Towards a Vision for Information Technology in Civil Engineering

Ensuring a positive return on investment of IT in civil engineering is not straightforward. Five themes are selected from many possible topics and are evaluated in terms of challenges, opportunities and risks. There are risks associated with not taking opportunities as well as the risks run by taking action. Identification of risks is important to avoid misuse of technology since mistakes can lead to increased costs, unnecessary delays and sometimes, accidents. Also, as useful non-simulation-centered applications of IT become more accessible to civil engineering firms, the ability to seize appropriate opportunities and identify good choices, as well as risks, will have an increasing impact on their profitability.

The intelligent transportation systems (ITS) program was initiated in the 1990s with the purpose to improve the operation of surface transportation systems through the application of information technology. ITS has resulted in a rapid deployment of information technology in the surface transportation system. Classes of information technology deployed include the following: Wireless communications, High-bandwidth networks (i.e. fiber), Complex software, Sensors, Video applications, and Web applications. This paper offers examples of information technology failures and successes in the ITS program. Finally, based on these examples, the paper concludes with recommendations for changes in civil engineering education to better prepare professionals for the challenges of designing, building, and operating infrastructure systems with significant information technology components.

Construction firms attempt to improve project performance by adopting technology. However, the advantages gained from technology utilization are still not clear. Lack of information regarding technology benefits has resulted in industry reluctance to implement new technology. Therefore, there are needs for studies that quantify the impacts of technology utilization on project success. An industry-wide survey (excluding small projects) was used to collect project data from 131 capital facility projects on the issue of integration/automation technology usage and project success parameters. Project performance variables analyzed include project cost success, project schedule success, and composite project success. This paper reports on relationships between integration/automation technology usage in the construction industry and project success parameters. Findings are presented and analyzed according to several data class variables, including industry sector, typical vs. advanced projects, project size, public vs. private projects, and greenfield vs. expansion vs. renovation projects. In addition, integration and automation technology findings are presented by project phase. The analyses indicate that technology utilization may make a significant contribution to a project's cost and schedule success, particularly for certain types of projects.

The Construction Research and Education for Advanced Technology Environments (CREATE) research group has been formed in the late 1990s under the auspices of the Del. E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University. A consortium of 33 companies involved in advanced technology facility design and construction, the purpose of CREATE is to explore, develop, and conduct research to provide innovative and practical ways to improve the delivery process of advanced technology facilities. Completely funded by the participating companies, the research projects are selected to benefit all the participants in the consortium. This article presents a case study of a particular research project, the Design and Installation time Calculator (DITC). Based on a productivity model developed as part of the research, the DITC has evolved into a fully functional program which evaluates the man-hours required to install manufacturing tools for each trade involved. The prediction of the man-hours is based on variables such as type of design (2D CAD or manual vs. 3D-CAD), description of connections, size of the tool and ease of routing through the waffle floor. The case-study concentrates on the causes that ultimately hindered the implementation of the DITC within the same companies which fully supported its development and present the lessons learned for developing industry-wide programs.

The Education Committee of the Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology (TCCIT) of ASCE conducted two surveys during 2002 to assess the current computing component of the curriculum in civil engineering. The two surveys were targeted at two different segments within the civil engineering profession: educators and practitioners. This paper presents the findings of the survey directed to civil engineering educators concerning their perspective on the issue. This survey is a follow-up of surveys conducted by the Education Committee in 1990 and 1995. The presentation of the results includes an analysis of some of the changes in the survey results since 1990.

The fragmented nature of the construction industry presents special challenges for the application of information technologies (IT) to the construction supply chain. With few exceptions to-date, information technologies have not made a significant impact on construction practice. Despite limited successes, there have been increasing calls by industry for application of supply chain thinking to construction. The FIATECH initiative, in particular, has defined a project for an "integrated and automated procurement and supply network" with a mid-term vision for implementation. The authors' experience with applying IT solutions to the construction supply chain suggests that much of the FIATECH vision is achievable with development and deployment of current technologies. However, in reference to current fragmentation of the industry, the authors' argue that supply chain information technologies must be deployed in coherent, staged implementations that provide integrated solutions to supply management problems. In this paper, we review lessons learned from supply chain IT implementations in manufacturing and construction. This review is used to develop recommendations for supply chain capabilities in construction and related sets of information technologies to support implementation efforts.

Collecting accurate field data plays a key role in the success of a construction project. Field data related construction progress, process, productivity, quality, safety, and costs must be collected, synthesized, and archived for project records and improvements. Advances in information technology have gradually changed how construction data are managed in the field. These advances, such as mobile computers, wireless communications, video conferencing, collaboration systems, 3D laser scanning, digital close range photogrammetry, sensors, and project ASPs (application service providers), have provided new ways for collecting and managing project information. With these tools come both opportunities and challenges to researchers, educators, and practitioners. Opportunities exist for companies in the A/E/C (architecture/engineering/construction) industry to use these advances to increase efficiency, productivity, and quality; however, not all companies are reporting good results. After starting with cutting-edge technology, some ventures ended up as a bleeding-edge nightmare for the management. The nature of risks and uncertainties therefore must be evaluated carefully and completely. An important role researchers could play is to work closely with both technology developers and the industry to explore new paradigms, new concepts, and new approaches that may benefit the industry as a whole. Furthermore, this close partnership will shorten the duration of technology transfer and reduce the cost and uncertainties associated with new technologies. Research teams at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed and field-tested several promising information technologies related to construction field data collection. This paper presents the lessons learned from the authors' experience in developing and testing these IT tools.

