National Construction Industry Research Articles

Carbon emission efficiency of China’s construction industry based on super-efficiency SBM and Tobit model

Global warming is one of the key issues attracting international concern. The carbon dioxide emission produced by energy combustion is the main cause of the greenhouse effect, and reducing carbon emissions is considered the most effective way to deal with the greenhouse effect. The extensive production mode characterized by high energy consumption, high emission, and low efficiency in China’s construction industry intensifies the contradiction between economic development and resources and the environment, and the growth under this mode is at the expense of consuming a lot of resources and energy. The improvement of carbon emission efficiency is an effective means of achieving the goal of economic growth and carbon emission reduction simultaneously, making it necessary to accurately measure the carbon emission efficiency of the construction industry in each province, determine the influencing factors, and formulate reasonable emission reduction policies for this industry. In this study, an input-output index system of carbon emission efficiency of China’s construction industry was constructed, the carbon emission efficiency of the construction industry in each province was evaluated using the super-efficiency SBM model, and the factors affecting the carbon emission efficiency of this industry were analyzed via the Tobit model. The results showed that the average value of carbon emission efficiency of the construction industry generally showed a rising trend in a fluctuating way during the study period. From 2014 to 2022, the average carbon emission efficiency of the national construction industry presented an upward trend, from 1.122 in 2014 to 1.148 in 2022; the regional economic level (p= 0.020 < 0.05) and human capital level (p= 0.000 < 0.01) exerted obvious promoting effects on the carbon emission efficiency of China’s construction industry, while the urbanization development (p= 0.049 < 0.05) generated evident negative effects on carbon emission efficiency of this industry. The research results have important reference values for making cross-provincial emission reduction plans for the construction industry, promoting its carbon emission efficiency, and driving the research and development of green building materials and clean energy.

Decomposition and decoupling analysis of carbon emissions in China's construction industry using the generalized Divisia index method

As the pillar industry of the national economy, the construction industry contributes to economic growth while consuming large amounts of energy and generating carbon emissions. This study adopted the generalized Divisia index method (GDIM) to decompose carbon emissions in the construction industry (CECI) of China and its 30 provinces. A decoupling effort index based on factor decomposition was constructed to analyze the drivers of changes in the CECI and decoupling states during 2000–2020. The results were as follows. (1) The output scale was the main driver for increasing CECI, whereas the carbon intensities of area and output were the largest contributors to decreasing CECI. (2) The national construction industry showed expansive negative decoupling during the 10th–13th FYPs (Five-Year Plans). The decoupling states of provinces showed significant spatial and temporal differences, with most provinces showing negative decoupling and the number of decoupled provinces peaking in the 12th FYP. (3) The scale effect was the key inhibiting factor in the decoupling process of most provinces, while the intensity effect was the main promoting factor, and the efficiency effect was weak. The inhibitory effect of scale gradually weakened, while the promoting effect of intensity increased. Overall, this study expands on current research related to the driving factors of CECI and provides valuable insights into the low-carbon development of the construction industry in other emerging countries.

Spatial Correlation Network Structure of Carbon Emission Efficiency in China’s Construction Industry and Its Formation Mechanism

In the context of “carbon peak, carbon neutrality”, it is important to explore the spatial correlation network of carbon emission efficiency in the construction industry and its formation mechanism to promote regional synergistic carbon emission reduction. This paper analyzes the spatial correlation network of carbon emission efficiency in China’s construction industry and its formation mechanism through the use of the global super-efficiency EBM model, social network analysis, and QAP model. The results show that (1) the national construction industry’s overall carbon emission efficiency is steadily increasing, with a spatial distribution pattern of “high in the east and low in the west”. (2) The spatial correlation network shows a “core edge” pattern. Provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Shandong are at the center of the network of carbon emission efficiency in the construction industry, playing the role of “intermediary” and “bridge”. At the same time, the spatial correlation network is divided into four plates: “bidirectional spillover plate”, “main inflow plate”, “main outflow plate”, and “agent plate”. (3) Geographical proximity, regional economic differences, and urbanization differences have significant positive effects on the formation of a spatial correlation network. At the same time, the industrial agglomeration gap has a significant negative impact on the formation of such a network, while energy-saving technology level and labor productivity differences do not show any significant effect.

