Large Projects Research Articles

Monumental Walls, Sovereign Power and Value(s) in Pharaonic Egypt

Large walling projects are among the most visible features in the archaeological record. However, enclosure walls remain relatively under-theorized relative to other monumental buildings. In an attempt to move beyond simple explanations that analyse walls solely as defensive features or symbols, I link monumental walls to notions of sovereign power and action-oriented theories of value(s). Using examples from Pharaonic Egypt, I argue that monumental enclosure walls were attempts to define and realize particular social totalities, whether these were a temple complex, a royal tomb or an urban centre. If all efforts at border-making are also an exercise in power, walls have the potential to illuminate some of the goals and values of those ordering their construction. By analysing changes and continuities related to which structures required the protection of a monumental enclosure wall over time, it is possible to shed light on the fluid priorities of the most important political actors in Pharaonic society. Yet the very presence of a wall implies potential dissent and alternative practices—otherwise a wall's construction would not have been necessary.

Methodology for microclimatic urban canyon design case study surrounding MUST university campus in Cairo

ABSTRACT Climate change is a major issue all over the world which has a great impact on global warming especially in countries with hot arid climates like Egypt. With rapid urbanization, streets in Greater Cairo and new cities are mostly car-oriented, which increases the Urban Heat Island(UHI) and, hence, affects the overall outdoor thermal comfort. Looking at the urban development in recent years, almost 10 new private universities are in operation in Cairo’s new cities together with a number of large recreational projects where they lack the appropriate vegetation surrounding their borders which in turn increases the UHI effect, decreasing the walkability’s thermal comfort and in turn contributes poorly to the surrounding climate. This paper focuses on the urban canyons in streets surrounding universities as they usually have high traffic rates in terms of both vehicular and pedestrian flows. This large flow of pedestrians necessitates taking into consideration the thermal comfort of the users. MUST University in the Al-Motamayez district on the 6th of October city was chosen as a case study. This case study is considered the basis for achieving an understanding and developing a methodology approach for such studies by using Envi-Met software for the simulation of different scenarios focusing on choosing trees appropriate to the climate zone of the city. Results for the simulation of suggested scenarios of intervention show a 30% improvement toward thermal comfort, which could be considered a first step for future guidelines development toward achieving thermal comfort and decreasing UHI.

The Development of an Automated System for a Quality Evaluation of Engineering BIM Models: A Case Study

The growing adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) within the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector raises questions about the quality of BIM data deliverables for project owners. Therefore, assessment and evaluation of such BIM data against relevant documents such as the BIM Execution Plan (BEP), the Level of Definition (LOD)/Level of Information (LOI) matrix, and quality control customized checklists become critical, especially in large construction projects. This study primarily aims to create an automated system for assessing the quality of 3D BIM model data, utilizing a proposed project quality control checklist. The automated system consists of four key elements: a BIM-based model, a Data Extraction and Analysis Module, a Data Storage Module, and a Data Visualization Module. The Data Extraction and Analysis Module extracts relevant information and parameters from BIM models to evaluate their quality against predefined checklists. Then, it transfers the information and stores the results in a database. The database is connected to an engineering project collaboration tool, ProjectWise, to automatically update and store the data in the cloud. The database is then connected to an interactive data visualization platform, Power BI, to enable automatic visualization of the generated quality assessment results of the BIM models’ data. This system was applied to a Canadian infrastructure construction project by its BIM department during the preliminary and detailed design phases. It demonstrated an average quality score (AQS) of 87.6% for the BIM models and significantly reduced failing items by around 30%. This study concludes that the system offers a robust, practical solution for enhancing the quality control process in BIM model data management, thereby aiding engineers in timely model adjustments to meet project requirements.

