GCEC 2017

High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Cementitious Composites (HPFRCC) is a class of materials studied extensively for applications in structural rehabilitation of existing structures and in design of new structures. These materials have high mechanical strength, pseudo-strain-hardening behaviour and low porosity due to a highly dense microstructure of the cementitious matrix. Furthermore, they guarantee great durability by adding microfibres in the proper ratio, which limits the crack opening. This paper deals with the mechanical properties assessment of HPFRCC mixtures designed with locally available materials. Different HPFRCC mix designs were considered with a very compact cementitious matrix reinforced with two different types of microfibres: high-density polyethylene fibres and hooked stainless steel fibres considering 1% or 2% of the volume contents. The influence of the fibre contents on the compressive and tensile strengths, the strain-hardening performance and the fracture energy are discussed.

This paper presents a numerical study to evaluate the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns with circular section repaired and retrofitted by high-performance fiber-reinforced cement composites (HPFRCC) jackets and external carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) wrapping. The column damage is due to degradation of concrete and steel rebars for effect of the corrosion. Different HPFRCC mix designs were considered to repair the column assuming different fiber types (polyethylene, stainless steel) and volume contents (1% or 2%). These HPFRCC concretes were developed and tested experimentally at the lab of the University of Roma Tre (Salvador Filho et al. in Mechanical properties of HPFRCC reinforced with different types and volumes of fibres [1]). The numerical analyses were conducted by means of fiber models using the software OpenSees (OpenSees structural software [computer software]. Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, CA, [2]) applying a vertical load and a displacement history (section rotation). The analyzed sections represent the undamaged section, the section damaged for effect of rebar corrosion, and the repaired and retrofitted sections. The first numerical results about the section strength capacities for each type of repair material are discussed.

Previous studies had identified several construction’s critical success factors (CSFs) in their hierarchical order, and one of these factors is leadership. Eleven academic articles were found that produced list of these construction’s CSFs in ranking order based on the significance of these factors towards the project success. Thus, this paper presents the average level of significance of leadership factors amongst CSFs. Level of significance for each leadership factor was determined based on formula presented in this paper. It was found that leadership factor was averagely 74.2% significance amongst to the CSFs. This implies the need of strong leadership role in ensuring construction project success which should be emphasized to parties involved in undertaking construction projects.

Granitic rock can be found in abundance at the Banjaran Titiwangsa main range as the most dominant geology. The granitic slope with the fracture surface has produced the microcrack pattern that can affect the stability of the slopes at the Pos Selim area, which is located at the Banjaran Titiwangsa. The relationship of the microcrack pattern and the shear strength of the granitic rock is investigated as to know the behavior of the crack pattern with the shearing force. The granitic samples are collected at Pos Selim area which is identified as grade II slightly weathered conditions. The samples which are then tested using rock shear box test are applied with increasing normal load of 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 kN, respectively. The microcrack pattern is observed using SEM image. The analysis of SEM image shows that the behavior of microcrack starts from the crack initiation with the small point at the center. The microcrack length extends into a larger crack and transverse from the center toward the side of the sample. When stress increases, the microcrack length tends to also increase until it reaches the peak point. Finally, further addition of shear stress will result in a decrease of microcrack length. The relationship of microcrack length and the shear stress is in the form of polynomial curve with second order (R2 = 0.955). In conclusion, based on the relationship of microcrack pattern and shear strength, the highest shear stress is 6 MPa producing the 200 µm of microcrack length.

The construction industry in Malaysia drives the economic growth and development of the country. However, the industry is plagued with delays and cost overrun which transforms what should have been successful projects to projects incurring additional costs, disagreements, litigation and in some cases abandonment of projects. This research studied the causes of delays and cost overrun in the industry and ranked them according to their perceived importance to the contractors, with a view to establishing those to be addressed by the contractors. Online questionnaires were used for data collection for this research. A total of 69 responses were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) (factor analysis) to identify the main causes. The result of the analysis showed that delay in preparation of design document, poor schedule and control of time, delay in delivery of material to site, lack of knowledge about the different defined execution methods, shortage of labour and material in market, and changes in scope of work were the main causes of delay and cost overrun. The identified causes if properly addressed would reduce the rate of delays and cost overrun in construction projects, thus enhancing the economic growth and development of the country.

Reinforced concrete sandwich wall panels are developed to reduce the effect of thermal transmission across the wall systems. The reduction of the thermal transmission is achieved through incorporation of an insulating layer. However, this insulating layer led to a reduction of structural performance. The provision of shear connection in the sandwich system improved its structural integrity and increased with increase in a number of shear connectors. However, if the shear connectors are placed directly across the layers of the concrete wythes, it will decrease its thermal efficiency. The thermal and structural performance works in contrary effect to an increasing number of shear connectors. Hence, optimizing both structural and thermal efficiencies simultaneously in reinforced concrete sandwich system has been a challenge for a very long time. Therefore, this paper presents an alternative approach focusing on the thermal path method to produce an optimum shear connector used. This approach eliminates the direct transmission path between the two wythes and, at the same time, avoids the use of alternative materials such as fibre-reinforced polymers which could be uneconomical. With this method, both thermal and structural efficiencies are optimized using only conventional concrete and steel materials.

Portland cement production is a carbon dioxide trigger responsible for almost 5% of the worlds CO₂ emissions. Pozzolanic inclusions could contribute to sustainability particularly if they are derived from waste. Managing solid waste is increasingly becoming a global challenge as a result of increasing volume of accumulated waste from industrial and agricultural by-products. Environmental concerns as well as economic implications related with disposal of these wastes have prompted many researches in order to provide viable solutions. Recycling of these waste materials into the construction industry seems to be a more promising and viable alternative most especially in the manufacturing of greener and sustainable concrete material. Wood ash (WA) is a by-product derived from incineration of wood as well as its products such as sawdust, wood bark and chips. This paper presents an overview on investigations performed on the applicability of this material in mortar and concrete making. Specifics on physical, chemical, mineralogical and elemental characteristics of the waste material are discussed. It highpoints the impact of wood ash on workability, compressive and flexure strengths, water absorption, drying shrinkage, carbonation, alkali–silica reaction (ASR) and chloride permeability of concrete.

This research aimed to contribute to the small but growing empirical literatures and studies on Change Orders in building construction industry in selected cities in the National Capital Region (NCR), Philippines. Using descriptive/survey research method specifically expert sampling method, key informant interviews, actual site observations and desk reviews of project documents (e.g., contract documents, plans and specifications, etc.), this study investigated and compared the causes and effects of Change Orders in public and private building construction projects and formulated recommendations and guidelines in order to address the problems brought about by Change Orders. Moreover, the existing change order management control practices being implemented by the contractors, consultants, and clients in response to the issuance of construction Change Orders were also identified and investigated. Based on the results of the study, it was found out that the major causes of Change Orders in building construction projects in the Philippines were related to change of plans and scope by the owner, adjustment of schedule, unpredictable weather conditions, unforeseen site conditions, change of schedule by the owner, long waiting time for approval of construction drawings, complexity of construction projects and external factors which are beyond the control of the contractors, consultants, and clients. Consequently, Change Orders have resulted to project time extension and delay in project completion, increase in the overall cost of the project, changes in the cash flow and loss of earnings, additional payments to the contractor, and increased time and material related charges. Generally, the management control practices being undertaken by both the public and private sector in dealing with Change Orders were as follows: (i) all changes in the design documents were checked, reviewed, and justified by the designers and consultants; (ii) coordination and cooperation among the contractors, consultants, and clients were encouraged; (iii) project personnel take proactive measures to promptly settle, authorize, and execute Change Orders in construction projects; (iv) involvement of knowledgeable persons or representatives during the change order negotiation and approval (v) a written approval of both parties should be made with clear scope of change before executing the requested changes or variations; and (vi) the use of various techniques in order to track cost of changes.

According to recent studies and observed failures of underground structures, many researchers have addressed the design and construction of tunnel lining against static/dynamic loads and earthquake vibration to get the safety of these structures. Therefore this paper includes the study of the behavior of tunnel lining due to static and dynamic loads. Inner diameter of tunnel is D m. Concrete lining of thickness 0.3 m. The depth of the tunnel centre line from the ground level is 10 D below the surface of the ground, the twin tunnel centre are 3D. After tunnel model is created in the software MIDAS GTS NX, the model is run to analyze the tunnel stability and deformation in static and dynamic conditions by calculating the value of each mesh node based on 3D finite element method and were undertaken to investigate the seismic tunnel response conditions to compare the results in the displacement, stresses, forces and bending moments acting on the tunnel lining. Due to the application of the static load the stress–strain state around the tunnel periphery is changed, the primary stress state is disrupted and the potential of instability increases, otherwise the result shows that the applied dynamic stress is not negligible for underground structure, but it is less dangerous in comparison with the others.

The present uneconomic strength determination approach for profiled composite slab (PCS) constitutes a serious challenge that contributed significantly to design conservatism. This study seeks to address this challenge by developing and a subsequent experimental validation of a numerical strength determination function for PCS through implementing a rational-based approach. Hence, a procedural algorithm lead to the development of PCS determination function using longitudinal shear estimation method by considering section slenderness and deck characteristics. The strength test performance between the developed scheme and the experiment-based test results indicates high similarity, demonstrating the viability of the proposed strength determination methodology developed.

The aim of this study is to consider the effects of water/binder ratio on fracture behavior of self-compacting lightweight concrete (SCLC). To do so, four mixes with constant nominal size of aggregate (d _a = 12.5 mm) have been prepared such that the weight of aggregate and portion of coarse aggregate to fine aggregate were designed to be constant. Forty-eight notched beam specimens were tested under displacement-controlled condition to achieve the maximum tolerable loads of beams under three-point bending configuration. Afterwards, the results were analyzed according to size effect method to realize the influences regarding water/binder ratio. Test results showed that as the water/binder ratio increased from 0.35 to 0.50, the fracture energy and toughness decreased by 65.8 and 54.5%. Moreover, the water/binder ratio had apparent influences on the values of critical crack-tip opening displacement.

Installation of stone columns is recognized as a usual procedure for the treatment for soft clay soils. In the current research, three-dimensional finite-element analyses were performed to simulate the behavior of multilayer geosynthetic-reinforced granular bed over stone column-reinforced soft soil using the ABAQUS. An extensive research was conducted for better understanding of the mechanism of load transfer in ordinary stone columns (OSCs) and geosynthetic-encased columns (GECs) installed under a concrete foundation. Parametric studies were also carried out to investigate the effects of factors such as hardness of the geosynthetic encasement and the region replacement proportion on the overall behaviour of the GECs group. The results designated that utilizing of more than one geosynthetic reinforcement with stone columns is not so effective to reduce the maximum settlement. But, a multilayer reinforcement system is efficient to decrease the maximum settlement when stone columns are not used. It was also shown that there is a large growth in the amount of stress concentration proportion with the presence of geosynthetic reinforcement in comparison with the amount when there is no geosynthetic reinforcement present.

This article analyses the reliability based on the deterministic method and acceleration attenuation in the Chalus City, as well as, obtaining the density function of probability distribution and statistics for cyclic stress ratio (CSR). The density function of probability distribution and the cycle resistance ratio (CRR) can be concluded from the possibility of the cycle of resistance curves. The proposed first-order, second-moment procedure is used to determine the relationship between three factors including, the probability of liquefaction, the safety factor and the reliability index. In this study, the numerical approach of genetic algorithm is utilized to minimize the function of the reliability index. The usage of genetic algorithm model provides a reliable mechanism suitable for a computer program. Two empirical relationships based on P _L , $$ N_{\text{SPT}} $$, and CSR with a correlation coefficient and mean error of 95 and 10%, respectively, and the relationship between P _L and Fs with a correlation coefficient of 0.887 are provided. Accuracy is measured by comparing the results with those of previous studies. The results of the present study show that a safety factor greater or smaller than 1 does not mean safety and/or liquefaction; to assure liquefaction probability, a reliability-based method should be used for analyses. Moreover, the designed algorithm in this study can be extended by keeping its generalities and having required information from other regions.

Radio frequency–vacuum (RFV) is an alternative technique to dry solid timbers. The method was demonstrated to be effective in drying large dimension planks. Experimental results proved that the method considerably reduced drying period and successfully dried timber with fewer defects. An assessment was conducted to evaluate the effect of RFV system on some mechanical properties of timber. The timbers were classified as difficult to dry and require great consideration against rapid drying. This article discusses the mechanical properties of refractory timbers dried using an RFV drying system. The modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, Janka hardness and specific gravity of a selected Malaysian hardwood were analysed. Test results showed that the modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity of RFV specimens were lower than the conventional kiln-dried timbers. On the other hand, the Janka hardness of RFV specimens was slightly higher. Comparison with kiln-dried timbers suggested that RFV process had no adverse effect on the specific gravity.

Reinforced concrete may be subjected to temperature due to climatic change or fire. However, deep beams can be exposed to various temperatures. This study will be treated and focused on the criteria of thermal analysis of deep beams. Many lectures are verified by nonlinear finite element method. Also, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the effect of some factors on the behavior of deep beams exposed to elevated temperature. The models are analyzed by the finite element method using (ANSYS) package. These factors are temperature, concrete compressive strength, and the shear span-to-effective depth (a/d) ratio. The results show that when the temperature increases with constant compressive strength and (a/d) ratio, the load capacity and deflection at failure are decreased, while when compressive strength increased, the load capacity and deflection at failure are increased for the same (a/d) ratio and the same temperature. Finally, the results show that the load capacity decreases and deflection increases with an increase in (a/d) ratio for the same temperature and same compressive strength. In addition to the parametric study, the proposed model to predict the strength of the deep beams exposed to high temperature is derived using artificial neural network by MATLAB and SPSS facilities. The error (R) had been (0.99) and square value (R2 = 0.98). This means that the model is efficient and the error is very small.

