Divine Kwaku Ahadzie

• PhD MGIOC CMCIH (UK) Certificate in University Teaching
• Head of Department at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Purpose The study aims to examine the potential benefits of integrating nature-based solutions (NbS) in the housing sector. Design/methodology/approach The approach adopted was a systematic literature review aided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews criteria and the VOSviewer software. Abductive reasoning was used to analyze th...

Reliance on infrastructure by individuals, businesses, and institutions creates additional vulnerabilities to the disruptions posed by natural hazards. In order to assess the impacts of natural hazards on the performance of infrastructure, a framework for quantifying resilience is presented. This framework expands upon prior work in the literature...

Purpose In the Global North, affordable housing has evolved and thrived, and it is now gaining traction in the Global South, where governments have been vocal supporters of the concept. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the important criteria for selecting affordable housing units in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative resear...

In the face of mounting pressures to achieve sustainable human settlements, this study explores the intricacies of constructing inclusive housing in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, focusing on South Africa as a case study. Employing investment theory as a foundation, the research meticulously derives guidelines for dev...

Reliance on infrastructure by individuals, businesses, and institutions creates additional vulnerabilities to the disruptions posed by natural hazards. In order to assess the impacts of natural hazards on the performance of infrastructure, a framework for quantifying resilience is presented. This framework expands upon prior work in the literature...

Purpose Although many health and safety (H&S) studies have widely examined safety risk perception in the construction industry, few studies have explored how this perception influences site workers' risk-taking behaviours during construction. This study aims to examine how construction site workers perceive and judge safety risks in risk-taking beh...

In line with the global effort to build community resilience to flood, there is limited attention to flood recovery and repairs in flood-prone communities in the developing world. Using five flood-prone regions in Ghana as a case study, this study explores the nature of recovery and repairs of flood-damaged residential structures by addressing the...

This study introduces a new approach for the investigation of infections after an accidental ingestion of contaminated floodwater. The concept of Expected Annual Probability of Infection (EAPI) is introduced and implemented in an infection risk-model approach, by combining a Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) with the four steps in flood...

The aim of this special issue is therefore to understand the cutting-edge research and technologies being implemented in developing countries to achieve clean, affordable and sustainable energy for the built environment. In addition, efficient technologies that deliver effective thermal cooling of buildings in a sustainable manner to enhance signif...

Data from the Accident Centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana, indicate that between January 2016 and December 2017, there were 19.7% injuries due to falls with 13.7% resulting in deaths. These injuries and deaths may be due to floor surface finishes that have the tendency to cause slip fall and also exacerbated by the floor conditi...

Deforestation is a major environmental problem confronting countries in the Global South. In response to the high rate of deforestation, policymakers have over the years implemented a myriad of afforestation programmes. This study sought to assess the prospects and challenges of Ghana’s Youth in Afforestation Programme. The data used for this study...

Safety risk perception and local cultures are two determinants that influence site workers’ risk-taking behavioural intention during construction. The former and its influences are empirically valid, while the latter remains descriptive. How these two determinants relate to influencing site workers’ risk-taking behavioural intention remains unexplo...

Purpose – This study aims to explore the concept of green building by determining a suitable system for categorising green building features (GBFs) that are considered significant in enhancing the value of a building in a developing economy with particular reference to South Africa. The motivation for categorising the features is based on the perce...

Domestic end-users’ participation in urban water management is essential to achieving improved water delivery system that meet the needs of all urban dwellers in Ghana. This paper examined how domestic end-users can effectively participate in managing urban water in Wa. The study used semi-structured questionnaires and key informant interviews with...

This study assesses the level of compliance with the regulations that guide the siting of telecommunication masts in the Kumasi Metropolis. Adopting a comparative case study research approach, 83 respondents were interviewed. The results of the study showed that, there was a complete compliance with the height standard for masts; however, there was...

City authorities across the globe have resolved to make their cities sustainable and inclusive. However, resilience of cities to climate change, which is a vital component of the sustainable city development process, is a challenge, especially in the global south. This paper sought to critically examine the resilience of Ghanaian cities and explore...

