Comparative Analysis of the Patterns of Unsafe Behaviors in Accidents between Building Construction and Urban Railway Construction
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147, Issue 5
Abstract
Building and urban railway construction are two typical high-risk types of construction in which unsafe behaviors have a considerable impact on the occurrence of accidents. To explore the patterns of unsafe behaviors and promote accident prevention, a comparative analysis is conducted to analyze the behavioral risk chains of accidents for these two construction types in the Chinese construction industry using complex network (CN) theory. First, accident cases are collected from government websites, and unsafe behaviors are extracted and classified according to a summary list of several safety standards and operating procedures. Second, behavioral risk chain networks of accidents (BRCNAs) for the two construction types are established as directed networks. Pajek, a program for visualizing and analyzing large networks, is then used to construct network models. Finally, the topological parameters of the BRCNAs are calculated and compared. The results show that BRCNAs are both scale-free and small-world networks. The characteristics of the building construction BRCNA are related to individual workers, and the characteristics of the urban railway construction BRCNA are related to the working environment and supervisors. However, there are certain unsafe behaviors that play an important role in accidents in both construction types. These findings reveal the variations in interactions among unsafe behaviors that cause accidents in the two construction types to further understand the patterns of unsafe behaviors. This study is of theoretical and practical significance for improving accident causation models and supporting on-site safety management in the construction industry.
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Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71801197); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (Grant Nos. 170649 and CUGESIW1801); and the Research Foundation of Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 15YJA630019).
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Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147 • Issue 5 • May 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 9, 2020
Accepted: Oct 22, 2020
Published online: Feb 19, 2021
Published in print: May 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jul 19, 2021
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