Cold-formed steel sections are normally produced by cold work manufacturing processes. The amount of cold work to form the sections may have induced residual stresses in the section especially in the area of bending. Hence, these cold work processes may have significant effects on the section behaviour and load-bearing capacity. There was a lack of studies in investigating the effects of residual stresses raised by press-braking operations unlike the roll-forming operation. Therefore, a 3D finite element simulation was employed to simulate this forming process. This study investigated the magnitude of the maximum residual stresses along the length of the corner region and through-thickness residual stress variations induced by the press-braking forming process. The study concluded that residual stresses are not linear longitudinally (along the corner region). Maximum residual stresses exist near the middle surface of the plate. The comparison of the 3D-FE results with the 2D-FE results illustrate that 3D-FE has a variation in transverse and longitudinal residual stresses along the plate length. In addition, 2D-FE results overestimate the residual stresses along the corner region.

The undrained bearing capacity of strip footings has been extensively studied in the literature by a deterministic manner where the soil is assumed uniform. In practice, the spatial variability of random soil affects the ultimate bearing capacity of strip footings. This paper focuses on a probabilistic study using adaptive finite element limit analysis combined with random field theory to investigate the bearing capacity of strip footings subjected to vertical and centric inclined loads, on a cohesive soil with spatially variable distribution of the undrained shear strength. A parametric study is performed using OptumG2 to investigate the effects of diverse probabilistic parameters associated in the problem of undrained bearing capacity of strip footings.

When a footbridge is made of glass, it shows to the pedestrians the wonder and uniqueness of itself, i.e., its transparent characteristic. However, the perceived unwanted characteristics, such as the brittleness of glass may make it unsuitable, if used for a load-bearing structural member. But, using a toughened and laminated glass panel as the primary structural member can be practical because this toughened glass has a higher failure strength and is considerably safer when compared to ordinary glass. This paper began with an architectural drawing of a glass footbridge. Each primary beam of the footbridge was made from a large-sized glass panel. The bridge was modeled using beam finite elements and analysed using the finite element program, SAP 2000. The model was initially formed in 2D and analysed using two different support conditions. The analysis was repeated for a 3D model. The results of maximum moments, shear forces and deflections produced using both the 2D and 3D models and also using different support conditions are compared. The maximum stress was calculated and checked with the failure strength of toughened glass. The maximum deflection was also checked with the limiting value given in standard codes of practice. Connectors have been designed to connect the glass sub-panels together which have been used to form the large size glass panels, namely, the primary beams. The connectors have been designed and the stress level in the connection checked. Modal analyses using 2D and 3D models were also carried out to give frequencies and mode shapes of the footbridge under vibration. The frequencies are checked against the minimum value required according to standard codes of practice. All of the above checks were found to satisfy the relevant design criteria, and consequently the footbridge is now considered to be safe and ready for construction.

The alternate load path (ALP) method is an event-independent approach in analysing robustness against progressive collapse, where the actual load arising from the complicated triggering event is not considered. The method proposes the removal of one or more load-bearing elements of a structure, such as a column, and the consequences following from the location of removed column onto the investigated structure will be analysed in terms of its ability to redistribute the gravity loads to the remaining intact structural elements. Since the assessment of structural robustness using the ALP method is highly dependent on the location of the lost column, it is important that selection of the critical column position that needs to be removed for detail progressive collapsed assessment is undertaken with care. If this is not the case, the results generated will not be able to show the actual level of the robustness of the structure. In this paper, a new, performance criterion namely, the computation of the total number of overstressed remaining members was introduced to determine the most critical column location for further evaluation of the structural resistance against progressive collapse. SAP2000 structural design software and MATLAB were used as tools for the collapse analysis. A ten-storey moment-resisting steel frame structure was used to demonstrate the implementation of the proposed criterion. It can be concluded that the proposed criterion has the potential to be a useful and quick indicator to determine the critical column location for a more detail progressive collapse analysis of a structure.

The type of concrete called Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is well accepted nowadays by construction industries because of its flowability. In this study, the effect of natural zeolite (NZ) (Clinoptilolite) on the behaviour of self-compacting concrete was observed. Different percentages of NZ (5, 10 and 15%) by weight of cement were used in replacing cement. Water to powder (w/p) ratio was chosen 0.36, 0.38 and 0.4. Slump flow and V-funnel tests were used in investigating the concrete’s fresh properties; and the compressive strength was investigated at 3 and 7 days of curing. Results showed that the flowability decreases with an increasing amount of NZ. It was also observed that the specimens which had clinoptilolite had lower compressive strengths than that of the control specimens within the period of 3 days. However, after 7 days, strengths of SCC become closer to the strength of control specimens. It can be considered as a clear improvement in strength after 7 days for mixes containing NZ up to 10% compared to control mixes. Therefore, it can be said that NZ can be utilised up to 10% to replace cement in the production of SCC.

Asphalt concrete is fabricated from a three-phase mixture consisting of aggregate, asphalt binder, and air voids. Homogeneity of asphalt mixtures affects performance characteristics of asphalt concrete pavements. In this study, homogeneity is determined from 2D vertical section images of gyratory compacted specimens. Because the aggregate structure dominates the performance of asphalt concrete, the mixture homogeneity is determined via statistical distribution of aggregate particles. The cross-sectional images are obtained using a flatbed scanner and then processed to detect various particle shape parameters and locations. Aggregate shape parameters are used for the purpose of determining aggregate gradation curves based on 2D cross-section images of asphalt concrete specimens. An algorithm is developed to detect all the particles in the cross-sections, and then the detected aggregates are redistributed at random orientations and locations to create synthetic images of the same cross-sections. In this way, a large number of sectional images representing the distribution of the same aggregate size fractions are generated. Statistical analyses are performed on four different mixture specimens to determine the range of particle size distributions functions. Results show that the particle distribution of the specimens fall within the range of distribution functions for homogenous mixtures.

The precast concrete (PC) method has been preferred for reasons of shortening of construction time, quality assurance, and cost reduction. In addition, in situ production of PC members under equivalent production conditions can save costs while ensuring quality equal to or better than in-plant production. Despite these advantages, in situ production is being avoided due to possible risks from project management. Therefore, in order to generalize the in situ production of PC members, it is necessary to clarify the causes of the possible risks and establish responses. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyse the in situ production risks of PC members. The results of this study can be used to establish a systematic response plan for possible risks in the in situ production of PC members.

Most of the heavy-loaded- and long-span buildings are being constructed with pin-joint PC method. For pin joints, adequate erection time is needed to ensure the structural stability of the joint. Since the SMART frame developed to solve this problem is moment-jointed, structural stability is ensured at the same time as the PC member is assembled. In addition, if SMART frame is used for heavy-loaded- and long-span building projects, it will be possible to shorten erection time, secure quality, and reduce costs. However, in order to apply the SMART frame in practice, it is necessary to predict in advance the risks that may arise during project execution. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the risk identification of an innovative composite precast concrete structure with heavy-loaded- and long-span buildings. The results of this study will be used as basic data for systematic risk management when SMART frame method is applied.

The construction industry in Malaysia has been growing over the years. In order to fulfil the demand, new land needs to be opened and developed. However, this could be an issue as opening and developing a new land causes adverse effects to the environment as these leads to the Green House effect. One of the solutions is to design pontoon-type concrete structure. Pontoon-type concrete structure refers to the artificial pontoon-type structure made from concrete. However, designing a pontoon-type structure requires a special mixture of concrete and infill material. It is profitable to use sustainable material including polystyrene. This research aims to determine the strength of pontoon type concrete partially made from polystyrene and to compare the strength of it with M20 mix concrete. A laboratory testing has been conducted and it can be concluded that the strength of concrete made from polystyrene were lesser than conventional M20 concrete. These may come from the fact that the smooth surface of polystyrene tends to have a weak bonding in the cement paste. It can be concluded that the concrete made from polystyrene could be used for pontoon concrete for non-structural application. This result is significant for the construction industry as it produces new sustainable material for construction industry.

Scientific consensus agrees that global climate changes over the past centuries until today are due to human activities. And it is a growing threat to environment in the society. With this in mind building industries need to contribute their efforts to encourage a healthier life style and to live in a healthier environment. One contribution devoted to preventing harm to the environment is the (LEED). LEED is a body that provides certifications for Environmental and energy Design from architectural industry to the applicants. It is the only rating system for the green building design that communicates with global sustainable development practices and projects. LEED certification is based on the overall score that is achieved for any given project. This certification will measure the impact of the green building design and sustainability, and it will provide the project with one of the LEED rating levels (platinum, gold, silver and certified), also it will help the project’s owner and operators to measure the building’s performance. Projects from office towers to single family homes have registered for LEED certification. Some of them have submitted registration for the LEED certification, as a result of the continuous growth that has spurred the recent pricing structure changes. This is a clear indication of LEED’s continued strength and value to the growing market places. This paper aims to1.Recognize and celebrate high-quality “green” building.2.Measure the “green” building solution which is based on sustainable building practices.3.Explain how to register a project.4.Raise awareness of the efficiency of staff performance in the work place.The research focuses on two studies in order to reach its aims1.First is the theoretical part which is divided into many factorsWhat is the LEED?What is the LEED certified to?What are the LEED measures?Why certify?Why are the LEED professional credentials changing?What are the eligibility requirements for the LEED professional credentials?How to register a project with the LEED?2.Second is the applied partThis part includes the projects submitted for LEED certification, and one is selected for the case studies in Saudi Arabia. Thereafter, the study ends with important conclusions and recommendations.

The performance and strength needs are not adequately satisfied by the advancement in concrete technology as well as the development of new materials and components. Part replacement of cement by mineral admixtures in concrete overcomes many problems and leads to improvement in the strength as well as durability of concrete. This paper deals with the regression analysis of various experimental results on compressive strength of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)-Metakaolin (MK)-Red Mud (RM)-based ternary-blended concrete with different water-binder ratios (w/b) 0.40, 0.38, 0.36, and 0.33. For all w/b ratios, the compressive strength was determined at different days of curing. In all the w/b ratios the regression analysis using SPSS software and the regression curve had been carried out by replacing 0–14% of the mass of OPC with MK and RM separately and a combination of MK:RM of different proportions of 50:50, 60:40, 70:30, and 80:20. The analysis was also done using neural network. From the experimental results the strength activity index was high in 8% replacement of OPC by MK and 4% by RM whereas in the combination of MK:RM at 10% for the proportion 80:20 shows the highest strength activity index.

Aesthetics of a structure are given primary importance in the present days and this demands new and challenging designs with large spans and complicated designs. The role of a structural engineer becomes more significant because of these structural irregularities. This makes it necessary to have advanced technologies like post-tensioning if we are not ready to compromise in the aesthetics. Generation of such irregular structures will form varying mass and stiffness distribution which imparts to the effect of torsion. This paper deals with the various structural behaviour of a multi-storied RC Convention Centre building having large spans of around 32 m. The effect on the structure due to these large spans is compared with both RC and prestressed concrete. The roof slab of the auditorium portion of the structure is designed with normal RCC and compared with Slabs resting on Prestressed Post-tensioned Girders using the software Adapt Builder 2016. A comparative study between RCC and prestressed concrete is also done. Diaphragm action of the structure is considered for seismic design in order to provide a monolithic action and hence to counteract the effect of torsion. A comparative study is done with and without considering the effect of torsion into account and the results shows that in higher seismic zones the effect of torsion is predominant and proper care should be given to extreme columns and corner columns which are more vulnerable to failure. Response spectrum analysis of the structure is done in STAAD.Pro and storey response plots are obtained.

Today, it is very important to apply innovative technologies and materials for the purpose of constructing lightweight buildings, reducing time built, and improving the performance and earthquake resistance of buildings. In such walls, the empty spaces are normally filled with stone wool and polystyrene blocks. To this end, lightweight concrete (LWC) can also be used, which results in an improvement in behavior of these frames; it makes the walls considerably stiffer and reduces the local buckling of sections. This research was carried out for evaluating the performance of cold-formed steel frame in-filled by polystyrene lightweight concrete using ABAQUS software. In this study, three cold-formed steel frames were introduced with 2.4 m length, 1.4 m height, and 5 cm thickness and analyzed under lateral load. The first specimen was consisted of studs and runners with semi-rigid connections and without bracing. The second specimen consisted of studs and runners with X-shaped bracings. Finally, the third one was similar to the first one except that the cavity between members was filled using Polystyrene lightweight concrete. To achieve the best type of LWC and explore the optimum mix design with efficient concrete consistent with the frame system, testing was done on totally 30 samples of perlite and polystyrene concrete and compared with each other. Based on the results, in comparison with strap bracing, because of high stiffness of in-filled frames, they could act as the main lateral load-bearing system, hence attracting more portions of the lateral excitations.

Strengthening the reinforced concrete elements using polymer fibers continues to interest many researchers. In this context, an experimental study has been completed to evaluate the reinforcement on shear behavior of beams. Different fiber band positions were applied to beams in nodal zones. The four-point bending tests have been performed. The results have shown that the inclined bands by 45° with respect to the beam axis provide better results compared to those obtained by orthogonal bands (90°), in strength, stiffness, and ultimate load, as well as deformations. In addition, the use of these bands increases the bearing capacity by reducing the arrow and limits crack widths and ensures better behavior of these structures.

A 2D deterministic stability analysis of the frictional slope is done in order to estimate the coefficient of security using the finite element limit analysis. The methodology makes use of the Optum G2 software. Hence, a 2D probabilistic study was considered by the finite element analysis with the random field theory according to the Monte Carlo simulation by the Karhunen–Loeve approach, the spatial variability and the local averaging of the soil’s random variables were addressed into the analysis to determine the effect of their random log-normal distribution in a parametric study, while considering the rest of the slope’s parameters as constants. Hence, the choice of the stochastic parameters of the slope (coefficient of variation COV, correlation lengths θ) is taken into account to evaluate the probability of failure. The analysis was repeated until obtaining stable statistics of the output utilizing 1000 Monte Carlo runs, and then representing the analysis results via the familiar software Microsoft Excel 2013. It is found that the mean value of the coefficient of security decreases with the raise of the spatial variability (COV), thus, it presents a reduction in the standard deviation. However, the probability of slope failure increases with COV for a corresponding high factor of security; and large values of the correlation lengths provide more smoothly varying field.