In current project management practice, the overall task of designing, managing, and constructing a building is carried out by organizing the work into many distinct tasks assigned to many different groups. Most project effort is then directed towards carrying out these tasks in the most effective manner possible, while relatively little effort (concentrated within a few critical positions) is focused on managing the interdependencies between tasks and effectively combining these results to yield the overall result. We propose a unified approach to project management that brings an integrative view to the forefront, centered on the notion of defining multiple views of the project and the interrelationships that exist between the views. This integrated representation acts as a model or prototype of the physical facility, allowing more experimentation and optimization and providing a unifying focus for the ongoing work. The representational framework, proposed methodology, and accompanying IT issues for this approach to project management are discussed.

Our mission is to prepare the next generation of architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) professionals who know how to team up with professionals from other disciplines and leverage the advantages of innovative collaboration technologies to produce higher quality products, faster, more economical, and environmentally friendly. This paper presents recent innovations with examples from the AEC Global Teamwork course established at Stanford in 1993 and offered in collaboration with universities worldwide, in developing and deploying: (1) new engaging learning and global teamwork experiences, e.g., the Fishbowl, (2) interactive learning and work spaces, such as the iRoom for collaborative synchronous project review and decision support, and the Observatory for data collection and analysis of the impact of technology on behavior, learning, and team dynamics, (3) innovative IT infrastructure including networks and devices, (4) innovative collaboration technologies, (5) emerging roles of industry as an active participant in education, and (6) new assessment metrics for cross-disciplinary learning, (7) emerging processes and high performance team skills that develop as a result of efficient and effective use of advanced IT solutions. The paper concludes with observations regarding challenges for the learners, instructors, and institutions in the process of launching and sustaining such engaging learning and global teamwork experiences.

This paper presents the basic concepts of the web services technology and its potential applications in Civil Engineering. There are various communication protocols that are now available for building distributed engineering web services. This paper presents three example applications utilizing some of these protocols. These examples are employed to demonstrate that the web service approach is a promising paradigm for integrating large engineering software applications.

This paper focuses on a lightweight ontology-based knowledge management system, which is a main component of IT-CODE, a Semantic Web based virtual workspace for enhancing the collaboration at an early building design stage. Technologies with respect to de facto standards that are proposed by industry group W3C are implemented to develop this knowledge management system. Resource Description Framework (RDF) associated with its Schema (RDFS) is selected as ontology language of the system. RDF(S) with its embedded reasoning techniques provides a rich set of constructs to facilitate the generation of ontologies so that the annotated information can be machine readable. Initiatives taken in the building industry for the evolution of the Semantic Web will be overviewed in this paper. Potential benefits offered by the RDF(S)-based knowledge management system to the building industry will be explained. Approaches of how the knowledge is represented in RDF-based ontology, is shared and retrieved among actors participating in the early design phase of a building project will also be described and illustrated. The paper will conclude with a description of how the early design phase may benefit from IT-CODE and its innovative knowledge management system.

This paper presents A/E/C industry needs, emerging information technologies, and applications for knowledge capture, sharing, and re-use that can enable corporations to turn knowledge into working knowledge. Innovative multimedia and multimodal digital communication channels, visualization and navigation techniques of large repositories, and information retrieval algorithms can assist in building effective and efficient next generation digital knowledge management environments. This paper presents four scenarios and technologies that support knowledge capture, sharing and re-use and discuss them in the larger perspective of industry practice today and beyond.

In this paper, we discuss the concept of a mobile data collection system for infrastructure field tasks based on location-based computing that allows inspectors using mobile or wearable computers to interact with georeferenced 3D infrastructure models and to automatically retrieve the necessary information in real time based on their location, orientation, and specific tasks. We discuss the requirements of this system and propose an interaction framework based on the Model-View-Controller software development model. We also developed and tested a preliminary prototype system to demonstrate the potential and explore the limitations of this framework.

The movement of occupants in buildings has mostly thus far been studied and analyzed by designers using intuitive and qualitative methods. This is usually sufficient for small to medium size buildings. However the movement of occupants in buildings becomes more critical as the buildings get larger and the design gets more complex. The ability to predict movement patterns within a building also provides the designer with a rational method to size the space and the circulation elements (e.g. corridors, hallways, doors, vestibules etc...) appropriately. Another very important use of simulating occupant movements in buildings is to be able to predict movements in cases of emergency and therefore be able to specify standards to satisfy emergency egress requirements. This paper presents a new technique to model the occupants' movements in buildings using discrete event simulation. A simulation modeling language, STROBOSCOPE, is presented as a tool to study the movements of occupants in buildings. An example is presented and analyzed. This system and its graphical interface provide for an easy method to model occupants movements in buildings.

Location and time independent interaction and collaboration among the multidisciplinary competencies within a construction project is crucial to the success of the construction projects. Existing information and communication technologies (ICTs) have done much to address these interaction issues and provide an appropriate collaboration infrastructure when face-to-face meetings are impossible, expensive difficult or simply inconvenient. However these systems still do not adequately meet the requirements of site-based team members and busy mobile project team members. Emerging technologies such as 3G wireless devices and the Semantic Web have the potential to overcome the current shortcomings of ICTs in terms of supporting mobile project team members. This paper reviews these technologies and describes the potential for the future application of 3G wireless and Semantic Web technologies within the construction sector, particularly in the creation of a Web of Construction Knowledge and Services. It concludes (from a global perspective) that the use of Semantic Web technologies will in future offer considerable benefits in terms of project management, knowledge management, supply chain management, integration of distributed applications and services and improved efficiency of construction project delivery.

The aim of this paper is to present the review of the present state of Information Technology (IT) in Poland. The peculiarities of this country under communist rule are briefly discussed together with the perspectives opened by, hopefully, soon access to the European Union. The main attention is given to research and education but the applications of IT in construction industry, transport and other areas are also mentioned. It is argued that due to comparatively liberal nature of the communist regime in Poland this country has less difficulties in heading towards the Information Society as neighboring countries.