A novel stability equation for the estimation of the factor of safety for homogeneous dry finite slopes

AbstractThis paper introduces a novel closed‐form equation (surrogate model) for approximating the Morgenstern–Price estimate of the factor of safety of homogeneous dry finite slopes with circular failure surfaces. Unlike typically used methods, the proposed equation does not require the definition of a critical failure surface, splitting the soil mass into slices, or the iterative reduction of soil resistance to the limit state. It can be easily programmed into calculators or computers and accurately determines the minimum factor of safety based on the shear strength parameters and slope geometry—meaning that it is ideally suited for integration into reliability calculations. The equation is determined parametrically for various soil parameters and slope geometry using the Morgenstern–Price method and compares favorably with conventional techniques, such as slope stability charts, limit equilibrium, and strength reduction methods (SRM). From a practical perspective, the proposed equation greatly simplifies the analysis of the slope stability as the creation of a numerical model is not required and is suited to use in the feasibility stage of a project, for example, for large linear infrastructure projects with differing slope geometries or in situations where a quick assessment is desired.

Missing Value Imputation of Wireless Sensor Data for Environmental Monitoring.

Over the past few years, the scale of sensor networks has greatly expanded. This generates extended spatiotemporal datasets, which form a crucial information resource in numerous fields, ranging from sports and healthcare to environmental science and surveillance. Unfortunately, these datasets often contain missing values due to systematic or inadvertent sensor misoperation. This incompleteness hampers the subsequent data analysis, yet addressing these missing observations forms a challenging problem. This is especially the case when both the temporal correlation of timestamps within a single sensor and the spatial correlation between sensors are important. Here, we apply and evaluate 12 imputation methods to complete the missing values in a dataset originating from large-scale environmental monitoring. As part of a large citizen science project, IoT-based microclimate sensors were deployed for six months in 4400 gardens across the region of Flanders, generating 15-min recordings of temperature and soil moisture. Methods based on spatial recovery as well as time-based imputation were evaluated, including Spline Interpolation, MissForest, MICE, MCMC, M-RNN, BRITS, and others. The performance of these imputation methods was evaluated for different proportions of missing data (ranging from 10% to 50%), as well as a realistic missing value scenario. Techniques leveraging the spatial features of the data tend to outperform the time-based methods, with matrix completion techniques providing the best performance. Our results therefore provide a tool to maximize the benefit from costly, large-scale environmental monitoring efforts.

Design Strategies to Improve Metro Transit Station Walking Environments: Five Stations in Chongqing, China

While transit-oriented development (TOD) has been widely adopted in urban design alongside the expansion of urban metro transit, the creation of pedestrian-friendly environments has often been overlooked during implementation. This has resulted in a lower walking advantage around metro transit stations. To address this issue and encourage walking and public transport use in metro transit station areas, this study undertook a quantitative comparative analysis of the pedestrian environment in five Chongqing metro transit station areas. The analysis focused on three key dimensions: “comprehensive evaluation”, “basic scale”, and “structural quality”. The comprehensive evaluation considered factors such as the pedestrian catchment area ratio, POI kernel density distribution, and crowd agglomeration. The basic scale dimension comprised floor area ratio, building density, pedestrian road density, and the quantity of station entrances and exits. Finally, structural quality factors included land use type mixing degree, POI function mixing degree, intersection connectivity, median street length, pedestrian route directness, and green view index. Based on these analyses, this study proposes a series of pedestrian environment design strategies including land use and transportation. The strategies for land use advocate for “developing compact and diverse land use”, “strengthening attraction of station center”, “positioning large projects on the edge”, “restricting private transportation capabilities”. The strategies for transportation consist of “increasing pedestrian road density”, “traffic calming organization”, “subdivision of road types”, and “three-dimensional pedestrian traffic system”. These strategies aim to create a more humanized and environmentally friendly pedestrian environment, proactively rise to the challenge of climate change, thereby cultivating sustainable urban development.

Colonial laws, postcolonial infrastructures: Land acquisition, urban informality, and politics of infrastructural development in Pakistan

