Search results for: development projects

Authors: Natsuda Rattamanee

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Like other countries, Thailand continually experiences strong protests against dam and reservoir proposals, especially large-scale projects. The protestors are constantly worried about the potential significant adverse impacts of the projects on the environment and society. Although project proponents are required by laws to assess the environmental and social impacts of the dam proposals by making environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports and finding mitigation measures before implementing the plans, the outcomes of the assessments often do not lessen the affected people and public’s concerns about the potential negative effects of the projects. One of the main reasons is that Thailand does not have a proper and efficient law to regulate project proponents when determining the scope of environmental impact assessments. Scoping is the crucial second stage of the preparation of an EIA report. The appropriate scope of assessments will allow EIA studies to focus only on the significant effects of the proposed project on particular resources, areas, and communities. It will offer crucial and sufficient information to the decision-makers and the public. The decision to implement the dam and reservoir projects considered based on the assessments with a proper scoping will eventually be more widely accepted by the public and reduce community opposition. The research work seeks to identify flaws in the current requirements of scoping steps under Thai laws and regulations and proposes recommendations to improve the legal scheme. The paper explores the well-established United States laws and relevant rules regulating how lead agencies determine the scope of their environmental impact assessments and some guidelines concerning scoping published by dominant institutions. Policymakers and legislature will find the results of studies helpful in improving the scoping-step requirements of EIA for dam and reservoir projects and reducing the level of anti-dam protests in Thailand.

Keywords: dam and reservoir, EIA, environmental impact assessment, law, scoping, Thailand

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Authors: Tatenda Manomano

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The chronic challenges presented by HIV/AIDS globally have come with extreme negative effects on individuals, families and communities as well as governments. Sub-Saharan Africa remains strongly challenged with South Africa bearing a huge brunt of these. The paper examines the extent to which the effects of HIV/AIDS are addressed in low cost housing projects in South Africa with a case of the RDP Golf Course Housing Project in Alice Town. The study used a triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative methods with the qualitative as the dominant method while the quantitative was less dominant. Findings revealed that infection rate was high; prostitution was high; alcohol abuse was also high; and rape and sexual abuse was also high and there was also lack of hospitals and social workers around the location. These findings prompted this researcher to recommend for proactive policy making that can bolster the challenges faced by these low cost housing projects in accessing health and social services as well as massive campaigns that can promote behavior modification among other things. It is hoped that this paper will be a platform to ring a bell to both government and non-government to augment the campaign against HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, RDP houses, low cost housing projects, campaigns

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Authors: Sabry A. El Azazy

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Tourism plays an essential role in supporting the National Economy. Egypt was ranked as one of the most attractive touristic destinations worldwide. Tourism as a service sector affects political events and unstable conditions. Within the revolution of January 25th, 2011, tourism became below standards, and the archeological heritage sites were subject to threat. Because of the political tension and social instability, Egypt's tourism sector has drastically dropped. Currently, Egypt is working on overcoming the crisis caused by political unrest. However, it is expected to take a long time to get back to where it was, especially in terms of regaining the confidence of travelers in the country's ability to guarantee and maintain security and stability. Recently, many great projects have been done, such as; New Administrative Cairo Capital, New Suez Canal logistic project, New City of Al Alamin, New Grand Egyptian Museum, as well as other great projects that reflect positively on the tourism industry and archaeological heritage development in Egypt.

Keywords: archaeology, archaeological heritage, attractions, national economy, political events, touristic destinations, tourism industry

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Authors: Anil Kumar Kursenge

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In the State of united Andhra Pradesh, many Adivasi People live in areas rich in living and non-living resources, including forests that contain abundant biodiversity, water and minerals. Of united Andhra Pradesh 76.2m population, over five million are Adivasi population of forest landscape. They depend on forests for a substantial part of their livelihoods and close cultural affinity with forests. However, they are the most impoverished population of the State, and the high levels of poverty in Andhra Pradesh forest landscapes are largely an outcome of historically-rooted institutionalised marginalisation. As the State appropriated forests and forest land for itself, it deprived local people of their customary rights in the forest. The local realities of the forest rights deprivations are extremely complex, reflecting a century and a half of compounded processes. With growing population pressure and ever-increasing demands for natural and mineral resources, Adivasi Peoples' lands, which are often relatively rich in resources, become more and more attractive to 'developers.' The development projects and institutionalised marginalisation have been deprived Adivasi people's rights over natural resources has resulted in serious negative effects on Adivasi people and on their lands. Historically, the desire for development for such resources has resulted in the removal, decimation, or extermination of many tribal communities. These deprivations have led to highly conflictual relations between the State and the Adivasi people and forest areas in Andhra Pradesh. Today, the survival of the Adivasi Peoples requires recognition of their rights to the forest resources found in their lands and territories on which they depend for their economic, cultural, survival, spiritual and physical well-being. In this context, this paper attempts to discuss the issues of deprivation with regard to access to forest resources and development projects where many Adivasis in State uprooted from their homes and lands.

