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Due to the fact of activity, environment and work dynamics, the construction industry is characterised by high accident rates. Different initiatives have emerged to reduce these figures, which focus on using new methodologies and technologies for safety management. Therefore, it is essential to know the key factors and their influence on safety in construction projects (fSCPs) to focus efforts on these elements. Through a systematic literature review, based on PRISMA methodology, this article identifies, describes and categorises 100 factors that affect construction safety. It thus contributes by providing a comprehensive general framework, unifying previous studies focused on specific geographic areas or case studies with factors not considered or insufficiently disaggregated, along with an absence of classifications focused on understanding where and how factors affect the different dimensions of construction projects. The 100 factors identified are described and categorised according to the dimensions and aspects of the project in which these have an impact, along with identifying whether they are shaping or immediate factors or originating influences for the generation of accidents. These factors, their description and classification are a key contribution to improving the systematic creation of safety and generating training and awareness materials to fully develop a safety culture in organisations.

Two of the differential characteristics of the AECO sector (architecture, engineering, construction and operation) are barriers for the mass creation of training materials for its workers. On the one hand, the workplace is unique and changing over time; on the other, the aging trend of its workers and the unattractive nature of the industry for new generations of professionals. These two problems can be tackled by virtual reality technologies, which allow the agile creation of all kinds of scenarios, while their current technology may be attractive to young people and intuitive for everyone. This work shows the results of an investigation that seeks to provide automated tools based on virtual reality experiences to support learning in occupational risk prevention. This objective is part of the development of a culture for prevention, which allows the treatment of the human factor, with all its complexity and casuistry. The proposal includes the development of a process and tools that allow replicating the specific scenario where the work will be carried out, incorporating risks and probable incidents, systematically establishing cause-effect relationships, incorporating a narrative (storytelling) that provides emotional meaning to users and Lastly, the creation of a workflow that facilitates the agile development of these virtual reality experiences for each specific work.

The construction site is a hazardous place. The dynamic, complex interaction between workers, machinery, and the environment leads to dangerous risks. In response to such risks, the goal is to fulfill the zero accidents philosophy, which requires the development of safety skills among workers and the provision of tools for risk prevention. In pursuit of that vision, this work studies collective protective equipment (CPE). Traditional methodologies propose visual inspections using checklists, the effectiveness of which depends on the quality of the inspection by the safety advisor (SA). This paper analyses the traditional process of safety inspections in building projects: the traditional methods, main pain points, and bottlenecks are identified, along with the key performance indicators (KPIs) needed to complete these processes correctly. Because of this, a methodology that digitises the CPE inspection process is proposed. Augmented reality (AR) is used as a 3D viewer with an intuitive interface for the SA, and, accordingly, functional requirements are detailed and different information layers and user interfaces for AR applications are proposed. In addition, the workflow and KPIs are shown. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposal, a proof of concept is developed and evaluated. The relevance of this work lies in providing background for the use of AR in safety inspection processes on construction sites and in offering methodological recommendations for the development and evaluation of these applications.

The architecture, engineering, construction and operations industry has high accident rates as a result of characteristics of the construction site and work activities, the heavy machinery used and a lack of safety culture. In particular, geotechnical drilling worksites involve the use of high-powered machinery and workers are exposed to different risks when using them. However, risk prevention training courses are not well-specialised for this type of work. There is a lack of adequate learning content specific to drilling works, meaning the heavy machinery, how to use it and how to prevent accidents due to these drilling tasks are poorly understood. Therefore, this research explores the potential of virtual reality technology as a tool for analysing the risks associated with geotechnical drilling works and as complementary training content to traditional courses. A specific use case, a geotechnical drilling machine is modelled in 3D and integrated into a realistic virtual reality environment where the movements of the machine are recreated, in addition to interactions so that workers can simulate the geotechnical drilling process, identify risks and prevent accidents, and, moreover, be trained in best practices for machinery usage, according to previous real-world experiences from senior workers.

The construction industry has high accident rates. The sector is exploring various tools to improve safety management, training, and awareness to achieve zero accidents. This work focuses on extended reality (XR), which encompasses virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) technologies. Several authors have developed training experiences for construction safety in XR environments with positive conclusions about their effectiveness. However, there is no standardization regarding the evaluation methods used in the sector, and many experiences do not use any method. This lack is critical, as whenever the aim is to evaluate the degree of awareness of security issues, the implementation of evaluation systems is indispensable to make known the methods used in the literature to evaluate the effectiveness of the experiences and represent support for future research. This research identifies developments in XR experiences and analyzes the validation methods through a systematic review using the PRISMA methodology. It identifies two evaluation methods, objective and subjective, which are each broken down into four categories. The results show the types of evaluation, safety-related purposes, and safety application objectives used by the database classification.

The architecture, engineering, construction and operation industry has high accident rates, and its workers are susceptible to certain risks due to the variability of their worksites, the tasks they perform and the equipment they use. Of particular interest is the coexistence of workers and heavy machinery in the same space, which is one of the main causes of high accident rates. Increasing digitisation also incorporates the use of new systems (e.g. UAVs, autonomous vehicles, robotic devices), which must function while preserving worker safety. As such, worker training is also essential in these contexts. Research indicates that occupational risk prevention training in construction is not satisfactory. Traditional methods based on lectures (where the student does not take an active role) and traditional test-type assessments do not result in significant learning and fail to create a culture of prevention among workers. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction industry has had to incorporate new prevention measures to continue projects while protecting workers' health and safety. Virtual reality has demonstrated advantages in adapting to different contexts, allowing for the agile development of training experiences with immersive characteristics and more significant learning than traditional methods. This research shows the application and agile development of a training experience for social distancing at construction sites to prevent COVID-19 transmission, based on virtual reality and building information modelling and using serious games as a teaching strategy.

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