Stereotypical construction of buildings, however convenient, poses its own set of challenges. It affects the sustainable development critically and can give rise to social, economic and environmental problems. In other words, same design of a building if repeated irrationally from one place to another even within an identical climatic region gives rise to some grave problems which can compromise multiple dimensions of sustainability. Mosque architecture has some elements that have gradually become its identity. In this research different elements of repetition i.e. stereotype features in mosque architecture are explored. While using a case study approach this research is used to assess mosque projects in an urban region of Lahore, Pakistan. While considering the case studies the positive and negative effects of stereotype elements on three dimensions of sustainability are investigated.

Risks are inherent in construction projects. In order to manage risks, contingency amount is set aside usually in an escrow account. Cost contingency can be a handsome amount that would get blocked during the execution of the project for further use, incurring constant opportunity cost. The stakeholders may wish to use this held amount for other endeavors during project execution. The managerial practices for dynamic contingency management are of extreme importance. Stakeholders anticipate risks and hindsight project performance by eyeing key performance indicators of a project to direct decisions. The aim of this research is to integrate project key performance indicators with future risk perception to develop a decision support system for facilitating cost contingency release requests. The model is expected to help decision making to ease the managerial burden ensuring effective use of contingency. The findings are not conclusive due to ongoing nature of research.

The development of projects in isolation and such treatment by urban development authorities can lead to socioeconomic success or failure in projects. This dilemma has its roots in poor initial planning both at the level of individual project, and that of community and neighborhoods. Although the facts like project success or failure are readily determinable in case of socioeconomic sustainability, it is difficult to determine how various variables interact in determining project success. This research is aimed at using system dynamics for investigating the phenomenon of unpopularity of building projects within the urban fabric. An attempt is made to discuss the case study of a parking plaza in its context and for detailed investigation of this building, systems thinking methodology is employed. The research has highlighted various variables that have a role to play in making the case study project an example of success or failure in terms of sustainability. The practice of using systems thinking in case of deeply rooted sustainability analysis has brought some new insight which seems to have a promising role to play.

Studies about the data quality of National Bridge Inventory (NBI) reveal missing, erroneous, and logically conflicting data. Existing data quality programs lack a focus on detecting the logical inconsistencies within NBI and between NBI and external data sources. For example, within NBI, the structural condition ratings of some bridges improve over a period while having no improvement activity or maintenance funds recorded in relevant attributes documented in NBI. An example of logical inconsistencies between NBI and external data sources is that some bridges are not located within 100 meters of any roads extracted from Google Map. Manual detection of such logical errors is tedious and error-prone. This paper proposes a systematical “hypothesis testing” approach for automatically detecting logical inconsistencies within NBI and between NBI and external data sources. Using this framework, the authors detected logical inconsistencies in the NBI data of two sample states for revealing suspicious data items in NBI. The results showed that about 1% of bridges were not located within 100 meters of any actual roads, and few bridges showed improvements in the structural evaluation without any reported maintenance records.

Owing to shift in global perspective and socio-economic needs, the construction industry is undertaking risky and complex projects. The complexity of construction projects requires the coordination between designer and contractor in the early stages of the projects. Little research has been performed regarding the pre-construction planning (PCP), which is the integration between contractor and designer in the early stages of a project to ease construction. It is very important for the construction industry stakeholders particularly contractor and designer to acknowledge the significance of PCP. This study analyzed the current utilization of PCP practices, practical benefits from its utilization and barriers faced during its utilization through the study of selected Design-Build residential, commercial infrastructure, transportation, and power plant projects. A questionnaire survey was used for this purpose. The results of this research will provide some solid foundation towards design-construction integration to attain maximum efficiency and success in the construction industry.