Keywords: tribal people, forest rights, livelihoods, deprivation, marginalisation, Andhra Pradesh

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Abidi, Zahra Nourouz Pour, Mehdi Moudi

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In this research, firstly critical success factors and deterrent factors in implementing projects and also the factors those cause information technology productivity (IT) paradox in Islamic Azad University, Zahedan branch examined. Research method of this paper is descriptive. In fact, the researcher by using survey, proposed useful solutions. In this research, subjects’ responders to questionnaires items were based on Likert scale. In the questionnaire, economic, technical, organizational and cultural factors in the university have been assessed in order to obtain the necessary validity. We used masters and technicians of IT department’s advices to realize reliability and consistency. For the reliability test we used Cronbach’s reliability test and validity has been obtained using SPSS software. Because of the research questions and objectives, t-student test is used for hypothesis testing. Finally we analyze the findings, we offer conclusions and suggestions.

Keywords: IT projects, Islamic Azad University, success factors, deterrent factors

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Authors: A. Basheer Ahamadhu, Kiran Kaur, Zainab Ajab Mohideen, Sukmawati Muhammad, Noor Azlinda Wan Jan

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Library management facing favorable conditions and unexpected challenges in the century of information technology. They were having been under pressure to meet their duties to meet the information needs of customers. An information technology has brought big changes to the traditional methods of library work. Libraries need to evaluate, measuring effect information technology to them. This would equip them with the knowledge to make effective information technology to enhance their services. Recognizing the importance of development an electronic library, this research investigated their willingness to change from the traditional library based on the level of automation for the digital library initiatives, review both of the problems associated with digital library and public and terms to be considered for future growth. The main components have been inspected, such as grip library, demographic automations and digitization projects, digital library related to budgetary problems, the thought leader in the electronic library practices library, and the situation viewed for future growth. Libraries have run several digitization projects, at the level of institutions and countries but still needs more efforts in order to bring it to higher levels.

Keywords: academic library, electronic library, information technology, information commons, web pages library

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Authors: Kim Lindsay F. Restua, Jeehan Kyra A. Rivero, Joneka Myles D. Taguba

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Lean construction is defined as an approach in construction with the purpose of reducing waste in the process without compromising the value of the project. There are numerous lean construction tools that are applied in the construction process, which maximizes the efficiency of work and satisfaction of customers while minimizing waste. However, the complexity and differences of construction projects cause a rise in challenges on achieving the lean benefits construction can give, such as improvement in safety performance. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between lean construction tools and their effects on safety performance. The relationship between construction tools applied in construction and safety performance is identified through Logistic Regression Analysis, and Correlation Analysis was conducted thereafter. Based on the findings, it was concluded that almost 60% of the factors listed in the study, which are different tools and effects of lean construction, were determined to have a significant relationship with the level of safety in construction projects.

Keywords: correlation analysis, lean construction tools, lean construction, logistic regression analysis, risk management, safety

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Authors: P. Daniels, T. Adonis, P. September-Brown, R. Comalie

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The community engagement unit at the University of the Western Cape was tasked with establishing a community engagement database. The database would store information of all community engagement projects related to the university. The wealth of knowledge obtained from the various disciplines would be used to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration within the university, as well as facilitating community university partnership opportunities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore electronic data collection through the development of a database. Two types of electronic data collection platforms were used, namely online questionnaire and email. The semi structured questionnaire was used to collect data related to community engagement projects from different faculties and departments at the university. There are many benefits for using an electronic data collection platform, such as reduction of costs and time, ease in reaching large numbers of potential respondents, and the possibility of providing anonymity to participants. Despite all the advantages of using the electronic platform, there were as many challenges, as depicted in our findings. The findings suggest that certain barriers existed by using an electronic platform for data collection, even though it was in an academic environment, where knowledge and resources were in abundance. One of the challenges experienced in this process was the lack of dissemination of information via email to staff within faculties. The actual online software used for the questionnaire had its own limitations, such as only being able to access the questionnaire from the same electronic device. In a few cases, academics only completed the questionnaire after a telephonic prompt or face to face meeting about "Is higher education in South Africa ready to embrace electronic platform in data collection?"

