An association rule mining model for the application of construction technologies during COVID-19

COVID -19 impedes construction productivity, increases costs and delays the project schedule, disrupts health and safety regulations, and reduces profit margins. To flatten the COVID -19 curve and continue operations amid the pandemic, construction companies are digitising construction activities, processes and procedures using technology. This article reports on a study examining the use of construction technologies by Nigerian surveyors through a questionnaire. The questionnaires were sent to more than 300 surveying firms based on snowballing technique. Association rule mining (ARM) was used to model the correlations between the different construction technologies. A total of 91 association rules were identified using 6 measurement matrices. The first 30 rules are presented in this study. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the sustainability and post-pandemic redesign of surveying practise in terms of repositioning service delivery. The findings are of interest to solution and technology providers to meet market demand. From an ontological perspective, the key findings of this study can be applied to surveying practise in and outside Nigeria and to other professionals in the construction sector. The implication is that construction technologies in the Nigerian construction sector are still in their infancy.

Comparing the Use of Virtual Models vs. Fieldwork in Developing Geomatics Skills in Undergraduate Engineering Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Undergraduate students enrolled in Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Urban Planning (CAU) must develop competencies in Geomatics and Topography (G&T) as part of their learning process. During this time, theoretical concepts are traditionally taught with field practice using specialized tools such as a theodolite, laser level, and total station. Due to the environmental restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional field practice (TFP) was suspended, preventing access to equipment and study areas. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR), have been explored in the last decade for educational purposes. This paper studies the benefits of using these tools for developing G&T skills. This research aimed to assess students' learning outcomes using a traditional G&T teaching method and a new methodology based on Virtual Field Practice (VFP) for CAU students. The methodology provides a virtual study area for the CAU student by integrating point clouds derived from photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning. It also assesses their learning results and compares them against a control group using a validated instrument. Findings suggest continuing with fieldwork for a greater understanding and correct application of G&T concepts by students, and using virtual models as an efficient way to complement the acquisition of spatial information in the teaching-learning process. Until the publication of this article, we found no evidence in the literature at the undergraduate level of applying exercises like those proposed. © 2023 IEEE.

Prioritization of Supply Chain Capabilities Using the FAHP Technique

With the great challenges that the latest pandemic (COVID-19) has imposed on manufacturing companies, the need to overcome and cope with such situations is becoming crucial. Supply chain resilience is one of the main aspects that enables manufacturers to cope with change and uncertainty;therefore, it is essential to develop the capabilities necessary to do so. This study aimed to ensure supply chain resilience in light of the COVID-19 pandemic through prioritizing main supply chain capabilities. After surveying (30) experts in supply chain from leading manufacturing companies in Jordan, a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) analysis was conducted to prioritize main supply chain capabilities that were derived from the related literature. The results of this study showed that proactive capabilities, followed by reactive capabilities, were the most dominant capabilities that could ensure supply chain resilience, while efficiency-based capabilities were the least significant. Therefore, manufacturing companies should place their focus and emphasis on reacting to this pandemic in a more systematic manner. © 2023 by the authors.

Consumers' Continued Intention to Use Online-to-Offline (O2O) Services in Omnichannel Retail: Differences between To-Shop and To-Home Models

Online-to-offline (O2O) commerce is a specific form of omnichannel retailing, wherein consumers search and purchase online and then consume offline. There are many different O2O models, and new O2O businesses are emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic;they can be cate-gorized into two types of O2O services: to-shop and to-home. However, few studies have focused on consumer behavior in a comprehensive O2O scenario, and no study has attempted to compare the differences between to-shop and to-home consumers. Therefore, this study aimed to propose a universal model to predict consumers' continued intention to use O2O services and to compare the differences between to-shop and to-home O2O in terms of factors influencing consumer behavior. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, and the PLS-SEM was used for data analysis. The basic SEM results indicated that habit, performance expectancy, confirmation, and offline facilitating conditions are the main predictors. The multigroup analysis showed differences between to-shop and to-home consumers regarding hedonic motivation, price value, and perceived risk. The study suggests that marketers and designers in various O2O scenarios can use the framework to build their business plans and develop different marketing strategies or sub-platforms for to-shop and to-home consumers. © 2023 by the authors.

