Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemIntegrating sustainability into higher education curricula(Engineers Australia, 2021)Education has been widely recognised as a key instrument to achieve sustainability. Integrating sustainability knowledge, skills and values are considered paramount to enable individuals to contribute to sustainable development. The paper presents a pilot study conducted at the University of Melbourne to investigate the links between the subjects offered by the University and sustainability. The pilot study is a part of the Sustainability in the Curriculum program, which addresses the Sustainability Plan Teaching and Learning Target 1, aimed to incorporate sustainability knowledge and values in the University's curricula. The 17 Sustainability Development Goals have been used as a framework to measure how well the curricula are linked to sustainability. A study first undertaken to establish the link between subjects and the Sustainability Development Goals is presented. The study involved data collection through published literature on Sustainable Development Goals and the University's subject handbook, followed by a survey involving the subject coordinators. The findings of the study show that the strength of linkages between subjects with sustainability varies, highlighting the challenge in some technical subjects in linking their contents with sustainability. Approaches adopted in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology in embedding sustainability in the curriculum are presented with some examples and discussions for the next steps.
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ItemImproving Design by Partnering in Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) Hydropower Projects: A Case Study of a Large-Scale Hydropower Project in China(MDPI, 2021-12)Hydropower, as a renewable energy resource, has become an important way to fit for Chinese long-term energy policy of energy transformation. Engineering–procurement–construction (EPC) has been increasingly adopted for improving hydropower project delivery efficiency in the utilization of water resources and generation of clean energy, where design plays a critical role in project success. Existing studies advocate the need to use partnering for better solutions to designs in EPC hydropower projects. However, there is a lack of a theoretical framework to systematically address design-related issues considering different participants’ interactions. This study coherently examined the causal relationships among partnering, design management, design capability, and EPC hydropower project performance by establishing and validating a conceptual model, with the support of data collected from a large-scale EPC hydropower project. Path analysis reveals that partnering can directly promote design management and design capability and exert an effect on design capability through enhancing design management, thereby achieving better hydropower project outcomes. This study’s contribution lies in that it theoretically builds the links between intra- and inter-organizational design-related activities by systematically mapping EPC hydropower project performance on partnering, design management, and design capability. These findings also suggest broad practical strategies for participants to optimally integrate their complementary resources into designs to achieve superior hydropower project performance.
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ItemNew normal remote communication for collaboration (presentation)( 2021-12-19)Presented at the 12th International Conference on Structural Engineering and construction Management (ICSECM) 2021, Kandy, Sri Lanka (17-19 December)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableDataset on effects of learning curve models on onshore wind and solar PV cost developments in the USA( 2021-11-03)This dataset includes input data to estimate learning-by-deploying (LbD) and learning-by-researching (LbR) rates for onshore wind and solar PV in the United States of America (USA). Using different learning curve approaches the simulated technological-based cost developments are also presented. Coefficient of determination (R squared) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) were applied for quantification of the agreement between simulated and observed technological-based costs.
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ItemManaging Interfaces in Large-Scale Projects: The Roles of Formal Governance and Partnering(ASCE-AMER SOC CIVIL ENGINEERS, 2021-07-01)Interface management has been viewed as one of the important organizational capabilities to promote coordination and integration among stakeholders in construction project delivery, especially for large-scale projects. This paper examines the role of formal governance, partnering, and organizational boundary activities and their interactions in interface management performance. An integrated framework with consideration of the influence of formal governance, partnering, and boundary activities on interface management performance and associated project outcomes was developed and empirically tested with data collected from 85 large-scale international projects. The results show that formal governance is the dominant determinant of interface management performance and can indirectly influence it through improving partnering and boundary activities. Partnering and boundary activities are also significant antecedents of interface management performance, which, in turn, improves project outcomes of large-scale construction projects. Formal governance and partnering mutually reinforce each other. Interface management performance is positively related to project outcomes in terms of quality, cost, and schedule. This empirical research contributes to the fundamental understanding of the critical factors that govern the interface management performance and, ultimately, the project outcomes. In addition, the outcomes of this study highlighted the broad managerial implications for participants in large-scale projects.
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ItemA Competency Framework for Construction Engineering Graduates: An Industry Perspective(Tempus Publications, 2021-06-20)Engineering education plays a key role in training talent engineers to meet the challenges of sustainable development in the construction industry. To address the requirements of construction engineering and sustainable development, a new competency framework was developed based on a systematic literature review. This framework incorporates five categories of competencies, including interdisciplinary knowledge, technical expertise and innovation, identifying and solving problems, managerial capacity, and ethical and professional responsibilities. The framework was validated using a questionnaire survey and eight rounds of interviews. The results suggest that all the five competencies within the proposed framework are important and should be incorporated in the construction engineering education, and this can help graduates deal with sustainability issues in the future.