Recent problems related to design and poor performance of many indigenous subcontractors in Saudi Arabia are clear calls for action to improve the overall performance of the subcontractors to be highly competitive; deliver high quality service to clients and wider society, minimize the rate of disputes and push the local industry forward. With the exclusive ability of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to enhance organization amongst operators, contractors and design teams; its implementation reduces project time, cost, material consumption and carbon emissions while improving contractors and subcontractors’ productivity and quality performance. The technology to implement BIM is readily obtainable and quickly evolving. However, many subcontractors in the Kingdom are perceived to be slow in embracing the BIM revolution due to widespread lack of BIM knowledge, lack of will amongst the subcontractors to implement BIM. There is also apparent confusion due to lack of clear methodologies for BIM processes in the Kingdom. Thus, this paper made attempt to develop and validate a framework that could assist the relevant authorities to prepare regulatory guidelines that could encourage subcontractors’ full utilization of building information modelling in their construction projects and seek to raise their general capabilities. Expert validation was used to authenticate the framework. The high relative importance indices rated by the participants for most of the functions in the framework strongly indicate that the various functions (activities) are significant in influencing the adoption of BIM in projects and improving subcontractors’ performance. This paper provides original contribution to knowledge through a methodical investigation of the awareness and readiness levels of the subcontracting sector of the Saudi Arabian construction industry in applying the functions of BIM technology for construction projects. The paper also determined the critical success factors that are critical in the decision of adopting BIM. Above all, the paper presented a concise methodology for the development and validation of the BIM implementation framework for improving subcontractors’ performance. The outcomes of this study could be useful to regulators of the Saudi Arabian construction industry for preparing guidelines to improve the general level of BIM adoption and expertise within the industry.

Due to rapid development of construction industries in various dimensions, demand for construction materials is also gaining high momentum. Therefore, availability of natural sources of construction materials is going to be in decreasing trend to cope up with the high demand. Again currently, quantity of construction and demolition waste is also going too high day by day. Reuse of these construction and demolition waste is one of the promising solutions to protect natural fine aggregates. This study aims at investigations the possibility of the usage of these construction and demolition wastes to produce the fresh concrete with desirable properties. Natural fine aggregates (river sand) are replaced by the recycled fine aggregates by the different percentage levels for the production of fresh concrete. A comparative interpretation on the strength characteristics of the concrete produced with Ordinary Portland Cement and Portland Pozzolana Cement is also presented and discussed in this paper.

Malaysia alone generates approximately 30,000 tons of rubbish every day containing around 13% of solid plastic waste. Besides conventional recycling and landfilling, an alternative disposal of this waste is required for sustainable development. Adding plastic waste as a fiber in concrete would play an important role to reduce plastic waste. This study investigates the 7 days test results of properties of concrete containing plastic fibers derived from waste bags. In this study, polyethylene waste plastic bags were manually cut into fibers of two different lengths (5–12 mm and 20–35 mm). Nine concrete mixtures were prepared with quantities of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4% of both types of plastic fibers. Workability, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength were tested at 7 days and compared with conventional concrete. The addition of plastic fibers significantly improved concrete properties. Research results showed that depending on quantity of plastic fibers, concrete may achieve different strengths. The test results proved that the utilization of plastic fibers derived from waste plastic bags in concrete is possible and it can improve the properties of concrete.

A numerical model is suggested to predict the behavior of alveolar beams to multiple octagonal openings up to failure taking into account material and geometric nonlinearities in calculation. This research is interested in the effect of web distortions in a lateral distortional buckling mode of the I-beams on simply supported subjected to a load concentrated in the middle of the beam. Analytical expressions obtained from previous works have been adapted to these alveolar beams in order to study the influence of thick flanges, stocky flanges, slender webs, and slender beams. The study was carried out in order to compare the numerical and analytical results in addition to the design method of the EC-3.

Occupational safety and health is the most important concern of construction companies because both direct and indirect losses impact the companies. In addition, knowledge management can help raise safety awareness in the companies. Therefore, this research aims to develop Building Information Model for Construction Safety Knowledge Management (BIM-CSKM), which implements construction safety knowledge management and uses the building information modeling software for storing and presenting safety knowledge. The test results show safety knowledge for each of the five risky areas in the construction project, i.e., floor openings, radius of tower cranes, material stockpiles, scaffolding structures, and excavations.

Loading position effect on the bending behaviour of triangular web profile (T_RIWP) steel section is presented in this paper. A T_RIWP steel section was made by the connection two flanges to a web plate triangular profile, which were analysed using LUSAS finite element software. The study involved 3000, 4000 and 4800 mm span of T_RIWP steel sections with size 200 × 100 × 6 × 3 mm and 180 × 75 × 5 × 2 mm, respectively. Three types of loading positions were studied: the middle of the slanting part, the upper corner and the lower corner (of the corrugation profile). It was observed that the middle of the inclined part loading position contributes lower deflection compared to the others loading position. This was true for both deflection in major axis of T_RIWP1 and T_RIWP2 steel section. This was due to the middle position (inclined part) of the web section, which is more stiffen between the upper and lower positions of the web. Meanwhile, for the minor axis, the deflection value of inclined part is nearly close to the upper and lower loading position results, although the deflection value of the inclined part is the highest compared to the other loading positions.

Progressive collapse analysis of three 20-storey regular building with/without central atrium and irregular RC frame buildings using linear elastic static and nonlinear static methodologies is carried out using SAP2000 software. Irregularity is provided by taking stepped-type geometry in elevation along shorter bay. Each procedure of the performed analysis is investigated thoroughly and DCR values are quantified, described in brief with advantages and disadvantages, comparing significantly according to GSA guidelines. The purpose of this research is to investigate structural linear and nonlinear behaviour of different building structures and develop design rules and strategies to economically design structures resistant to progressive collapse. Using nonlinear static analysis, rotation and displacement of plastic hinges are observed along with percentage GSA load attempt caused due to sudden removal of primary load-bearing column member of ground floor from different positions.

Corrugated web profiles have been introduced by researchers to increase the stiffness of the web. A triangular web profile (TriWP) steel section is a section of joining slanting stiffeners at a certain corrugation angle forming a triangular web profile. In this research, the nonlinear bending behaviour of TriWP steel section in major axis is analysed by finite element analysis and experimental. From the finite element analysis and experimental testing, it is observed that in major axis FW section shows a higher bending capacity compared to that of TriWP section. Parametric study is carried out to analyse the effects of web thickness, depth, corrugation angle, flange thickness and loading position to bending behaviour of TriWP section. Result of parametric study shows that by the increment of web thickness, flange thickness and depth of section, the bending capacity of TriWP steel section is increased. Moreover, larger corrugation angle also improves the bending capacity as the number of slanting stiffener increases throughout the span as the corrugation angle increased.

The relationships between concrete properties (strength, porosity, and carbonation) and time attacked by acid environment were studied. Current environmental condition with acid rain caused air, soil, and water is acidic. It threats the degradation building with concrete construction. Two groups were organized in this research. One of them which was defined as control specimen was immersed in water curing. The other one was immersed in a solution of 5% sulfuric acid (PH₃) for the purpose of simulating the acidic environment in the laboratory. Different from other reports, the cubes were not previously immersed in water for 28 days but directly immersed in acid solution after being demoulded for one day. Furthermore, the constitutional equations from laboratory experiment were validated by embedding the specimens in acid soil (real acid condition) with similar PH. The results showed that due to immersion in sulphuric acid 5%, concrete had a decreased strength, increased porosity and the occurrence of carbonation at the age of 3–90 days. The result from laboratory experiment for compressive strength was similar with that of a field experiment. Furthermore the relationship between the age of concrete and its porosity considered valid for the age of under 14 days. However, the relationship between the age of concrete and carbonation event judged invalid with that from a field experiment. The results established that the constitutive relations of the properties of concrete in the acid environment were considerably divided by the type of the acid environment.

Insufficient knowledge on using fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials in hollow members limits their application. Torsional load results in the less efficient hollow section that plays an important role in hollow members. This load is generated on the members by an external load. The torsional load in hollow members that are reinforced longitudinally with FRP has been discussed for years. However, research on high-strength concrete (HSC) reinforced with glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) is scarce. Therefore, in this study, the behaviour of hollow beam internally reinforced with GFRP bars under cyclic load is investigated. For this purpose, the HSC-reinforced concrete hollow beam with GFRP bars and hollow beam with normal reinforcement are considered and finite element model is developed and nonlinear dynamic analysis has been conducted by applying cyclic loads to the developed models. In addition, reinforced concrete (RC) solid beam with HSC material is tested experimentally in order to verify and validate the ability of finite element software to predict the result. The analysis results are investigated in terms of the hysteresis loop, stress and strain distribution in the beam and it is indicated that the performance of hollow beam reinforced with GFRP bars and stirrups has improved in comparison with HSC beam with GFRP bars and also HSC beam with normal steel reinforcement. Therefore, based on this research, it is recommended to implement GFRP bars and stirrup for strengthening the concrete members in the high humidity areas where use of normal steel is not feasible due to corrosion threat.

Experience of recent earthquake proved that infill wall contributes to the behaviour of structures subjected to earthquake or any vibration loads. Although the infill wall is not considered during design process, as it is not a structural element. However, the function of infill wall during vibration of building has not been investigated comprehensively. Therefore, in this study, the influence of RC infill wall on seismic performance of the RC building during earthquake excitation is evaluated. For this purpose, a four-storey building; with and without RC infill wall elements is considered and finite element model is developed to study the influence of this RC infill wall in seismic response of building. Linear static, linear dynamic, nonlinear static (push over) and nonlinear dynamic (time history) analyses were all applied to the specified model for developing the finite element model of this building. On the other hand, an experimental study was carried out to verify the influence of the RC infill wall on the RC frame. The results indicated that utilizing RC infill wall can improve the response of the framed structure effectively during earthquake occurrence. It was also observed that adding infill wall in the outside bays of the four-storey building decreased the displacement of the structural nodes both in x and y directions and decreased their rotation around they and z axis. In addition, addition of RC infill walls reduced the axial forces in the columns and beams in the whole structure. Besides, a clear reduction in the shear forces was observed in the columns and beams. The moment around the beams and columns along the z axis was reduced after addition of the RC infill walls.

Using prefabricated structure in lightweight construction is the new method in both industry and civil engineering. Lightweight Steel Frame (LSF) becomes more valuable in the construction industry due to low cost, low weight, high speed of installation and resistance to environmental conditions. Cold-rolled form lightweight load-bearing wall is consisting of a thin sheet of steel with C-shaped sections (STUD), thermal insulation filler and cover sheets (Plaster Board). However, regardless of existing plasterboard protection the thin-walled steel sections heat up quickly and lose their strength under fire conditions. The main goal of the current study is an evaluation of thermal capacity and bearing strength of lightweight walls in terms of cellulosic fire condition analytically. The variable parameters are insulation filler materials (polystyrene, polystyrene concrete) and axial load. The Abaqus finite element software was used for modeling and analyzing of fire loads. Lightweight concrete fillers increase the axial bearing capacity of walls sustainably and polystyrene filler improved the fire resistance of walls.

Nowadays, application of precast constructions is increasing, due to benefit of the industrialized building systems, specially the performance of this type of construction structures when effects of dynamic loads are considered. Precast beam column connection is mostly the critical part in the structures to resist the loads, so that the attention must be paid while designing such connections. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the precast concrete beam–column connection comparing with the conventional joints. Three-dimensional nonlinear analysis was conducted using finite element method with five beam–column connections under the effect of cyclic load, bearing pad, steel dowel, and steel angle cleat were used to improve the connections performance. The results indicated that the using of steel angle cleat and dowel together and doubling angle cleat have improved the lateral resistance of the precast connections as well as the lateral stiffness and the ability to dissipate damage energy when comparing with the conventional joint performance.

Today, a number of researchers are broadly studying the effective implementation of supplemental seismic energy dissipation systems to improve seismic behavior of structures during earthquakes. The current article studies the impacts of employing Viscous Wall Damper devices to couple two adjacent structures on seismic response of the new system. An exclusive finite element algorithm capable of modeling and analyzing structures equipped with special damper systems was used in order to perform a nonlinear time history analysis subjected to seismic excitation. Two ten-story RC framed structures are modeled adjacently in 11 different cases, each representing existence or damping coefficient of the Viscous Wall Damper device. A parametric study has been conducted in each case to assess the effectiveness of implementing Viscous Wall Damper devices on improving seismic behavior of the coupled structure. The considered metrics include rotation and displacement amplitude, plastic hinge formation, and induced element forces. It has been proved that the proposed damper system substantially diminishes and dissipates induced seismic response of the system. Also, it is indicated that the extent to which Viscous Wall Damper device contributes in mitigating seismic responses is highly correlated with the damping coefficient.

Nowadays, advances in telecommunications and broadcasting have led to the implementation of communication towers for installing network equipment. These towers are designed to go as high as possible in order to cover large area and avoid obstructions. However, there exist many challenges faced by engineers in relation to design of the tall and slender structures such as the complexity configuration of the structure. The nonlinear dynamic analysis is the only method that describes the actual behaviour of a structure during earthquake. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the behaviour of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPFC), high-strength concrete (HSC) and normal concrete communication tower with 30 m height located in Malaysia under seismic excitation. Also, to provide strength, stiffness and stability for the slender structures due to their sensitivity to dynamic load such as earthquake and vibration forces. For this propose, the finite element model of the tower is developed and time history analysis of communication tower under seismic load was conducted. In addition, the effect of using prestress instead of conventional reinforcement was investigated. The result indicated that prestressing of tower had lesser effect on the lateral displacement of tower under earthquake excitation. Although, the tower with UHPFC and HSC material shows lower lateral peak displacement against earthquake load compared to the normal concrete, which led to the increase in the use of these materials in lateral stiffness of the tower structure.

