Sustainability aspects should be adopted during all the decision-making stages of executing construction projects to gain maximum benefits without compromising the objective of such projects. Cloud computing has been a valuable tool for sustainable construction success in several countries over the last two decades. Cloud computing and its drivers have undoubtedly improved the sustainable success target of cost, quality, and time. However, cloud computing implementation in Nigeria’s construction industry is minimal. Consequently, the study aims to generate a decision support model to support a cloud computing implementation by looking into the relationship between cloud computing drivers and construction activities in Nigeria. This study’s data was obtained from previous literature and quantitatively augmented with a questionnaire survey. The data was obtained from questionnaires administered to one hundred and four construction practitioners in Lagos State. Thus, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to validate the questionnaire survey results. However, to assess and validate the factors (drivers) constructed and analyze the relationships between cloud computing drivers and construction activities, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method was used. An analysis of construction project activities was carried out through EFA, and it generated five main components: pre-contract stage, management, design and storage, estimation and communications, and finally, back-office activities. The study indicated that the implementation of cloud computing drivers had a significant impact on construction activities. The findings also revealed a weak relationship between cloud computing implementation and construction activities, with a 0.087 percent impact. Furthermore, the findings indicate that human satisfaction is the primary factor influencing cloud computing deployment, followed by organization, client acceptance, and industry-based factors. The significance of the findings can be used as a reference or standard for decision-makers to base their decisions on the cost efficiency of cloud computing and its capability to boost efficiency in the construction sector. This research contributes to current construction engineering management by enhancing knowledge of cloud computing implementation drivers and their implications on construction activities.

This study aims to assess the barriers impeding cloud computing (CC) applicability in sustainable construction. A total of 11 barriers in the use of CC were identified for the literature review. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data from construction stakeholders. In total, 101 valid responses were obtained and analyzed using mean ranking, normalized value (NV), overlapping analysis, Kruskal–Wallis H test, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE). The EFA extracted four interrelated components: social, economic, expertise, and connectivity. These components were exported for mathematical analyzing using the FSE technique. As a result, the FSE indicated that connectivity is the highest-impacted component, while the overall impact level of barriers is inclined to high regarding CC applicability in sustainable construction. This is due to other components having an average to high impact level. In this regard, the findings reflect the actual current status of developing countries in using CC in sustainable construction. These research findings will allow construction stakeholders to take proactive steps toward increasing the use of CC in their current and future sustainable construction. Decision-makers could also make accurate decisions that are well-informed in managing CC barriers. This paper provides stakeholders, researchers, and decision-makers with a list of CC barriers that hinder developing countries.

Sustainability concepts should be adopted via new technologies to achieve the greatest possible gains without compromising the objectives of projects. In this research, we empirically investigated the influence of identified drivers on the implementation of robotics in the building sector of developing countries. To this end, with a view to sustainable building projects, the drivers of robotics were derived from the literature, which were subsequently contextually adjusted using a survey method through the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) method. The results of EFA revealed that the drivers of robotics can be classified into three primary constructs: technology, industry, and culture. However, the benefits of implementing robotics can be grouped into two primary constructs: resources and environment. Therefore, in this study, we employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the connections amongst drivers and applications of robotics in Nigeria’s building industry. The results indicated that the input to the implementation of robotics in Nigeria’s building industry via the drivers of robotics has a considerable influence at a small scale, with an impact of 14.5%. The findings of this study can serve as a guide for policymakers looking to improve their projects and increase sustainability by using robotics in the building sector.

Sustainability principles should be implemented during all the phases of the decision-making process of constructing residential buildings to achieve maximum gains without compromising the function of such projects. This study identified and examined the benefits of implementing cyber technology in residential building projects, with a view to promoting the sustainability of such projects. The benefits of cyber technology were identified from previous studies, which were then contextually explored via survey questionnaires within the Nigerian building industry. The results from the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) technique showed that the cyber technology benefits could be categorized into five constructs, namely, planning, transparency, efficiency, productivity, and quality. In addition, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to develop the benefits model. The results showed that transparency related benefits were crucial benefits for implementing cyber technology. The study’s results will serve as a reference for decision-makers looking to decrease costs and increase sustainability by using cyber technology in the Nigerian construction sector.

This study aims to model the performance of sewage networks under diverse blockage situations in terms of overflow occurrence using internet-of-things-based technologies in Hong Kong. To this end, a multi-stage methodological approach is employed, starting from collecting required data using smart sensors, utilizing novel data mining techniques, and using a case study simulation. From the results obtained, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) several sites under investigation are imbued with partial blockages, (2) the overall performance of the sewer network has a nonlinear relationship with the blockages in terms of the remaining time to overflow, (3) in cases of complete blockages, the sewer only takes few minutes to reach the manhole cover level that causes the system to experience overflow, and (4) cleaning work significantly improve the performance of the sewage network by 86%. The outcomes of this study provide a solid foundation for the concerned environmental engineers and decision-makers towards reducing the magnitude of sewer overflow and improving different aspects of our environment.

Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) play a critical role in Industry 4.0 environments, enabling real-time monitoring and control of industrial processes. However, existing lightweight authentication protocols for IWSNs remain vulnerable to sophisticated security attacks because of inadequate initial authentication phases. This study presents a security analysis of Gope et al.’s PUF-based authentication protocol for IWSNs and identifies critical vulnerabilities that enable man-in-the-middle (MITM) and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. We demonstrate that Gope et al.’s protocol is susceptible to MITM attacks during both authentication and Secure Periodical Data Collection (SPDC), allowing adversaries to derive session keys and compromise communication confidentiality. Our analysis reveals that the sensor registration phase of the protocol lacks proper authentication mechanisms, enabling attackers to perform unauthorized PUF queries and subsequently mount successful attacks. To address these vulnerabilities, we propose an enhanced authentication scheme that introduces a sensor-initiated registration process. In our improved protocol, sensor nodes generate and control PUF challenges rather than passively responding to gateway requests. This modification prevents unauthorized PUF queries while preserving the lightweight characteristics essential for resource-constrained IWSN deployments. Security analysis demonstrates that our enhanced scheme effectively mitigates the identified MITM and DoS attacks without introducing significant computational or communication overhead. The proposed modifications maintain compatibility with the existing IWSN infrastructure while strengthening the overall security posture. Comparative analysis shows that our solution addresses the security weaknesses of the original protocol while preserving its practical advantages for industrial use. The enhanced protocol provides a practical and secure solution for real-time data access in IWSNs, making it suitable for deployment in mission-critical industrial environments where both security and efficiency are paramount.