This article traces (dis)continuities in colonial logics across disjunctures of decolonisation and democratisation through a large infrastructure project in contemporary Lahore, Pakistan. Analysing Lahore’s Orange Line Metro Train, a project constructed under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the article shows how colonial extractive and racial logics can limit the redistributive potential of typically inclusive infrastructures like mass transit by continuing to shape the conditions of their development and (re)producing precarious configurations of citizenship in the postcolony. It finds that Pakistan’s colonial-era land acquisition law erased a range of land relations and rights from recognition and thus compensation by the state. In an instance of informal policy making, the state eventually created an ad hoc ‘grant-in-aid’ scheme to compensate landowners in informal settlements. However, the scheme continued the property centric politics of recognition embedded in the expropriation law by only compensating people with long-term land claims. The public script of the scheme invoked welfare obligations of the state but structured these through moral-legal norms of property. The postcolonial state thus bypassed the transition from colonial subjects to citizens and instead repositioned people as humanitarian subjects. The article thus highlights the contradictions of developing subsidized public infrastructure in postcolonial cities, where construction becomes another conduit of imposing land commodification and disciplining pro-poor self-built neighbourhoods that have escaped the rigidity of private property.

High-throughput DNA extraction and cost-effective miniaturized metagenome and amplicon library preparation of soil samples for DNA sequencing.

Reductions in sequencing costs have enabled widespread use of shotgun metagenomics and amplicon sequencing, which have drastically improved our understanding of the microbial world. However, large sequencing projects are now hampered by the cost of library preparation and low sample throughput, comparatively to the actual sequencing costs. Here, we benchmarked three high-throughput DNA extraction methods: ZymoBIOMICS™ 96 MagBead DNA Kit, MP BiomedicalsTM FastDNATM-96 Soil Microbe DNA Kit, and DNeasy® 96 PowerSoil® Pro QIAcube® HT Kit. The DNA extractions were evaluated based on length, quality, quantity, and the observed microbial community across five diverse soil types. DNA extraction of all soil types was successful for all kits, however DNeasy® 96 PowerSoil® Pro QIAcube® HT Kit excelled across all performance parameters. We further used the nanoliter dispensing system I.DOT One to miniaturize Illumina amplicon and metagenomic library preparation volumes by a factor of 5 and 10, respectively, with no significant impact on the observed microbial communities. With these protocols, DNA extraction, metagenomic, or amplicon library preparation for one 96-well plate are approx. 3, 5, and 6 hours, respectively. Furthermore, the miniaturization of amplicon and metagenome library preparation reduces the chemical and plastic costs from 5.0 to 3.6 and 59 to 7.3 USD pr. sample. This enhanced efficiency and cost-effectiveness will enable researchers to undertake studies with greater sample sizes and diversity, thereby providing a richer, more detailed view of microbial communities and their dynamics.

The Influence of 3D Printing Parameters on the Mechanical Behavior of PLA

Additive technologies are continually evolving and are crucial in numerous industries, including medical, aerospace, and automotive, but they can also play an important role in the prototyping phase. Due to additive manufacturing, amateurs and enthusiasts can construct simple projects as well as large projects with specialized usage in specific applications. When it comes to complex pieces, traditional manufacturing technologies such as milling, chipping, drilling, and so on have specific constraints, often need even additional production processes to complete the item. All of these constraints can be solved with additive technologies. This work investigates Fused Deposit Modeling (FDM) printing of many specimens with varying properties in order to analyze PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) material behavior following tensile testing. The collected findings will be analyzed in order to determine the specimens with the most significant behavior according on the modified parameters.

Design-led innovation for more plant-based food: An interdisciplinary approach to more consumer-centric product development

A more plant-based diet will contribute to food sustainability. Achieving this change requires collaboration across disciplines which is not easy to achieve. This article illustrates how interdisciplinary collaboration in a large research project can be facilitated through a design-led innovation process juxtaposing approaches from design and science. Consumer insights were used in creative workshops to ideate and develop packaging and product concepts for plant-based food focusing on ‘environment’, ‘health’ and ‘Norwegian’ design imperatives. Learning loops of alignment – creation – feedback were applied to design and test six packaging prototypes of two product categories (Pea Porridge, Faba Bean Drink). Qualitative feedback was collected from 147 consumers and a quantitative survey with 1102 Norwegian consumers tested product expected liking and product-concept match. Younger consumers and users of plant-based products exhibited a higher expected liking vs. non-users and older respondents. Packaging design adopted for specific consumer segments can positively contribute to a shift to more plant-based diets. We show how a dynamic interdisciplinary innovation approach can be powerful to creating new product ideas, getting consumers’ input and fostering collaboration and learning among disciplines. We offer other researchers and the food industry actionable opportunity areas and design imperatives for their innovation activities around plant-based food.