Seismic response behavior of the shear wall buildings has been investigated since last few years in the seismic zones using laboratory experimental testing and commercial package analysis. Three-dimensional analysis of shear wall structure under multiple direction of seismic excitation is a challenging work in the design of earthquake resistance structure, but the most challenging task is the analysis of the shear wall equipped with viscous damper at the middle of the shear wall using three dimensions of time history earthquake excitations. The main objective of this research is to find out the optimum shear wall location under three dimensions of earthquake excitation using commercial package ETABS. For this purpose two models of shear wall locations have been adapted in this research. Model type one, the shear wall is located at the middle span of three spans frame. Model type two, the shear wall is located at the corner spans of the same frame. The other objective of this research is to find out the optimum viscous damper location under three dimensions of earthquake excitation using commercial package ETBS. So, four different location of the viscous damper has been adapted in both two different shear wall models where the viscous damper embedded cut out of shear wall. The result of the peak deflection and structural member forces of the both shear wall models with and without implementation of viscous damper has been obtained successfully and compared their results accordingly. The result indicates the best performance of the shear wall goes to model type two. On the other hand, when the viscous damper located at the top of the shear wall frame structure has achieved the highest percentage reduction of the tip deflection and structural member forces of the shear wall frame and it is optimum location of viscous damper under 3D earthquake.

The anomalous nature of basin morphological characteristics produces significant geomorphic anomaly which is the indicator of seismotectonic activity. In recent years, the increasing frequency of earthquakes and subsequent damages to infrastructures in Indian sub-continent reveal to study the seimotectonic earthquake. Hence, the present research focuses to identify the geomorphic anomaly and morphotectonic signature to study the seismotectonic activity and its impact on infrastructure development through integrated remote sensing and GIS techniques. The various geomorphic indices have been computed and superimposed curves have been analysed to identify the geomorphic anomaly. Also, the morphotectonic features have been recognized by analysing satellite images and field observation data to find out the active tectonic signature. Finally geomorphic anomaly and morphotectonic signature have been integrated to study the seismotectonic activity and compared with existing infrastructures to understand its seismic vulnerability. The analysis reveals that the neotectonic deformations, drainage anomaly, elongated basin, tilted surface and structural influence are the major geomorphic anomaly and significant evidences for seismotectonic activity in the study region. The various morphotectonic signatures such as narrow valley, knick point, alluvial terraces, triangular facets, river meander in resistance surface and uplifted topography are the great signatures of seismotectonic activity. The various infrastructures such as heritage, educational, private, administrative, residential buildings, communication bridges and roads have been developed in various towns which are associated with significant geomorphic anomaly and morphotectonic features are more vulnerable during seismic activity. Also, the seismic retrofitting techniques have been suggested for existing infrastructures to protect them during seismic activity.

Water is an essential resource for the existence of life on earth. The storage capacity of the water depends on the physiography, soil, slope and geomorphic characteristics of the region. The analysis of geomorphic indices can signify the relationship between topographic characteristic and water retaining capacity which helps in identifying the water shortage problem and its solution. Most of the coastal watersheds in Deccan trap region in India face water scarcity problem during non-monsoonal season as they are covered mostly by basaltic hard rock terrain which is less porous in nature. The main focus of the present research is the analysis of geomorphic indices to address the water retaining problem and to suggest water resource management plan through integrated Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. To achieve this goal, the spatial data has been collected from different sources which is incorporated with field observation data. The thematic databases such as geology and geomorphology have been prepared to understand the topographical characteristic of the study area. The various geomorphic indices have been quantified with the help of satellite image and ASTER GDEM in GIS platform. The comparative geomorphic indices curves have been prepared to understand the topographic and geomorphic factors for addressing the water recharge problems. The analysis of geomorphic indices shows that the water retaining capacity is very low in the Upper gad and Janvali sub-watershed due to the influence of hard (Basaltic) rock, steep slope and has greater structural control. Further, hard rock terrain, rugged topography and surface roughness have been observed during field study which has great influence on water retaining capacity. The suitable artificial recharge techniques have also been suggested for sustainable development of water resource in the study area.

GIS-based maps are currently the norm for risk visualization and communication of natural hazards. With advances in geospatial visualization and spatial interface technologies, interactive and dynamic risk visualization is now possible. Augmented reality adds another dimension to realistic visualization of natural hazards like floods and volcanic flows which can be achieved through spatial risk visualization and communication simulations in virtual reality mode. Communicating the knowledge to the most vulnerable communities which are residing in the risk zones is very useful for local stakeholders as they are mostly needful of the adaptation strategies. The current article experiments the use of an Augmented Reality Construct for developing a risk visualization interface, which delivers spatially aware geovisualization simulations. We propose the Augmented Reality Sandbox for educating and engaging the local community through simulated visualization of hazard risk and vulnerability with an aim to achieve holistic learning. This construct has a great potential for developing interactive and location-aware three-dimensional real-world simulations and visualization. We suggest that such applications be more prevalently used as we found it to be more effective than static 3D visualization constructs like hazard maps in communicating the risk potential from natural hazards like floods and volcanic lava flows.

Anthropogenic activities like rapid urbanisation and commercial farming are driving land cover changes. South East Asia alone has witnessed large-scale changes in our environment and biodiversity due to forest conversion into commercial palm, cocoa and rubber plantations. In West Kalimantan of Indonesian Borneo, exponential increase in commercial palm plantation acreage at the cost of depleting rainforests was witnessed in the last three decades. The spatio-temporal variability of such land cover changes are effectively studied by using remote sensing techniques. The impact of such changes on hydrological processes at watershed scales can be established through change analysis. In this chapter, Landsat TM, MSS and ETM+ data between 1992 and 2013 were used to study land cover changes and estimate suspended sediment concentration from river waters. Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was computed for characterising vegetation land cover which was then classified as per the Food and Agricultural Organization schema. Both statistical and spatial change analysis were performed in a Geographical Information System (GIS). The results show a strong relationship between the observed land cover changes and estimated suspended sediment concentrations in the watershed which established a strong relationship between deforestation and erosion. This case study also presents an alternative methodology to link increased erosion to deforestation, especially in regions where applicability of Soil Loss Equation (SLE) based models are not possible due to lack of field collected datasets.

In Malaysia, Geocentric Datum of Malaysia 2000 (GDM2000) is connected to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2000 (ITRF2000). In comparison with the previous models, ITRF2014 represents a significant improvement in datum definition and realization. Nevertheless, the improvement causes a frame difference between ITRF2000, ITRF2008 and ITRF2014. Due to earthquakes that hit Sumatra region of Indonesia in the years 2004, 2005 and 2007 followed by post-seismic and co-seismic activities, Malaysia no longer lies on a stable continent. The movement on tectonic plate caused a shifting in geodetic datum of Malaysia to become non-geocentric. Thus, this factor gives impacts on positioning and mapping in Malaysia particularly in the realm of cadastral. Therefore, to measure the effect, the coordinates for positioning and mapping based on different International Terrestrial Reference Frames were analysed. To achieve the aim, this study is categorized into three phases. In the first phase, Global Positioning System (GPS) data was processed with respect to different reference frames (ITRF2000, ITRF2008 and ITRF2014) by Precise Point Positioning (PPP) Waypoint software. The result derived from the first phase was then be used in the next phase, where the coordinate was analysed based on different reference frames. In the third phase, the reliability of coordinate with different ITRFs was assessed specifically for cadastral purposes. In order to analyse the coordinates, a point at helipad of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was observed by using GPS static technique, and the data was processed differently according to the frames by PPP. The coordinates processed were used as a base station for fast static GPS observation. To process the data, Trimble Total Control (TTC) software was used resulting in three different coordinates of each point observed. The coordinates were assessed with respect to the existing Cassini-Soldner geocentric coordinates and coordinates derived from network-based Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) observation. The results show that ITRF2014 has small value of standard deviations with the mean of 0.0010, 0.0003 and 0.0020 m for latitude, longitude and height for point positioning. Whereas for mapping, the differences between coordinates from PA 40225—ITRF2000, PA 40225—ITRF2008 and PA 40225—ITRF2014 in general range from −0.277 to −0.209 m for northing and from 0.424 to 0.515 m for easting. In conclusion, GDM2000 has to be revised frequently with respect to the latest version of ITRF in order to give a better positional accuracy, and a fix geocentric mapping datum needs to be opted for cadastral integrated purposes in Malaysia.

At the end of year 2016, the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia has been hit by the flood. The low-lying area along the coastline was flooded with seawater causes the villagers to be moved to the relief centre, while the flood caused a lot of loss and damage to their properties. This flood happened because the phenomenon called king tide had occurred during that day. This king tide is formed when the Moon is very close to the Earth (at its closest perigee) and in the New Moon or Full Moon phase. This has brought sudden increase in tide magnitude. This phenomenon can be studied in order to help the early decision-making and proper planning to be rolled out. There are bunch of technologies that are made available which can be used to study the tide efficiently. One of the following technologies is by using space geodetic technique, the satellite altimeter. Satellite altimeter is the geodetic space technique which is designed for the study of the ocean. Compared to the conventional method of observing tide using tide gauge, this satellite altimeter can give the larger spatial coverage on tide especially on deep ocean region and near coastal region. In this research, sea level data is processed and derived using Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS). Altimetry-derived sea level data is used to monitor the king tide phenomenon in order to see their pattern and magnitude by comparing to the normal perigee days on the past year. This satellite altimeter is utilized to study the area of interest, which is at Malacca Strait and South China Sea. The result clearly shows that the perigee phenomenon which occurred on November 14 gave a significant impact on the tidal magnitude. The verification process between the satellite altimetry and tidal data also indicates a good argument for the root-mean-square error and correlation coefficient. The outcomes show that the satellite altimeter can be used as a tool to observe and monitor the king tide phenomenon particularly in large-scale area.

Understanding the climate change is the main theme in this paper by reviewing the existing literature available so far. A detailed discussion has been highlighted on the causes like greenhouse effect, human activity and solar irradiance. The evidences such as change in sea level rise in global temperature, warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, declining Arctic sea ice, glacial retreat, extreme events, ocean acidification and decreased snow cover have been discussed at great length. The consequences are rise in temperature, increase in frost-free season, change in precipitation pattern, more droughts and heat waves, and intense hurricanes. The mitigation, adaptation and the need of climate change research is also an important aspect in this review.

Nowadays, deformation monitoring survey includes numerous tasks, for example monitoring of engineering structures such as dam and bridges, land subsidence, earthquakes and other related applications. As a result, many professional groups such as surveyors and structural engineers, besides geophysics and geologists study the deformation analysis as a rigorous subject. Deformation measurements and analysis using geodetic method is one of the complicated and challenging works that need to be undertaken by land surveyors. The result of deformation analysis is to be used by other professions such as engineers, geodesists and geophysics as well. However, they are not really interested in the geometrical analysis (i.e. coordinate difference). Actually, they required the result of deformation modelling which is the deformation parameter that related to their field of study. Here shows the importance of information on deformation modelling instead of geometrical analysis and when its need to be performed. This study focused on the development of deformation modelling computational routine and subsequently been incorporated into an existing deformation analysis package. Deformation modelling is the stage to produce the right mathematical model from the result of deformation analysis (trend analysis) with relevant deformation parameter. The computational routine developed to analyse survey data obtained by the conventional geodetic technique in 2 dimension. In order to do deformation analysis, MATLAB program has been used to solve all the computation process. As a result, the ‘best’ model has been selected among the five models tested. The best model showed what type of deformation occurs on the body of the simulation network. The outcomes of the research have also improved from previous software and the results obtained were good and practicable to this study.

The most used methods for the disposal of solid waste in majority of developed and developing municipalities are the landfilling method. Solid waste management plays a vital role in urban planning. However, selection of landfill site is very complicated and tedious task mainly because there are many factors and strict regulations involved in the identification and selection process. The main purpose of landfill site selection process is to identify the areas that will drastically reduce the negative impacts of the landfill to the immediate environment and the public health. Different site selection and identification studies made used of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) methods. Also, the integration of these methodologies provides an environment to the decision-makers in siting suitable locations using land suitability analysis procedures. This paper proposes a conceptual model toward sustainable landfill site selection with the desegregation of GIS-based and multi-criteria decision analysis considering several criteria that are missed out to evaluate and identify the most suitable site for landfill. The outcome of this research would be of significant help to the waste management authority both local and international levels in siting a landfill toward sustainable solid waste management system.

Water vapor is known as a gas state of water. The nature of the water vapor is invisible, which means it cannot be seen but can be sensed by the humidity in the air. As the climate is warming due to the increase of carbon dioxide and other anthropogenic greenhouse gases, water vapor is expected to increase rapidly as models broadly conserve relative humidity. Water vapor consists of two components, namely, dry and wet delay. Only wet delay will be highlighted in this study due to which the dry delay can be modeled easily. The wet delay in the atmosphere needs to be monitored as to detect and predict changes in earth’s climate particularly for weather forecasting. There are many methods that can be used to measure the wet delay such radiosonde and Global Positioning System (GPS). But both of them had their limitations; for example, they were point-based solutions means that the wet delay can be derived at a certain area. Radiosonde method needs to be launched twice daily, and for a single launch, cost a lot. This study presents an effort to extract the wet delay measurement from radiometer system using satellite altimeter. The advantage of using satellite altimeter is that the wet delay parameter can be retrieved on land and marine areas. Thus, it can improve the spatial resolution for wet delay retrieval. This study employs the altimetry-derived wet delay trend based on multi-mission satellite altimeter in the Peninsular Malaysia for 1-year data, in 2014. Two altimeter missions were used, namely, Jason-2 and Saral. Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS) was used to extract the water vapor data. Altimetry-derived water vapor was verified with GPS-derived Zenith Wet Delay (ZWD) at six GPS Continuously Operating Reference System (CORS) stations. The verification results showed that the RMSE between the altimetry-derived wet delay and GPS-derived wet delay was about 3–12 cm. Furthermore, the data from the satellite altimeter is in a good shape with the seasonal variation of precipitation according to the climatic classification of the region. Besides that, the observed data also give reasonable values when considered for the wet and dry seasons because the value from the CORS and satellite altimeter only had a slight difference. In conclusion, altimetry-derived wet delay is promising to be used in climate and weather research in the future.