It is demonstrated and exemplified that, despite the individual application fields of IT, the common basis of future trends lies in the multi-paradigmatic nature of problem solutions. In this context, a paradigm is understood as a basic framework within which theories, rules and generalizations are formulated such that they can be applied to the solution of practical problems. To substantiate these new trends two characteristic problem examples are discussed which make clear that many of the upcoming problems in civil engineering require a holistic approach and, therefore, the usage of various solution paradigms in one single assignment. The first problem field considered is the lifespan-oriented design of steel structures representing a multi-level and multi-time scale problem. The second problem deals with the multi-level computer simulation of the demolition of complex structural systems by means of controlled explosives. In both cases, new numerical as well as non-numerical solution techniques and methods forming different paradigms are applied.

In the recent past, there has been a proliferation of activities both in research as well as commercial arenas relating to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) usage in the construction industry. However, it is not easy to gauge the extent to which success has been achieved or even the extent to which the industry as a whole might be exploiting the ICTs. One way of gauging this is obviously through detailed surveys. This paper considers some such surveys from the two sides of the Atlantic (specifically USA and UK) and attempts to draw conclusions from them. The acronym, SITIES, could metaphorically relate to the two‘cities', USA and UK, as well as Surveys of IT In architecture, Engineering and conStruction. The data from USA is largely drawn from CFMA (Construction Financial Managers Association) Bi-Annual IT Surveys. The data from the UK is drawn from various sources including CICA (Construction Industry Computing Association), BRE (Building Research Establishment) and ITCBP (Information Technology Construction Best Practice). The surveys from the two sides of the Atlantic are quite dissimilar in nature and, thus, make it hard to make comparisons between them. However, it is still possible to make some interesting observations about the nature of ICT exploitation in the two countries. The paper concludes that technologies being used in both contexts are quite similar but there are differences in certain trends in terms of uptake of these technologies. Besides, the trade organisations in the USA seem to be more actively involved in encouraging and supporting activities in this area for their members than the UK.

The research community is concerned that IT techniques are failing to make a significant breakthrough into commercial practice in civil engineering. The paper concentrates on IT support for design. Design is defined in terms of the generic activities and those activities for which software support is already available are briefly examined. Current progress towards devising suitable IT based techniques to support the remaining areas is then described and the likely future developments are covered. The focus is on a European perspective and the discussion of current work looks mostly at Europe but much of what is discussed applies worldwide. It is shown that in some areas good progress is being made, especially in the use of evolutionary computing to support conceptual design. In the later parts of the paper, the impediments to progress are discussed and in particular the high level of funding required to turn research demonstrators into commercial prototypes and the different motivation of the research community and practising engineers. It is shown however that there is evidence that industry would use IT based design tools were they available. The overall conclusions are generally positive in so far as the research community is making good progress towards developing relevant IT based techniques but that there are some hurdles to be overcome before such techniques become available in commercial software.

Rethinking Construction is co-ordinating all industry activities to create collaborative ways of working. This collaborative way of working aims to create the best value for the client and user by eliminating waste, involving various parties in construction to co-operate early in the design and construction process and to supply chain management to work in partnership. In this way, profit for individual companies would be enhanced and overall cost to client reduced. A new way of thinking in the UK is being promulgated by reports from Latham and Egan and the organisation "Rethinking Construction" is supported with UK government funds. The paper addresses the trend in the UK construction industry towards a collaborative approach to design and construction within the framework of "Rethinking Construction" and proposes how IT, particularly evolutionary search and optimisations tools, can be useful in achieving this goal. The paper concludes that adaptive search and optimisation, visualisation and negotiation tools have progressed enough to offer a collaborative environment, which allows every member of the project team to explore the regions of high performance which satisfy their individual requirements, and to achieve a mutually inclusive negotiated final solution. Rethinking Construction and the future role of IT to support it, discussed in this paper, is a UK lead European issue which promotes a collaborative way of working in the construction industry.

Virtual prototyping is an effective design technique that consists of designing and developing a ‘virtual model' which represents a real life scenario and allows for the gauging of the designs compliance and performance through a series of ‘virtual tests'. Virtual prototyping has been used in industries where the function and performance requirements are concise, the solution space is small, and the design process is close-knit typically involving interactions between a few well-established design teams. The building industry has considerably different traits and so faces a unique challenge in attempting to adopt virtual prototyping as a design technique. This paper advocates that such a technology should be applied in the design of civil engineering projects and more specifically building design. It assesses the feasibility of using what is termed ‘Incremental Virtual Prototyping' in the design of buildings and outlines some of the challenges that its implementation might face.

The paper discusses the manner in which computational intelligence (CI) and complementary computer-aided design and analysis processes could be integrated within an overall information technology framework supporting knowledge-rich civil engineering environments. Problems related to this are explored and possible ways forward to ensure that significant potentials can be realised are discussed. The paper concludes that there is a requirement for the integration of wide-ranging skills and cooperative working to avoid research fragmentation. There is also a need to develop user-centric systems that enhance designer skills and support a more holistic approach. The integration of CI with a range of complementary enabling advanced computing technologies is essential. Educational requirements to ensure that a subset of graduating civil engineers are sufficiently computer-literate to manage and best utilise the resulting systems will also need to be satisfied. The paper's overall conclusion is that a shift of research emphasis from application to integration is essential.

The purpose of construction, and indeed Civil Engineering (CE), is to answer one of the most basic human needs, the need for shelter i.e. to provide a safe, productive and healthy built environment for human activities. This has not changed for eons. In contrast, over the last 50 years, the advent of computers and information technology (IT) has introduced a plethora of innovations that are gradually changing several facets of human activities, including construction. In view of the profound changes that have taken place, it is pertinent to consider how much construction has benefited from computerization so far and what lies ahead for the future. Following a brief review of changes in the areas of IT and construction during the past 50 years in North America (NA), the current use of IT in construction will be assessed as the basis to sketch possible future scenarios of development.