Dispute Causes Analysis Using Analytical Hierarchy Process for Capstone Projects

Abstract: A disagreement, conflict, or subjective matter that leads to a legal process is termed as a dispute. The likelihood of a dispute arising in a loosely framed large scale construction project is high, which has an impact on project progress and can be considered a type of project risk. When different parties associated with the project are unable to resolve the disputes arising during the contract period it can be resolved by applying Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) technique which includes Arbitration, Litigation, Mediation and Conciliation. There are several types of construction disputes in construction projects like price escalation claim, change of work order claim, extra item claim, variation claim, loss of profit claim, delay claim which can be differentiate in various categories of dispute causes.

Linguistic profiling of text genres: adventure stories vs. textbooks

In this article we test the hypothesis that genre-inherent quantitative linguistic parameters can be reduced to a list of few provided with strictly defined ranges of value. The current research as part of a large project is aimed at contrastive analysis of textbooks on History and Social Studies, and adventure stories. Using RuLingva[1], we identified 18 genre variables, computed their frequencies and employed the Kruskal-Wallis H Test to evaluate the differences significance. The results suggest that the list of the most indicative parameters include sentence length, noun genitive case, future tense, ratio of verbs to nouns, provisionally called ‘narrativity’, and frequency. All the identified parameters have statistically significant differences and three of them (sentence length, genitive noun, and “narrativity”) are implemented in non-overlapping “genre-inherent” ranges of values attributed to (a) History and Social studies textbooks and (b) adventure stories. With the view that the target audience of adventure stories are not expected to demonstrate high levels of professional training but logical skills, we argue that the relatively stable readability of adventure stories, i.e. FKGL = 8-9, can also be attributed to the genre-inherent characteristics. Our results certify that incorporating text complexity indices improve the classification performance of genre quantitative analysis. We also offer our views on linguistic and statistical aspects of the proposed approach for future studies. Further research is needed to see how the same parameters are exploited in texts of other genres and subject domains.

ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE AND FEATURES OF THE FUNCTIONING OF MICROFRONTENDS

Microfrontends represent a trend in the development of the visible part of a web application (frontend), which consists in breaking a monolithic application into separate, semantically independent blocks, developed independently of each other. Each component of a web page or application operates according to specially designed logic, and each of them can be developed, tested and deployed as a standalone application. The main goal of this approach is to facilitate the support and development of large applications that are worked on by different teams. Dividing large projects (“monoliths”) into smaller components has become a traditional approach to reducing the complexity of developing and maintaining software systems. The article examines the features of microfrontends, presents the results of an analysis of the performance of the most popular frameworks for creating microfrontends, and also identifies the features of the microfrontend development team.

A distributed collaborative platform for multi-stakeholder multi-level management of renovation projects

To meet European energy-saving and decarbonisation goals, the annual renovation rate of buildings requires to be at least twice its current level; an aspiration to which the use of innovative and automated solutions can contribute. This paper presents such a solution, the RINNO Retrofitting Manager (RRM) which is part of a large, ambitious research and development project (RINNO) that aims to provide an augmented intelligence-enabled framework for deep, energy-focused retrofitting of buildings. The RRM uses web-service technologies to rationalise the retrofitting process and optimise the delivery of renovation works, while making data readily accessible through an integrated set of role-based user interfaces. The RRM is designed and developed as an open distributed system, that is extensible and portable, by implementing a collaborative research and development approach. The RRM platform implements a multi-level, multi-stakeholder planning approach. It addresses the dearth, insufficiency, and isolation of existing renovation tools by enhancing collaboration, interoperability, and data security, and avoiding information loss and misunderstanding. Employing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, tests conducted with users from independent construction organisations confirmed the RRM's satisfactory performance, ease of deployment, and overall suitability for the management of renovation projects. While this research provides a free collaborative platform for managing renovation projects that can be used by all building retrofit stakeholders in Europe, it also introduces a set of web-services that can be easily reused by third-party developers and integrated into their software tools.