Perceived Vulnerability to Disease, Resilience, and Mental Health Outcome of Korean Immigrants amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Machine Learning Approach

This study examined the predictive ability of perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), fear of COVID-19, and coping mechanisms on the Korean immigrants' psychological distress level amid the pandemic. Through purposive sampling, both foreign-born and US-born Korean immigrants residing in the US above the age of 18 years were invited to an online survey. Between May and June 2020, data collection took place, which yielded the final sample of 790 participants from 42 states. An artificial neural network (ANN) was used to verify variables that predict the level of psychological distress on the participants. The model with one hidden layer holding six hidden neurons showed the best performance. The error rate was approximately 27%, and the results from the sensitivity analysis, the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve, showed that the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.801. The most powerful predicting variables in the neural network were resilience, PVD, and social support. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.

SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE JULY 2020 HEAVY RAINFALL EVENT IN JAPAN

In July 2020, the Kyushu region experienced record-breaking heavy rains from July 4-7, causing extreme floods in the Kuma and Chikugo Rivers. This was followed by atmospheric instability over a wide area from western Japan to the Tohoku region, resulting in heavy rainfall on July 13-14 in the Chugoku region, and on July 27-28 in the Tohoku region, and flooding of large rivers including the Go River and the Mogami River. In recent years, record-breaking torrential rainfall disasters have been occurring every year, and the heavy precipitation scale as well as the rainfall intensity has been increasing in space and time, resulting in spatio-temporal expansion of the damage. Furthermore, in 2020, the disaster occurred while the social activities had been restricted due to COVID-19 pandemic. The compilation and dissemination of disaster survey data and lessons are essential toward the sustainable development of society. Therefore, JSCE has planned a special issue on the July 2020 torrential rain disaster in order to share and disseminate disaster information and to contribute to the advancement of technology and science related to disaster prevention and mitigation.抄録　令和2年7月，九州地方では4日から7日にかけて記録的な大雨となり，球磨川や筑後川では記録的な洪水が発生した．その後も西日本から東北地方の広い範囲で大気が不安定となり，江の川，最上川など大河川においても氾濫が相次いだ．近年では，毎年のように記録的な豪雨災害が発生しており，降雨強度だけでなく降雨のスケールが時空間的に大きくなっており，被害が時空間的に拡大している．さらに，令和2年度は新型コロナウィルスによる感染症対策のため，人々の活動が制限される中での災害となった．災害調査データを取り纏め，情報発信することは今後の持続可能な社会を検討する上で不可欠である．土木学会論文集では，災害情報を共有・発信し，防災に関する技術および学術分野の進展に資するために令和2年7月豪雨災害に関する特集を企画した．

Development of a framework for quality assurance of off-site manufactured building components: A case study of the New Zealand housing sector

A shortage of housing is a prominent issue across the globe. Traditional on-site construction methods seem too inefficient to meet the increasing housing demand. As a solution, many countries, including the United States, Germany, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, have introduced off-site manufacturing methods to increase the housing supply. Different from the traditional way of on-site construction, off-site manufacturing is a technique that involves manufacturing building components in a controlled environment. Despite strong government support and industry attempts to increase off-site manufacturing, the current building consenting and inspection processes in New Zealand have significant quality-related issues. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the gaps in current quality assurance processes used in off-site manufacturing and recommend a framework in order to gain credibility and the acceptance of the construction market. The study collected qualitative data from industry experts (e.g., developers, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors, head contractors and council officers) who had significant experience in current quality assurance regimes in New Zealand prefabrication construction. The key themes for designing the proposed framework were generated using content analysis of the primary data collected from semi-structured interviews with industry experts. The study has found that standardisation in off-shore products regarding the New Zealand Building Code remains the biggest challenge in the consenting process. Quality assurance and inspection test plans are the developer’s responsibility and are typically provided by third-party inspectors. In this post-Covid-19 world-building, consent authorities rely heavily on third-party inspection companies that apply more rigorous auditing. Essentially, the most important parts of quality assurance are to have an experienced team and to adopt a holistic approach by engaging stakeholders early in the design stage. The stakeholders should consider recommendations for mandatory after-service insurance to ensure end-customer interests are protected. The findings of this study can contribute to the early engagement of different stakeholders to ensure overseas manufacturing of building components meets New Zealand quality standards. It is expected that the new quality assurance framework would help to promote off-site manufacturing for the New Zealand housing sector.