The majority of the current IT-supported activities are primarily office-based and most are focused on the earlier phases of design and construction. However, in civil engineering projects, a great deal of activity goes on outside of an office setting, such as many aspects of construction project management, inspection, and building commissioning. Future IT development must focus on supporting the creation of, access to, and augmentation of information during on-site activity. For example, a large amount of effort to date has been dedicated to the creation of extensive product and process models for representing the life-cycle of a construction project. However, very little has been done to date to explore how these product and process models will be accessed, referenced, and augmented by project managers, designers, and construction personnel as they move about the workface. Another example is the rapidly changing nature of sensing and wireless communication technologies. Many researchers and practitioners are starting to think about using ubiquitous sensing within civil infrastructure construction and maintenance contexts, but we currently lack a systematic framework from which we can design, manage and evolve these sensor systems. Without such a framework, we will end up with unmanageable, complex, chaotic environments from which very little sensemaking will be possible. This presentation will discuss some future directions for IT research and development that we might undertake to better support our non-office-based civil engineering activities. This paper first presents several scenarios that present possible ways in which information technology will help various types of field personnel effectively access and collect the information they need while moving about a dangerous and rugged construction site. The paper then discusses several issues that will need to be addressed by future research in order to move closer to these envisioned beneficial uses of information technology. Finally, the paper presents several recent research projects that begin to address some of these issues.

Projects have long been seen as information rich environments with associated calls for information integration to support decision-making. Yet even with advanced applications based on shared data standards, project professionals still face considerable difficulty accessing needed information in a form useful for decision making. In the authors' viewpoint, a primary reason for these difficulties is that most data and tools are designed and operated in the context of specific applications. This creates the problem of information tunnels: rich data and application areas with knowledge that is not easily transferable to other application areas. Information tunnels per se would not be a difficulty if projects had identical problems; walls between tunnels could be torn down or professionals could develop heuristic integration mechanisms that functioned with a high degree of reliability, speed, and accuracy. But each project faces unique challenges, making integration across tunnels difficult for both machines and humans. Hence, we envision information technologies that provide project professionals much greater configuration control in how they access project information, regardless of its source or tunnel. We believe user models will drive such technologies, formal structures that help capture and structure both the data and metadata that professionals use in their work. We describe a user model driven information architecture and compare how that environment might work in contrast to existing approaches.

A common language for electronic data interchange is a key enabling technology that has been largely lacking in the construction industry. The inability to systematically share project data among the members of the constructed facilities team has been a major barrier to delivering advanced computing and information technologies. Adopting a standard object-oriented format for the electronic exchange of data enables the building and sharing of product models. The American Institute of Steel Construction's recent endorsement of the CIMSteel Integration Standards (CIS) has lead to pioneering projects using object-oriented product models in the design, detailing, procurement, fabrication, and erection of steel framed buildings. Actual benefits in terms of time and quality are examined. Schedule reductions are quantified, showing substantial time savings of about one-quarter, even in a pioneering environment. By examining the evolving use of CIS/2 in the North American steel building industry, a grounded perspective is gained from which to consider the successes, failures, barriers, and solutions for transfer of information technology advances from research to application in practice.

The transcendent technologies, which are the primary drivers of the twenty first century and the new economy in the information technology age, include nanotechnology, microelectronics, and biotechnology as well as the enabling and supporting civil infrastructure systems and materials. Mechanics and materials are essential elements in all of the transcendent technologies. Research opportunities and challenges in mechanics and materials, including nanomechanics, carbon nano-tubes, bio-inspired materials, coatings, fire-resistant materials as well as improved engineering and design of materials in this exciting IT age are presented and discussed.

There is an emerging consensus amongst construction IT researchers that success in adapting and implementing IT will be predicated on the readiness and willingness of construction sector organizations to innovate their working practices and construction process to meet the challenges of the knowledge-based economy. However, there is little focus in the construction information research community on the issues and factors that impinge upon the uptake of IT systems. In order to enhance understanding of such issues, the study reported in this paper, adopted a qualitative approach to research and used deductive analysis so as to provide an in-depth analysis of mitigating and success factors. It shows that success in IT implementation and adoption, are predicated on a set of complex and interrelated factors (i.e. human and technical elements), and some externalities such as government policies, macro- and microeconomics of the operating environment. The study also shows that organizations adopt an evolutionary approach in IT implementation in the workplace, and that there is a "bunching effect" (follow the leader principle) in organizational decisions to adopt IT systems and platforms. The paper discusses these and other socio-technical issues and factors highlighted in the study, their implication on construction IT research, education and development, and give recommendations on how to address the identified barriers, and stimulate the adoption of IT in the construction sector.

Construction quality directly impacts overall project and built product performance. A means of ensuring effective investment in quality control mechanisms, therefore, can directly benefit the construction industry. Prior to the introduction of emerging inspection technologies such as laser scanners and embedded sensors, the decision of how to best assess and control the quality of construction was simplified by the limited range, amount, and applicability of existing quality control tools. However, as the introduction of advanced sensing technologies improves the number, size, cost, and coverage of available tools, and increases the amount and detail of available quality-related information, the decision-making considerations for quality control investment become less straightforward. The greater coverage and high up-front costs that characterize emerging inspection technologies mean that a large amount of quality-related information can be generated from construction sites, but with an ever-present concern for the benefits resulting from these cost outlays. As new technologies appear, and alter the considerations for decisions about inspection, it is imperative to formalize the reasoning behind quality control resource allocation and set the rules for new entries to the quality control scene. This paper demonstrates the need for improved quality control decision-making, and outlines a framework of site analysis, value analysis, and strategic technology deployment to address this need. Examples of traditional and emerging inspection methods demonstrate essential considerations for the effective implementation of a portfolio of quality control tools, and highlight the need for this analysis framework.