Flood insurance is an integral part of any effective flood risk management strategy and needs to be constantly evaluated for sustainable and responsible management of floods. However, despite the imminent threat posed by floods in many developing countries such as Ghana, researchers lack knowledge of the nature of insurance practice, patronage and...

With central emphasis on people at risk, property and cost effectiveness, flood early warning system has been recommended in most flood risk reduction literatures and global frameworks. For instance, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015-2030, on the seventh target emphasizes on the need for an increase in the availability and acce...

In an effort to promote green building and reduce the consumption of resources for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, there is limited attention to the challenges related to green building in developing nations. This study investigates the challenges of implementing green building in four provinces of South Africa to categoris...

The need to adapt to the changing climate is one of the important concerns of our time. However, the use of local ecological knowledge (LEK), which farmers have built up over the years to adopt climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, has been less explored by researchers and policy scientists. Leveraging on LEK, this study explores various local...

Purpose In Ghana, graduates often have limited entrepreneurial skills and rarely undertake entrepreneur initiatives as they are persistently in search of non-existing jobs in the formal sector. On this basis, this study was conducted to identify underlying strategies for improving entrepreneurial skill requirement of technical and vocational studen...

Purpose The use of air-conditioners (ACs) is on the increase in the developing world, with exacerbating compounding effect on carbon footprints. With this development, there is the expectation that developing countries would begin to appreciate and understand occupant behaviours in the use of ACs towards combating climate change, especially as buil...

Artisans were asked to rank trade related skills that craftsmen require in the Ghanaian construction industry for Competency Based Training (CBT). The data was elicited using questionnaire survey from site based craftsmen and those in education for CBT programme at a Technical University. Relative Importance Index (RII)/mean rankings and Factor Ana...

Urban flooding has become a major problem in many parts of the world due to its social, economic and environmental impact. In Ghana, flood occurs every year, which adversely affects livelihoods, property, infrastructure, lives and renders many people homeless. In this paper, we aim to understand the current state of flood research in Ghana, focusin...

High electricity consumption and corresponding cost in public tertiary institutions in many developing countries is a major challenge to their respective governments. Low efficiency electrical appliances are common in these institutions. In this work, studies have been conducted on sustainable energy efficiency measures and solar energy to reduce e...

The project managers (PMs) role in effectively coordinating projects requires empirical understanding of the appropriate competencies to help engender success. A survey of Property Developers in Ghana was undertaken to help understand the core competencies they demand from PMs at the Conceptual Phase (CP) of Mass Housing Building Projects (MHBPs)....

The construction industry is embedded with risky situations that affect construction projects and therefore requires systematic processes to achieve project objectives and ensure business sustainability. In achieving project and business objectives, contractors usually experiment many techniques and management practices in addressing construction p...

With central emphasis on people at risk, property and cost effectiveness, flood early warning system has been recommended in most flood risk reduction literatures and global frameworks. For instance, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015-2030, on the seventh target emphasizes on the need for an increase in the availability and acce...

Many countries around the world - including those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - rely on the rent/income benchmark of 30% to define affordable housing. However, it has also been argued that housing affordability is a social construct that should be viewed from identifiable levels especially at different income levels. Using largely Focus Group Discu...

Abstract Purpose – The aim of the paper is to examine the challenges to the pricing of construction projects in the Ghanaian industry. This remains a persistent problem among construction stakeholders because price is the basis for which offers are made. Project stakeholders are always faced with challenges relating to effective and efficient prici...

In many cities of the developing world, informal activities such as electronic waste (e-waste) recycling have been dramatically increasing in intensity. The enterprise is a major livelihood support for the urban poor but a major source of toxic pollutants. Heavy metal and xenobiotic pollution are major issues of concern of the sector due to the hea...

Flood hazards are expected to exacerbate due to increased human activity and climate change. Consequently, flood vulnerability within communities will be expected to increase especially in developing countries. Relatedly, the Africa climate change summit in 2015 advocated for a robust Community Resilience Framework (CRF), embedded in local knowledg...