Using Citizen Heritage Science to Monitor Remote Sites Before and During the First COVID-19 Lockdown: A Comparison of Two Methods

This paper proposes citizen heritage science as an effective method to gather reliable data for monitoring and documenting heritage sites. For large heritage organisations the monitoring and documentation of sites in their care presents considerable challenges;continual monitoring of smaller, unstaffed, and more remote sites is often not practical. However, heritage sites are often popular destinations that receive high levels of visitors who carry increasingly sophisticated mobile phones. It seems logical that heritage organisations capitalise on using visitors’ images to record and monitor remote heritage sites. We compare two methods for data collection: a ‘guided’ approach, in which on-site signage prompts visitor submissions;and an ‘open’ approach, in which the public is asked to send any photographs they have of the site in question. We analyse the different results in collected data from these two approaches and hope to encourage heritage institutions to set up similar projects. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Protection or Peril of Following the Crowd in a Pandemic-Concurrent Flood Evacuation

The decisions of whether and how to evacuate during a climate disaster are influenced by a wide range of factors, including emergency messaging, social influences, and sociodemographics. Further complexity is introduced when multiple hazards occur simultaneously, such as a flood evacuation taking place amid a viral pandemic that requires physical distancing. Such multihazard events can necessitate a nuanced navigation of competing decision-making strategies wherein a desire to follow peers is weighed against contagion risks. To better understand these trade-offs, we distributed an online survey during a COVID-19 pandemic surge in July 2020 to 600 individuals in three midwestern and three southern states in the United States with high risk of flooding. In this paper, we estimate a random parameter discrete choice model in both preference space and willingness-to-pay space. The results of our model show that the directionality and magnitude of the influence of peers’ choices of whether and how to evacuate vary widely across respondents. Overall, the decision of whether to evacuate is positively impacted by peer behavior, while the decision of how to evacuate (i.e., ride-type selection) is negatively impacted by peer influence. Furthermore, an increase in flood threat level lessens the magnitude of peer impacts. In terms of the COVID-19 pandemic impacts, respondents who perceive it to be a major health risk are more reluctant to evacuate, but this effect is mitigated by increased flood threat level. These findings have important implications for the design of tailored emergency messaging strategies and the role of shared rides in multihazard evacuations. Specifically, emphasizing or deemphasizing the severity of each threat in a multihazard scenario may assist in: (1) encouraging a reprioritization of competing risk perceptions;and (2) magnifying or neutralizing the impacts of social influence, thereby (3) nudging evacuation decision-making toward a desired outcome.

Examination of survival strategies of quantity surveying firms amid COVID-19 pandemic disruption in Lagos State, Nigeria

Purpose Disruption caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to the ways and manners businesses are conducted worldwide is phenomenon. The study therefore examined the survival strategies adopted by quantity surveying firms (QSFs) in Lagos State, Nigeria, with the intention of improving their performance. Design/methodology/approach This study used a systematic sampling method to select three QSFs from 20 local government areas in the state. Of the 60 QSFs contacted for interview, only 42 agreed to participate. A questionnaire was designed to collect the required qualitative information, which was then analyzed using content analysis. Findings The results revealed that the main survival strategies adopted by QSFs in Lagos State, Nigeria, during the COVID-19 disruptions were downsizing, contract staffing, salary cuts, work from home and service negotiation strategies. Research limitations/implications Due to the chosen research approach, the research results may not be generalizable. The incidence of the pandemic and the socio-economic situation of the study area have to be considered. Practical implications The survival strategies employed by QSFs in Lagos Nigeria in the middle of COVID-19 are palliative (unsustainable) as the impact of the disruptions is biting hard on QSFs in Lagos Nigeria as such a more robust and sustainable method to enhance the performance of QSFs in the study area. Originality/value This study attempted to unearth the survival strategies of QSFs amidst COVID-19 in Lagos State, Nigeria, with the aim of improving the performance of such firms.

