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In 2015, the United Nations (UN) adopted the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, which set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and 231 unique indicators as a significant initiative towards socio-economic development. The SDGs provide the construction industry with a new lens through which global needs and desires can be translated into business solutions. This paper explores the role of the construction industry in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The paper uses an explanatory sequential design with an initial quantitative instrument phase, followed by a qualitative data collection phase. Following a comparative review of the literature on the 17 SDGs, a questionnaire was designed and administered among 130 respondents, and 105 responses were received. These data were then validated through semi-structured interviews with 16 sustainable construction experts. Data obtained from the semi-structured validation interviews were analysed through side-by-side comparisons of the qualitative data with the quantitative data. The findings show that the construction industry has a critical role in achieving almost all the 17 SDGs. The roles were, however, prevalent in 10 key SDGs, namely: sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11); climate action (SDG 13); clean water and sanitation (SDG 6); responsible consumption and production (SDG 12); industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9); life on land (biodiversity) (SDG 15); gender equality (SDG 5); good health and well-being (SDG 3); affordable and clean energy (SDG 7); decent work and economic growth (SDG 8). The study confirmed the role played by the construction industry in achieving these SDGs. The findings from this study provide further insights into the ever-increasing state-of-the-art regarding the construction industry’s role in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
Wenmei Fei; Alex Opoku; Kofi Agyekum; James Anthony Oppon; Vian Ahmed; Charles Chen; Ka Leung Lok. The Critical Role of the Construction Industry in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Delivering Projects for the Common Good. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9112 .
AMA StyleWenmei Fei, Alex Opoku, Kofi Agyekum, James Anthony Oppon, Vian Ahmed, Charles Chen, Ka Leung Lok. The Critical Role of the Construction Industry in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Delivering Projects for the Common Good. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (16):9112.
Chicago/Turabian StyleWenmei Fei; Alex Opoku; Kofi Agyekum; James Anthony Oppon; Vian Ahmed; Charles Chen; Ka Leung Lok. 2021. "The Critical Role of the Construction Industry in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Delivering Projects for the Common Good." Sustainability 13, no. 16: 9112.
As investment increases in capital projects, financial risks increase, and cash flow prediction and control become more paramount. Higher risks could hinder project performance and increase the chances of failure in multiple aspects of a project. While there are models that aim to assess and forecast risks in the construction industry, none present a technique to include the impact of risks on a project’s cash flow. Therefore, cash flow forecasts tend to exceed the actual cash flow of a project due to inaccurate risk assessment. Thus, this paper presents the Cash Flow Risk Index (CFRI) development process quantifying the impact of risks on a project’s cash flow from an owner’s perspective. To that end, the study explored the literature to identify the risk factors that might impact a construction projects’ cash flow and uncovered 44 factors. The study also validated and consolidated these factors to build a CFRI via a Delphi exercise, which reduced the factors from 44 to 36. In further iterations, the 36 factors were also shared with 32 construction industry professionals to rate their relative importance on a five-point Likert scale, from which relative importance index and weights were obtained. As a result, the CFRI was developed to measure the impact of different risk factors on a typical construction project’s cash flow.
Hasan Mahmoud; Vian Ahmed; Salwa Beheiry. Construction Cash Flow Risk Index. Journal of Risk and Financial Management 2021, 14, 269 .
AMA StyleHasan Mahmoud, Vian Ahmed, Salwa Beheiry. Construction Cash Flow Risk Index. Journal of Risk and Financial Management. 2021; 14 (6):269.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHasan Mahmoud; Vian Ahmed; Salwa Beheiry. 2021. "Construction Cash Flow Risk Index." Journal of Risk and Financial Management 14, no. 6: 269.
Numerous decision support systems have been developed to address the decision-making process in organizations. However, there are no developed mechanisms to track commitment down the line to the decisions made by corporate leaders. This paper is a portion of a study that establishes a framework for a comprehensive metric system to assess commitment to Sustainable Development (SD) decisions down the line in capital projects, and sets the groundwork for further development of performance indicators for SD outcomes. This ultimately leads to investigating the relationship between commitment to corporate decisions and better project performance in SD parameters. Hence, this study explores the literature to extract relevant parameters that reflect the degree of the project participants’ commitment to SD decisions and to develop commitment indicators. The study created then validated an index to track this commitment along the project stages: the Sustainable Development Commitment Tracking Tool (SDCTT). The SDCTT was tested on an infrastructure project case study. In this paper, techniques relevant to the first stage of projects (planning and definition) are presented. The SDCTT is the groundwork for the future development of performance indicators for SD outcomes, and within the postulated model should ultimately contribute towards reducing project waste, energy use, and carbon emissions.
Mustafa Al-Tekreeti; Salwa Beheiry; Vian Ahmed. A Framework for Assessing Commitment Indicators in Sustainable Development Decisions. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5234 .
AMA StyleMustafa Al-Tekreeti, Salwa Beheiry, Vian Ahmed. A Framework for Assessing Commitment Indicators in Sustainable Development Decisions. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (9):5234.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMustafa Al-Tekreeti; Salwa Beheiry; Vian Ahmed. 2021. "A Framework for Assessing Commitment Indicators in Sustainable Development Decisions." Sustainability 13, no. 9: 5234.
