Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item Material selection in the construction industry: a systematic literature review on multi-criteria decision making(Springer Nature, 2025-01-21) Bajwa AUR; Siriwardana C; Shahzad W; Naeem MAMaterial choice is critical for ensuring sustainability in the construction industry. Higher carbon embodiment materials contribute towards greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Decisions on sustainable material selection depend on multiple criteria and variables, thus creating a difficulty to determine the best choice. Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques have the potential to address this challenge. However, there is limited data that reviews MCDM in choosing building and construction materials. This study aims to review the MCDM methods employed in the sustainable selection of building materials within the construction industry. This systematic literature review (SLR) incorporates meta-analysis and thematic mapping through applying “PRISMA framework” and “Bibliometrix”, respectively. This study explored and analysed the records published from 2010 to 2023. This work identified the critical steps for addressing decision problems in building material selection: Establishing criteria, ranking the hierarchy, comparing the selection criteria, and enabling consistency indices. Moreover, one of the most used MCDM methods, i.e. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was particularly found particularly useful for the selection criteria and weight assignment of variables regarding the waste, recycled, and composite materials. The involvement of several criteria and alternatives raised the complexity of decision problems, leading to the use of Hybrid MCDM. Hybrid MCDM techniques possess the capacity guide informed decisions for the sustainable material selection in the construction industry.Item Identifying Critical Criteria on Assessment of Sustainable Materials for Construction Projects in New Zealand Through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Approach(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2024-11-30) Qian J; Siriwardana C; Shahzad W; Rasekh H; Armaghani DJ; Mortazavi MNew Zealand’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2050 highlights the urgent need for integrating sustainable practices into the construction industry. Since the construction industry makes a major contribution to GHG emissions, this study aims to address this need by identifying and prioritizing the critical criteria relevant to the effective selection of sustainable construction materials for New Zealand’s construction industry. The research employs a multi-stage approach, including a comprehensive literature review, expert interviews, and industry surveys. Initially, 80 criteria were identified through the literature review. Subsequently, expert interviews and industry surveys led to the identification of 30 critical criteria, which were categorized into environmental, technical, economic, and social impacts, and were ranked based on their importance. This study utilizes a 5-point importance index and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to rank these criteria. This study notably integrates technical impacts with the three traditional sustainability pillars—environmental, economic, and social—providing a nuanced evaluation of construction material selection. The results indicate that environmental and technical criteria received the highest priority weights (32% each), followed by economic (19%) and social impacts (17%). The findings offer valuable insights for industry stakeholders, assisting them in applying these critical criteria to improve material selection practices in alignment with New Zealand’s sustainability objectives.Item Closing the Loop: A Comprehensive Review of Circular Repurposing Options for Decommissioned Wind Turbine Blade Materials(Ubiquity Press, 2024-08-14) Vishnupriya V; Meldrum J; Kahandawa R; Domingo N; Shahzad W; Shen XGrowing global concern about how to dispose of wind turbine blades has sparked an investigation into more sustainable alternatives. This research delves into finding eco-friendly solutions for managing the waste generated by wind turbine blades, specifically by exploring options for repurposing them. To put this into action, this study has focused on a New Zealand wind farm with 196 wind turbine blades at the end of its life cycle. Through a thorough review of documents, 60 potential ways were identified to repurposing these blades. Options falling under the downcycling category were excluded, thus narrowing down to 45 promising solutions to repurpose. Futher 7 practically applied global solutions are identified. Implementing these repurposing solutions would divert 331 tonnes of waste material from landfills from the New Zealand Wind Farm. This study is significant because it highlights the potential for a circular and sustainable approach and provides an example of how wind turbine blade waste can be diverted from landfill. The findings of this study contribute to practical insights and support initiatives across New Zealand to encourage the adoption of wind turbine blade repurposing. This, in turn, will foster environmentally conscious waste management practices within the renewable energy sector and promote a more sustainable future.Item Potential of Modular Offsite Construction for Emergency Situations: A New Zealand Study(MDPI, 14/11/2022) Shahzad W; Rajakannu G; Ghalenoei NKNatural disasters cause significant adverse social and financial impacts by damaging homes and infrastructure. These disasters also need a quick and immediate solution to post-disaster housing problems, to provide temporary housing services for short-term disaster relief and reconstruction of lost and damaged houses for complete recovery. Reconstruction of new permanent housing for disaster victims is one of the most time-consuming post-disaster activities. However, time is a vital consideration that should be minimized for the reconstruction of houses for affected populations. Modular offsite construction technology has the potential to enhance the post-disaster housing reconstruction process due to its intrinsic characteristics of time-efficiency. This study aimed to assess the potential of the modular offsite construction method as an approach that could promote the design and construction process of post-disaster reconstruction in New Zealand in emergencies. An extensive literature review has been carried out to evaluate the features of the modular construction method, which can add value to the post-disaster recovery phase. To evaluate the suitability and viability of modular offsite construction for post-disaster reconstruction and to find substantial obstacles to its implementation, feedback was collected and evaluated using the multi-attribute methodological approach by performing a national survey of construction industry experts in New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews with New Zealand experts were then followed to confirm and validate the questionnaire findings. The findings indicate that modular offsite construction technology is a viable solution for providing housing in emergencies or during post-disaster reconstruction in New Zealand, with its time-efficiency and ability to overcome the challenges of the current traditional method by its specific advantages. Reduced need for onsite labor, overcoming local labor resource constraints affected by the disaster, and enhanced productivity due to a controlled environment are the advantages of the modular offsite technology, which are discussed in this research.Item Risk identification, assessment, and allocation in PPP projects: A systematic review(MDPI AG, 27/07/2022) Rasheed N; Shahzad W; Khalfan M; Rotimi JOBPublic private partnerships (PPPs) have gained widespread adoption as an innovative way of procuring public infrastructure projects over the last two decades. Risk identification, assessment, and allocation have received considerable attention from researchers due to the risk heavy nature of PPP projects. Adoption of PPPs has triggered a sudden increase in research interest in the area in recent years. This study attempts to provide an updated systematic review of literature related to risks in PPPs using a PRISMA flowchart. The results of the study offer some valuable insights into the future and current state of research. The study found that the focus of research on PPPs has shifted from an overall risk identification and assessment approach to individual risk analysis. Moreover, this research trend is on the rise in developing countries, and that quantitative methods for risk management in PPP research and qualitative methods in practice are preferred. In developed economies, due to negative public sentiments, transparency concerns, and arguments of value for money not being achieved, PPPs are becoming less popular. For these reasons a shift to availability-based payment mechanisms such as in Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) from traditional revenue-based mechanisms as in Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) has been observed. These shifts in research trends and practice offer researchers future opportunities to investigate these relatively newer approaches.