New Data of the 1755 Earthquake and Tsunami in Lisbon, Portugal

In spite of the significant number of studies focused on the 1755 earthquake and tsunami, there are still many unknowns regarding this event in Lisbon, Portugal. Thus, in this research the authors compiled historical documents, including some that had never been analyzed, complemented with a field survey and tsunami numerical modeling at the historical civil parish of Santo Estevão, Lisbon. It was possible to identify 13 buildings, including three religious buildings and five palaces. Furthermore, the new data showed that contradicting the general idea, the earthquake caused significant damage to the selected territory because the number of households decreased by 52%. The number of residents decreased to about 51%, and in 1756, 1041 residents were still living in 297 temporary shelters. There were more than 44 dead and 1122 residents were unaccounted for. The fire did not hit the area, and the tsunami numerical model results were validated by the historical accounts and cartography, which indicate that the coastal area of the studied area was not significantly inundated by the tsunami. The consultation of historical documents that had never been analyzed by contemporary researchers provides a breakthrough in the knowledge of the event since it allowed a very detailed analysis of the disaster impact.

Assessment and Impacts of Air Pollution from Brick Kilns on Public Health in Northern Pakistan

Brick kilns add enormous quantities of organic pollutants to the air that can cause serious health issues, especially in developing countries;poor air quality is associated with community health problems, yet receives no attention in Northern Pakistan. The present study, therefore, assessed the chemical composition and investigated the impacts of air pollution from brick kilns on public health. A field-based investigation of air pollutants, i.e., PM1, PM2.5 and PM10, CO2, CO, NO, NO2, H2S, and NH3 using mobile scientific instruments was conducted in selected study area locations. Social surveys were conducted to investigate the impacts of air pollution on community health. The results reveal the highest concentrations of PM1, PM2.5, and PM10, i.e., 3377, 2305, and 3567.67 µg/m3, respectively, in specific locations. Particulate matter concentrations in sampling points exceeded the permissible limits of the Pakistan National Environmental Quality Standard and, therefore, may risk the local population’s health. The highest mean value of CO2 was 529 mg/L, and other parameters, such as CO, NO, NO2, H2S, and NH3 were within the normal range. The social survey’s findings reveal that particulate matter was directly associated with respiratory diseases such as asthma, which was reported in all age groups selected for sampling. The study concluded by implementing air pollution reduction measures in brick kiln industries to protect the environment and community health. In addition, the region’s environmental protection agency needs to play an active role in proper checking and integrated management to improve air quality and protect the community from air hazards.

TOURISM, NATURAL PROTECTED AREAS AND OPEN SOURCE GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES

The Covid-19 outbreak has greatly impacted society behaviours fostering proximity tourism and valorising the social role of peri-urban natural protected areas as key locations for outdoor activities. FOSS and FOSS4G can play a critical role to support the value creation for these sites. This work evaluates its application in the context of two different protected areas for the creation of 3D digital products, the monitoring of touristic fluxes and the conduction of parks management activities. To this aim three solutions that copes with the mentioned aspects are presented and gaps, weakness and limitations evaluated. The investigated solutions consists in: the data workflow from survey to 3D rendering using Blender and GIS plugin;the touristic fluxes monitoring system based on a machine learning algorithm for image recognition from captured video data streams and istSOS;and finally the park assets management system which is based on PostGIS and OpenLayers.