Enhancing Projects’ Sustainability Through Value Management Approach for The Malaysian Construction Industry: A Literature Review

Recently, the Construction Strategic Plan (CSP) 2021-2025 announced by the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia (CIDB) highlighted several fundamentals towards achieving sustainable construction. Value management (VM) is one of the best tools that may be used to assist the sustainability success of the Malaysian construction industry. VM is well known to control the time, cost, and quality at once, fulfilling the client’s requirement in the construction industry. However, it is discovered that lack of knowledge, awareness of stakeholders and weak support from the government made it unable to practice VM thoroughly in many construction projects. This article aims to provide the current situation on VM and emphasize its usage in the construction industry in Malaysia. A snowballing method has been used as a research method to gather knowledge on VM from relevant sources such as articles and papers. VM can be implemented by using several techniques and phases to eliminate or reduce the current issues faced by construction projects. This study discovered that the SMART technique is the most compatible technique for a building project as it poses a simple and detailed solution. In addition, it was observed that there is a need for a more specific principle of VM to be adopted for specific construction fields, i.e., residential projects. Systematic training and proper planning are also vital to provide knowledge to the stakeholders to enhance VM incorporation in the Malaysian construction industry. Thus, this paper substantially contributes to a deeper grasp of current literature knowledge and a clearer picture of VM practices that may help our national construction industry in tandem with the foundations outlined by CSP 2021-2025 towards sustainable construction.

A systematic literature review of carbon emissions in the Chinese construction industry

In order to clarify the current situation of research on carbon emissions of China's construction industry and point out the research direction for the related research of carbon emissions in China and similar economies in the world, this study uses the systematic literature review method to screen the articles related to carbon emissions of China's construction industry from 2014 to 2021, and 134 papers were kept. These articles were analyzed from three aspects: carbon emission stages, research scope and research method. This study finds that: 1) in terms carbon emission stages, the amounts of articles on the whole life cycle of Chinese construction industry is the largest, accounting for 47.01%; The second is the articles on the materialization stage, accounting for 17.91%. 2) In terms of research scope, the research on individual projects and the research from the industry level accounted for 61.94% and 38.06% of the total amount of articles respectively. Among the articles on individual projects, the articles on buildings were the most, accounting for 67.47% of such articles. Among the articles on the industry level, the articles on carbon emissions of national construction industry were the most, accounting for 60.78% of such articles. 3) In terms of research method, the quantitative method used in micro-level research is mainly the carbon emission coefficient method, and the analysis method is mainly the life cycle assessment method; the quantitative method used in macro-level research is mainly the input-output method, and the analysis method is mainly decomposition analysis methods.

Towards BIM Guidelines in Saudi Arabia: Literature Review and Stakeholders Identification

BIM is a graphical representation for a given engineering design, let be the structure of a building, which carries information related to 3D view, cost estimation, scheduling, and others. BIM is created and used mainly by the owner. By default, the designer, contractor, and supplier are shared and treated by all parties as an advanced medium of technical and visual communication. In the last few years, and many developed countries, BIM documents, and related legal provisions have become mandatory in construction projects contract documents by public and private owners and project stakeholders as best practice. The authors observed that although some projects in Saudi Arabia have used BIM, it is still not as widely used as it is supposed to be. It is apparent to the authors that the leap of using BIM in the Saudi Construction Industry without proper provisions in the contract documents among the construction project stakeholders will create confusion. The paper explores the current status and trend of using BIM in the construction industry and related difficulties and challenges to using BIM in Saudi Arabia. Ultimately, based on those investigated results, the paper proposes the basic guidelines for applying BIM following the situation of the national construction industry in Saudi Arabia.

