During the construction phase one important factor that facilitates project cost monitoring and control is the selection of the appropriate construction material suppliers. Material vendors' performance could significantly affect the project's outcome especially its final cost and schedule. This paper aims at providing a standardized approach in selecting the best supplier through the formation and use of an appropriate mathematical equation based on multiple criteria. The creation of the function is based on a prototype questionnaire survey. The participants were presented with a predefined set of criteria and were asked to rank them according to their significance. Various statistical methods and techniques were applied to the collected data that produced a number of justified results. Comparison and synthesis of the various outcomes led to the creation of the optimal function for the best supplier selection problem.
Marine pollution has many different sources. This study focuses on oil spills that may occur after a ship collision or during oil extraction and other oil tanker activities. The most critical oil spill accidents are presented, followed by the regulatory framework on maritime oil spill management. Among the measures taken towards the protection of the marine and coastal environment from oil pollution are floating booms and barriers, oil collecting materials and vessels, absorbent materials, chemical dispersants, other chemicals, physical degradation, biodegradation, on-site oil burning. These measures may assist coastal facilities and local authorities in their strategic development of oil spill mitigation planning and response towards coastal and marine protection from oil spills. In the present paper, the aim is to rank the approaches of dealing with the oil spill by means of a multicriteria method. The theoretical background of the selected multicriteria method, called PROMETHEE, is briefly presented; necessary to understand the ranking of the treatment approaches as well as the subsequent findings of the possible criteria for the analysis. Almost all of the scenarios evaluated rank floating booms and barriers as the most suitable methods to deal with oil spill containment, followed by oil collecting materials and vessels.
Construction project related accidents are critical events and it is imperative that they are analyzed in order to understand and identify their root causes. Therefore, the present study analyzes work accidents on construction projects in northern Greece. The methodological approach firstly includes the collection of accident related data from the “Greek Work Inspection Organization”, which is followed by a descriptive analysis and corresponding codification of available data. The next step includes the creation of an appropriate database in SPSS to accommodate all relevant data and subsequent correlation analysis that aims to identify potential trends and tendencies within the accidents’ sample. The findings highlight the most frequent occurrences regarding construction work related accidents and at the same time identify correlations among the various parameters associated with them. The majority of accidents include inexperienced personnel and workers in the age range of 24–44 years old. Moreover, most accidents occur during the summer and are not fatal. Falls are by far the dominant type of accident, and as a consequence, fractures are the most frequently occurring type of injury. Finally, most accidents occur in the morning, with injuries focusing on the lower parts of the body, and in the presence of general use equipment. The current paper also identified associations among various accident characteristics. These findings could help towards reducing the number and severity of work-related accidents. Improved construction site organization, accompanied by the dedication of management towards health and safety and more frequent inspections, could decrease the number and severity of accidents.
How to compensate highway construction contractors is a complex decision that should be taken based on scientific evidence. Four different multi-criteria decision making methods, i.e., the multi-attribute utility theory, the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal situation, the preference ranking organisation method for enriched evaluation (PROMETHEE) and the PROMETHEE group decision support system method were applied to two case study projects with different characteristics and awarding authorities' (AAs') needs in order to choose between seven different contract type based on nine selection criteria. The results highlight the need to establish the availability of new CTs in the public works law in Greece and showed that all methods have the potential to become decision support systems that can be employed for improving objectivity in this decision making process as if the project characteristics and AA's needs are properly defined at the onset.
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