COVID-19 Morbidity, Vaccine Side Effects, and Vaccine Hesitancy among African Americans

COVID-19 research conducted in the pre-vaccine era indicates strong hesitancy toward vaccination among African Americans. Recent research has found growing acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in the general US population. This study investigated vaccination intentions in Black communities and explored behavioral mechanisms involved in vaccination decisions. It focused on individuals’ risk perception in the face of a double hazard relating to the coronavirus disease and the vaccine. Using data from a national survey of 547 African Americans in January 2021, the results demonstrate considerable lingering vaccine hesitancy among African Americans. A survey experiment applied fear appeals to raise risk perceptions of threats from (1) the coronavirus, (2) the COVID-19 vaccine, or (3) both the disease and the vaccine. The findings show null effects of the treatments on individuals’ intentions to get a vaccine. However, when incorporating efficacy beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine, the analysis found a positive effect of perceived vaccine efficacy on vaccination intentions. The study concludes that future research and practice need to replace fear appeals with efficacy-raising regimes, and identifies strategies that can be adopted in communicating and engaging with Black communities to promote COVID-19 vaccination.

Effects of Covid-19 on tourist’s behavior and number in mountain national park: The case of the Stołowe Mts. National Park, Poland

The paper aims to present a comparison of visitor behaviors and visitor spatial and temporal distribution in a mountain national park between the pre-Covid-19 period (2017–2019) and Covid-19 pandemic year (2020). The research is based on pyroelectric sensor data from 2017–2020 and a survey of visitors designed to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of visitors and their behaviors and changes therein. The research data were used to identify two visitor clusters: Impact of Covid-19 (IC) and No-Impact of Covid-19 (N-IC). The research was conducted in Stolowe Mountains National Park (SMNP) in Poland using data from Monitoring System of tourist traffic (MSTT). A total of 374 respondents participated in the survey in 2020 period, which demonstrated a significant impact of the ongoing pandemic on many aspects of their behavior. These results were compared with the results obtained from 2,642 surveys carried out in 2017–2019. The findings are compared to findings reported by other authors. Some visitors did claim that the pandemic has not affected their behavior in any way.

Újévi köszöntő

This paper is a summary of the annual evaluations and forthcoming tasks by the heads of the Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation in the Ministry of Agriculture, the Department of Land Registration and Mapping in the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing. One of the most important tasks in the sectorial management of surveying and mapping was to prepare the modification of laws regulating the operation of this sector in 2021 too. The enacted laws and regulations created the legal framework for the establishment of a transparent land ownership structure and for the effective liquidation of the undivided common land ownership as a forced community, which has been one of the biggest obstacles to this. The forming of transparent and clear land ownership as well as the implementation of the e-real estate project are tasks that are of primary importance in the life of the supreme authorities in the new year. A new task is the development of the Earth Observation Information System and the creation of the conditions for the application of new aerial remote sensing technologies and devices. The activity of the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing was greatly affected by the new waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit Hungary too in 2021. The Society has maintained its viability and effectively moved its activity of realizing its objectives to the virtual space offered by the internet. The online conferences and corporate events bear witness to the success of this transformation. © 2022, Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote sensing. All rights reserved.

UV tunable light source and its potential applications for UVC virus inactivation research

An ultraviolet tunable light source (UV-TLS) is a valuable tool in studying the effectiveness of virus inactivation using UV radiation. UV-TLS can verify effective inactivation UV dosages at different wavelengths to help establish industrial UV safety standards and calibrate UV radiation sources. We developed a high throughput UV-TLS to support research into methods of inactivating coronavirus, including the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. The light source is powered by a laser-driven light source (LDLS™) with high UV wavelength brightness, superior stability, and a 10,000-hour lifetime. The UV-TLS covers the wavelength range from 200 nm to 770 nm and has a fiber-coupled output. Advanced design features include: (1) all reflective optics for aberrationfree light coupling;(2) a high-efficiency UV grating blazed at 250 nm;(3) fiber-coupled output with a 600 μm core diameter deep-UV fiber for application flexibility. Measured data shows that the UV-TLS achieved an in-band flux of 0.98 mW with an averaged FWHM of 4.3 nm in the 200 nm to 400 nm range, using the 600 μm fiber. The averaged in-band flux reaches 2.9 mW for free-space output with an averaged FWHM of 7.2 nm. Advantages of the newly developed UV-TLS are relatively higher in-band flux, UV light output at any wavelength from 200 nm to 400 nm, and the flexibility of a fiber light delivery. The bandwidth of UV output flux can be adjusted by selecting different monochromator slit sizes. © COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the is permitted for personal use only.