The potential value of an IT application is no guarantee of its success. There are many barriers that need to be overcome before a technology may be developed, adopted, and successfully implemented within the construction industry. It is possible to identify at least three broad types of barrier: (1) In the first place is the issue of actually developing the IT application. The theory may exist defining the concept, but realizing and fine-tuning that concept into a workable application often requires financial and time commitments to research and development that are not readily available; (2) A second class of barriers is concerned with institutional attitudes — these include prejudice against the adoption of new technologies (resulting from, for example, prior bad experiences in the use of such tools, chauvinism, or conservatism), a lack of understanding of the potential of a tool, a lack of resource commitment to its proper implementation (such as, time, personnel, training), concerns about possible legal ramifications in the use of a new technology, and a lack of confidence in the integrity of the output from a new technology; and (3) A third class of barriers is that of quality issues, sometimes grouped under the headings ‘user-friendliness' and ‘integrity' of the software. These include issues such as the ease with which an application can be learned by its users, the ease with which output and results can be interpreted, the convenience of data input, the convenience with which the application can be tailored to work for each specific problem, whether the program is prone to crash, and the reliability of the results. This paper explores these issues, and their possible solution, by means of case studies selected from the construction industry.

The data collected by ITS detectors have great potential in transportation statistics and research. However, their quality has been of concern because those detectors were initially designed for operations usages rather than planning usages. In this study, data collected by two regional ITS deployments are screened to weed out erroneous data. Several methods for estimating average daily traffic are evaluated. It has been observed that, while ITS detector data might not be as accurate as those collected by automatic traffic recorders used in planning applications, it is possible to obtain relatively accurate estimates based on short-term traffic data that has high quality.

In the past, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has focused on managing sand at coastal projects on a project-by-project basis. This approach to sand management may not adequately consider the impact of individual projects on adjacent coasts. To address this issue, the USACE has initiated efforts to assess the benefits of managing sediment resources on a regional scale rather than on a project-by-project basis, thus the creation of the Regional Sediment Management (RSM) program. Products of the RSM demonstration program include a Regional Sediment Management Plan consisting of a calibrated sediment budget, a gauged numerical regional prediction system, and a regional data management structure. All of these elements are created and maintained with the assistance of a geographic information system (GIS).

The current bridge maintenance made reasonable decision-making on bridge maintenance and repair possible using the accumulated data of BMS. In the early stage of the operation, the applications of bridge data for bridge maintenance were not active owing to minimal understanding of BMS and low credibility of input data. However, continuous data upgrades and the efforts of Local Road Construction Office workers are upgrading data credibility and expanding application scopes of BMS. The effective decision-making for bridge maintenance upgrades overall capacities of bridges within the given budgets, thereby saving on the maintenance budget. The mobile internet-based KOBMS presented by this thesis approaches bridge-related dataflow, which is the most important factor in supporting decisions on budget distribution and implementation in accordance with the new paradigm of ‘Mobile'.

A Knowledge-based system, MIST (Model Identification and Selection Tool), is developed for selection of water quality models. A knowledge base is set up using information collected from a number of manuals, literature searches, to facilitate this selection process. The knowledge is then codified into a knowledge-base that can be used within a knowledge-based system. A knowledge-base skeleton, M.4, is used as a backbone to develop the system. The knowledgebase skeleton provides a mechanism to develop rules in production rule format, and includes forward and backward chaining goal seeking mechanisms, and allows the user to provide confidence/certainty factors to the answers provided in the process of consultation. The front-end of the decision support system is developed using integrated development environment (IDE) under visual basic (VB) programming to provide a graphical interface for the end user. MIST consists of a number of modules (knowledge-bases) that are relevant to few classes of modeling environments. Results suggest that MIST can be used as a model selection tool for inexperienced modelers.

Sweden method and Bishop simplified method are usually employed to calculate safety factor of slope, and safety factor is determined by the potential circular slip surface that has minimum safety factor. The calculation of safety factor is virtually a process in which to find the potential circular slip surface of slope in many circular slip surfaces. Owning to the complexity of geological conditions the distribution of the potential circular slip surface is not regular. Therefore the problem is to choose the variables subjected to constraints so that the objective function is minimized. That is, Minimize f(x, y, r) , Where (x, y) is the center coordinate of the potential circular slip surface, and r is the radius. The function may have multiple local minima, and it is difficult to find the global minimum in practical engineering. Tabu search is a metaheuristic that can utilize search history to prevent trapping at locally optimal solutions. In the paper a novel tabu search suitable for continuous variables that can effectively solve slope stability is introduced. Its reliability is examined with an example slope whose safety factor is calculated by both 0.618 search method and tabu search method. By comparison it is concluded that the three results derived from the tabu search are consistent, and are better than that derived from the 0.618 search method.

Civil engineering (CE) has a vital role in the life of modern society. CE projects as power plants, intelligent buildings, water and natural gas pipelines have very much contribution on the development of the life style of the modern people. So, it is obvious that civil engineering is directly related with health of society. That's why, civil engineering students have to be well educated. However, education of civil engineering students is complex and hard. Even though it is complex and hard, civil engineering faculties have to create new methods for better education system of civil engineers. They have to design stronger buildings against earthquake, environment-friendly power plant, residential buildings, etc. To reach this goal, students of the civil engineering departments have to be supported with technical and practical engineering knowledge apart from the theoretical. Construction job site visit is one of the methods of the support. Job site visit combines theory with practice and matures it. However, the visit would be held few times with a limited time in the four years education period. There are some concerns and reasons about limited site visit: (1) Faculty management has to give permission. (2) Students have to be worn prior to visit about the job site visit policy. (3) Site visit is costly and carries accident risk either on the way or in the site. (4) Scheduling for real time construction may also not be possible and technical site visit would turn to picnic (5) Increased number of students would cause inefficient site visiting.