Review paper for Ghana Real Estate Developers Association Trade Journal

Flooding has become an imminent and disruptive threat in many cities around the world. In developing/emerging economies, cities are often more vulnerable to the impacts of flooding. For example, in Accra, Ghana, recently over 150 people perished in a flash flood. The high casualty rate was a consequence of the lack of a well-developed integrated fl...

Adaptive-retrofit projects (ARPs) are associated with dire health and safety (H&S) issues which are fragmented and scattered in the existing literature on retrofitting, refurbishment, renovation, rehabilitation, and repair and maintenance work (5R+M). To effectively guide the safe execution of ARPs, these fragmented and scattered issues together wi...

Communication Performance Measures (CPM) has been identified as a viable means of identifying the communication problems among interdependent, collaborative and multi-disciplinary project teams in order to evolve strategies towards improvement in the construction industry. Even though recently, there has been quiet proliferation of researches on CP...

Professional Project Management Practice (PPMP) has become a resource tool in the 21 st century in diverse discipline, especially the construction industry where the genesis of the concept and its theory began. To this extent, Ghana has recently added an impetus to this popularity for the first time specifically mentioning and recognizing the title...

Literature describes the construction business relationship (CBR) situation in developing countries like Ghana as harsh, adversarial and non-collaborative, resulting in several business relationship challenges among Design Service Delivery (DSD) actors. This non-collaborative business relationship situation causes discords, disputes and conflicts (...

The continuous emphasis on the prevalence of communication ineffectiveness in mass housing delivery inherent from the unique particularities of mass housing projects remains a critical challenge towards the needed improvement in project management efficiencies and planning in housing and infrastructural delivery in developing countries. Against thi...

Adaptive-Retrofit Projects (ARPs) face the challenge of wide-adoption due to health and safety (H&S) issues surrounding ARPs. In developing countries like Ghana, this challenge exists alongside other challenges such as outdated and inadequate H&S legislation which do not provide adequate guidance for the safe execution of new builds let alone ARPs....

Adaptive-Retrofit Projects (ARPs) face the challenge of wide-adoption due to health and safety (H&S) issues surrounding ARPs. In developing countries like Ghana, this challenge exists alongside other challenges such as outdated and inadequate H&S legislation which do not provide adequate guidance for the safe execution of new builds let alone ARPs....

Professional Project Management Practice (PPMP) has become a modern technique for implementation of projects. However, in developing countries such as Ghana the practice has not seen much improvement in its implementation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine strategies that are important for effective practices of project management in...

A fuzzy-based method for assessing the performance level of a Project Manager (PM) at the construction phase of Mass House Building Projects (MHBPs) is presented. Based on seven key competencies previously developed for the Ghanaian housing industry, structured interviews involving a leading Ghanaian property developer was undertaken to explore the...

Mass housing projects (MHPs) are said to differ significantly from the “one-off” traditional building projects often encountered in the construction industry and thus require unique management skills and approach in its delivery. This unique nature of MHPs contributes to managerial inefficiencies that result in delivery failures when management app...

Communication performance and its evaluation have been seen as critical towards improving managerial and communication effectiveness among project teams in collaborative working project environments. Unfortunately the construction industry struggles to leverage information technology and communication factors to facilitate communication across all...

Flood insurance is an integral part of any effective flood risk management strategy and needs to be constantly evaluated for sustainable and responsible management of floods. However, despite the imminent threat posed by floods in many developing countries such as Ghana, researchers lack knowledge of the nature of insurance practice, patronage and...

Evidence of Professional Project Management Practices in the Ghanaian Construction Industry (GCI) dates back to the 1980s. However, to date not much has been achieved in its advancement and deployment especially in an era where project management is considered as an important management philosophy in achieving project success. This paper reports on...

Projects are unique and share distinguishing characteristics from one project to the other. Mass Housing projects (MHPs) are said to differ significantly from 'one-off' traditional projects and thus require unique managerial skills and efforts to deliver them successfully. The unique nature of MHPs accounts for inefficient communication among proje...