BIM in the Center of Digital Transformation of the Construction Sector—The Status of BIM Adoption in North Macedonia

The building sector nowadays has come to the stage where it needs a “digital” renovation. This is to be accomplished by an introduction of change into the methodology of construction and using new tools and technologies, such as BIM technology. This paper gives an insight into the status of BIM adoption in North Macedonia. It presents the threefold actions toward introduction of BIM in the national construction industry. These actions refer to scanning the current situation regarding digitalization of the sector, then taking promotional actions to express the benefits of BIM, and finally identifying and proposing the most suitable measures, summarized in the proposal of the National Roadmap for BIM adoption. The methods used consist of a brief literature review of the global status of BIM development. Then, the results of a survey conducted on more than 300 respondents representing a sample of building professionals in the country are discussed, and the barriers for successful BIM adoption are accordingly identified. The next step is to showcase the potential benefits of BIM for assessment of energy performance of buildings. As a final point, the conclusions drafted toward identification of the most important challenges are addressed in the proposed National Roadmap for BIM adoption.

Monitoring Algorithm of Stress Point of Concrete Penstock in Large Construction Engineering

With the rapid development of the national construction industry, cracks and other problems often appear in the concrete structure during the initial and subsequent construction. When these problems develop further, the structural safety of the entire building may be compromised. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the causes of cracks and other problems in concrete buildings, and be able to monitor and analyze these problems in time, and then propose reasonable solutions. This is already a problem that the entire construction technicians urgently need to solve. This paper studies the algorithm for monitoring stress points of concrete penstocks in large construction projects. Firstly, it uses literature research to explain the form of stress nodes in large-scale construction projects and the deficiencies in the research on the stress nodes of concrete penstocks in large-scale construction projects. In the experiment, the existing 3 algorithms are used to detect the force points, and compare their detection degree and false alarm rate. The experimental results show that the detection effect of the KNN algorithm is obviously inferior to the other two algorithms with the same neighbor parameters. Its detection rate is only 91%, and the false alarm rate reaches 30%. The other two algorithms are equivalent. The detection effect of the KNN algorithm is obviously inferior to the other two algorithms, the detection rate is poor, the outlier force points that are obviously deviating from the whole around the dense force points are not recognized, and the data of many normal force points located at the edge of the sparse area Instead, it was recognized as abnormal. Among the three algorithms, the detection rate of the NLOF algorithm is better, reaching 99%, which is significantly higher than the other two algorithms.

Quantitative Research on the Influencing Factors of Green Building Development

<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">T</span>he rapid development of national economy is <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">closely related to the </span>environmental protection and the rapid development of green buildings. The development of green building has always been the focus of national development research. It is undeniable that it has a crucial impact on the exploration of the factors affecting the development of green building. Undoubtedly, the research on the factors affecting the development of green building plays a vital role in the progress of the national construction industry and the vigorous development of the government’s green environmental protection. This paper first determines the green real estate index as an indicator of the impact of green building, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">and then </span>on this basis, stud<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">ies</span> the main factors affecting the growth of green building area and the degree of impact <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">by </span>using the method of quantitative analysis of data<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. </span>Finally, based on the results of the analysis, the corresponding policy recommendations are put forward.</p>

Application of BIM technology in the design of prefabricated architecture

With the continuous development of modern construction industry, China has moved from the former coarse and open architecture to the field of sustainable development. BIM technology is the primary means of the development of the construction industry. It can play a vital role in prefabricated architecture. As an efficiency tool, BIM technology can provide high synergy efficiency, accurate design experience and low error rate for prefabricated buildings. With the development of construction industry, BIM technology has very important research value in the deepening design of prefabricated architecture. This paper analyzes and understands the specific contents of BIM technology and prefabricated architecture, and explores the application of BIM technology in assembly Because of the significance value of matching architecture, many people realize that BIM technology plays a very important role in the field of national construction industry.

