Engineering Commons^™

Integration Of Environmental Sustainability And Decision Making: Case Studies Of Civil Infrastructure, Sussan Moussavi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sustainable development is important in the planning and design of critical civil infrastructure systems. However, decision making related to these systems currently lacks meaningful sustainability considerations. To fill this gap, this research explores the life cycle impacts of wastewater and energy infrastructure using case studies, life cycle assessment methodologies, and stakeholder discussions. Environmental and economic impacts, which are more commonly quantified, as well as more difficult to quantify societal factors, are explored. The goal of this research is to help inform decision making and facilitate the consideration of the three pillars of sustainability (e.g., economic, environmental, and social) during the …

Measuring And Evaluating Safety Maturity Of Construction Contractors: Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach, Ali A. Karakhan, Sathyanarayanan Rajendran, John Gambatese, Chukwuma Nnaji

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Evaluating the safety maturity of construction contractors before awarding the contract is an effective strategy that many owners have started to implement. Given the importance of workplace safety, awarding the contract to safer contractors can enhance project performance outcomes in terms of safety, quality, cost, and schedule. Safety maturity is one quality of a construction organization encompassing interdependent factors that can be used to evaluate expected safety performance. However, there is no formal decision-making framework available in literature that owners can use to evaluate contractor safety maturity. The present study aims to bridge this gap in safety knowledge by proposing …

Social, Economic, And Technical Feasibility Of Ablution Gray Water Reuse In Tong, Ghana, Adrienne Masterton

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Water insecurity is a constant stressor for millions of people around the globe. The potential of gray water as an alternative water source has gained increasing attention in the literature. In water-scarce Muslim communities, the practice of ablution – the rinsing of the face, hands, and feet before prayer – offers a unique opportunity for gray water reuse.

This report investigates the feasibility of treating and reusing ablution gray water (AGW) with respect to religious acceptability, economic measures, and physical parameters in Tong, a rural community of Muslim subsistence farmers in northern Ghana. Investigatory tools included: household water use surveys, …

A Framework For Process Data Collection, Analysis, And Visualization In Construction Projects, Reza Akhavian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automated data collection, simulation and visualization can substantially enhance the process of designing, analysis, planning, and control of many engineering processes. In particular, managing processes that are dynamic in nature can significantly benefit from such techniques. Construction projects are good examples of such processes where a variety of equipment and resources constantly interact inside an evolving environment. Management of such settings requires a platform capable of providing decision-makers with updated information about the status of project entities and assisting site personnel making critical decisions under uncertainty. To this end, the current practice of using historical data or expert judgments as …

4d Modeling, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

Traditional design and construction planning tools, such as 2D drawings and network diagrams, do not support the timely and integrated decision making necessary to move projects forward quickly The construction knowledge necessary to build 4D models has been formalized and developed by a methodology that guides project planners in generating 4D models from 3D product models. This formalized knowledge enables project managers to create and update realistic schedules rapidly and to integrate the temporal and spatial aspects of a schedule as intelligent 4D models.