. The second group has only the risk of corruption, including bribery at sites. The third group includes stakeholders’ financial instability and inadequate distribution of responsibilities and risks. The fourth group includes adverse weather conditions and the use of illegal foreign labor.Originality/valueSome of the prior studies identified risks in developing countries without highlighting how they can be beneficial to the practitioners in the industry.

ISSUES FACED BY TENANTS IN HIGH-RISE STRATA RESIDENTIAL: CASE STUDY OF KLANG VALLEY

Recently, demand for high-rise residential has increased every year and shifted residential development patterns from vertical to horizontal development. Living in high-rise residential will require residents to share common facilities and resources. For that, a management body is known as Management Corporation (MC) or Joint Management Body (JMB) is established. This management body is responsible to collect the service charge from residents, as well as managing and maintaining the buildings and common property. However, a review of the literature has found out gaps between the MC responsibility and residents’ satisfaction. Driven by study objectives, this study focuses on exploring issues faced by the tenants living in the selected high-rise strata housing. Through a questionnaire survey, responses are randomly collected and analysed. A descriptive table, Relative Importance Index (RII) and correlation test are used in the analysis to provide findings for the study.

Implementation of TQM and the Integration of BIM in the Construction Management Sector in Saudi Arabia

Total Quality Management (TQM) is based on the conceptions of managing and enhancing the success of construction projects. When applied, TQM improves execution of time management of project, satisfies clients’ needs, minimizes the expenses and increases the profit of contractor, and fulfils safety regulations on the construction site. This research is aimed at evaluating the impacts of employing the concepts of TQM to the construction projects in Saudi Arabia. The results of the study were obtained through utilization of a descriptive analytical approach, where 300 questionnaires were distributed to engineering firms and companies with a response rate of 200 questionnaires, hence achieving the study sample for this research. The data gathered was analyzed by applying the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) program and calculating the relative importance index (RII) and the mean values. From the research conducted, the outcomes showed that the management’s ability to commit using TQM while applying BIM obtained a relative importance of (0.717), while the relative importance for the management’s ability to commit using TQM without the application of BIM is (0.552). The results showed that construction projects in Saudi Arabia still sustain setbacks from applying TQM concepts and suffer from the lack of administrative, scientific, and technical applications.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRITICAL SUCCESS CRITERIA ON SUSTAINABLE HOUSING; A CASE OF - LOW INCOME HOUSING, SRI LANKA

Sustainable housing is a popular topic with regard to the SDG, sustainable communities and Sustainable cities. Although different researches have come up with regard to different CSC of specific contexts there are very limited studies on CSC on Sustainable low-income housing. This research aims to compare the CSC on Sustainable low-income Housing in designing stage in Sri Lankan Context. 18 CSC were derived from comprehensive literature review and re-examined through the 27 professionals and ranked from community on three locations. Relative Importance Index- RII, Min Max Normalization and Gap analyses were employed in the ranking process of Critical Success Criteria. The highest importance has been ranked with Efficiency use of water and energy, Users Satisfaction and Quality of Housing while least importance is ranked with Maintainability, Public Consultation and community participation and cater for Disables and by Literature, Experts and Community respectively. Anyway, Public Consultation and Community Participation, newly derived CSC which is highly ranked among community is to be concentrated among the professionals for the attention and applications in practices. The findings of the research would support to the designers, architectures, planners specialized in this field to ensure the successful delivery of sustainable housing.