Implantação da norma NBR 15575 e seu impacto no setor de construção civil

A necessidade de atendimento às exigências dos usuários para um melhor desempenho das edificações tem sido discutida nos últimos tempos, especialmente no Brasil, com a entrada em vigor da norma NBR 15575 – Desempenho de Edificações Habitacionais. A norma estabelece uma série de requisitos a serem atendidos levando a uma mudança na forma como o projeto vem sendo desenvolvido, de maneira geral, no país. O objetivo deste trabalho é levantar e analisar os estudos já realizados referentes à implantação da norma e seu impacto na indústria da construção civil nacional. Como metodologia de pesquisa foi adotada a Revisão Sistemática de Literatura (RSL) de maneira a identificar os estudos de interesse e classificá-los em grupos temáticos segundo os requisitos do usuário estabelecidos pela norma. Os procedimentos metodológicos consistiram basicamente na busca, seleção e avaliação de resultados obtidos em cinco bases de dados nos últimos 10 anos. Cinquenta e um estudos foram selecionados para análise e apontam que, de maneira geral, em que pese os avanços já obtidos alguns obstáculos ainda precisam ser vencidos para uma aplicação mais efetiva da norma. A distribuição dos artigos nos grupos temáticos proporcionou uma visão do atual estágio de desenvolvimento das pesquisas nessa temática podendo ajudar a subsidiar avaliações sobre a natureza das pesquisas realizadas.

Dynamic study on evolution mechanism of continuous innovation in prefabricated building enterprises

As a new type of green building, prefabricated building is of great significance to sustainable development. In order to promote the innovation of prefabricated construction enterprises more smoothly, this paper obtains the data of 30 enterprises by issuing questionnaires and collecting public annual reports, and then uses the system dynamics model to simulate. The conclusions are as follows: technological innovation leads the development of enterprises. Market innovation and management innovation act on the growth period, organizational innovation act on the maturity period, and finally enters the period of continuous innovation to carry out collaborative innovation. Government support can effectively promote the development of prefabricated buildings. This study present suggestions for the innovation development of prefabricated construction enterprises, and provides reference for the sustainable development of national ecology and construction industry enterprise innovation.

EVALUATION OF FLOOR COVERINGS FROM THE ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECT IN THE DESIGN STAGE

Measures to reduce the impact of the construction sector on the environment and human health need to be taken at the design stage of the facility and evaluate building materials and products from an ecological and economic aspect. For the research needs, a comparison of floor coverings at the design stage was made to assess their impact during the life cycle. The research uses the life cycle analysis (LCA), a methodology that is the basis for analyzing the impacts during the life cycle of the analyzed construction products. The research covers the life cycle stages from A1 to C4, according to the standard ISO EN 15978: 2011. The software package BEES, the National Institute of Standardization and Technology (NIST), the United States of America is used for the turn. Five types of floor coverings were analyzed, from the aspect of their impact on the environment and human health, but also from the economic point of view. The research has shown that in the design phase, using software packages can be managed with the quality of the environment, and the project design, and hence the quality of the facility. The research also points to the need for a national software package that can analyze construction products and materials. Their application would improve the national construction industry and favored materials that are environmentally and economically acceptable in relation to materials with unfavorable effects on the environment and human health.

Integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Sustainability to Greening Existing Building: Potentials in Malaysian Construction Industry

Apropos to numerous environmental issues highlighted globally and locally, Malaysia has now moving forward towards new agenda of greening the cities. A positive movement trend of new green building in the country can be seen as number of projects going into green rating application are increasing yearly. Nevertheless, sustainability impact is considered as significantly small since newly developed green building represent small percentage as compared to the existing non-green building. Therefore, the idea of greening the existing building through refurbishment emerged in order to achieve wider sustainability objectives. Apart from that, supported with recent evolvement of technology and digitalization in construction industry, in lieu with governments’ strategies to adopt Industry 4.0, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has also been acknowledged and used broadly as a solution to integrate and facilitate management of information throughout building lifecycles. Considering these two areas; sustainability and BIM are continuously gaining momentum these days, this paper attempts to explore BIM’s potentials as an enabler to help greening the existing non-green building. Literature review is conducted focus on reviewing BIM and sustainability present status in Malaysian construction industry, also their relationship including examining potential areas where BIM may contribute to enhance the buildings’ sustainability performances. Based on the reviews, there is a potential of bridging the two areas considering both has becoming a national construction industry agenda since the government released CITP2016-2020. To further concur the ideas, literature reviews has also proven that the ability of BIM to facilitate various functions has enable it to support several sustainability analyses such as energy, carbon emission, lighting, water, materials and waste, building and site, and costing analysis.