Keywords: community engagement, database, data collection, electronic platform, electronic tools, knowledge sharing, university

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Authors: Ahmad Javid Habib, Tetsuo Kidokoro

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There is an increasing demand for developing urban land to provide better living conditions for all citizens in Afghanistan. Most of the development will involve the acquisition of land. And the current land acquisition method practiced by central government is expropriation, which is a cash-based transaction method that imposes heavy fiscal burden on local municipalities and central government, and it does not protect ownership rights and social equity of landowners besides it relocates the urban poor to remote areas with limited access to jobs and public services. The questionnaire analysis, backed by observations of different case studies in countries where land readjustment is used as a collaborative land development tool indicates that the method plays a key role in valuing landowners’ rights, giving other community members and stakeholders the opportunity to collaboratively implement urban development projects. The practice of the method is reducing the heavy fiscal burden on the local and central governments and is a better option to deal with the current development challenges in Afghanistan.

Keywords: collaboration, land readjustment, master plan, expropriation

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Authors: Jean Marie Tshimula, Atsushi Togashi

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We develop a data-science approach for providing an interactive visualization and predictive models to find insights into the projects' historical data in order for stakeholders understand some unseen opportunities in the African market that might escape them behind the online project portfolio of the African Development Bank. This machine learning-based web application identifies the market trend of the fastest growing economies across the continent as well skyrocketing sectors which have a significant impact on the future of business in Africa. Owing to this, the approach is tailored to predict where the investment needs are the most required. Moreover, we create a corpus that includes the descriptions of over more than 1,200 projects that approximately cover 14 sectors designed for some of 53 African countries. Then, we sift out this large amount of semi-structured data for extracting tiny details susceptible to contain some directions to follow. In the light of the foregoing, we have applied the combination of Latent Dirichlet Allocation and Random Forests at the level of the analysis module of our methodology to highlight the most relevant topics that investors may focus on for investing in Africa.

Keywords: machine learning, topic modeling, natural language processing, big data

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Authors: Patrick Mbassegue, Mickael Gardoni

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In a market environment centered more and more on services and the digital economy, knowledge management becomes a framework that can help organizations to create value and to improve their overall performance. Based on an optimal allocation of scarce resources, managers are interested in demonstrating the added value generated by knowledge management projects. One of the challenges faced by organizations is the difficulty in measuring impacts and concrete results of knowledge management initiatives. The present article concerns the measure of concrete results coming from knowledge management projects based on balance scorecard model. One of the goals is to underline what can be done based on this model but also to highlight the limits associated. The present article is structured in five parts; 1-knowledge management projects and organizational impacts; 2- a framework and a methodology to measure organizational impacts; 3- application illustrated in two case studies; 4- limits concerning the proposed framework; 5- the proposal of a new framework to measure organizational impacts.

Keywords: knowledge management, project, balance scorecard, impacts

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Authors: Snezana Savoska, Blagoj Ristevski, Violeta Manevska, Zlatko Savoski, Ilija Jolevski

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Big data is widely accepted by the pharmaceutical companies as a result of business demands create through legal pressure. Pharmaceutical companies have many legal demands as well as standards’ demands and have to adapt their procedures to the legislation. To manage with these demands, they have to standardize the usage of the current information technology and use the latest software tools. This paper highlights some important aspects of experience with big data projects implementation in a pharmaceutical Macedonian company. These projects made improvements of their business processes by the help of new software tools selected to comply with legal and business demands. They use IT as a strategic tool to obtain competitive advantage on the market and to reengineer the processes towards new Internet economy and quality demands. The company is required to manage vast amounts of structured as well as unstructured data. For these reasons, they implement projects for emerging and appropriate software tools which have to deal with big data concepts accepted in the company.

