Mohandes, S R (2020) Towards improvements to the occupational health and safety in construction industry. PhD thesis, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
Abstract
The construction industry has always been regarded as a notorious sector for its high number of casualties and fatalities. Despite the improvements made in the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) within this industry, it still accounts for the highest number of occupational injuries compared to any other industries. Based on the mentioned fact, conducting more research on the area of OHS within the construction industry is vital in order to improve the involved workers’ well-being. Although relatively high numbers of studies have centralized on the OHS associated with the construction sector, some crucial gaps still exist that need to be bridged effectively as follows: (1) lack of a comprehensive risk assessment model embodying all the required steps, (2) paucity of a holistic safety risk assessment model that includes all the essential risk parameters towards assessing the OHS of construction workers, and (3) dearth of an OHS risk management framework related to the workers involved in the green building construction projects. All the mentioned shortcomings stated above lead to deteriorating the OHS of workers. Thus, this dissertation aims to solve the mentioned gaps through the exploitation of advanced fuzzy algorithms, through which the uncertainty associated with the statistical-based approaches could be solved.Firstly, a Comprehensive Hybrid Fuzzy-based Occupational Risk Assessment Model (CHFORAM) is developed to systematically identify, analyze, and evaluate the safety risks posing danger to the involved workers using the integration of the Interval-Valued Fuzzy Delphi Method (IVFDM) with the Fuzzy Best Worst Method (FBWM) and the Risk Decision Matrix (RDM). The suitability of CHFORAM developed is verified through its application to the case building maintenance workers. It was observed that the developed CHFORAM could fully identify the critical safety risks posing danger to the maintenance workers, followed by precisely analyzing them using constrained optimization algorithm. Finally, the analyzed safety risks could be effectively evaluated using the proposed strategies.Secondly, a Holistic Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment Model (HOHSRAM) is developed, in which all the essential risk parameters for assessing the safety level of workers are taken into consideration. The developed HOHSRAM is based on the integration of Logarithmic Fuzzy-based Analytical Network Process (LFANP) with the Interval-Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Extended Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (IVPFETOPSIS). To show the supremacy of the developed HOHSRAM against the other existing safety assessment approaches, the case of workers working with tower cranes is taken into account. It is observed that the developed HOHSRAM leads to the obtainment of much more diversified rankings as compared to other available assessment methods, through the consideration of decision makers’ importance weights as well as inclusion of all the essential risk parameters.Furthermore, in order to improve the OHS within the green building construction projects, a Holistic Z-numbers-based Risk Management Framework (HZRMF) is developed. The developed framework is based on the amalgamation of Z-numbers-based Delphi technique (ZDM), Z-numbers-based Best Worst Method (ZBWM), and Z-numbers-based Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (ZTOPSIS). Using Hong Kong green building construction projects as a case study, the developed HZRMF could precisely and systematically identify, analyze, evaluate, and control the risks to which the respective workers are exposed.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Zhang, X |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Delphi technique; Hong Kong; building maintenance; case study; cranes; green building; health and safety; integration; occupational health and safety; optimization; risk assessment; risk management; safety; uncertainty |
| Index terms: | exploitation, tower crane, case study, Hong Kong, fuzzy Delphi, dissertation, fatalities, construction worker, construction industry, risk management, risk assessment, strategy, occupational health and safety, injury, building maintenance, health and safety, suitability, construction sector, preference, green building, Delphi technique, construction project, optimization algorithm, well-being, integration |
| Subjects: | production management, health safety and environment, Geography, financial risk, algorithms, decision-making and reasoning, maintenance engineering, decision-making and optimization, practitioner, research dissemination and communication, construction type, management, health risk and incident analysis, design practice, industry analysis, design criteria, organizational analysis, occupational health and safety management, health conditions and diseases, data collection methods, risk assessment, mental health and wellbeing |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Health and Safety, Geographical Context, Project Management, Roles and Professions, Construction Technology, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Organizational Design, Design Practice, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here