Prof. Daniel W.M. Chan

• BEng, PhD, MAPM, MHKICM, MASCE, MHKIPM, MAIPM, MCABE, MAIB, C.Build E (UK), CBP (Aust), RCM (HK)
• Associate Head (Teaching) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This study seeks to advance group decision-making in project management by introducing a hybrid intuitionistic fuzzy brainstorming (IFBS) method tailored for identifying and assessing earthquake risks in worn-out urban fabrics in Iran. By integrating the collaborative ideation of brainstorming with intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), the IFBS method...

As the foundation of national development, the construction industry is one of the most hazardous industries in the world, facing safety challenges and high rates of work-related accidents, especially in developing countries such as Iran, where 35% of all industrial accidents are related to construction accidents. In the meantime, construction site...

As Hong Kong faces increasing pressure on resources and environmental sustainability, there is a growing need to shift towards circular building practices. The ever-increasing demand for sustainable urban development necessitates innovative approaches towards greener and more sustainable building design and construction. This paper introduces a new...

Although climate resilience is crucial in the construction industry (CI), its multidimensional and dynamic nature impedes global efforts. Existing studies and the Building Resilience Index (BRI) primarily focus on evaluating either the adaptive capacity of buildings or climate mitigation measures. Consequently, the CI lacks an integrated climate re...

As Hong Kong faces increasing pressure on resources and environmental sustainability, there is a growing need to shift towards circular building practices. The growing demand for sustainable urban development necessitates innovative approaches to greener and more sustainable building design and construction. This paper introduces a new integrated T...

While many developed countries are well advanced in green infrastructure (GI), more efforts are needed to bring less developed regions to speed. Existing evidence shows that GI understanding differs significantly among stakeholders due to the multifunctionality concept. As key technical stakeholders in GI implementation, there is little empirical k...

Smart villages should complement smart cities to reduce the drivers for rapid urbanisation. Smart villages harness and integrate advanced technological applications to enhance the quality of life of villagers and overall rural sustainability as well. To achieve this, smart village development should draw on circular economy principles in expanding...

Although there is a growing body of knowledge about circular economy (CE) practices in the building construction industry (BCI), the prediction of CE diffusion within the BCI remains insufficiently explored. This paper aims to explore a hybrid approach towards predicting the diffusion of CE practices in the BCI of a developing economy. This study u...

Purpose This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the transition from Building Information Modelling (BIM) to digital twins (DT) in the construction industry. Specifically, the research explores the current state (themes and trends) and future directions of this emerging research domain. Design/methodology/approach A multi-stage approach was...

With the advancement of human society, more construction and building materials are required to produce sustainable construction. The advancement of polymer materials and their use in building construction has been improved. Compared to inorganic materials, polymer materials offer numerous superior qualities and may also be modified to increase the...

Active learning is essential for students in the construction and surveying disciplines due to the practical work nature and technical demands of these professions. This research study aims to identify and evaluate effective pedagogical strategies and critical success factors (CSFs) that can enhance active learning among undergraduate construction...

The construction industry is believed to be more susceptible to human errors than other industries because of its unique characteristics, particularly when it comes to urban construction projects (UCP). Despite the considerable attention given to human errors in construction sector, there has been a lack of emphasis on analysing these errors in spe...

One of the primary concerns and challenges encountered in the construction industry is the emergence of crucial factors instigating project delays throughout the construction project lifecycle (CPL). The critical delay factors (CDFs) are the significant factors that not only cause project delays but also create obstacles and bottlenecks for the pro...

Currently, urban areas are confronting considerable challenges stemming from climate change. These challenges possess the potential to have profound implications for the well-being of residents, their means of making a living, and their own assets. Consequently, it is imperative to identify effective solutions that mitigate these effects on the urb...

The pre-tender cost estimation serves as the foundation for determining the project cost in the early stages and is crucial for all parties involved in the tendering process. It is expected to be highly accurate. However, industry surveys have advocated that in the Iranian construction industry, the pre-tender estimated costs of construction projec...

Green buildings (GB) have attracted significant attention for improving sustainability and reducing carbon emissions in the building sector. Like traditional projects, risk management plays a crucial role in green projects. The inadequacy of risk management may lead to diminished workforce performance, delays in project schedules, and poor quality...

The potential of using nature-based solutions to address issues of climate change has continued to gain momentum, especially in developed nations. However, the same cannot be said for developing countries, particularly in Africa, where the knowledge and awareness of natural solutions are low, and research on their application within the built envir...

Purpose The widespread lockdown restrictions brought by the global COVID-19 epidemic inculcated a culture of “work-from-home”. However, most rural areas lack reliable and effective community amenities including transportation, health and education, thereby impeding healthy living and productive employment. Therefore, the underlying goal of this res...