Keywords: big data, unstructured data, SAP ERP, documentum

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Zamanian

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The construction industry has always been recognized as one of the most dangerous available industries, and the statistics of accidents and injuries resulting from it say that the safety category needs more attention and the arrival of up-to-date technologies in this field. Building information modeling (BIM) is one of the relatively new and applicable technologies in Iran, that the necessity of using it is increasingly evident. The main purposes of this research are to evaluate the feasibility of using this technology in the safety sector of construction projects and to evaluate the effectiveness and operationality of its various applications in this sector. These applications were collected and categorized after reviewing past studies and researches then a questionnaire based on Delphi method criteria was presented to 30 experts who were thoroughly familiar with modeling software and safety guidelines. After receiving and exporting the answers to SPSS software, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed to evaluate the measuring tools. Fuzzy logic is a good way to analyze data because of its flexibility in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty issues, and the implementation of the Delphi method in the fuzzy environment overcomes the uncertainties in decision making. Therefore, this method was used for data analysis, and the results indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of BIM in projects and improvement of safety status at different stages of construction. Finally, the applications and the sections discussed were ranked in order of priority for efficiency and effectiveness. Safety planning is considered as the most influential part of the safety of BIM among the four sectors discussed, and planning for the installation of protective fences and barriers to prevent falls and site layout planning with a safety approach based on a 3D model are the most important applications of BIM among the 18 applications to improve the safety of construction projects.

Keywords: building information modeling, safety of construction projects, Delphi method, fuzzy logic

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Authors: Jalindar R. Patil, Harish P. Gayakwad

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The increased economic growth across the globe as well as urbanization in developing countries have led into extensive construction activities that generate large amounts of wastes. Material wastage in construction projects resulted into huge financial setbacks to builders and contractors. In addition to this, it may also cause significant effects over aesthetics, health, and the general environment. However in many cities across the globe where construction wastes material management is still a problem. In this paper, the discussion is all about the method for the management of waste construction materials. The objectives of this seminar are to identify the significant source of construction waste globally, to improve the performance of by extracting the major barriers construction waste management and to determine the cost impact on the construction project. These wastes needs to be managed as well as their impacts needs to be ascertained to pave way for their proper management. The seminar includes the details of construction waste management with the reference to construction project. The application of construction waste management in the civil engineering projects is to describe the reduction in the construction wastes.

Keywords: civil engineering, construction materials, waste management, construction activities

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Authors: Evgeniia Surkova, Manal Assaad, Hleb Makeyeu, Juho Makio

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The main objective of STIMEY (Science, Technology, Innovation, Mathematics, Engineering for the Young) project is the delivery of a hybrid learning environment that combines multi-level components such as social media concepts, robotic artefacts, and radio, among others. It is based on a well-researched pedagogical framework to attract European youths to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and careers. To develop and integrate these various components, STIMEY is executed in iterative research cycles leading to progressive improvements. Scrum was the development methodology of choice in the project, as studies indicated its benefits as an agile methodology in global software development, especially of e-learning and integrated learning projects. This paper describes the project partners’ experience with the Scrum framework, discussing the challenges faced in its implementation and the mitigation practices employed. The authors conclude with exploring user experience tools and principles for future research, as a novel direction in supporting the Scrum development team.

Keywords: e-learning, global software development, scrum, STEM education

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Authors: Hong Fan, Lifang Gao, Feng Zhan

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This paper examines the influence of local gambling attitudes on a firm's long-term financial performance. Firms located in gambling-prone regions may be more willing to take risks, thus spending more on innovative projects. However, firms in such regions may also be likely to choose projects impulsively and allocate resources inefficiently. By studying Chinese publicly listed firms from 2010 to 2017, we find that firms in more gambling-prone regions invest more in R&D. Both local gambling attitudes and firms’ R&D spending are positively associated with firms’ long-term financial performance. More importantly, our study reveals that the positive impact of R&D spending on firms’ long-term financial performance is weakened by gambling-friendly attitudes, probably because firms in gambling-prone regions are more likely to overinvest in risky projects. This effect is stronger for larger firms, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), firms with more government subsidies, and firms with weaker internal control.