Generative emulation of weather forecast ensembles with diffusion models.

Uncertainty quantification is crucial to decision-making. A prominent example is probabilistic forecasting in numerical weather prediction. The dominant approach to representing uncertainty in weather forecasting is to generate an ensemble of forecasts by running physics-based simulations under different conditions, which is a computationally costly process. We propose to amortize the computational cost by emulating these forecasts with deep generative diffusion models learned from historical data. The learned models are highly scalable with respect to high-performance computing accelerators and can sample thousands of realistic weather forecasts at low cost. When designed to emulate operational ensemble forecasts, the generated ones are similar to physics-based ensembles in statistical properties and predictive skill. When designed to correct biases present in the operational forecasting system, the generated ensembles show improved probabilistic forecast metrics. They are more reliable and forecast probabilities of extreme weather events more accurately. While we focus on weather forecasting, this methodology may enable creating large climate projection ensembles for climate risk assessment.

Roadway construction as a natural experiment to examine air pollution impacts on infant health

Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) poses a significant public health risk that is associated with adverse birth outcomes. Large roadway infrastructure projects present a natural experiment to examine how resulting congestion change is associated with adverse birth outcomes for nearby populations. This study is designed to examine the influence of living close to a roadway before, during, and after a construction project using a difference-in-differences design. We integrated data on all large roadway construction projects (defined as widening of existing roads, building new roads, improving bridges, installing intelligent transportation systems, improving intersections, and installing or upgrading traffic signals) in Texas from 2007 to 2016 with Vital Statistic data for all births with residential addresses within 1 km of construction projects. Our outcomes included term low birth weight, term birth weight, preterm birth, and very preterm birth. Using a difference-in-differences design, we included births within 3 years of construction start and 2 years of construction end. In our main model, the exposed group is limited to pregnant individuals residing within 300 m of a construction project, and the control group includes those living within 300–1000 m from a project. We used regression models to estimate the influence of construction on infant health. We included 1,360 large roadway construction projects linked to 408,979 births. During construction, we found that the odds of term low birth weight increased by 19% (95% CI: 1.05, 1.36). However, we saw little evidence of an association for other birth outcomes. Contrary to our hypothesis of decreased TRAP after construction ends, we did not observe consistent improvements post-construction for pregnant individuals living within 300 m. Continued consideration of the influence of traffic congestion programs on birth outcomes is necessary to inform future policy decisions.

Dynamic Projection Method of Electronic Navigational Charts for Polar Navigation

Electronic navigational charts (ENCs) are geospatial databases compiled in strict accordance with the technical specifications of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) is a Geographic Information System (GIS) operated by ENCs for real-time navigation at sea, which is one of the key technologies for intelligent ships to realize autonomous navigation, intelligent decision-making, and other functions. Facing the urgent demand for high-precision and real-time nautical chart products for polar navigation under the new situation, the projection of ENCs for polar navigation is systematically analyzed in this paper. Based on the theory of complex functions, we derive direct transformations of Mercator projection, polar Gauss-Krüger projection, and polar stereographic projection. A rational set of dynamic projection options oriented towards polar navigation is proposed with reference to existing specifications for the compilation of the ENCs. From the perspective of nautical users, rather than the GIS expert or professional cartographer, an ENCs visualization idea based on multithread-double buffering is integrated into Polar Region Electronic Navigational Charts software, which effectively solves the problem of large projection distortion in polar navigation applications. Taking the CGCS2000 reference ellipsoid as an example, the numerical analysis shows that the length distortion of the Mercator projection is less than 10% in the region up to 74°, but it is more than 80% at very high latitudes. The maximum distortion of the polar Gauss-Krüger projection does not exceed 10%. The degree of distortion of the polar stereographic projection is less than 1% above 79°. In addition, the computational errors of the direct conversion formulas do not exceed 10−9 m throughout the Arctic range. From the point of view of the computational efficiency of the direct conversion model, it takes no more than 0.1 s to compute nearly 8 million points at 1′×1′ resolution, which fully meets the demand for real-time nautical chart products under information technology conditions.