The El Nino and La Nina phenomena indirectly provide dramatic changes to the sea level that can be caused by floods and drought, and affect various marine activities. For the past centuries, the main approach to measure sea level changes is by using coastal tide gauges. However, there is inconsistency in observing sea level variations using tide gauge data for the Malaysian country. The inconsistency is due to irregular geographical distributions of tide gauge stations established at coastal areas and there are no long-term tide records for the deep sea. An alternative method in order to solve this issue is by measuring the absolute sea level from space, i.e., satellite altimeter technique. Satellite altimeter implements excellent potential as an integral mechanism to the conventional coastal tide gauge instruments for monitoring sea level variation of Malaysian seas, especially for the deep sea. The aim of this research is to study the sea level pattern due to the effects of El Nino and La Nina phenomena using a combination of multi-mission satellite altimeters in the Malaysian seas. Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS) is used for retrieval and reduction of sea level data from satellite altimeter. Then, sea level data from tide gauge was used to verify satellite altimeter derive the sea level data. The result of this research shows that satellite altimetry is reliable in other to monitor changes in sea level. It also shows that El Nino and La Nina phenomena can also contribute as one of the factors to sea level changes around Malaysian seas. Hence, this research will specifically help in the determination of sea level in Malaysia and to the professionals who have authority in governmental, environmental planning, agriculture, marine engineering, and economics.

This study investigates the power of deep learning in predicting the severity of injuries when accidents occur due to traffic on Malaysian highways. Three network architectures based on a simple feedforward Neural Networks (NN), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) were proposed and optimized through a grid search optimization to fine tune the hyperparameters of the models that can best predict the outputs with less computational costs. The results showed that among the tested algorithms, the RNN model with an average accuracy of 73.76% outperformed the NN model (68.79%) and the CNN (70.30%) model based on a 10-fold cross-validation approach. On the other hand, the sensitivity analysis indicated that the best optimization algorithm is “Nadam” in all the three network architectures. In addition, the best batch size for the NN and RNN was determined to be 4 and 8 for CNN. The dropout with keep probability of 0.2 and 0.5 was found critical for the CNN and RNN models, respectively. This research has shown that deep learning models such as CNN and RNN provide additional information inherent in the raw data such as temporal and spatial correlations that outperform the traditional NN model in terms of both accuracy and stability.

Malaysia, which geographically located in the Sunda Plate, is exposed to various types of natural hazards such as land subsidence, landslides, and natural deformation phenomena. This study is conducted to investigate both the spatial and temporal variations of Earth tidal displacement over Peninsular Malaysia using a Kinematic Precise Point Positioning (KPPP) GPS analysis. The continuous GPS observation over a 1-year period has been utilized to observe the diurnal, semi-diurnal, and long-term periods. The KPPP GPS solutions correlate well with prediction from the theoretical Earth tidal model that consists of both ocean tide loading and solid Earth body tide model with average positive correlation 0.9810 and average mean biased −1.2997 cm. Results have widened the understanding of Earth tidal variations in equatorial regions, thus beneficial for Earth tidal modeling and improving quality of space geodetic measurements.

Landslide is one of the most devastating natural disasters across the world with serious negative impact on its inhabitants and the environs. Landslide is considered as a type of soil erosion which could be shallow, deep-seated, cut slope, bare soil, and so on. Distinguishing between these types of soil erosions in dense vegetation terrain like Cameron Highlands Malaysia is still a challenging issue. Thus, it is difficult to differentiate between these erosion types using traditional techniques in locations with dense vegetation. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can detect variations in terrain and provide detailed topographic information on locations behind dense vegetation. This paper presents a hierarchical rule-based classification to obtain accurate map of landslide types. The performance of the hierarchical rule set classification using LiDAR data, orthophoto, texture, and geometric features for distinguishing between the classes would be evaluated. Fuzzy logic supervised approach (FbSP) was employed to optimize the segmentation parameters such as scale, shape, and compactness. Consequently, a correlation-based feature selection technique was used to select relevant features to develop the rule sets. In addition, in other to differentiate between deep-seated cover under shadow and normal shadow, the band ration was created by dividing the intensity over the green band. The overall accuracy and the kappa coefficient of the hierarchal rule set classification were found to be 90.41 and 0.86%, respectively, for site A. More so, the hierarchal rule sets were evaluated using another site named site B, and the overall accuracy and the kappa coefficient were found to be 87.33 and 0.81%, respectively. Based on these results, it is demonstrated that the proposed methodology is highly effective in improving the classification accuracy. The LiDAR DEM data, visible bands, texture, and geometric features considerably influence the accuracy of differentiating between landslide types such as shallow and deep-seated and soil erosion types like cut slope and bare soil. Therefore, this study revealed that the proposed method is efficient and well-organized for differentiating among landslide and other soil erosion types in tropical forested areas.

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are essential to provide continuous terrain elevation for water surface elevation (WSE) with a variety of horizontal and vertical accuracies in flood inundation modelling. The WSE forecasting depends on the appropriateness of the DEM data used. The comparative methodology is applied to various DEM sources: LiDAR and IFSAR DEM based on different types of land use at each of the cross-sectional lines. The accuracy of the IFSAR DEMs was assessed with LiDAR data, which is a high-precision DEM and was applied in hydraulic modelling to simulate the WSE in Padang Terap, Kedah, Malaysia. Furthermore, Bjerklie’s model is used as predicted discharge to support the analysis. The relationship of the DEMs is established by natural logarithm (ln). Then, the equation is interpolated on the original and resampled IFSAR DEMs to improve the medium-resolution data for WSE delineation. Next, the WSE was validated with observed WSE obtained along the upstream (Kuala Nerang) to the downstream parts (Kampung Kubu) Kedah using R2, mean absolute error (MAE), and root-mean-square error (RMSE). By applying this method, the WSE can be improved by considering uncertainties and lead to produce a better flood hazard map using medium-high-resolution images.

Of late, application of data mining for pattern recognition and feature classification is fast becoming an essential technique in remote sensing research. Accurate feature selection is a necessary step to improve the accuracy of classification. This process depends on the number of feature attributes available for interactive synthesis of common characteristics that discriminate different features. Geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) has made it possible to derive varieties of object attribute for this purpose; however, the analysis is more computationally intensive. The aim of this study is to develop feature selection technique that will provide the most suitable attributes to identify different roofing materials and their conditions. First, the feature importance was evaluated using gain ratio algorithm, and the result was ranked, leading to selection of the optimal feature subset. Then, the quality of the selected features was assessed using correlation-based feature selection (CFS). The classification results using SVM classifier produced an overall accuracy of 83.16%. The study has shown that the ability to exploit rich image feature attribute through optimization process improves accurate extraction of roof material with greater reliability.

The fact that we will lose the source of fossil fuel in the future is undeniable. Hence, it is crucial to find the replacement of this resource. In present day, wave energy is found to be one of the sources of renewable energy. This chapter is proposing to assess the wave height climatology over the Malaysian seas in order to support renewable energy. The key step in the assessment of wave height climatology over Malaysian seas, South China Sea, Malacca Straits, Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea, is by acquiring an accurate and reliable wave height data. The Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS) was used to extract the 24 years of significant wave height data from January 1993 to December 2016. Altimetry-derived wave height data were validated with ground truth observation from wave buoy and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). The wave height magnitude and pattern were then analysed particularly to see its characteristic during monsoon season. The monthly average of altimetry significant wave height from January 1993 to December 2016 was mapped in this study. The findings clearly show that the Northeast monsoon has the most significant effect of wave height variation over Malaysian seas, while the Southwest monsoon has minimal effect. The reliability of satellite altimetry also proved based on the RMSE and correlation results, which are 0.2515 m and 0.9396, respectively. This study offers useful wave height information especially related to renewable energy in the Malaysian seas for future studies.

Real-Time Precise Point Positioning (RT-PPP) has started to develop among Global Positioning System (GPS) community due to some reasons, such as reference stations are required, very economical and easy to operate from everywhere. By using a dual-frequency receiver with the support from GPS precise products, RT-PPP has proven to give centimetre to decimeter positioning accuracy. Recently, the position can be obtained in real time using the real-time GPS precise products provided by many national geodetic agencies. Current real-time GPS positioning systems also allow accurate positioning by carrier phase-based double differencing approach. However, the limitation of using the differential approach is the process needs simultaneous data collection from common satellites at the reference station and the rover. Directly, the data acquisition process will become more difficult and this will decrease the suitability of this technique in other potential applications. The aim of this research is to analyse the current performance of RT-PPP technique using Hemisphere Atlas for positioning and mapping. This research also assessed the positioning accuracy between RT-PPP and static GPS techniques. Then, the reliability of RT-PPP for cadastral purposes is also evaluated. Methodologically, RT-PPP used Hemisphere Atlas, which is a dual-frequency receiver for position determination by processing raw pseudorange and carrier phase observations with the support from precise GPS orbit and clock information. The results of this research show that the coordinate for both positioning and mapping purposes using Hemisphere Atlas are within centimetre-level accuracy, i.e. below 10 cm for positioning and below 30 cm for cadastral purposes. Therefore, this study anticipates that RT-PPP has the potential to offer better operational flexibility that will guide for the full implementation of this technology particularly in surveying and mapping in the future.

Empirical multivariate predictive models represent an important tool to estimate debris flow initiation areas. Most of the approaches used in modelling debris flows propagation and deposit phases required identifying release (starting point) area or source area. Initiation areas offer a good overview to point out where field investigation should be conducted to establish a detailed hazard map. These zones, usually, are arbitrarily chosen which affect the model outputs; hence, there is a need to have accurate and automated means of identifying the release area. In addition to this, the resolution of the terrain dataset also affects the results of the detection of source areas. In this study, airborne laser scanning (ALS) data was used because of its robustness in providing detailed terrain attributes at high resolution. Primary and secondary conditioning parameters were derived from digital elevation model (DEM) as input into the modelling process. Three models were executed at different spatial resolution scales: 5, 10 and 15 m, respectively. MARSpline multivariate data mining predictive approach was implemented using morphometric indices and topographical derived parameter as independent variables. A statistics validation was calculated to estimate the optimal pixel size, 1200 randomly sample data were generated from existing inventory data. Debris flows and no-debris flows were categorized, and the transform to continuous integer (1 and 0), respectively. To achieve this, the data set was divided into two, 70% (840) for the training dataset and 30% (360) for validation. The best model was selected based on the model performance using the generalized cross validation (GCV) and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve/area under curve (AUC) values. Conditioning parameters were numerically optimized to identify the arbitrarily maximum model basis function for eleven variables, using MARSplines analysis (algorithm). The three most influencing topographic parameters identified are topographic roughness index (TRI), slope angle, and specific catchment area (SCA) with the percentage values of participation in the model of 100, 93, and 86%, respectively. The chosen function appeared to describe the analysed correlation sufficiently well. Consequently, three stages of optimization were made to determine the optimized source areas is possible with 10 m pixel size, 200 maximum basis functions and 3 maximum interactions, resulting into 82% ROC train and 80% test, GCV 0.189 and 85% correlation coefficient. The result will be of great contribution to the advancement of a broad understanding of the dynamics of debris flows hazard and mitigations at regional level which; that is resourceful for comprehensive slope management for safe urban planning decision-making process and debris flow disaster management.

Drought is a recurrent phenomenon in Bangladesh but it received very little attention in terms of early warning, detection, preparedness and mitigation of droughts. To manage all these aspects, an effective drought monitoring system is the prime pre-requisite. Till date, scientists worldwide have put several efforts to develop drought mapping and monitoring system using indices, which are derived from meteorological and satellite data. This study presents a method for spatio-temporal monitoring of drought in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which is based on meteorological data, is used in a GIS environment to generate drought hazard maps in the study area. On the other hand, time series Landsat satellite images were used to calculate various remote sensing based indices such as NDVI, VCI, TCI, VHI and NDWI in order to determine the extent of drought. Each of the indices produced a raster map, which is then reclassified to produce binary images with “drought” and “no-drought” classes. Finally, accuracy assessment of drought detection capability of the indices was done by formulating a comparison matrix from a set of values of randomly generated points within the study area. The result showed that NDVI and VCI are the most reliable indices for drought mapping for the study area based on the SPI values as standard. This study enabled a process of drought mapping basing on remote sensing indices and a comparative assessment of the performance of different indices as well. Inadequate numbers of meteorological stations in Bangladesh as well as missing rainfall data in some of those stations made the calculation of SPI values less accurate. As a consequence, the accuracy level of index based drought identification has been deteriorated. Moreover, lack of ground truth data imposed a drawback on the accuracy assessment process. In spite of the aforementioned shortcomings, the methodology adopted in this study is capable of mapping the spatio-temporal pattern of drought from time series Landsat Satellite images with acceptable accuracy. This study recommends further research on assessing the suitability of all other drought indices for Bangladesh, formulation of drought definition policy and development of integrated drought monitoring system comprising meteorological, statistical, observational and remote sensing data.

This study illustrates the extent of contamination for presence of heavy metal in soil of a selected waste disposal site at Rajbandh, Khulna, Bangladesh. Thus, this research was executed to assess the vulnerability associated with heavy metals in soil using integrated indices containing potential contamination (Cp), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), modified contamination degree (mCD), numerical integrated contamination factor (NICF), enrichment factor (EF), geo-accumulation index (I_geo) and potential ecological risk index (PERI). To these endeavours, soil samples were collected from 60 selected locations of the disposal site in two different seasons; dry season (April, 2016) as well as rainy season (June, 2016). The relevant concentrations of Al, Fe, Mn, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd, As, Co and Sc were measured in the laboratory through the standards method by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The results of study can be concluded as most of the indices, i.e. CF, mCd, I_geo and PERI, indicated that the soil was polluted by heavy metals of Cd and Sb as well as Pb and As which is detrimental for the surrounding area. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to estimate the degree of association among the variable metals present in soil. Finally, the outcomes of this study will provide some useful insights for making appropriate management strategies to prevent or decrease soil pollution by metals around waste disposal site.

The study identifies various growing stages of rice crop using multispectral data through red edge analysis. The maximum reflectance values for 35, 66, 76, and 96 days which indicate vegetative phase, reproductive phase, reproductive phase and ripening phase are 0.17, 0.228, 0.231, and 0.266 respectively at the test site 1. For the test site-2, the same trends are followed. When the crop is in vegetative stage the reflectance values are less whereas, when the stage of crop is reproductive, adjacent to the vegetative, the values of reflectance are increasing significantly due to increase in trend in canopy. This type of spectral analysis approach can be adapted to generate spectral library which can be beneficial for future research purpose.