Great advances in science and technology have rapidly changed the structure of the society as well as the method of business and education in the last decade. Especially Internet has given more power in this variation. Corporations and people have to be aware of the influence of this variation. Recent changes in the Internet technology have also brought new approaches in the higher education area. Anadolu University has been working on the electronic transformation project (e-transformation) to provide contemporary and technologic education system for the students. In this manner, Civil Engineering Department has been proposing to teach some courses over the internet such as, introduction to civil engineering, site safety for civil engineers, web-based project management and advanced construction management. For the best success of the research, we first evaluated the electronic level of the students via questionnaire. The aim of the questionnaire was to obtain approach of the engineering students on the web-based course technology. The questionnaire was sent to 100 students and 85 of them were returned. Among these students, 36 study in 1^st class, 21 study in 2^nd class, 28 study in 3^rd class. Since only two students study in 4^th class, they were not considered for the accuracy of the survey. At the end of the study, findings were analyzed and interpreted by using SPSS and Minitab statistical software. In this way, students were examined whether they are ready or not for the e-transformation in education.

Numerous researchers have developed learning methods that can be used in different situations and conditions, which has led multiple theories and related applications. Traditionally, most learning occurs in a formal classroom setting; however, because of technology there has been considerable research on computer-based learning technologies that deliver anytime, anywhere, and at a lower cost. As Industry moves from traditional craft-base operations to more sophisticated technology-oriented processes, needs for sustaining education have increased correspondingly. Among the computer-based technologies being explored is object-based learning method, which is believed to offer new opportunities for learning in academics and industry. This paper describes an Object Based Learning Model (OBLM) that is being developed at Purdue University. The OBLM is an on-line tool that can be used in either Industry or Academia. It consists of a digital warehouse that stores the on-line content in a structure used by course developers to expedite the development of on-line content. On-line content can utilize the standard forms of content (e.g., document files, PowerPoint slides, movie files, images, etc.). Interfaces for the course developer/instructor and the student will use the object based approach. The proposed object-based learning method is expected to offer many potential advantages particularly in the engineering disciplines. It can provide a significantly better learning environment for engineering topics in terms of flexibility, portability, and distributive learning.

This paper reviews the concept of the Three Dimensional Parametric Building Model (3DPBM) and examines its development and current use in both educational activities and professional practices within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry (AEC). Additionally, the paper assesses 3DPBM's future role based on actual case studies and lessons learned so far. This study involves the experience of the authors accumulated over the last three years through ongoing research being conducted in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) as well as two construction projects in Massachusetts. Finally, the study stresses the importance of documenting and evaluating how students are integrating the 3DPBM knowledge into their professional practice and, therefore, changing the way Information Technology (IT) is being implemented by some major AEC firms.

Managing facility development is challenging for several reasons. For instance, the developer's organizational structure differs over multiple workflow processes, and changes over different development phases. As another instance, individuals and organizations become affiliated on a temporary—or even virtual—basis, yet they must learn quickly how to work together as a coherent team. Managing the development of affordable housing is even more challenging, for financing regulatory requirements add burden to an already complex management task, and little organizational learning—through the flow of knowledge—appears to manifest itself from one challenging project to the next. Supporting this challenging management and learning task motivates us to employ agent-based simulation technology to model and analyze the development process—before the project begins—and thereby seek to improve project performance through enhanced owner-design-construction coordination. Further, such new technology can support the dynamic process of knowledge creation and flow among temporary stakeholders, who do not belong to the project sponsor's organization, but whose combined decisions during the entitlements-feasibility phase impact the facility's overall implementation time and cost. We model the pre-construction activities of an affordable housing project in California, as a particularly challenging case, to illustrate how an agent-based organization simulation tool can be used to analyze dynamic knowledge creation and flow. Despite the challenge associated with modeling the affordable housing case, however, the technology and approach articulated in the paper remain quite general, and should also apply well to more-conventional construction projects and organizations, across all project phases.

Construction supply chain performance management will help decision makers chart a course for the future and evaluate their performance along the way. Performance measurement is adopted not simply to keep the score but rather to enable the achievement of continuous process improvement in business process reengineering. This paper presents the stages of performance management, reviews the IDEF0 and IDEF3 methods and proposes the multi-level decomposition process modeling with performance attributes (PMPA). The method is hierarchical structure. It will be used to model an "as-is" organization and it is ideal to diagnose the non-value added activities. This paper presents a case study about a residential builder using the proposed method, modeling the homebuilder's supply chain and measuring its performance.

Today's computing requires integrated systems and share of data and knowledge among different systems and users. This trend has called for development of new methodologies and tools that solve problems in an automated and transparent manner. In other words, integrated systems need to be semantically interoperable. While Geopspatial Information Systems (GISs) have been extensively used in civil engineering and numerous other disciplines, research in semantic interoperability in GISs is scant. Without semantic interoperability, GISs remain complex systems requiring special skills for their efficient interaction, processing and effective use. It is recognized that semantic interoperability can only take place through standards at different levels and for different activities. An example standardization effort focused on problem solving within the civil engineering discipline is the Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs). In this paper, we discuss the needs, issues and requirements for developing semantic interoperability in infrastructure systems.

When designing a building, an experienced architect implicitly applies his aggregated knowledge to the new sketch. In this early design phase, called conceptual design, most architects do not elaborate their sketches using a CAD system. They rather work with pencil and paper. Without being directly aware of, the architect considers design rules, functional requirements, economic and legal restrictions. Constructive elements, like walls, windows or doors are used with their conceptual meaning, namely to form organizational areas or rooms, to guarantee e.g. light and ventilation, or to ensure accessibility. These conceptual elements, therefore, form a functional view of the design structure which, however, is not explicitly defined. Existing CAD systems give no support for this creative conceptual design. There is no smooth transition to constructive design. The architect manually elaborates the constructive design, now using a CAD system. He replaces the functional elements of the sketch by constructive ones, e.g. ventilation by a window, the access by a door etc. The conceptual information he had in mind gets lost. Furthermore, there are many changes within the development process. E.g., if the client is not satisfied, the architect has to go back to the conceptual design. The modified conceptual data are lost again after the next transformation step. Such iterations are risky and expensive in terms of time and money.