Regional event-based flood quantile estimation method for large climate projection ensembles

Emerging large ensemble climate datasets produced by multiple general circulation models and their downscaling products challenge the limits of hydrodynamic models because of the immense data size. To overcome this new challenge and estimate the discharge quantiles corresponding to different return periods at all river sections in an entire region, this study proposes an event-based regional approach that uses a nationwide distributed rainfall–runoff model as well as large climate projection ensembles. This approach addresses the high computational burden associated with continuous simulations and solves the problem of conventional event-based simulations serving only a single outlet of a basin. For our analysis, we extracted 372 annual maximum 48 h rainfall events that cover the entirety of Shikoku Island and its eight major river basins. Peak discharges were estimated using a 150 m resolution rainfall–runoff–inundation model. These discharges were then screened using either the peak-over-threshold (POT) method or block maxima (BM) method, and frequency curves were subsequently constructed and evaluated. The primary reason for the necessity of POT or BM was to avoid interference from extraneous low discharges. The POT-based frequency curves showed good accuracy when using peak discharges in the range of the top 10–50%, and the results remain stable within this threshold range. The BM method, employing block sizes of 2–5 years, can generate relatively accurate frequency curves, but the choice of block size introduces significant variations in results among certain basins. Generally, the accuracy of results based on the POT method surpasses that of the BM method. Considering the accuracy, computational cost, and result stability, the POT method is preferred. The error introduced by the regional approach was acceptable with more than half of the relative root-mean-square errors remaining within 10% and basically all of the results are within 20%. The results of the regional approach exhibited good accuracy across climate scenarios and provided consistent information regarding future flood quantiles. This study serves as the foundation for high-resolution future flood risk assessment.

A quantitative study of changing groundwater-surface water interactions of a large reservoir due to impoundment based on hydrochemistry and isotope characteristics

Xiluodu Reservoir is the third-largest dam worldwide constructed in 2012. Significant changes in the hydrogeological conditions and regional groundwater-surface water (GW-SW) interactions associated since the dam impoundment in 2012 contributed to the river valley contraction (RVC). In this study, various factors that influence hydrochemistry and isotopic characteristics of GW-SW distribution interactions along with their migration patterns are extensively discussed. Based on these studies, the saturation index (SI) of different minerals during the GW-SW interaction in different periods was quantified considering the ion activity. The confined limestone GW and phreatic basalt GW are dominating GW in the dam site that play a predominant role in the regional GW-SW interactions. The impoundment strengthened the water–rock interaction and promoted the dissolution of minerals in limestone and basalt, contributing to an increase in the SI of different minerals in SW and GW. The primary recharge source for the limestone GW is Lake water; however, the secondary basalt GW recharge shifts from Ditch water to Reservoir water. The comprehensive studies summarized in this paper lays a foundation for rigorous understanding of the RVC mechanism that can be extended to other large reservoir projects in the world.

Covert Subversive Agents and Consensus Disruption on Large Projects

Is it possible to dramatically affect and influence military and other projects through social engineering of the consensus processes? In this paper we explore the impact that subversive agents can have on the ability of projects to move forward by disrupting the social cohesion and decision-making abilities of the processes designed to reach consensus. A consensus simulator is used to model group social cohesion behaviour in the context of project deliverables and show what the effect can be on the effort to reach consensus (number of meetings) as well as the time to reach consensus (calendar time) when subversive agents attempt to influence the groups making up the project team in such a way that it delays the ability of the team to reach consensus on key decisions. Many military options are available to delay enemy projects, including the assassination of enemy scientists, sanctions aimed at denying key project components, or even direct military action such as bombing the enemy facilities. However, this paper focusses on aspects of soft-force projection through covert disruption of project timelines. A social simulator was constructed that models individual agent’s beliefs about various key topics within the context of a project. The effect that a small number of subversive agents can have on the time- and effort of a project is shown. In their covert actions, these subversive agents need to stay hidden, and thus their covert actions are limited, yet they can exert significant damage to the project in terms of delays. In this paper we present results showing the effects that such a small group can have, as well as pointing out that there seem to be a critical group size over which the subversive agents can not only have significant impact on project-delays but can also steer and direct certain key decisions.