It is argued that, in order to successfully manage and deliver large complex projects, one has to gain a precise understanding of the characteristics and particularities of that project. Mass Housing Projects (MHPs) differ significantly from the 'one-off' traditional projects often encountered in the construction industry and thus require unique ma...

Contemporary management researchers argue that competency-based measures are the only viable means for refocusing project managers (PMs) on what it takes to achieve managerial excellence towards engendering their professional development in a modern competitive work environment. Subsequently, a study has identified the need to establish and match t...

The UK Construction industry has persistently been associated with unwanted ‘costs’ in the form of deaths, injuries, and ill-health. Previous studies in trying to address the health and safety (H&S) performance have highlighted the need to pay attention to originating accident causal factors. Construction project features (CPFs) being organisationa...

Evidence of flooding in Ghana (then the Gold Coast) appears to date as far back as the year 1936. Since then flooding has become a recurring phenomenon causing the flooding of major Ghanaian cities and conurbations on an unprecedented scale. A review of the extant literature on flooding in developing countries reveals a dearth of research in the co...

The recognition of success criteria for effective design and construction management purposes has been a topical issue in the housing construction industry for quite a while now. Yet, little is still known of the success indicators for SelfBuild houses, although these constitute the dominant mode of housing supply in many developing countries such...

THE FACTORS AFFECTING CONSTRUCTION PERFORMANCE IN GHANA: THE PERSPECTIVE OF SMALL SCALE BUILDING CONTRACTORS P. Amoah, Lecturer, Department of Building Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi D.K. Ahadzie, Research Fellow, Centre for Settlements Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kumasi A....

Against the background of the perennial management challenges facing the Ghanaian House Building Industry, project management practices in the implementation of Mass House Building Projects (MHBPs) is presented with a view to reflecting on their strength and weaknesses. The role of project managers (PMs) and their performance on these projects are...

The implementation of effective accident prevention measures requires insight into how accidents occur and the extent to which accident causal factors contribute to accidents. Construction projects features (CPFs) such as the nature of project, method of construction, site restriction, project duration, procurement system, design complexity, level...

Flooding is an inevitable phenomenon but in recent years the flooding of major cities and conurbations has been the cause of disasters on an unprecedented scale. In this respect, a most critical issue for all cities whether developing or developed is to be fully prepared in their response towards mitigating the worst effects should flooding occur....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to delineate “senior managers'” perception of the competencies required by project managers (PMs) in Ghana for mass house building projects (MHBPs) and to discuss the implication of the findings for professional training and development. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on a well‐acclaimed organizational...

Within the human resource management (HRM) genre, the identification and development of appropriate competency-based measures is widely seen as the only viable means for validating and engendering managerial best practices. A competency-based conceptual model is proposed towards the development of a taxonomy of project managers' (PMs') performance...

Competency-based measures are increasingly being recognised as the most viable option for engendering the continuing professional development (CPD) of construction project managers (CPMs). Presently, an emerging view from the HRM genre is that, a somewhat robust approach for developing a more rigorous understanding of these measures is to distingui...

The need to match project managers' (PMs) performance measures onto projects of both unique and similar characteristics has long since been acknowledged by researchers. The need for these measures to reflect the various phases of the project life cycle has also been contended in the recent past. Here, a competency-based multidimensional conceptual...

Project success is a complex and often illusory construct. Nonetheless, it is crucially contingent towards enabling appropriate and effective allocation of resources in project management practice. Mass house building projects (MHBPs) represent one of the largest and most established project-based sectors of the construction industry in most develo...

The dilemma of what constitutes the theoretical base of project management discipline has been debated from different perspectives. Drawing mainly from the literature, a reflexive discourse of the trend and the story so far is elucidated. The consensus reached indicates that the research focus on theory development lacks far behind other contributi...

It has been theorised that human functioning is governed by a triadic reciprocal causal interaction between the cognitive, behavioural and environmental contexts within which people operate. Applying this theory to the construction project context, it can be hypothesised that if the internal dispositions of project participants can be determined an...

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Presently, within the human resource management (HRM) genre and including the construction management discipline, the identification and development of appropriate performance measures is seen as the only viable mea...