Regulation of medicines advertisement in Zimbabwe: an assessment of the impact of pharmaceutical promotion on the prescribing behaviour of healthcare professionals

Background The pharmaceutical industry plays a key role in drug discovery and is considered useful regards to informing the health care workers health care workers about new medicines. Investigations concerning health care workers to industry interactions are less common. The objective of this study is to determine levels of knowledge, attitude and perception towards regulation of pharmaceutical promotion among healthcare practitioners in Zimbabwe. Methods A cross-sectional study was used and 330 healthcare practitioners were enrolled into the study. Data collection was done through combined face-to-face interviews and web-based online survey. The relative importance index score and used as a measure of knowledge, attitude and perception levels towards pharmaceutical promotion. Univariate and bivariate analysis was performed using STATA software package. Results Our study estimated that 95%, 67%, and 90% of the healthcare practitioners in Zimbabwe have a favourable (i.e. > 65%) relative importance index score of knowledge, attitudes, and perception, respectively, towards regulation of pharmaceutical promotion. Further exploration of the data indicated that the factors that had an association with the knowledge, attitude and perception levels towards regulation of pharmaceutical regulation at 5% level of significance include health care workers’ profession, gender, education level, the nature of the working institution and the number of prescriptions involved per week. Conclusion In conclusion, the findings of this study highlighted that in general the health care workers in Zimbabwe have higher levels of knowledge, attitude and perception towards regulation of pharmaceutical promotion, though the attitudes levels weres a bit lower compared to other domains.

Programme Outcome Attributes related to Complex Engineering Problem Capability: Perceptions of Engineering Students in Malaysia

Programme outcomes (POs) are the attributes that reflect the student skills expected to be acquired upon graduation. The Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) under Board of Engineers Malaysia requires 12 POs with complex engineering problems (CEP) and knowledge profiles to be incorporated in engineering programmes. Despite considerable research on outcome-based education (OBE), the OBE implementation with regards to the PO attributes and domains incorporating CEP characteristics are still questionable and vaguely implemented by the programmes. This paper presents two PO attributes related to problem solving and development/design for solution based on the perceptions of 301 engineering students in Malaysia. This paper aims to determine the student’s level of understanding on the PO learning domain and to analyze significant factors contributing to their PO attainment. A quantitative method using a questionnaire survey was adopted targeting a random probability sampling of respondents. Descriptive (percentage frequency, relative importance index) and statistical analyses (reliability, normality, correlation) were used to analyze the data. The findings show that the students perceived both POs as cognitive domains and they believed that lecturer’s roles in facilitating students on the subject matter has contributed significantly to their PO attainment. This study is limited to an engineering programme from one institution of higher learning (IHL) in Malaysia. However, the findings provide important insights on the students’ level of understanding of PO attributes and the OBE practices on CEP in the programme. This study can be extended to other IHLs to gauge the students’ understanding related to other PO attributes stipulated by the EAC. Keywords: Programme Outcomes, Cognitive Domain, Problem Analysis, Design of The Solution, Engineering

Marital Status Equity in Tenant Selection Criteria in the Akure Rental Market

The paper examines the selection criteria for prospective single and married tenants by Estate Surveyors and Valuers in the study area, to determine fairness in practice. The survey research adopted a structured questionnaire to elicit data from a sample of Estate Surveying and Valuation firms in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria as Estate Surveyors and Valuers serve as both agents and property managers in the study area. Data collected were analyzed using the relative importance index (RII) and Mann Whitney U test. Findings revealed that irrespective of the marital status, the nature of employment of the prospective tenants is an essential criterion used at tenant selection. Also, there exists between singles and married tenants a statistically significant difference in the selection criteria used by Estate Surveyors and Valuers concerning 'employment' and 'ability of prospective tenants to pay subsequent rent' ; while, there was no significant difference in the tenant selection criteria in the areas of religion, gender, ethnicity, age, nature of employment, ability to pay the required rent, advance rent payment, ability to pay caution deposit, ability to pay service charge, provision of suitable Guarantors/Referee, physical appearance, suitability to the property, family size, ability and willingness to stick to the terms of the lease, criminality history/track record, first-time renters and history of previous tenancy. The study recommended that Estate Surveyors and Valuers should desist from discriminatory selection criteria differences as housing is a fundamental requirement for all, marital status notwithstanding. Also, government should formulate and enforce anti-discrimination policies at tenant selection which will protect the right of individuals to rental housing, irrespective of their marital status. This will create a balance in the rental market and take away the mild differences in the selection criteria used for prospective tenants as if this is not worked upon, the mild difference will someday become wide.