Objects of intellectual property rights – an important factor for innovation in the construction industry

Problem statement.Priority direction of socio-economic development of any state in the modern world is the development of innovations. The innovativeness of the construction industry in Ukraine is extremely important in ensuring the effective development of the country in the face of the challenges of today's globalization and economic crisis. The economic development, the solution of socio-economic problems and the competitiveness of the country largely depend on the innovative development of the construction industry. The construction industry today requires the introduction of new technologies, materials, new machinery and tools. Therefore, an important factor for the innovative development of modern construction should be scientific technical creativity, inventive activity and its results − objects of intellectual property rights. Purpose. Research of objects of intellectual property rights in the construction industry, their classification, generalization of their role and influence on innovativeness of the construction industry at the present stage of socio-economic development. Conclusions. Ukraine's construction industry has been developing at an accelerating pace in recent years. Residential buildings are being built and are being commissioned, alternative energy is being developed, and alternative energy sources are being used. But in order to accelerate growth, in order to harness the potential of the construction industry to reduce energy consumption, it is necessary to introduce innovative technologies based on intellectual property rights. Innovative construction methods and the dynamics of development in this field can give impetus to positive developments in attracting foreign investment in the construction of Ukraine, to make the national construction industry energy efficient and competitive. Building development based on the widespread adoption of intellectual property rights has an enormous potential for innovations that are already in use and in need of wider adoption, as well as for the creation of new, revolutionary, innovative facilities that contribute to material consumption, energy efficiency, adaptability and competitiveness. construction industry in Ukraine.

Lightweight concrete with coarse aggregate from ceramic waste at high temperatures

Abstract With the increasing use of recycled materials from civil construction, mainly as substitute for some aggregates in concrete mixtures, it is necessary to obtain technical information on the performance of these new mixtures. National and international research on the use of ceramic waste in concrete production highlight good results of this new material’s mechanical performance in environmental situations. However, little is known about its behavior at high temperatures. In this context, we sought to verify the performance of concrete mixtures produced with aggregates from ceramic block waste at high temperatures, with evaluation of their residual mechanical strength, axial compressive strength and elastic modulus, and also their tendency to spalling in fire situations. The RILEM-129 MHT method [1] was used for the assessment of residual mechanical strength, and the tendency to spalling was evaluated according to the procedure suggested by Souza and Moreno [2]. In both these evaluations, there is no national standard, and, in the case of spalling, not even an international standard. Three concrete mixtures were used, one prepared with natural coarse basalt aggregate (reference) and the other two by replacing part of this natural aggregate with aggregate from ceramic block waste (40% and 100% of substitution in volume). In the end, it is concluded that the substitution of natural coarse aggregate for lightweight aggregate from ceramic block waste can be an excellent alternative to increase the resistance of concrete to fire. Thus, the results of mechanical strength and spalling in a fire situation, unprecedented in our country, can greatly support the decision-making about the use of this alternative material in the national construction industry.