Keywords: regional gambling attitudes, long-term financial performance, R&D, risk, local bias

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Authors: Nermin Sökmen

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An effort estimation model is needed for software-intensive projects that consist of hardware, embedded software or some combination of the two, as well as high level software solutions. This paper first focuses on functional decomposition techniques to measure functional complexity of a computer system and investigates its impact on system development effort. Later, it examines effects of technical difficulty and design team capability factors in order to construct the best effort estimation model. With using traditional regression analysis technique, the study develops a system development effort estimation model which takes functional complexity, technical difficulty and design team capability factors as input parameters. Finally, the assumptions of the model are tested.

Keywords: functional complexity, functional decomposition, development effort, technical difficulty, design team capability, regression analysis

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Authors: Tshephang Bright Molale

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Much is written on the importance of participatory communication and its role in uplifting indigent communities. As the closest government sphere to communities, local government is charged with directly improving the lives of the poor and is required by legislation to conduct Integrated Development Planning (IDP). This requires a municipality to utilise participatory communication aspects including dialogue, empowerment, and planning. These are most important pillars of community development. However, many studies have warned that elements such as modernisation, dependency and bureaucracy need to be observed with caution since they have the potential to impede and limit the extent of participatory communication in community development. These concepts serve as the basic points of departure and theoretical background underpinning this study, which is tasked with exploring the extent of participatory communication in the IDP context of Jouberton Township in the Matlosana Local Municipality, South Africa. In her public address on challenges facing South Africa’s local municipalities in January 2014, former premier, Thandi Modise, emphasised the need for communities to attend municipal IDP meetings, approve earmarked IDP projects, and learn about municipal budget spending. It is evident from theory and higher echelon of government that participatory communication is seen as cardinal to the existence of municipal government. From this background, this study was carried out under the assumption that the practice of participatory communication in contemporary local government only exists on paper; while in reality the public does not enjoy active participation in municipal IDP consultative frameworks. This is despite much discourse being available in government and in academia around the importance of participatory communication in community development. The study espoused a qualitative research approach to gather data and purposive sampling was used to select respondents linked to two IDP projects in Jouberton Township from the 2012/13 financial year. Its purpose was to explore perceptions among municipal representatives and community members in Jouberton Township on the extent of participatory communication in the IDP context. The empirical part of the study comprised of focus group, unstructured interviews, and participant observation. The study revealed that Jouberton communities are passive participators in municipal IDP consultative frameworks where they participate by just being informed about what is going to happen or has already happened and feedback is minimal. This is opposed to a desired form of empowered participation which is recommended by scholars in development communication where stakeholders granted space to participate in joint analysis and joint decision-making about what should be achieved and how. It has been discovered that there is a lack of active participation in community development in the IDP context of Matlosana Municipality and the study makes recommendations on how transformative participatory communication can be applied to improve current norms and standards in local government.

Keywords: development communication, government communication, integrated development plan, participatory communication

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Authors: Archana Vadeyar, Smita Phatak

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Nurturing flora and fauna is the crux of Environment Education yet one tends to forget to nurture the human minds. Youth education presently is too academic, exam oriented and lacks all-round development. A project is whole-hearted purposeful activity proceeding in a social environment. Projects at +2 stages have become, just an easier way of securing marks. The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of an experiential environment education (EE) project for youth involving community interaction. Youth were encouraged to plan activities for children-based on EE through General knowledge (GK), language, math, science, fun games, quiz, sports, art and craft, stories. A purposive sample of 73 students was administered a self-prepared and validated questionnaire; supported by content analysis of reports from EE Journals of 21 students and some photos. Responses of students revealed that project was a joyful and motivating experience, with learnings and realizations, developed concern for others, made them feel responsible, happy and contented. Community interaction programs need to be included in the regular schedule to add more meaning to EE projects and cater to the needs of adolescents for diverting youth energy towards positive action.

Keywords: experiential, project, environment education, youth, community interaction

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Authors: J. Areerut

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Experimental Film Class Project is supported by the Institute for Research and Development at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. This project is purported to provide academic and professional services to improve the quality standards of the community and locals in accordance with the mission of the university, which is to improve and expand knowledge for the community and to develop and transfer such knowledge and professions to the next generation. Eventually, it leads to sustainable development because the development of human resources is deemed as the key for sustainable development. Moreover, the Experimental Film Class is an integral part of the teaching of film production at Suan Sunandha International School of Art (SISA). By means of giving opportunities to students for participation in projects by sharing experience, skill and knowledge and participation in field activities, it helps students in the film production major to enhance their abilities and potentials as preparation for their readiness in the marketplace. Additionally, in this class, we provide basic film knowledge, screenwriting techniques, editing and subtitles including uploading videos on social media such as YouTube and Facebook for the participant students.

