Microsoft Word - Introduction for Special Issue - Vol_2 No_4


 

 

Introduction for Volume 2, Issue 4 - the Special Issue on 
Risk Management in Construction 

 
Construction is one of the high-risk industries.  
Constructed facilities are becoming more sophisticated 
and complex and risk management in construction is 
imperative.  I would like to thank the Journal of Risk 
Analysis and Crisis Response (JRACR) for providing 
the platform for construction professionals and 
educators to interact and exchange research experience 
and results on risk management in construction. 

The Special Issue contains seven papers.  The topics 
cover the development of new models, methods, and 
framework of risk management in construction; dispute 
analysis based on numerous data, and the impact of 
climate on property values.   

The first paper titled ‘Analysis of Disputes in 
Transportation Projects’ by M. Emre Bayraktar, Cagri 
Cinkilic and Farrukh Arif presents an analysis of the 
disputes for transportation projects and the related 
lessons learned.  It was found that majority of disputes 
in the 262 cases studied were due to unforeseen 
conditions.  The analysis is based on the data stored in 
the Dispute Resolution Board (DRB) database of the 
Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). 

The second paper by Payam Bakhshi and Ali Touran 
proposes a new approach for contingency determination 
in a portfolio of construction projects.  A Bayesian 
approach is employed to modify a model on regular 
intervals that helps an agency find the level of 
confidence needed for individual projects to ensure that 
the portfolio budget will meet the minimum level of 
confidence based on available funding and the agency’s 
policy goals. 

The third paper contributed by Dean Kashiwagi and 
Jacob Kashiwagi presents a new risk management 
model designed by using deductive logic. The new 
model identifies risk, mitigates risk by use of 
transparency and dominant information which has been 
used by the expert contractor to minimize the risk they 
do not control. 

The fourth paper contributed by Lingguang Song, 
Sang-Hoon Lee and Fitria H. Rachmat deals with a new 
method for scheduling repetitive construction operations 
with stochastic simulation to incorporate uncertainty in 
activity performance during field operations.  The 
proposed Stochastic Linear Scheduling Method (SLSM) 

has been implemented and demonstrated in a pipeline 
construction project. 

The fifth paper titled ‘Risk Management Framework 
for the Construction Industry according to the ISO 
31000:2009 Standard’ and contributed by Vitor Sousa, 
Nuno Marques De Almeida and Luís Alves Dias 
discusses the risk management framework and proposes 
a risk management framework for the construction 
industry.   

The sixth paper by Babak A. Samani and Farzad 
Shahbodaghlou emphasizes the need for a fuzzy 
systematic structural approach to the risk assessment of 
construction projects and introduces the processes 
required to form a hierarchical systematic structure 
based on fuzzy logic using the Fuzzy Decision Making 
Trial and Evaluation Laboratory. 

The last paper, contributed by Huili Hao, Patrick 
Long and Scott Curtis examines property owners’ 
attitudes regarding the impacts of climate on property 
ownership and future property values in coastal 
communities.   

Special thanks go to Dr. Xianjun Guan of the School 
of Economics and Management at Tongji University, 
who had been of great assistance during calling for and 
reviewing manuscripts. 

Again, I sincerely thank Professor Chongfu Huang, 
the Editor-in-Chief, and editors of JRACR for their 
strong support and assistance.  Thanks also go to all 
authors for their contributions, hard work and patience 
during the process of making the Special Issue become 
a reality. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Guest Editor 
George C. Wang, Ph.D., P.Eng. 

Department of Construction Management 
East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 

wangg@ecu.edu 

Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response, Vol. 2, No. 4 (December 2012), 214

Published by Atlantis Press 
      Copyright: the authors 
                   214