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The purpose of this paper is presenting a new advanced hardware/software system, boasting two main features: first it performs real time tracking of workers' routes in construction sites; then it implements an algorithm for preventing workers to be involved in hazardous situations. This research step is part of a wider ongoing research concerning the development of a new generation of advanced construction management systems, allowing for real-time monitoring and coordination of tasks, automatic health and safety management, on-site delivering of technical information, capture of as-built documentation. Exploiting the high accuracy provided by the UWB system responsible for position tracking and successfully tested in previous research, our software interface is able to graphically reproduce (and store) the travel patterns of workers. Moreover, it constantly checks if they are accessing hazardous areas, using an algorithm based on a predictive approach: it is conceived to predict in advance whether any worker is approaching a forbidden area, in fact performing virtual fencing. This approach could be easily extended to other applications, too. Some preliminary tests simulated in the DACS laboratory are described and the obtained results discussed.

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Abstract. This paper reports a feasibility study which addressed the development of a new, advanced system mainly devoted to automatic real-time health and safety management on construction sites. The preliminary analyses and experiments described in this paper concern two of the most important functionalities which must be included in the system's final release. The first functionality consists in real-time position-tracking of workers involved on construction sites and the second -in a software tool for the prevention of non-authorized access to dangerous zones. This research step is part of a vaster, ongoing research project, addressing the development of a new generation of advanced construction management systems which allow real-time monitoring and coordination of tasks, automatic health and safety management, on-site delivery of technical information and the capture of "as-built" documentation. This paper focuses mainly on the development of a reliable methodology for real-time monitoring of the position of both workers and equipment in outdoor construction sites by applying Ultra Wide Band (UWB) based technologies. This positioning system was then interfaced with a software tool which performs virtual fencing of pre-selected, dangerous areas. Guidelines for the design of the receivers' topology will be addressed and the results of measurements recorded on a typical medium-sized block of flats, during different phases of the construction progress will be summed up. Finally, the preliminary experimental results obtained by the virtual fencing application tool will be presented and used to plan future research objectives.

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Both public administrations and private owners of large building stocks need to work out plans for the management of their property, while having to deal with yearly budget limitations. Particularly for the former, this is a rather critical challenge, since public administrations are given the responsibility of sticking to very strict budget distributions over the years. As a consequence, when planning the actions to be taken on their building stocks in order to comply with their current use and the legislation in-force, they need to classify refurbishment priorities. The aim of this paper is to develop a first tool based on Bayesian Networks that offers an effective decision support service for owners even in case some information is incomplete. This tool can be used to evaluate the compliance of existing buildings with the latest standards. The decision support platform proposed includes a multi-criteria evaluation approach combining several performance indicators, each of which related to a specific regulatory area. This tool can be applied to existing buildings, where the building with the lowest score shows the highest priority of intervention. Also, the platform performs an assessment of expected costs for required refurbishment or renovation actions.

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