Keywords: experimental film class, Watbangkapom School, participant students, basic of film production, film workshop

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Authors: Sibel Ecemis Kilic, Neslihan Karatas

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The concept of urban renewal came up with interventions to the urban areas which have social and economic problems aimed at gaining the city. In Turkey after 2000, urban renewal has become a frequent topic on the agenda; regulations have been developed in this regard. Urban renewal project would be a focal point for the formation of the city in the near future. The future of the city is directly related to how to achieve these applications. Urban renewal policies will be decisive in the positive or negative development of the potential of the existing renewal process. Urban renewal is seen as a refreshing new planned action for reshaping unplanned and uncontrolled growth of big cities/metropolitan areas. In this context, Izmir is one of the largest metropolitan areas which came on the agenda of urban renewal application in the recent period. Izmir, which is the third largest city of Turkey, is an important trade and port city. The city, located west of Turkey, is a gate opening to Europe. In particular, continued its development rapidly after the Republican Period, it has become an important big city today. Assessment of the current situation shows that the majority of existing residential areas was formed with squatters and unplanned settlements in Izmir city center. Therefore, an important part of these areas have significant problems in terms of the quality of life, safety, and environmental quality. Legal residential areas which have had developed before 2000 is seen inadequate security in terms of an earthquake. In this study, the central policies in Turkey and local policies in İzmir about urban renewal will be considered. In addition, urban renewal projects that are being implemented or applied in Izmir were discussed and suggestions will be developed in accordance with this policy.

Keywords: urban transformation, Izmir, urban planning, urban renewal

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Authors: Adedayo Jeremiah Adeyekun, Samuel Oluwagbemiga Ishola

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This paper aimed to identify the significance of sustainability in the built environment, the economic and environmental importance to building and construction projects. Sustainability in the built environment has been a key objective of research over the past several decades. Sustainability in the built environment requires reconciliation between economic, environmental and social impacts of design and planning decisions made during the life cycle of a project from inception to termination. Planning for sustainability in the built environment needs us to go beyond our individual disciplines to consider the variety of economic, social and environmental impacts of our decisions in the long term. A decision to build a green residential development in an isolated location may pass some of the test of sustainability through its reduction in stormwater runoff, energy efficiency, and ecological sustainability in the building, but it may fail to be sustainable from a transportation perspective. Sustainability is important to the planning, design, construction, and preservation of the built environment; because it helps these activities reflect multiple values and considerations. In fact, the arts and sciences of the built environment have traditionally integrated values and fostered creative expression, capabilities that can and should lead the sustainability movement as society seeks ways to live in dynamic balance with its own diverse needs and the natural world. This research aimed to capture the state-of-the-art in the development of innovative sustainable design and planning strategies for building and construction projects. Therefore, there is a need for a holistic selection and implication approach for identifying potential sustainable strategies applicable to a particular project and evaluating the overall life cycle impact of each alternative by accounting for different applicable impacts and making the final selection among various viable alternatives.

Keywords: sustainability, built environment, planning, design, construction

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Authors: Pawel Sowa, Joachim Bargiel, Bogdan Mol, Katarzyna Luszcz

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The article raises the issue of the development of local renewable energy sources and the production of distributed energy in context of improving the reliability of the Polish Power System and the beneficial impact on local and national energy security. The paper refers to the current problems of local governments in the process of investment in the area of distributed energy projects, and discusses the issues of the future role and cooperation within the local power plants and distributed energy. Attention is paid to the local communities the chance to raise their own resources and management of energy fuels (biomass, wind, gas mining) and improving the local energy balance. The material presented takes the issue of the development of the energy potential of municipalities and future cooperation with professional energy. As an example, practical solutions used in one of the communes in Silesia.