Reengineering of capital construction objects and reengineering of technological processes

Introduction. The article discusses two types of corporate-level reengineering of investment and construction activities: the qualitative transformation of capital construction projects (CCP) and technological processes. The implementation of the reengineering measures in respect of the CCP is studied as a dominant. All the mutual relations and interactions of anthropotechnical system elements and external environment are assembled around the CCP. The CCP is considered as the expression of the achieved result.
 Materials and methods. The study used legislative and normative documents regulating investment and construction activities in the Russian Federation as well as papers of domestic and foreign scientists. The examined normative and methodological materials allowed identifying criteria and factors of classification of reengineering measures at the level of “building project – building site” and on this basis establishing the composition of the reengineering of a CCP and reengineering of technological processes.
 Results. The article examines the normative component of the practical activity of the reengineering. It provides the following terms regulated by the current legislative base of construction: reconstruction, major repair, technical re-equipment, restoration. Separately, the definition of CCP reprofiling is suggested. Structural and functional relations within CCP and technological processes reengineering are studied.
 Conclusions. The research has demonstrated that the reengineering is an efficient mechanism of formation of a comfortable living environment based on achievements of science and technology, record and complete satisfaction of consumers’ demands, as well as the creation of competitive advantages for not only domestic construction establishments but also the whole national construction industry. All this made it possible to determine the genesis of the corporate level reengineering of investment and construction activities and to establish a structure of the CCP reengineering. In conclusion, the article presented the main directions for improving the efficiency of the reengineering mechanism. The role of information and analytical activity organization quality in this system of the measures is specially marked.

Vertical specialisation measurement of energy embodied in international trade of the construction industry

Due to the conflict between economic development and environmental preservation, energy consumption in the construction industry has become an urgent concern. This research aims to measure the interaction between imports and exports in relation to the embodied energy that accompanies international trade from the perspective of vertical specialisation. The energy embodied in the imports and exports of the construction industry is measured and the net embodied energy use is used to identify the level of dependence of the construction industry on international trade. For the construction industries in the selected countries, the share of imported energy embodied in exports is used to show the degree of participation in the global production chain. The construction industries had greater degrees of participation in the international trade of embodied energy from the demand perspective, than from the supply perspective. The findings of this research help to identify the role and position of national construction industries and are beneficial to the design of strategies for the international market. References are also provided to assist policymakers in adjusting natural resource consumption and production structures in the international trade of construction goods and services.

The effectiveness of housing renovation programs in the Russian Federation

The Housing Stock Renovation Program in Moscow, endorsed in 2017, caused a large number of public and academic debates on its quality and potential efficiency as well as (in more general terms) on possible methods of estimating the effectiveness of government and municipal programs implementation in the Russian Federation. The relevance of these discussions is predicated, among other things, on huge funds actually injected by the Russian government (especially on the national and subnational levels) into various links of the national development and construction industry. More than 1.74 trillion rubles were allocated from the Moscow budget alone for the financing of various construction programs in 2018-2020. Inquiring into the existing and prospective methods of decision-making in the process of development, approval, execution and assessment of the housing stock renovation program efficiency as well as suggesting practical recommendations in the given sphere were the main goals of the research undertaken by the author. Using the comparative analysis of several earlier completed government programs versus similar ones or the recently adopted Moscow renovation program, their goals and objectives, the author identifies, pigeonholes and compares their basic parameters and targets which were or weren’t actually attained. The undertaken research brings the author to the conclusion about the absence in the modern research, economic or practical circulation of any scientifically grounded methodology for ensuring a synchronous integrated real estate development and preset mechanisms of state participation in the investment and construction process, based, among other things, on bringing the target parameters of public (municipal programs) in conformity with their economic parameters.

Ecological effectiveness as an essential quality requirement of innovational construction

Nowadays it seems to be very essential to develop national construction industry by implementation of innovative technologies. As an object of innovational construction «Smart house» or «green building» demonstrates the latest advances in ecological building materials, energy-saving structures and lean-technologies. According to the concept of TQM «green building» has tube compatible with environmental protection, environment sustainability and ecological effectiveness requirements. «Green certification» includes these terms into the National environment sustainability rating system. The main goal of this research work was to review and compare theoretical models and concepts of effectiveness and analyze their applicability to determine the term ecological effectiveness as the main Quality Score.