Web-based collaboration in construction has been in practice for several years. Current commercial Web-based management systems are document-based. To overcome the problems of information overload and data incompatibility commonly associated with document-based systems, this paper proposes a Meta-Data-Based (MDB) approach that extracts information from the original Web-based documents and re-organizes it in an integrated Web page according to specific users or tasks. The core technology used in this kind of system is the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which serves as a common language that facilitates data exchange and rapid location of information. A comparison of the paper-based approach and the MDB one for a Request For Information (RFI) case demonstrates a few advantages: the MDB process provides the convenience of timely, complete, and integrated information, which helps to speed up the decision-making process and increase its accuracy so that downstream parties can take faster action. The method of converting traditional construction documents to MDB ones is discussed with the help of an XML schema for the RFI. Screen shots of the MDB process are presented and its applications and implications discussed.

This ongoing study intends to explore and formalize the information dependency patterns in network forms of organizations in construction project management. In construction projects, information is critical for seamless and cost-effective operations. Communication of project information and coordination of information exchanges between different project participants are essential for a project's success. On the other hand, a better understanding of information dependencies between participants is of utmost importance for strategic choices on information technology (IT) applications since decisions on IT investments greatly influence the effectiveness of not only internal communications within a project team, but also the interactions of the project team with other project-related organizations. In this paper, we provide a case study to highlight the characteristics of information exchanges and dependencies in construction project organizations. We introduce approaches that are well-accepted by organization theorists in analyzing network organizations and assess their strengths and limitations in modeling information dependencies in construction projects. We focus specifically on dependency structure matrix, social network analysis and computational organization theory since these methodologies have been applied to construction project organizations. These methods, alone, have limitations in supporting decisions on investments regarding IT applications. We conclude with a research roadmap that highlights the research needs for modeling information dependencies within construction project organizations to enable effective IT investments.

The difficulty of timely retrieval of useful information from heterogeneous data sources is a major cause of low productivity in the construction industry. The goal of this research is to provide a new methodology to handle the data-heterogeneity problems encountered in a construction project. This research proposes a tree-structured product model, which binds design knowledge, cost data and schedule data together, as a feasible solution for the data integration problem in construction projects. The methodology uses the knowledge representation of construction projects based on an ontology. Meta-data are used to describe the conceptual structure of the project knowledge. The concept of views is used to answer particular queries from different domains. A general methodology is under development to support queries about a particular construction project from different user perspectives based on heterogeneous construction data sources in a dynamic environment. The research is composed of two major parts: (1) organize the heterogeneous construction data into a tree structure; and (2) retrieve information and obtain domain views by specifying the ways of traversing the tree. The future goal is to develop a prototype that will support some of the major functions needed in today's construction projects. Functional examples are used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology.

The computer system proposed here is a system that can integrate the necessary information about the project together quickly and provide the requested information. The system is designed to satisfy the users' need and will provide information to users according to their work requirements. User analysis is the important link in DBMS design, to determine the total usability of the system. The proposed system uses the user model of construction project management and a user configurable visitor to retrieve information based on users' needs. The paper also includes a case study that is focused on the project manager's information need in the project bidding stage.

This research presents a Resource-constrained Critical Path Method (RCPM) technique that capitalizes on and improves the Critical Path Method (CPM) and Resource-Constrained Scheduling (RCS) techniques. A traditional CPM schedule is not realistic since it assumes unlimited resources, some of which are highly limited in practice. Although traditional RCS techniques can consider resource limitations, they do not provide correct floats and the critical path as CPM does. RCPM can identify real floats and the correct critical path, considering both technological and resource-dependent relationships. A prototype RCPM system is integrated with Primavera Project Planner (P3), so that it reads project information directly from a P3 project, performs necessary RCPM procedures, and updates the P3 project to contain identified resource relationships. To make the system more practical, functions to handle multiple calendars and progressed schedules have been incorporated.

Heavy construction equipment is routinely used on construction projects that entail earthmoving operations. Owning and operating these machines may comprise a significant portion of the project costs. An important element of the owning costs is the residual value. However, the nature of the residual value of construction equipment is largely unknown. Ongoing research at Virginia Tech examines the residual value of different types of construction equipment to provide a better approach than the rules of thumb currently used by equipment managers. This paper argues that the residual value can be predicted accurately based on publicly accessible data from equipment auctions and publications by manufacturers and their distributors. Related research in agriculture and forestry is reviewed. Data collection and preparation and results from the multi-linear regression analysis are described. Statistical measures of the goodness-of-fit for different possible functional forms of the regression model are given and a sample calculation is presented.

In the late 1980's and early 1990's few transportation agencies around the world considered privatization as an alternative to improve the efficiency of the services provided to the public. As a result of this initiative, new partnerships between the public and private sector for maintaining and preserving public roadways were developed and implemented. These new contracting relationships are better known as Performance-Based Road Maintenance Contracts (PBRMC). PBRMC calls for performance-based work, in which a desired outcome is specified rather than a material or method. This contracting scheme promises to be an excellent tool to improve government efficiency in maintaining transportation networks; however, without proper analysis, this type of contract could likely yield adverse outcomes. Since PBRMC are relatively new, the availability of reliable and comprehensive sets of guidelines to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of this type of contract is limited. Transportation agencies currently rely on criteria and procedures they have had developed from their traditional methods used to evaluate performance. Unfortunately, some of these procedures cannot appropriately assess the benefits, if any, accrued by the government as a result of engaging a private contractor to perform outcome-based road maintenance activities. This paper presents a general overview of a framework for monitoring PBRMC more comprehensively and accurately. The framework considers the assessment of five main areas — level of service effectiveness, cost-efficiency, timeliness of response, safety procedures, and quality of services — in order to guarantee the comprehensiveness and reliability of the evaluation process. The major contribution of this framework is to provide transportation agencies with guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of PBRMC as an alternative delivery method to maintain and preserve the roadway system.