GEOSPATIALLY ENABLED AIRBORNE RAPID RESPONSE SYSTEMS: DESIGN, CALIBRATION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been responsible for enabling The United States rapid responders during the hurricane season. Over decades of experience in enabling Rapid Response nationwide resulted in NOAA identifying the detailed engineering requirements for designing the next generation geospatially enabled airborne rapid response systems for aerial survey image capture, georeferencing, and high precision mapping. This paper is focused on presenting the state of the art, new trends, and the performance analysis of NOAA’s DSS version 6 for Rapid Response which development and testing took place in 2020/2021.

Seasonal Changes in Urban PM2.5 Hotspots and Sources from Low-Cost Sensors

PM2.5 concentrations in urban areas are highly variable, both spatially and seasonally. To assess these patterns and the underlying sources, we conducted PM2.5 exposure measurements at the adult breath level (1.6 m) along three ~5 km routes in urban districts of Mainz (Germany) using portable low-cost Alphasense OPC-N3 sensors. The survey took place on five consecutive days including four runs each day (38 in total) in September 2020 and March 2021. While the between-sensor accuracy was tested to be good (R² = 0.98), the recorded PM2.5 values underestimated the official measurement station data by up to 25 µg/m3. The collected data showed no consistent PM2.5 hotspots between September and March. Whereas during the fall, the pedestrian and park areas appeared as hotspots in >60% of the runs, construction sites and a bridge with high traffic intensity stuck out in spring. We considered PM2.5/PM10 ratios to assign anthropogenic emission sources with high apportionment of PM2.5 in PM10 (>0.6), except for the parks (0.24) where fine particles likely originated from unpaved surfaces. The spatial PM2.5 apportionment in PM10 increased from September (0.56) to March (0.76) because of a pronounced cooler thermal inversion accumulating fine particles near ground. Our results showed that highly resolved low-cost measurements can help to identify PM2.5 hotspots and be used to differentiate types of particle sources via PM2.5/PM10 ratios.

Learning Effectivess of Virtual Land Surveying Simulator for Blended Open Distance Learning Amid Covid-19 Pandemic

Many universities worldwide were forced to physically close campuses due to lockdown and resumed the inperson classes compliant with a stringent set of standards of procedures (SOPs) as Covid cases drop. This has profoundly disrupted the hands-on lab face-to-face learning process that is harder to be moved online. Virtual simulation lab could be the answer and its use in many courses has been extensively studied. However, it is relatively little studied when it comes to land surveying courses. The purpose of the study is to explore the learning effectiveness of virtual surveying field lab for blended open distance learning (ODL) students at Wawasan Open University (WOU) in the time of Covid-19. This study used a mixed-method that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to get a fuller picture and deeper meaning of learning behavior while using descriptive and inferential statistical methods in SPSS platform. Respondents were selected using the purposive sampling method. Survey questionnaires were designed and distributed to students before and after lab simulation class. Instructors were interviewed after the lab simulation class. Students' learning results for the surveying course were compared with the past-year examination results at pre-Covid-19 times before the virtual simulator was introduced. Both qualitative and quantitative data set were collected and analyzed. The findings revealed that the virtual simulator has enhanced students' learning interest and efficiency for surveying course in a ODL setting. Both students and instructors have responded positively towards the virtual simulator learning experiences. Students' achievement in the final examination amid Covid-19 was better than pre-Covid-19 performance. It is recommended that the virtual simulator shouldn't be a replacement to physical instrument but as a complement. © 2022. All Rights Reserved.