Climate change has become the greatest threat to the survival of world and its ecosystem. With the irreversible impact on the ecosystem, problems like rise in sea level, food-insecurity, natural resources scarcity, seasonal disorders have increased over the past few years. Among these problems, the issue of water scarcity due to the lack of water resources and global warming has plagued several nations. Owing to the rising concerns over water scarcity United Nations (UN) has acknowledged water as a primary resource to the development of societies under the ‘Water Goal’ of the sustainable development goals. As the changing climate and intermittent availability of water resources pose major challenges to forecast demand, especially in countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which has one of the highest per capita residential water consumption rates in the world. Therefore, the aim of this study is to propose an accurate water demand forecasting technique that incorporates all significant factors to predict the future water demands of the UAE. The forecasting model used is the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), with the factors considered are mean temperature, mean rainfall, relative humidity, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Consumer Price Index (CPI) and population growth. The LSTM model predicts the water demand forecasting in the UAE showing that the future demand will decrease from 1821 million m3 in 2018 to 1809.9 million m3 in 2027.
Vian Ahmed; Ahmad Saad; Hasan Saleh; Sara Saboor; Nikita Kasianov; Tahani Alnaqbi. Implementation of Water Demand Forecasting Model to Aid Sustainable Water Supply Chain Management in UAE. 2020, 1 .
AMA StyleVian Ahmed, Ahmad Saad, Hasan Saleh, Sara Saboor, Nikita Kasianov, Tahani Alnaqbi. Implementation of Water Demand Forecasting Model to Aid Sustainable Water Supply Chain Management in UAE. . 2020; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVian Ahmed; Ahmad Saad; Hasan Saleh; Sara Saboor; Nikita Kasianov; Tahani Alnaqbi. 2020. "Implementation of Water Demand Forecasting Model to Aid Sustainable Water Supply Chain Management in UAE." , no. : 1.
In recent times, smart cities and sustainable development have drawn significant research attention. Among developed and developing countries, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been at the forefront in becoming an incubator for smart cities; in particular, it has placed some efforts in the education sector by transforming the traditional campus into a Smart Campus. As the term Smart Campus attracts professionals and academics from multiple disciplines, and the technology keeps intervening in every aspect of life, it becomes inevitable for the Smart Campus to take place and deploy the future vision of smart cities. As a first step to achieve this vision, it is very important to develop a clear understanding of what is a Smart Campus. To date, there is still no clear perception of what a Smart Campus would look like, or what are the main components that can form a Smart Campus. Therefore, the objective of this research is to use the set of comprehensive criteria to identify what it is perceived to be a Smart Campus and evaluate these criteria from the stakeholders’ perception. The main criteria are defined from the literature review, and a case study is conducted on the American University of Sharjah campus stakeholders (faculty, students, management, and Information Technology (IT)) to assess the designated criteria. This exploratory research relies on both qualitative and quantitative methods to perform the analysis, taking into consideration the perceptions of students, faculty, and IT service providers. Finally, having defined and evaluated the criteria that underpin the Smart Campus framework, a set of recommendations are drawn to guide the utilization of a Smart Campus within higher education settings. This research opens the doors for future studies to gain a deeper insight into the type of decisions that need to be made to transform a traditional campus to a Smart Campus.
Vian Ahmed; Karam Abu Alnaaj; Sara Saboor. An Investigation into Stakeholders’ Perception of Smart Campus Criteria: The American University of Sharjah as a Case Study. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5187 .
AMA StyleVian Ahmed, Karam Abu Alnaaj, Sara Saboor. An Investigation into Stakeholders’ Perception of Smart Campus Criteria: The American University of Sharjah as a Case Study. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (12):5187.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVian Ahmed; Karam Abu Alnaaj; Sara Saboor. 2020. "An Investigation into Stakeholders’ Perception of Smart Campus Criteria: The American University of Sharjah as a Case Study." Sustainability 12, no. 12: 5187.
Carbon emissions, being hazardous, are triggering social concerns which have led to the creation of international treaties to address climate change. Similarly, the United Kingdom under the Climate Change Act (2008) has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emission by at least 80% over 1990 levels by 2050. However, being the oldest member of the EU states (before Brexit), the UK has the oldest housing stock, which contributes to 45% of its carbon emissions due to the older dwellings. To address this issue low carbon retrofitting is needed. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing in London, UK based on the perception of experts employed in National and construction companies with an experience that ranges between 6 to 16 years. Initial literature suggested that the problem of energy efficiency retrofitting in the general building stock has been addressed, however little has been reported on its application to social housing. This paper, therefore, groups the barriers and enablers into seven categories that include: financial matters, Technical, IT, Government policy and regulation, social factors (including awareness of the energy efficiency agenda), quality of workmanship and disruption to residents, using literature review, interviews and surveys with key stakeholders within the housing sector, and draws recommendations to enable effective and efficient retrofitting for social housing projects.
James Peel; Vian Ahmed; Sara Saboor. An investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in London. Construction Economics and Building 2020, 20, 1 .
AMA StyleJames Peel, Vian Ahmed, Sara Saboor. An investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in London. Construction Economics and Building. 2020; 20 (2):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJames Peel; Vian Ahmed; Sara Saboor. 2020. "An investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in London." Construction Economics and Building 20, no. 2: 1.