The paper demonstrates and evaluates a new method for simulating the thermal behavior of buildings that overcomes the limitations of conventional transient heat flow simulation techniques such as the Finite Difference Method (FDM) and the Finite Element Method (FEM). The proposed method uses a coarse-grain approach to model development whereby each element represents a complete building component such as a wall, internal space, or floor. The thermal behavior of each coarse-grain element is captured using empirical modeling techniques such as artificial neural networks (ANNs). The main advantages of the approach compared to conventional simulation methods are: (a) simplified model construction for the end-user; (b) simplified model reconfiguration; (c) significantly faster simulation runs (orders of magnitude faster for two and three-dimensional models); and (d) potentially more accurate results. The viability of the approach is demonstrated through a number of experiments with a model of a composite wall. The approach is shown to be able to sustain highly accurate long-term simulation runs, if the coarse-grain modeling elements are implemented as ANNs. In contrast, an implementation of the coarse-grain elements using a linear model is shown to function inaccurately and erratically. The paper concludes with an identification of on-going work and future areas for development of the technique.

One major cause to urban sprawl can be attributed to the urban transportation system. The building of new highways and roads tends to bring about new traffic and thus reduces the expected increase in efficiency. In this model an effort has been made to model the mutual interaction between urban transportation system and the urban landuse pattern and its change with time. The major factor influencing the location of the middle-class population is the travel time to their places of interest and the state of the transportation facilities available for this travel. The impacts of transportation viz., environmental impact, social impact and economic impact have been considered while coming up with this model. An existing layout of transportation network and policies can be easily studied for their most likely impact in the region over a few decades under different economic scenarios to help envisage the pattern of future growth. Such a tool could be very useful in regional policy decision-making and transportation planning. This model has been applied as part of the LEAM model in the Peoria region, the results of which been briefly discussed. An improved model is being applied in the greater St. Louis region.

This paper investigates a community preparedness and response model for protecting infrastructure that will significantly lessen loss of human life and lower the cost of disaster recovery in a region.

A combined system of numerical simulation and graphic visualization of the interaction of waves and coastal structures has been developed. The system is capable of simulating in space and time the three-dimensional evolution of waves as they interact with coastal structures with partial or perfect reflectivity. The numerical engine is based on a set of vertically integrated, phase-resolving equations that account for wave nonlinearity and dispersivity over a wide range of relative water depths. The visualization engine is designed to provide quick and revealing images of both input and transient variables, with diagnostic capability for rendering input data and post-processing capability for the synthesis of wave field characteristics. This paper discusses the wave model behind the system, the design of the visualization suite, the linking system, the system validation, and the application of the system to real projects. It is shown that the system is both accurate and powerful.

Almost two decades since its inception, despite its widely acclaimed advantages, 4D CAD, is still in the incubation stage mainly within academia and has not broken into the mainstream of the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. There are few commercially available 4D CAD tools on the market and a relatively high number of pure 3D CAD packages. The average construction site engineer or superintendent may have heard of the phrase "3D/4D CAD" but has never seen it in practice. As a consequence this paper critically examines the concept of 3D/4D CAD computer visualization and highlights some of the most likely causes for this anomaly. Perhaps there are some very important factors that researchers are omitting or overdoing that is preventing this novel concept from being widely accepted in the AEC industry. The paper goes on further to outline the development of a proposed framework for a point-n-click interface for construction visualization. This interface, unlike currently developed tools focuses more on how pieces and components fit together rather than schedule conflict, which is not a major problem to small and medium scale contractors who incidentally form the bulk in terms of total number of contractors. The proposed package is targeted at the end-user of construction drawings, hence it eliminates the need for prior knowledge of CAD for its use. It is anticipated that with such a package more people in the AEC will finally embrace the concept of 3D CAD for visualization and documentation.

The purpose of this research was to apply formal human-computer interaction (HCI) analysis techniques to investigate visualization in transportation management and control systems, specifically traffic information websites provided to the general public in major U.S. cities. HCI is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use. This effort employed formal HCI system usability testing of current traffic information websites as a means to identify specific areas for improvement in transportation system status visualization. The testing results indicated that users preferred simple presentations of information, and, in many cases, were unable to effectively utilize more advanced information technology-based visualization tools. In addition, users indicated a strong preference to receive information on abnormal traffic conditions. This category of information was not readily available on the majority of traffic websites examined by the study team. Finally, it is recommended that developers of new transportation condition visualization tools use formal HCI testing in the development stage to refine designs based on user preferences.

Using metaphor based user interfaces is standard practise for most software developers. However many metaphor based interfaces involve a significant degree of abstraction. If this could be reduced then learning to use the underlying software could become an intuitive process. With the number of IT systems likely to increase, this could be an important feature in the future. The development of a user interface for the INTEGRA environment is discussed. INTEGRA is an internet-based software system that supports the concurrent conceptual design of commercial buildings. It combines all the necessary tools to create a functional conceptual design tool that can be accessed remotely reducing travel times and costs of team members that are inevitably geographically dispersed. The user interface employs a VR based ‘virtual metaphor' to create an interface which is functional yet simple, allowing the users to interact with little or no training. The interface has been developed using a combination of VRML, HTML, JavaScript and Macromedia Flash.