The aim of this study is to compare the amount of aboveground biomass (AGB) for different diameter classes between natural forest and a well maintained plantation forest. The comparison of AGB is conducted in two different ways. In the first method, the AGB is calculated as to per unit forest area (Mg/Ha). In the second one, the AGB is expressed in terms of per unit basal area of trees (Kg/cm2). From the first method the amount of AGB in natural forests and plantation forests are 248 Mg/ha and 294 Mg/ha respectively. AGB count in plantation forest is 18.54% higher than that of natural forest with the first method. For the second method, two species (Neem and Sal) were taken among all as they were ruling in number for both natural and plantation forests. In case when the second method was applied, the amount of AGB in natural and plantation forests for neem were calculated 0.31 kg/cm2 and 0.32 kg/cm2 respectively. For Sal AGB values for natural and plantation forests are 0.44 kg/cm2 and 0.47 kg/cm2, respectively. The study shows that for both the species when the diameter is lesser, the difference in AGB between two forests is more and in case of larger diameter, the difference between two forests is smaller. This happens due to silvicultural maintenance exists in plantation forest which is most important for younger trees. But for the natural forest, no silvicultural practices take place.

In flood modelling process, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) is a valuable tool in topographic parameterization of hydrological models. The release of the free-of-charge satellite based DEMs such as SRTM and ASTER prompted the accurate flood modelling process especially to propose flood mitigation in the Perlis region. In this research, the accuracy of SRTM DEM of spatial resolution 1 arc-sec and 3 arc-sec, as well as ASTER DEM are evaluated. The reference levels produced from GNSS observation and Earth Gravitational Model 1996 (EGM96), as well as local mean sea level are used to analyse the vertical accuracy of each GDEMs in Perlis, Malaysia. The total of 38 Benchmark (BM) and Standard Benchmark (SBM) around the Perlis region were observed by GNSS using static method and processed using TOPCON Tool software. A comparison with the local mean sea level height indicated that SRTM 1″ is the much greater absolute vertical accuracy with an RMSE of ±3.752 m and continued by SRTM 3″ and ASTER GDEMs where the obtained accuracy was ±4.100 and ±5.647 m, respectively. Also, by using orthometric height form the GNSS and EGM96 as reference elevation, the obtained accuracy was ±3.220, ±3.597, and ±5.832 m for SRTM 1″, SRTM 3″ and ASTER, respectively. Statistical results have also shown that SRTM 1″ has a good correlation with Hmsl and HGNSS where both correlations values are 0.9925, while the SRTM 3″ and ASTER show the correlation of 0.9873 and 0.9375.

Land use and land cover are important and useful geographic information system (GIS) layers that have been used for a wide range of geospatial applications. These layers are usually generated by applying digital image processing steps for a satellite image or images captured from an aircraft. Several methods are available in literature to produce such GIS layers. Image classification is the main method that has been used by many researchers to produce thematic maps. In the current study, a decision tree was used to develop rulesets at object level. These rules were applied and a thematic map of Karbala city was produced from SPOT image. The overall accuracy of the classification image was 96% and the kappa index was 0.95. The results indicated that the proposed classification method is effective and can produce promising results.

Underground caves and their specific structures are important for geomorphological studies. This paper investigates the capabilities of a new modelling approach advanced for true-to-life three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of cave with full resolution scan relative to 3D meshing. The cave was surveyed using terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) to acquire high resolution scans. The data was processed to generate a 3D-mesh model and textured 3D model using sub-sampled points and full resolution scan respectively. Based on both point and solid surface representation, comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches were examined in terms of data processing efficiency, visualization, interactivity and geomorphological feature representation and identification. The result shows that full scan point representation offers advantage for dynamic visualization over the decimated xyz point data because of high density of points and availability of other surface information like point normal, intensity and height which can be visualized in colour scale. For the reconstructed surface, mesh model is better with respect to interactivity and morphometric but 3D rendering shows superiority in visual reality and identification of micro detail of features with high precision. Complementary use of the two will provide better understanding of the cave, its development and processes.

Electricity is the pinnacle of human civilization. At present, the growing concerns over significant climate change have intensified the importance of use of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation. The interest is primarily due to better energy security, smaller environmental impact and providing a sustainable alternative compared to the conventional energy sources. Solar, wind, biomass, tidal, and wave power are some of the most reliable sources of renewable energy. Ocean approximately holds 2 × 103 tW of energy and has the largest renewable energy resource on the planet. Various forms constitute ocean energy namely, encompassing tides, ocean circulation, surface waves, salinity and thermal gradients. Ocean tide in particular, associates both potential and kinetic energy. The study is focused on the latter concept that deals with energy due to tidal current. Tidal currents generate kinetic energy that can be extracted by marine energy devices and converted into transmittable electricity form. The study analyzes the extracted tidal currents from numerical model works at several locations in the Bay of Bengal. Based on current magnitudes, directions and available technologies, the most fitted locations were adopted and possible annual generation capacity was estimated. The paper also examines the future prospects of tidal current energy along the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and establishes a constructive approach that could be adopted in future developments.

Satkhira is one of the most vulnerable coastal districts of Bangladesh due to both natural disasters and anthropogenic causes, which faces continuous environmental degradation. This study aims to explore the environmental changes in the Upazilas of Satkhira district by employing several remote sensing indices using the Landsat images of the year 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. NDVI, NDWI, NDSI, NDBI, and NDBaI are used to extract the spatial information regarding the condition of vegetation, wetlands, soil salinity, built up area and bare lands in the Upazilas respectively. Temporal change of these variables has been monitored and compared among and within the Upazilas on the basis of the threshold values of the indices. Analysis of NDVI has revealed that there was a drastic change in vegetation from 2007 to 2010, which was because of the cyclones. Though NDVI of 2013 showed a positive increase from 2010, it cannot restore its previous state not even in 2016. Analysis of NDBI and NDBaI have revealed that built up area has been increased day by day; whereas, a decreasing trend has been seen in case of bare lands, as the bare lands are occupied either by built up area or by shrimp farming area. Increasing NDWI and NDSI justify the increasing shrimp farming trend in Satkhira. These variables indicate the changing nature of land use land cover and the vulnerability due to environmental degradation in Satkhira district, which reveals a need for immediate land use planning. This study will help the policy makers and land use manager to promote substantial and sustainable development plan for Satkhira district.

Due to the climate change, the natural disasters have been occurred more frequently and the amount of damage has been increased as well. In South Korea, the number of snow disaster has been increased recently. In last 20 years, from 1994 to 2013, total snow damage was 1.3 billion dollars. In this study, the snow damage was estimated using historical damage data to response the possible heavy snow and mitigate the damage. The historical snow damage data from Annual Natural Disaster Report for the last 22 years were used to develop a multiple linear regression model. Input data for the model were daily maximum snow depth (or daily maximum fresh snow depth), daily highest temperature, daily lowest temperature, daily average temperature, relative humidity as meteorological factors, and also regional area, greenhouse area, number of farmers, number of farmers over age 60 were considered as socioeconomic factors. The developed model was applied in Jeolla-do, Chungcheong-do, and Kangwon-do which have the largest snow damage in the history. As the results, the model showed over 70% of accuracy in all of three cities.

The rapid urbanization process has created massive pressure on the environment and interrupted the water balance. In this research, Penchala River was chosen as the research area. Spatial variability of rainfall can lead to significant error in rainfall–runoff processes and hydrological modeling, specifically in the urban area. Thus, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the means of rainfall data from selected rainfall stations. The yearly and monthly data of all eight rainfall stations during the period of the year, 2012–2015 was used for this analysis. The post hoc test was used to identified, in which rainfall station differed among each other during the study. The null hypothesis (no significant difference) is accepted, when the computed p value is more than 0.05. The results showed that there is no significant statistical difference in the rainfall data between the rain gauges of S1–S8 with the p-values 0.945 (2012), 0.954 (2013), 0.342 (2014), and 0.427 (2015). It can be concluded that none of the gauge used for the determination of rainfall dataset contained systematic errors.

The current evolution of technologies and rapid development has influenced the pipeline construction all over the world. However, this development can be a risk to the surrounding environment, for example pipeline leakage. There are numerous incidents that caused by pipeline leakage, which includes petroleum pipeline leakage. The petroleum pipeline leakage is one of the very serious situations that can lead to the explosion and the worst it can cause disaster to the nearby area and loss of life. There are numerous methods that are used to detect underground pipeline leaks. One of the methods is Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR). This study investigates the petroleum leakage and its impact to the surrounding soil. The objectives of this study are to determine the physical properties of the contaminated soil and to evaluate the numerical analysis of the electromagnetic wave for petroleum leakage diffusion in sand. The prototype of leakage model has been built for simulating observation. The data have been collected for every hour for 16 h to monitor the petroleum leakage diffusion. The software used to process and extract GPR data is Reflex 2DQuick. Furthermore, the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method was used for the simulation of the petroleum leakage diffusion by simulating the electromagnetic waves penetrating through different materials. GPR signal modelling and numerical analysis were done in MATGPR software. The result of this study indicates the changes of dielectric constant of sand from 3 to 5.3 when the sand is mixed with petroleum. The increase in dielectric properties of sand is due to its ability to store the electrical energy. Moreover, the result of GPR signal modelling proves that the content of petroleum has disturbed the signal attenuation which is transmitted by the antenna.

The integration of precipitation intensity and LULC forecasting have played a significant role in prospect surface runoff, allowing for an extension of the lead time that enables a more timely implementation of the control measures. The current study proposes a full-package model to monitor the changes in surface runoff in addition to forecasting the future surface runoff based on LULC and precipitation factors. On one hand, six different LULC classes from Spot-5 satellite image were extracted by object-based Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Conjointly, Land Transformation Model (LTM) was used to detect the LULC pixel changes from 2000 to 2010 as well as predict the 2020. On the other hand, ARIMA model was applied to the analysis and forecasting the rainfall trends. The parameters of ARIMA time series model were calibrated and fitted statistically to minimize the prediction uncertainty by latest Taguchi method. Rainfall and streamflow data recorded in eight nearby gauging stations were engaged to train, forecast, and calibrate the climate hydrological models. Then, distributed-GIS-based SCS-CN model was applied to simulate the maximum probable surface runoff for 2000, 2010, and 2020. The comparison results showed that first, deforestation and urbanization have occurred upon the given time and it is anticipated to increase as well. Second, the amount of rainfall has been nonstationary declined till 2015 and this trend is estimated to continue till 2020. Third, due to the damaging changes in LULC and climate, the surface runoff has also increased till 2010 and it is forecasted to gradually exceed.

The Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a geophysical technique that uses non-destructive testing to detect objects and structure beneath the soil was a huge contribution in survey and engineering, especially in underground utility. GPR has been used since 1970 and the method is still undergoing upgrade alongside the sophisticated processing software. Nevertheless, soil is the principal medium which interferes with the signal penetration of GPR due to its physical and electrical properties. Thus, a study using soil stratigraphy is a prerequisite to understanding GPR radargram. In this study, a test bed was constructed to simulate different soil layers which consist of existing clay, sand, small stone, and crusher run stone. The GPR instrument with frequencies of 100, 250, 400, 750, and 900 MHz was used to collect the data. The processing was carried out using reflex software for image interpretation and three-dimensional (3D) visualizations. This study is expected to help surveyors in understanding the measurement, for example, soil composition, problems related to GPR underground surveying.

A number of research have been carried out on geomorphology using a conventional approach to classify the landform; this has a tendency of producing misleading result, due to ruggedness and inaccessibility of the terrain. Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing techniques are capable of generating automated landform classes using Topographic Position Index techniques (TPI). This research is set to achieve the following objectives: to categorize landform elements and to illustrate the complexity of the terrain in Negeri Sembilan state based on ASTER GDEM with 30 m resolution. TPI-based algorithm for landscape classification was applied to slope position and landform classification automation. We used 300 and 3000 neighbourhood size on the TPI grids to determine the landform categories. To quantify the spatial pattern of topographic position, Deviation from mean elevation (DEV) is adopted. Maximum Elevation Deviation was selected to measure the spatial landscape pattern at the maximum (3000) scale of the absolute DEV value within the scale (DEV_max), and finally, high-pass filter algorithm was used to identify the extreme topography (ridges/valleys). The combination of the TPI and slope position of DEV that formed the landform classification results show four prominent landform classes these include canyons, U-shape valley, local ridges/ hill valleys, and mountaintops/high ridges. The slope position classes revealed only two (valley/cliff base and ridges/canyons edge) classes based on slope position index. The canyons had the maximum of 63% and minimum was U-shaped valley with 1.04% for the landform of the area of interest. To achieve better results, there is a need to utilize a high spatial resolution remotely sensed DEM derived data and sensitivity analysis need to be incorporated. For that, laser scanning data is capable of improving the results.

The increasing CO₂ level in the atmosphere is threatening oceans’ ecosystems due to increased CO₂ absorption and potential oceans’ acidification. In this study, we used geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) techniques, coupled with chemical–mathematical models to evaluate the water capacity of a semi-enclosed gulf to absorb and release CO₂. The water of the gulf exhibits a wide range of spatial and temporal salinity and temperature variations due to the gulf location in a hot, arid region, the high water evaporation rate, and the unique water circulation pattern. In this study, GIS and RS data were used to assess the spatial and temporal distributions of surface temperatures and salinity of the gulf, which, in turn, were used to assess the capacity of the gulf waters to absorb and release CO₂. The results confirmed the profound impact of salinity and temperature on the CO₂ absorption and release capacity of the gulf, which highly influences potential acidification of the gulf waters.

