Improving for Construction Safety Design: Ontology Model of a Knowledge System for the Prevention of Falls

Many accidents happen every year in the construction field. Accidents increase costs and construction time. Accordingly, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has relevant safety regulations for the construction industry. Integration of construction safety strategies into the design phase can prevent potential safety hazards. Most accidents occurring in this field are falling from the roof. Therefore, this paper has narrowed the scope of this study to falls from the roof and has developed the knowledge modeling based on the safety rules provided by OSHA. To apply safety rules at the design stage automatically, safety knowledge or information must first be understandable by the computers. In this study, the knowledge system was developed through ontology modeling using the ontology editing program Protégé. The developed ontology model has two superclasses. These include information on building components based on the most widely used building information modeling program, and knowledge about roof-related safety rules provided by OSHA. The safety plan must include safety accidents and rules as well as their countermeasures associated with the components at the design stage. This paper is the first step to safety management at the design stage, which is the development of ontology modeling so that software can recognize and understand the construction safety knowledge and information. Beginning with this modeling, if there is a potential risk of violating rules related to construction safety requirements, all relevant safety controls are carried out at the design stage. In other words, the design will be completed, and the safety management plan will be finished before construction starts so that the accidents will be prevented during construction.