Abstract
With the advancement of digital design practices in the global construction industry, different aspects related to the project lifecycle are extracting their benefits, including making improvements in safety. The objective of this paper is to ascertain the awareness of these technologies, their potential, and any barriers related to the use of different virtual design construction (VDC) tools, such as building information modeling, virtual reality, augmented reality, and geographic information systems, to improve job-site safety in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The paper presents an overview of the GCC construction industry and highlights current safety management practices and problems in the region. The potential of VDC tools for improving job-site safety is discussed and presented. The study has used a questionnaire survey to identify the drivers and barriers of using VDC tools in improving job-site safety management in the GCC region. The results indicated that “designing emergency and evacuation plans” and “fall-hazard prevention strategies” are the two best safety applications of these tools if used proactively. Similarly, “lack of knowledge about return on investment for VDC tools” was considered as the predominant barrier, preventing stakeholders from using these technologies to improve construction safety. These results will help the GCC construction industry to build a strategy for the digitalization of proactive constructability analysis techniques for improving job-site safety. Overall, due to the multilingual dynamics of this region, it is recommended that VDC tools should become more prevalent so that the transfer of safety information and hazard prevention becomes easier, mitigating safety risks.
Highlights
The construction industry is considered to be one of the oldest industries
The objective of this study is to analyze the current levels of awareness among construction stakeholders, to establish their potential, and to strategize against the barriers impeding the successful implementation of virtual design construction (VDC) tools to help improve job-site safety conditions in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
Virtual design and construction tools and technologies have changed the dynamics of global construction
Summary
The construction industry is considered to be one of the oldest industries. The number of safety lapses that happen on construction sites is much higher than in other industries [1]. These injurious incidents are mostly due to human error and an individual’s lack of hazard-identification skills [2]. Other suggested reasons for these errors include the particular nature of construction, difficult workplace conditions, and a lack of safety-management practices [3]. The unpredictable and complex nature of the construction industry forces it to embrace new technologies to reduce these incidents as much as possible. Research has shown that building information modeling (BIM) and other visualization tools can help with the identification, assessment, and treatment of hazards during the design phase [4]
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