Generally, before the construction of any construction project, the subsoil investigations were carried out to evaluate the various geotechnical properties of soil like shear strength, permeability, etc. The sustainability of the projects largely depend upon the true prediction of the behaviour of the soil in long term and short term. However, due to the application of external loads, the stress induced on the soil increased and its effect remain high at shallow depths. This may cause the breaking of the soil particles particularly for coarse grained soils like gravel and sand. This chapter demonstrates the influence of induced stresses on the geotechnical characteristics of sand. The static normal stresses were induced in the range of 5–20 MPa with help of Universal Testing Machine (UTM). It is seen that with increase of static stresses the breaking of sand particles occurred. This possibly results in the decrease of permeability and shearing strength.

Seismic hazard and geotechnical microzonation maps of urban communities make it conceivable to describe potential seismic zones that should be considered when planning new structures or retrofitting existing ones. This study looked at a local site-specific ground response analysis, which is an important step in estimating the effects of earthquakes. The soil data from 200 boreholes up to 30 m depth were collected and analyzed using SHAKE2000 and NovoLiq in order to develop local site amplification and liquefaction potential maps for the city of Sharjah. In addition, Geographical Information System (GIS) was utilized to create amplification and liquefaction potentials maps at different areas in Sharjah. These maps show zones of high vulnerability earthquake risk used for earthquake-resistant design of structures. The city of Sharjah was divided into areas, according to the amplification factor, which ranged from 1.44 to 1.83. A high amplification factor was found near the central region of the city, while the rest of the city lies in low amplification potential and relatively low seismic risk. Finally, liquefaction risk of Sharjah estimated and expressed in terms of safety factor. The low values of the safety factors against liquefaction were found in the north, northeastern, and southeastern portions of the city. Higher values were found in central and toward south central parts of the studied area. In these parts, the higher safety factor indicates low liquefaction potential of the soil and relatively low seismic risk.

Laterite soil, as one of the major groups of tropical residual soils, was investigated in application for engineered sanitary landfill liner. The laterite soil was used as a stand-alone material without any additives and subjected to different gradation to check its geotechnical potentiality as a sustainable material for liner. Specimens were prepared at different moulding water contents, i.e. optimum moisture content (OMC), dry of OMC and wet of OMC. Tests were carried out on natural soil 30, 40 and 50% fine content by dry weight of soil sample. The results showed that laterite soils should contain at least a minimum of 50% fine gradation to be used as liner. The outcome of this research is expected to serve as a sustainable guide to geotechnical/geo-environmental engineers in using laterite soil as a material in the construction of hydraulic barriers used for engineered sanitary landfill system in tropical countries of the world.

The adsorption of Rose Bengal dye over activated carbon prepared from Calotropis gigantea was investigated. SEM and FTIR characterization was carried out to evaluate the feasibility of adsorbent. The activated carbon was amalgamated into a polymeric bead and was coated with chitosan to increase the removal efficiency. Adsorption experiments were done at optimized equilibrium conditions and the absorbance was checked at 547 nm to calculate the removal percentage. The adsorption dynamics, isotherm kinetics were evaluated to interpret the removal efficiency of the dye. The rate kinetics were determined through the Ho’s pseudo-second-order model, which fitted perfectly for the present adsorption studies.

Peat soil is one of the abundant soft soil material vastly found in east costal area of Peninsular Malaysia. Soft soil can be treated using wet and dry mixing method for the purpose of deep stabilization method. It is either mixed thoroughly with conventional or nonconventional binder. Among other properties of concern in soil, stabilization is a strength of treated peat medium which is much likely dependant on condition of wet and dry mixture between binder and treated soil. Essentially, nonconventional binder such as Melamine Urea Formaldehyde (MUF) polymer resin has recently found a fresh look in this study intendedly for future possible application, especially for rapid application stabilization technique. This chapter presents the performance of two types of MUF resin, namely MUF powdered (MUF-P) and MUF liquid (MUF-L) resin which were tested to treat peat soil for determination of unconfined compressive strength (UCS), and elasticity modulus. Both type of resins were mixed with peat specimens as wet and dry binder for stipulated periods of curing times (1–7 days). Results showed that MUF-P resin had performed significantly to improve UCS of initially high moisture content of treated peat soil specimens for up to 287 kPa in a week. Improvement of elasticity modulus, E₅₀ in term of secant modulus also noticeable within 7–14 days of curing periods. However, MUF-L has significantly improved UCS of treated specimens particular for air curing application at lower range of moisture content with significant improvement of up to 500 kPa within 7 days curing period.

Allowable bearing capacity is often indirectly estimated from the measurements of field tests without conducting further laboratory tests on undisturbed soil samples. Standard penetration resistance (SPT N-value), widely practiced all over the world, can give reliable indication about the strength or bearing capacity of cohesion-less soil strata only. However, in clay strata, SPT N-values obtained may be too small (e.g., 1 or 2), though the strata is not actually as weak as the degree indicated in SPT. In this respect, screw plate load test (SPLT) can be considered an advantageous means for obtaining load-settlement curve in undisturbed field condition at any depth below the ground. In this study, SPLTs at three different depths and unconfined compressive strength tests conducted on the undisturbed samples collected from the cohesive strata under consideration were conducted. This chapter presents the performance evaluation of SPLT in determining allowable bearing capacity as compared to the ones obtained by using undrained cohesion in the bearing capacity equation. As compared to the SPLT results, the bearing capacity equations are found in close agreement for stiff clay (Location-1), overestimating for firm clay (Location-2) and slightly underestimating for very stiff clay (Location-3). SPLT is found to indicate more representative q_a values, as the strengths of the soils below the test depth are reflected in the result.

The scarcity of land is ever increasing all over the world. Thus, ground condition is often improved through different techniques (such as soil stabilization using admixtures, compaction sand drains, etc.) if the shear strength and bearing capacity of the subsoil is inadequate. Highway construction projects often demand soil stabilization at the construction site to attain the design specifications related to shear strength and CBR. In the present context, an experimental program was carried out to investigate the influence of two different admixtures (namely, cement and lime) on different geotechnical parameters (such as maximum dry density, optimum water content, liquid and plastic limits) of the original soil characteristics and also in improving the soil’s shear strength and CBR. The admixtures are found to have significant influence in modifying the soil’s properties. The lime (%) mixed with the soil does not influence optimum moisture content and maximum dry density but shows significant effects on shear strength and CBR. The outcome of this study will be useful in roads, highways and airfield pavement constructions.

The present study investigates the undrained bearing capacity for embedded strip footings under inclined loading on non-homogeneous clay. Elasto-plastic finite-element analyses are carried out through Plaxis code for perfectly rough strip footings on Tresca material. This study examines the influence of strength non-homogeneity and footing embedment ratio D/B, on the bearing capacity factor N _c * of rigid footings for different load inclinations α. The numerical results were compared with the available results published in the literature.

This paper focuses on stabilizing marine clay using recycled blended tiles (RBT) collected from construction sites at Johor, Malaysia. Marine clay is considered as problematic soil due to the existence of high moisture and organic contents, while RBT is a waste tile material produced in every construction area where those cracked or rejected tiles are dumped into landfills without any concern of the environmental impact. Hence, the suitability of RBT to treat marine clay is examined in this study. Standard proctor tests were conducted for all treated and untreated specimens. The compaction ability of treated and untreated marine clay was measured by adding two different sizes of RBT, i.e. 0.063 and 0.15 mm diameter. RBT for both sizes was added and tested in four different percentages (i.e. 10, 20, 30 and 40% of the dry weight of soil). The optimum moisture content (OMC) and Maximum Dry Density (MDD) for untreated samples were 22 and 1.59 Mg/m3 respectively. Meanwhile, OMC and MDD varied from 18 to 16.5% and 1.66–1.72 Mg/m3 respectively for those samples treated with 0.063 mm RBT. In addition, OMC and MDD for samples stabilized with 0.15 mm RBT varied from 18 to 17% and 1.70–1.74 Mg/m3 respectively. For samples treated with 0.15 mm RBT, the higher is the percentage of additive, the higher the MDD and the lower the OMC. While for samples treated with 0.063 mm RBT, 30% was found to be the optimum value and further increment of RBT resulted in a reduction of MDD.

This paper presents a numerical investigation into the behavior of eccentrically loaded strip footings adjacent to a cohesionless slope. In this study, the finite-element software Plaxis 2D was used to evaluate the influences of load eccentricity on the bearing capacity, soil pressure distribution underneath the footing and the pattern of failure mechanism. The results are presented using the failure envelopes in vertical and moment loading plan. The obtained results are compared with those found in the literature.

Tropical areas with extreme climates are host to extreme weathering processes and the weathered materials are normally left in situ with the absence of large-scale denudation processes such as glaciations. This research tries to understand the behaviour of the weathered granites in Malaysia, from hard rock to the final products, the clay minerals. Grade 1 or fresh granites were sampled from different locations in Malaysia and analysed. The residual soil above the fresh granites, which were formed from the weathering activities were also analysed. The types of clay minerals and clay-sized particle grains found from two study locations were compared. The bases of the comparisons were index properties, strength properties and the mineralogical properties. The parent rocks were also analysed to obtain the origin of the minerals formed at the later stages of weathering. It was found that the strength of the soil mass formed from the weathering processes generally depend on the clay-sized particle grains rather than the types of clay minerals. It should however be noted that only halloysites and smectites clay minerals were observed in the samples obtained from the two study locations.

Slope safety and its monitoring are major concern for dam owners, especially if the slopes are adjacent to public highway or roads that experiences increase in traffic volume each year. If no proper assessment and maintenances are being done, there is potential for loss of life of public users. Deterministic design methods for the slope stability often depends on the interpretation of the geotechnical investigations by the geologist and civil engineers involved with the project. This method usually adopts conventional value of ground parameters and which then gives large safety factors. By performing probabilistic approach by utilising Monte Carlo Simulation, designers or owners are more confident with the results given and it will help in the decision-making, such as in deciding the best solution for the long-term maintenance and monitoring of the slopes at critical area. This paper described the probabilistic procedure and gave a distribution of Factor of Safety (FOS) rather than only one single calculated FOS for that critical slopes. The case study for the paper is the Ulu Jelai’s dam located in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. The analysis is done using both excel and software. At the end, proper mitigation plans are proposed for the critical slopes [1].

Natural fibres from coconut, bamboo, cane or palm are used in soil improvement techniques to enhance the behaviour of soft deposits. The main reason for utilising these natural fibres is that they are economically viable and environmental friendly. Coconut fibres or coir are locally available and in abundance in Brunei Darussalam. Experimental investigations into the use of these coir fibres (coconut fibres) in soft clay with regards to its consolidation behaviour were carried out. Kaolin of high plasticity of the following characteristics: LL of 61.5%, PL of 51.8% and PI of 9.7% was used. The Maximum dry density and Optimum moisture content was determined from compaction test to be used as a basis in preparing samples for the consolidation tests. The soil samples which were reinforced with various inclusions of coir that is at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5% and of different sizes of 10, 20 and 30 mm were tested to determine the effects on consolidation behaviour due to the inclusion of these fibres. The results were compared with that of the unreinforced soil sample and it was indicated that the coefficient of consolidation (c_v) is affected by the length of coir fibres. For inclusions of 10 mm coir fibres, the c_v increases with the increase of fibre inclusions up to a certain percentage and then decreases thereafter.

The amount of crushed cement concrete continues to grow every day from the demolition of old structures, causing more pollution. Hence, owing to the increase in environmental awareness and stringent regulations governing the disposal, as set by environmental protection agencies, more effective measures for the handling and disposal of crushed concrete must be implemented. Instead of simply disposing of crushed concrete, effective alternative efforts should be considered to utilise it as a reusable material. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possible utilisation of crushed concrete as an aggregate substitute in asphalt mixture for pavement construction applications. However, owing to the poor physical properties of crushed concrete in terms of absorption and abrasion, this study focuses on the degradation that happens in the aggregate after compaction. The recommendation is for crushed concrete to be mixed with conventional aggregates from natural sources. In this study, suitable mixtures of crushed concrete and conventional aggregates were determined based on the combinations of five types of gradation and six different proportions of crushed cement concrete (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%) from an aggregate passing and retained sieve size of 5 mm and 1.18 mm, respectively. Mixtures of the crushed concrete and conventional aggregates were subjected to compaction of 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 blows, using a Marshall compactor. Based on the study, the mixtures of the crushed concrete with the recommended ranges of sieve sizes and conventional aggregates are suitable for roads with a medium traffic volume.

Any pavement founded on expansive soils subgrade is often subjected to non-uniform ground movement. Such ground movement originally initiates due to variation in soil moisture within pavement subgrade, which also results in development of shrinkage cracks, edge heaves and surface distresses. Moreover, development of alternative mounds and depressions (Gilgai) in surrounding areas can exacerbate such condition by creating undulating patterns on those subgrades. Due to the flexible behaviour of pavement, the undulation within pavement subgrade is also found to be reflected through its surface (known as roughness). It is commonly believed that trees can play a major part on subsurface moisture condition as they extract moisture from deep for photosynthesis. As withdrawal of moisture by trees can trigger expansive behaviour of soils, therefore it is expected that roadside vegetation can significantly contribute in moisture variation in subgrades and result in increased roughness progression rates. This study will evaluate the damaging effect of tree types (in terms of tree height) responsible for increased roughness progression rates in pavements characterised with medium to highly expansive subgrades. To do so, vegetation data (tree height) will be analysed against historical road roughness data for numerous sections for Borung Highway in north-western part of Victoria, Australia. Tree height of all available trees located on road reserve has been collected and analysed against historical roughness data. The outcome from this study has identified the tree categories (in terms of height) that are most responsible for increased roughness progression rates. The findings of this study can be used for efficient adaptation of improved and better pavement management strategies.

Over recent years, performance-based design approach has gained acceptance in the engineering community around the world. This has prompted an expanded demand in engineering approaches to the assessment of fire safety in structures. Two arising questions in designing car parking buildings are (1) if there had been another vehicle parked next to or a space away from the van would the fire have spread given no interruption by firefighters and/or fire suppression systems? (2) If so, what is the probability that the spread occurs? This work quantitatively assesses these questions using recent research into the risk-based design of car parking buildings. The probability of fire spread is formulated using the knowledge of the possible rate of heat release outputs from single passenger vehicles coupled with a prediction of time to ignition. There are two scenarios considered for the assessment, either where the vehicles are parked next to each other or where the vehicles are parked one space apart. The analysis shows that the probability of fire spreading to a vehicle in an adjacent space 0.63–0.90 while when there is a space in between, the highest probability of fire spread is 0.23 but spread may not occur at all.

