The project delivery mode is an extremely important link in the life cycle of water engineering. Many cases show that increases in the costs, construction period, and claims in the course of the implementation of water engineering are related to the decision of the project delivery mode in the early stages. Therefore, it is particularly important to choose a delivery mode that matches the water engineering. On the basis of identifying the key factors that affect the decision on the project delivery system and establishing a set of index systems, a comprehensive decision of engineering transaction is essentially considered to be a fuzzy multi-attribute group decision. In this study, intuitionistic fuzzy entropy was used to determine the weight of the influencing factors on the engineering transaction mode; then, intuitionistic fuzzy entropy was used to determine the weight of decision experts. Thus, a comprehensive scheme-ranking model based on an intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid average (IFHA) operator and intuitionistic fuzzy weighted average (IFWA) operator was established. Finally, a practical case analysis of a hydropower station further demonstrated the feasibility, objectivity, and scientific nature of the decision model.

Various factors affecting the construction progress are regarded as bottlenecks giving rise to the project duration overrun. The contractor should combine the project schedule with the plan in order to reduce the uncertainty of the project activities. The present research describes the method derived from the theory of constraints (TOC) attempts to enhance the relationship among activities, to revise and further reduce the uncertainty of construction activities to improve the reliability of project progress. The elements of drum, buffer and rope (DBR) in TOC are added to PERT network schedule; through the identification of schedule in the bottleneck process, the implementation plan of the bottleneck is obtained. By measuring buffer time and calculating network schedule buffer time as well as feeding time, the relationship among activities and uncertainty of duration are also improved. To illustrate the impact of DBR applications on improving project schedule reliability, a case of hydropower station as an example is illustrated to show enhanced reliability of scheduling. As compared to program evaluation and review technique network (PERT) simulation, the simulation results showed that the uncertainty of construction progress could be reduced if the DBR are well cooperated mutually.

The importance of occupational ethics risk considerations during technology transaction in the construction industry is acknowledged. This is particularly in that the industry plays a significant part in a nation’s development. The technology transaction has seen an increase in activity due to massive infrastructure development programmers adopted by governments and increase in external investment. The technology transaction, like any other, is not immune to unethical occupational behavior. This study aims to investigate the source of occupational ethics risk during technology transaction in the Chinese construction industry. A review of literature demonstrated that a number of contextual factors can influence unethical occupational risk practices. In total, 130 engineering practitioners took part in a questionnaire survey to explore the source of occupational ethics risk during the technology transaction in the Chinese construction industry. Firstly, there were 25 factors identified through literature review overall, which were sorted and analyzed. Among the twenty-five factors, three were identified as the most significant factors: Unreasonable incentives for technology trading; poor regulation; and asymmetry of information. Then, through exploratory factor analysis (EPA) method, the twenty-five factors were divided into seven groups: legal environment, industry environment, incompleteness of information, asymmetry of information, difficulty of observation of information, differences between the two sides of cooperation, and incorrect conceptual awareness. This study provided an added dimension to the understanding of occupational ethics risk issues during the technology transaction in the Chinese construction industry. This paper therefore contributes to the list of countries where similar studies have been undertaken.