Keywords: distributed generation, mini centers energy, renewable energy sources, reliability of supply of rural commune

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Authors: G. Malumbela, E. U. Masuku

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The economy of Botswana has increased extensively since its independence. In contrast to this increase, the construction industry which is one of the key indicators of a developing nation continues to be highly dependent on imported building material products from the neighbouring countries of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Only two companies in the country currently blend cement. Even then, the overwhelming majority of raw materials used in the blends are imported. Furthermore, there are no glass manufacturers in Botswana. The ceramic industry is limited to the manufacture of clay bricks notwithstanding a few studios on crockery and sanitary ware which nonetheless use imported clay. This paper presents natural resources and industrial waste products in Botswana that can be used for the development of sustainable building materials. It also investigates at the distribution and cost of other widely used building materials in the country. Finally, the present paper looks at projects and national strategies aimed at a country-wide development of a sustainable building materials industry together with their successes and hitches.

Keywords: Botswana construction industry, construction materials, natural resources, sustainable materials

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Authors: Saou Mohamed Amine

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The construction industry has been identified as a user of substantial amount of materials and energy resources that has an enormous impact on environment. The energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability in construction industry. The increasing concern for environment has made building owners and designers to incorporate the energy efficiency features into their building projects. However, an overwhelming issue of existing non-energy efficient buildings which exceeds the number of new building could be ineffective if the buildings are not refurbished through the energy efficient measures. Thus, energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability that offers significant opportunities for reducing global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the quality of design team attributes and the characteristics of the refurbishment building projects have been argued to be the main factors that determine the energy efficiency performance of the building.

Keywords: construction industry, design team attributes, energy efficient performance, refurbishment projects characteristics

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Authors: Arsalan Makinian

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Our future cities will constantly evolve the necessary technologies for tomorrow’s needs. Technologies which enable a better kind of prosperity and security. This paper reports on the precedent of a smart city from its beginning to prevalence among urbanism academic literature and reports of tech companies. The article aims to direct urban foresight studies and to build a pathway for the future of smart city concept by gathering theoretical and empirical experiences related to smart cities with both top-down and bottom-up approaches. It hopes to deliver results of different studies, pilot projects, and development strategies of some of the smart cities in order to allow a shareable knowledge to take shape and develop in terms of qualitative aspects of a smart city. Now the definition of the smart city goes beyond removing physical boundaries, changing the concept of mobility and providing electronic service for citizens, it now constitutes fields such as energy efficiency, economic competitiveness, protecting the environment and finally, it takes advantage of technology and data science to improve the quality of life. In the smart city, the role of citizens is considered as both final purpose and contributor. Emerging issues which are almost implications of advanced technologies -as the most important trends of the future- and their reflection on the society need to be foresighted. Educating and fostering knowledge of smartness is one of the targets of the smart city concept. In this regard, some of these smart cites have established research and development units to share their projects and smart city initiatives. Due to this fact, gaining experience and sharing the results of this subject is necessary for technology management and moving toward a smart urban future.

Keywords: age of urban tech, bottom-up approach, role of citizens, smart city

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Authors: Batool Ismaeel, Umair Farooq, Saad Mushtaq

Abstract:

Construction projects in the oil industry can be very complex, having unknown outcomes and uncertainties that cannot be easily predicted. Each project has its unique risks generated by a number of factors which, if not controlled, will impact the successful completion of the project mainly in terms of schedule, cost, quality, and safety. This paper highlights the historic risks associated with projects in the south and east region of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) collated from the company’s lessons learned database. Starting from Contract Award through to handover of the project to the Asset owner, the gaps in project execution in terms of managing risk will be brought to discussion and where a well-defined systematic approach in project risk management reflecting many claims, change of scope, exceeding budget, delays in engineering phase as well as in the procurement and fabrication of long lead items should be adopted. This study focuses on a proposed feasible approach in risk management for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) level projects including the various stakeholders involved in executing the works from International to local contractors and vendors in KOC. The proposed approach covers the areas categorized into organizational, design, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning and project management in which the risks are identified and require management and mitigation. With the effective deployment and implementation of the proposed risk management system and the consideration of it as a vital key in achieving the project’s target, the outcomes will be more predictable in the future, and the risk triggers will be managed and controlled. The correct resources can be allocated on a timely basis for the company for avoiding any unpredictable outcomes during the execution of the project. It is recommended in this paper to apply this risk management approach as an integral part of project management and investigate further in the future, the effectiveness of this proposed system for newly awarded projects and compare the same with those projects of similar budget/complexity that have not applied this approach to risk management.