Crumb rubber from waste tires is incorporated into asphalt mixtures as one of the successful strategies of improving the fatigue resistance of asphalt pavement. However, the degree of effectiveness and the percentage of CRM that gives the best fatigue resistance has not been firmly established. In this study, the effect of percentage crumb rubber on fatigue of rubberised warm mix asphalt mixtures was evaluated. A Pen-grade of 80/100 bitumen, crush granite aggregate with 9.5 mm NMAS, Sasobit at 2.5% by weight of the binder was blended with the bitumen to achieve a warm mix binder. Crumb rubber of size passing 0.150 mm sieve was incorporated into the WMA mixes at 0, 10 15 and 20% by weight of the virgin bitumen using wet process of modification. Indirect Tensile Fatigue Test (ITFT) was performed on the specimens at a temperature of 25 °C. The test was conducted at three levels of stresses (500, 600 and 700 kPa). The laboratory results findings indicate that the CRM significantly influence the fatigue life of the mixtures. Based on the fatigue predictive life model, the 20% CRM have the highest fatigue life compared to other CRM percentages considered in this study.

Continuous efforts by scientists and researchers are made to offer high-performance asphalt mixtures with longer service life, thus minimizing negative impacts to the environment, environmental sustainability, costs resulting from the rehabilitation, and maintenance of roads. In this regard, fibers can provide a distinct material in the enhancement of asphalt mixture performances. Fibers have been used in asphalt mixtures for decades due to their abilities in improving of asphalt mixtures performance. Aramid fibers are synthetic fibers with high-performance properties. This study is aimed to assess the ability of Aramid fiber in improving asphalt mixtures performance. Aramid fibers were added to the asphalt mixtures in different contents; i.e., 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3% by total weight of the aggregate. Asphalt mixtures were performed by resilient modulus test at two temperatures 25 and 40 °C that indicates the mixture’s resistance to fatigue and rutting resistance, respectively. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Design Expert 6.0 software was used to analyze data obtained. The results indicated that introducing of the Aramid fibers to mixtures increased the performance of mixtures in terms of resilient modulus by around 25% at 25 °C and 20% at 40 °C; compared to the control mixtures without fibers. The optimum content of Aramid Fibers was at 0.05% to the total weight of the aggregate.

The growing usage of crumb rubber modified in flexible pavements justification and the requirement for a good comprehension of its physical and rheological properties as well as its elastic behaviors. However, crumb rubber asphalt mixtures demand rising product temperatures than traditional asphalt binder due to the high viscosity of asphalt rubber binder. The main points of this research are to investigate the unaged rheological and physical properties of crumb rubber modifier (CRM) asphalt. In this study, crumb rubber-modified percentages was 0, 5, 10, and 15% from the binder weight, with adding 1.5% warm mix asphalt additive (Sasobit). The wet method was used to mix the CRM with bitumen, the CRM conducted at 177 °C for 30 min whit 700 rpm, and Sasobit conducted at 120 °C for 10 min with 1000 rpm. The results display that various crumb rubber contents have important impacts on modified binder properties. The result shown that increase the complex shear G* and decreased the phase angle δ at high temperature with increased the CRM contents. The rutting resistance parameter was rising with increased CRM percentages at 70 °C. The softening results in rise in the temperature with adding the CRM and the penetration results in reduction with the growing CRM contents. The elastic recovery increased with higher CRM content. The storage stability was within the range for unmodified and 5% of CRM but for 10 and 15% the result was over the range. From the results we conclude that the CRM improves the elasticity and improves the stiffness of the modified binder.

The study aim is to determine the suitability of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber in fatigue life improvement of asphalt concrete mix. Fatigue crack is among the principal distresses that shortens the life span of flexible pavements. The aim was achieved through laboratory experiments (indirect tensile stiffness modulus and fatigue tests) to determine the fatigue characteristics of reinforced and neat asphalt mixtures. The reinforced mixtures were prepared using recycled PET fiber at 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0% by total weight of mixture. The result was analyzed through regression analysis and fatigue life-prediction models were developed. The stiffness modulus of reinforced mixtures was improved by 19% at 0.3%, 34% at 0.5%, 4% at 0.7% and decreased by 34% at 1.0% recycled PET fiber reinforcement compared to neat mixture. The developed fatigue life-prediction models are statistically significant with p-values < 0.05. The fatigue life of recycled PET fiber reinforced mixtures at higher strains was highly improved at 0.3% reinforcement, while 0.5% reinforcement exhibited higher fatigue life at lower strain levels compared to neat mixtures. Therefore from the result and analysis conducted, recycled PET fiber has proved to be effective in fatigue life improvement of asphalt concrete.

The use of expert systems in civil engineering and especially in road construction has become a necessity due to the structure’s specificity in dimensioning, which is completely different from other structures. The parameters involved in road structure dimensioning are multidisciplinary in their values and behaviors; the road structure is complex and composed of heterogeneous materials, and its behavior is unpredictable due to the nature of the soil, the influence of climate, and different loads it supports. This expert system proposes different thickness, stress, and strain solutions by comparing them with the allowable values based on different mechanical models and formulates the methods and data sheets and then provides choices of body composition for the road based on the new version of the Algerian pavement catalog (2003). This tool is organized in the following forms: (1) rules derived from the experiences of professionals in the field. For our case, these rules are drawn from one side on the catalog of new pavements (version 2003) and another on a set of theoretical and practical method. (2) The property of GURU to call external programs of course that it is compatible. This property will help us to automate some models of flexible pavement sizing “Boussinesq Model, Westgaard Model, Odemark Model” with the Dev C++ language “which is a recent version of C”. (3) The Algerian method outlined in the catalog.

Air voids and their distribution are very important factors that influence the structural performance of asphalt pavements under traffic loading. Several simple methods exist for the overall (macro) evaluation of air voids in asphalt mixture, however there are very few methods available to assess their micro-distribution within an asphalt matrix. While X-ray methodologies have historically been used by researchers to investigate the complex distribution of air voids in asphalt mixtures, both cost and ease of application do not support their widespread use. The use of non-destructive ultrasonic wave transmission techniques (UWT) is outlined in the paper as an accurate, rapid and economical alternative method. UWT is able to both estimate the total air voids and their distribution within laboratory compacted asphalt samples. Asphalt samples with 14 mm nominal aggregate size manufactured with three types of bitumen; Class 320 (C320), Multigrade (M1000) and a SBS Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB-A5S) and with different air voids were analysed using UWT techniques. The results have shown that UWT testing has the potential of being a rapid and cost-effective method of estimating total air voids and their distribution in laboratory asphalt mixtures.

The objective of this paper is to characterize the chemical and consistency characterization of the bio-binder produced from domestic waste (DWBO) as compared with conventional petroleum–asphalt binder. A petroleum asphalt was modified with DWBO at 3, 6, and 9% by weight to prepare bio-binders, respectively. Samples of the DWBO-modified binders compared to base binder were tested by running the rotational viscosity (RV). Moreover, the fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy as well as elemental analysis tests were utilized to validate the chemical compositions and bond initiations that caused changes in stiffness and viscosity of the asphalt modified with DWBO from those of base asphalt binders. This research has revealed that there are four factors to be influenced by the use of DWBO, (i) reducing greenhouse emissions and the toxic effect of binder compared with petroleum-based asphalt binders, (ii) increasing workability, (iii) reduction in viscosity of asphalt binders which led to reduction of asphalt pavement construction costs by reducing mixing and compaction temperatures, and (iv) increased the aging induces of the control asphalt binders. Bio-oil from domestic waste was found to be a promising candidate as a modifier for petroleum–asphalt binder.

Numerous textiles-/tanneries-/pharmaceutical-based industrial processes along with anthropogenic sources, discharge hazardous waste/wastewater into nearby water bodies. These untreated or poorly treated waste streams contain heavy metals that come into contact with sediment/aquatic systems and become part of the food chain. Heavy metals, many of which are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic, have a significant impact on environment and ecosystem. Buriganga has been accumulating alarming levels of heavy metals, and currently, it is one of the most polluted rivers in Bangladesh. This study evaluated the levels of selected heavy metals in different environmental compartments of the Buriganga river. Accordingly, three significant locations along the river stretch were selected. The plant (Enhydra fluctuans) and phytoplankton (Lemnoideae) samples and four different species of fish such as Heteropneustes fossilis, Channa striata, Corica soborna, and Wallago attu were collected from the river. Laboratory analysis of cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) was performed in all the sediment/plant/river water/fish samples. Contamination factor and plant concentration factors were determined. Concentrations of Cd, Zn, and Ni in the river water were obtained within acceptable ranges, whereas Cr and Pb exceeded the toxicity reference values for surface water standards for aquatic life. Notable concentration levels of heavy metals were measured in the sediments and plants. Specifically, Cr was obtained at an alarming level of 103 mg/kg in soil and 163 mg/kg in the plants near Hazaribagh area, where tannery waste mixes with the river water. Bioaccumulation of the analyzed metals was evidenced in the biological samples.

Sedimentation is a concern to water resources project globally; water flows along with certain degree of sediment naturally, and when the natural flow regime of a river is altered by a dam, the reservoir stores both water and sediment which settles in the reservoir and reduces the storage capacity. Reduction in storage capacity of a reservoir beyond a limit hampers the purpose for which it was designed. River Dagga is proposed to be dammed for water supply purpose, but there is no consistent monitoring of sediment inflow into the rivers in Nigeria. This research aims to study the suspended sediment-laden water carried by River Dagga, Niger State Nigeria. Though most methods of estimating the rates of sedimentation are quite cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive but the availability of some data, (the sediment and flow rating curves) ease these difficulties. In this study, the direct method of sediment sampling data approach has been used to estimate the rate of sediments carried by river Dagga. The result shows that River Dagga sediment inflow is low as water flows only during the raining season, the bed material soil transported along the river bed is classified. The suspended sediment estimates are expected to increase if the upstream of the catchment area is subjected to further urbanization, farming, and animal grazing activities.

This study aims to investigate the potential methane yield by mono-anaerobic digestion of rice straw washwater (RSWW) and pineapple waste extract (PWE) as well as the co-digestion of both RSWW and PWE at a ratio of 50:50 (v/v). The experiment was conducted at a controlled mesophilic temperature of 37 °C in Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor for a period of approximately 55 days. The process performances were evaluated based on the efficiency of COD removal and methane production in relation to other parameters such as pH, organic loading rate (OLR) and alkalinity ratio. This study confirmed that the rate of COD removal for RSWW, PWE, and RSWW:PWE (50:50) were achieved the stable condition at 81, 89, and 86% respectively. The alkalinity ratio value and pH throughout the experimental period remained below 0.30 and kept in the range of 6.5–7.0 indicated the stable and good environment existed for anaerobic digestion within the UASB reactor. This study implies that the co-digestion of RSWW:PWE found to improve the efficiency of COD removal and production of methane during the mono-digestion of RSWW from 81 to 86% and 0.093 to 0.13 LCH₄/g COD_rem by the increment of 6.2 and 40%, respectively.

Factors affecting the infiltration rate have been studied fairly well by many researches; however, the effects of the cross-section of a permeable stormwater channel on the surface water depth reduction due to infiltration and seepage have largely been neglected. In the present study, towards improving the efficiency of permeable channels, the effects of the three components of a trapezoidal section, namely, the water depth, side slope, and base width, on the infiltration and unsteady seepage rates were investigated. Laboratory studies using models of the channel with unsaturated soil were performed under ponding condition using various initial water levels, base widths, and side slopes for two soil textures, namely, sandy loam and loamy sand. The results showed that the rate of surface water depth reduction by infiltration and seepage increases with increasing water level irrespective of the base width and side slope. In addition, an increase of the side slope increases the infiltration rate, with the effect becoming more significant with increasing initial water level, while the effect of varying the base width is insignificant.

This study compares the relative contributions of potential contaminants discharged in dry weather flow (DWF) and wet weather flow (WWF) from typical type of catchments in Malaysia. A total of 52 storm events were monitored for WWF quality evaluation. Hourly DWF samples were also collected manually during selected weekday (Wednesday) and weekend (Saturday and Sunday). All water samples were analyzed for TSS, COD, BOD, oil and grease (O&G), NO₂–N, NO₃–N, NH₃–N, soluble P, total P and Zinc. The results indicate that TSS, BOD, COD and O&G were mostly transported in WWF than in DWF. More than 70% of the total annual load of TSS and O&G were transported in storm water runoff. Conversely, annual loadings of NH₃–N and soluble P were mainly evacuated by DWF at the commercial and industrial catchments. Storm water runoff contributes greater loadings of N and P in the residential catchment. In general, each pollutant and land use would give different relative contributions to the annual pollutant loadings. In conclusion, this study have recognized the relative pollutant loading contributions by dry and wet weather flows in typical urban catchments in Malaysia. This findings will help the decision makers to develop better target specific pollutant treatment strategies to reduce the urban water pollution.

With rapid growth of population and the increasing demands for higher living standards, the development of urban infrastructures and buildings are likely to increase the impervious surfaces in the river basin. Green roofs have a famous strategy in the sustainable urban development strategies in recent decades. Green roof is a viable means of increasing the amount of vegetation in urban cities, where the open space at ground level is limited but roof tops are largely unused yet remain impervious and contribute to storm water runoff. This paper is aimed to review comprehensively the types, components, and environmental benefits of green roofs to the sustainable urban development. Generally, green roofs provide a lot of advantages for example decreasing consumption of energy by reducing heating and cooling loads, increase building standards, provide aesthetic value and amenity, improves urban air quality, increase storm water runoff mitigation, decrease air temperatures, decrease noise in urban environments, support in urban storm water pollutant removal, and mitigate urban heat island effects. This paper also reviewed the development and application of green roofs in different countries. In conclusion, more implementation of green roofs in the urban city should be promoted in order to ensure the sustainability of the urban development.