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ItemApplying SDGs as a systematic approach for incorporating sustainability in higher education(EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD, 2021-06-10)Purpose The achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for all communities and jurisdictions require a comprehensive roadmap that encompasses all dimensions of data infrastructure, social, economic, environmental and governance ecosystems. With this in mind, this paper aims to establish the link between the curriculum and intended learning outcomes of undergraduate and postgraduate subjects offered by the University and sustainability. This study is a part of a wider university strategy to embed sustainability knowledge and values in the university curricula. The 17 SDGs developed as a part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainability Development was used as tool to measure and map how the subjects are linked with sustainability. Design/methodology/approach To incorporate sustainability into the curriculum, this paper developed an interdisciplinary approach for analysing the interconnection between the SDGs, the expected subject learning points and the relevant aspects of sustainability (geospatial information, the legal, policies and institutional components). As part of the approach, in the first phase of the study, qualitative data were collected through a review of published information on the SDGs and the content of the subjects available in the subject handbook. Subject codes were assigned to the keywords and key phrases extracted from the SDGs and the subject content, and then compared and matched to establish the link between the subjects and the SDGs. Six university schools offering over 2,157 subjects were investigated. In the second phase, a survey was conducted involving subject coordinators with the purpose of validating the findings of the first phase and determining the strength of the linkages between the subjects and the SDGs. In the third phase, a plugin was designed to be used in the digital twin platform developed in the UoM, allowing visualisation of the research outcomes. Findings Based on the interim findings, it was found that some subjects within the schools are linked to more than one SDG. However, not all of the subjects within the schools can be linked to the SDGs. There is a scope of improvement for embedding sustainability in more subjects within the schools. Some of the schools were also found to have weak linkages with sustainability, which demonstrate the challenge in technical subjects in linking their subject contents with sustainability. Originality/value This study provides a methodology which enables the integration of sustainability into current state of the curricula at the university to be established. Further, with the advancement of geospatial technology and new visualisation opportunities through the use of the digital twin platform provides capabilities to communicate the outcomes of sustainability and involvement of each faculties and departments more effectively to the university community and wider stakeholders.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableConstruction Project Managers Graduate Agile Competencies Required to Meet Industry Needs(Springer, Singapore, 2021-01-01)The construction industry is embracing new management challenges to deal with the ever-increasing needs for collaboration, environmental and social responsibilities. Improvements in construction project management competencies are essential to helping the construction sector to embrace the new challenges. Building engineering management capabilities through the correct training are therefore essential. In research involving the twenty-four largest contractors in Australia ‘Lean construction’ was identified as an important skill to be included in academic programs that has not yet fully been embraced. Contractors are not yet seeing ‘lean’ and ‘agile’ methods as important approaches to improve communication within the teams and between projects. This research highlighted that although contractors identified communication as one of themain skills needed to achieve a good performance in project construction management they do not yet recognise that training in lean and agile methodologies will help them to improve communication not only between professionals but between projects and organisations involved in each project in improving business goals.
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ItemEnvironment Management of Hydropower Development: A Case Study(MDPI AG, 2021-04-06)Environment management is one of the key aspects of hydropower development in acquiring sustainable energy. However, there has been limited research demonstrating the overall aspects of environment management of hydropower development with support of sound empirical evidence. In present study, the status of environment management in hydropower development was comprehensively investigated by conducting a case study based on the data collected from a field survey. The results show that, as environment management is largely subject to legal requirements, the environment management system needs to be established by integrating the legal requirements and needs of project implementation. This could potentially reduce the influence of legal restrictions on hydropower development. The main hydropower project environment management processes include identifying key environmental factors, implementation, monitoring, and performance measurement, which deal with environmental issues such as terrestrial and aquatic ecology protection, wastewater treatment, solid waste disposal, and acoustic-environment protection. Project participants should establish partnering relationships to cooperatively deal with environmental impacts of hydropower project development, in which public participation and sufficient resources input into environmental protection are essential for project success. The results of this study provide a sound basis for participants to deal with the key issues of environmental protection such as meeting legal requirements, training for improving environment management process, cost control, and cooperative environment management. The results of this study could help practitioners to tackle the interactions among project delivery, environmental protection, and engagement of local communities in an optimized way with the aim of maximizing effectiveness of the resources of all participants.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableDataset on effects of learning curve models on clean energy technology cost developments( 2021-01-21)This dataset includes input data to estimate learning-by-doing (LbD) and learning-by-researching (LbR) rates for onshore wind and solar PV in the United States. Using different learning curve approaches the simulated technology cost developments are also presented. Coefficient of determination (R square) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) were applied for quantification of the agreement between simulated and observed technology costs.