Keywords: construction, project completion, risk management, uncertainties

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Authors: Miriam Filipová, Peter Balco

Abstract:

At present, in Slovak and Czech Republic, the education within the field of Project Management is carried out either within the higher education or via commercial entities, whilst the most used contents are the commonly used methodologies of project management. Obtaining a diploma after completing a university degree or a training certificate does not automatically mean the success of the project or the success of the project manager. The importance of leadership and soft skills in project management is either not included at all within the training of project managers, or it is only partially reflected. From the methodology perspective, the most important things during the preparation and management of the projects are preparation of the project plan, resource planning, and project realization in accordance with the chosen methodology. However, the key element on which the success of the project depends on are the people – whether they are team members on the supplier's side, the stakeholders, or the end users. This research focuses on the real needs of working project managers, on the development of their strengths, expertise, skills, and knowledge regarding leadership and soft skills. At the same time, it looks into identifying the elements that they consider to be key to the success of the projects they have managed and successfully delivered. The result of this research is the input for creating recommendations for a comprehensive education of project managers in the field of leadership and soft skills.

Keywords: project management, leadership, soft skills, education, academic degree, certificates, skills, talents, knowledge

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Authors: Jadwiga Fila, Mateusz Jezowski, Pawel Poszytek

Abstract:

The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic started the times of crisis full of uncertainty, especially in the field of transnational cooperation projects based on the international mobility of their participants. This is notably the case of Erasmus+ Program for higher education, which is the flagship European initiative boosting cooperation between educational institutions, businesses, and other actors, enabling students and staff mobility, as well as strategic partnerships between different parties. The aim of this abstract is to study whether competences 4.0 are able to empower Erasmus+ project leaders in sustaining their international cooperation in times of global crisis, widespread online learning, and common project disruption or cancellation. The concept of competences 4.0 emerged from the notion of the industry 4.0, and it relates to skills that are fundamental for the current labor market. For the aim of the study presented in this abstract, four main 4.0 competences were distinguished: digital, managerial, social, and cognitive competence. The hypothesis for the study stipulated that the above-mentioned highly-developed competences may act as a protective shield against the pandemic challenges in terms of projects’ sustainability and continuation. The objective of the research was to assess to what extent individual competences are useful in managing projects in times of crisis. For this purpose, the study was conducted, involving, among others, 141 Polish higher education project leaders who were running their cooperation projects during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic (Mar-Nov 2020). The research explored the self-perception of the above-mentioned competences among Erasmus+ project leaders and the contextual data regarding the sustainability of the projects. The quantitative character of data permitted validation of scales (Cronbach’s Alfa measure), and the use of factor analysis made it possible to create a distinctive variable for each competence and its dimensions. Finally, logistic regression was used to examine the association of competences and other factors on project status. The study shows that the project leaders’ competence profile attributed the highest score to digital competence (4.36 on the 1-5 scale). Slightly lower values were obtained for cognitive competence (3.96) and managerial competence (3.82). The lowest score was accorded to one specific dimension of social competence: adaptability and ability to manage stress (1.74), which proves that the pandemic was a real challenge which had to be faced by project coordinators. For higher education projects, 10% were suspended or prolonged because of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas 90% were undisrupted (continued or already successfully finished). The quantitative analysis showed a positive relationship between the leaders’ levels of competences and the projects status. In the case of all competences, the scores were higher for project leaders who finished projects successfully than for leaders who suspended or prolonged their projects. The research demonstrated that, in the demanding times of the COVID-19 pandemic, competences 4.0, to a certain extent, do play a significant role in the successful management of Erasmus+ projects. The implementation and sustainability of international educational projects, despite mobility and sanitary obstacles, depended, among other factors, on the level of leaders’ competences.

Keywords: Competences 4.0, COVID-19 pandemic, Erasmus+ Program, international education, project sustainability

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Authors: Terence Maisah Seka

Abstract:

This paper examines democratic governance within the private and public sectors in economies in transition (Cameroon) by exploring how they influence development in terms of resource allocation to priorities that are locally conceptualized. The benefit of this is an improvement in indigenous and the quality of life for the local population. Using an ethnographic approach, this paper suggests that institutional corruption and state bureaucracy has limited the impact of democratic governance in influencing development. This has seen funds for developments being embezzled; local projects are not being done to satisfaction among others. The paper contributes by proposing measures to eliminate corruption to improve democratic governance, which will improve resource allocation and utilization.

Keywords: democratic governance, resource allocation, utilisation, Cameroon

Procedia PDF Downloads 159