With the expanding imperatives of rapid-urbanisation, environmental difficulties, and worldwide pandemics, smart infrastructure (SI) development is increasingly popular. To pool resources, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) have also gained a growing importance. However, there has not been much research on the usage of PPP in smart infrastructure in...

Due to the fact that risks can cause project delays and increase project implementation costs, successful construction project completion requires effective and holistic risk management. Identification and evaluation of critical risk factors (CRFs) associated with different types of projects are the most significant components of accurate risk mana...

Risk assessment is a key component of green buildings. In green building projects, the risk evaluation process is facing great uncertainties, like uncertain conditions, unreliable evaluation models, etc. Effective risk management depends on using the right risk evaluation models. Hence, this study aims to develop a novel risk structure matrix with...

Construction companies are bedevilled with several profound challenges that hamper the efficient performance and operation of the organizations. Extant studies have reported on organizational learning as an effective strategy for improving organizational performance. However, there is a dearth of studies in the construction industry context, especi...

In construction projects, managers make multiple decisions every day. Most of these decisions are relatively unimportant; some of them are critical and could lead to the success or failure of a construction project. To ensure construction companies make effective managerial decisions, decision making requires performing an initial technical and eco...

In construction projects, managers make multiple decisions every day. Most of these decisions are relatively unimportant; some of them are critical and could lead to the success or failure of a construction project. To ensure construction companies make effective managerial decisions, decision making requires performing an initial technical and eco...

Today, building maintenance and repair (M&R) is a neglected aspect of the construction business throughout a building's entire life cycle. Selecting appropriate M&R strategies is crucial, particularly for emerging economies like Iraq with severely constrained resources. This study seeks to identify the primary selection criteria for M&R methods of...

Active learning has been increasingly important in tertiary education in recent years due to its powerfully favourable impact on students’ learning attitudes and efficacy. Indeed, the way that a classroom is set up has a direct impact on how well students learn and how well teachers teach. The continuous evaluation of students’ learning performance...

To achieve zero waste and cumber the acute environmental effect of the building construction industry (BCI), circular economy (CE) implementation is pertinent. Such implementation requires the incorporation of certain actionable factors that are critical to its success. However, investigating these factors considering the individualistic variations...

Possessing an international brand in an exclusive field can play a critical role in developing exports. On the other hand, monitoring market conditions and predicting the changes caused by the physical separation and distance between the upstream and downstream markets and asymmetric information is challenging in export markets. Accordingly, it is...

Private sector investment, the mainstream financing method for procuring public road transport development projects, has encountered several profound difficulties and risks during execution, particularly in developing countries. However, there needs to be more extensive investigations on the major barriers facing road transport infrastructure proje...

The idea of developing a system that can converse and understand human languages has been around since the 1200s. With the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI), Conversational AI came of age in 2010 with the launch of Apple's Siri. Conversational AI systems leveraged Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand and converse with humans vi...

What are the major factors able to increase the capacity of suppliers in outsourcing processes? As to answer this research question, a three-round of Delphi was administered to an expert panel composed of 50 industrial experts of the Water and Wastewater Company (WWC) in Iran. The questionnaire was developed based on prior literature; 50 items cate...

The implementation of construction projects is always associated with several incidents for various reasons. Previous research studies advocated that human errors are one of the main causes of accidents in these projects. This paper aims to determine the effective factors leading to the occurrence of accidents caused by human errors in Industrial P...

Purpose Sustainable economic growth in both developed and developing countries requires the restructuring and expansion of road transportation infrastructures (RTIs). However, RTIs are always subject to high costs and delays, especially in developing countries with fewer resources than developed ones. Cost overruns and inaccurate forecasts usually...

Data-driven technology such as Artificial Intelligence is considered an essential enabler of circular economy (CE) in the building construction industry (BCI). As both AI and CE applications are emerging areas in the BCI, there exists little systematic guidance on how AI can be applied to capture the full potential of systemic circularity along the...

The Circularity Gap Report 2022 has proven how linear the world is nowadays. The globe can only recycle 8.6% of materials used, which leaves a wider circularity gap of over 90%. To address this unfavourable outcome, the Circularity Gap Report 2022 advocated for a technology-driven circular economy (CE) using artificial intelligence (AI) in the buil...

Implementing infrastructure development projects using public–private partnership (PPP) delivery method has not been widely successful, particularly in developing countries such as Iran. Therefore, it is essential and indispensable to evaluate the critical success factors (CSFs) for completing abandoned public sports facilities projects (APSFPs) vi...

Human errors are one of the major causes of accidents in the construction industry. Human errors can be caused by various factors across diverse types of projects. Hence, this research study seeks to determine the major factors influencing human errors associated with the urban construction industry (UCI). To achieve this, three rounds of Delphi su...

This study evaluates simultaneously the symmetries and asymmetries on the classification of barriers to circular economy (CE) adoption in the building construction industry (BCI) of developing and developed economies. This is crucial because the vagueness of the impacts of CE barriers in extant studies affects encyclopaedic and specific CE policy f...

This paper presents the findings from the assessment of the determinants of cloud computing (CC) deployment by construction organisations. Using the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework, the study strives to improve construction organisations’ project delivery and digital transformation by adopting beneficial technologies like CC. Th...

One of the most critical challenges in preventive planning and disaster management is the multitudinous uncertainties involved in decision-making. Previous studies showed the usefulness of intuitionistic fuzzy sets for considering uncertainties in decision-making process. Hence, the current study aims to present a combined model using Intuitionisti...

Purpose: Although there has been a surge in the adoption of building information modelling (BIM) in the construction industry, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are still struggling and perceive its adoption as risky. The SMEs in developing economies are especially on the disadvantaged side of the digital divide. Extant studies have foc...

BIM is often considered to be unsuitable and there are no systematic approaches to guiding suitability decisions in construction SMEs, especially in developing economies. Thus, this paper evaluated key decision-making factors (DMFs) for BIM-based projects in SMEs. Data was collected through interviews, a Delphi survey and analysed with Fuzzy Synthe...

The deployment of digital systems has facilitated process improvement in building construction, including for green practices implementation. However, it has encountered several challenges that have limited its use and hindered the diffusion of sustainable practices. Hence, this study aims to identify and assess the major barriers to smart-sustaina...

In terms of safety management, the implementation of industrial parks construction projects (IPCPs) is incredibly challenging due to the special working conditions and the specific type of use of the buildings. On the other hand, the possibility of causing accidents in these areas based on human errors is high and important for project execution du...

Over the past three decades, a basket of research studies on New Engineering Contract (NEC) has been conducted in the construction management discipline. In fact, there is adequate evidence that an increasing number of client organisations have been adopting a NEC approach to undertake their building and construction projects both locally and world...

Waste generated by building construction and demolition (BCD) activities contributes to the major proportion of urban solid waste. A large amount of the waste is still sent to the landfill or downcycled globally. The adoption of circular economy (CE) in the building construction industry (BCI) could leverage significant gain in managing the waste f...

Sustainable green housing delivery has been advocated as the pathway to a balanced built environment. However , stakeholders have not fully embraced its adoption, particularly in developing nations. To encourage the widespread adoption of sustainable housing, a better understanding into sustainable green development's potentials are imperative. Thi...

Attention to Smart Infrastructure (SI) has risen due to its advantages, including better access, increased quality of life, and simplified maintenance management. To develop SI, Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) are identified as potentially beneficial procurement strategies, which boost capacities to manage risks by pooling diverse resources. How...

Modular integrated construction (MiC) method has come to limelight in recent years due to its enormous potentials. Although several digital tools and technologies (DTT) have been employed in MiC projects, no previous research study has critically reviewed and analysed their implementation in MiC projects. The current study addresses this gap using...

The circular economy (CE) paradigm has piqued public interests worldwide as a significant innovative attempt to conserve finite resources, reduce waste, and shift away from the linear economy. An emerging shift to a CE model is unavoidable for resource conservation and efficient use of materials. Although CE is still at its early stage of managing...

There are disparities in the adoption of BIM between firms of different sizes and diverse locations. Although extant studies have explored drivers to BIM, there is a dearth of contextualist perspectives. How does the context of size (SME or large firm) and location (developed or developing economy) affects the perception of firms on drivers to BIM?...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the key facilitating factors for smart sustainable practices (SSP) and develop a project evaluation model (PEM) for SSP implementation in Nigeria and Hong Kong. SSP is coined from the integration of digital technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) to facilitate sustainability practic...

To heighten the safety performance of construction projects, multitudinous safety initiatives or measures have been promulgated in Hong Kong over the past three decades. These initiatives have led to the drastic reduction in construction site accidents. However, implementing these safety initiatives, such as the Safe Working Cycle (SWC), does not g...

Extant research studies have attempted to evaluate the building information modeling (BIM) divide in the architecture, engineering , and construction (AEC) industry; however, these studies are often premised on material access or a technology-centric perspective. Consequently, this study examines the BIM divide from a multifaceted perspective and e...

Extant research studies have attempted to evaluate the building information modeling (BIM) divide in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry; however, these studies are often premised on material access or a technology-centric perspective. Consequently, this study examines the BIM divide from a multifaceted perspective and ev...

Digital tools help facilitate the implementation of sustainability practices in the built environment in the era of rapid urban developments. However, the extant literature revealed salient gaps in the use of cloud-based systems and digital tools to evaluate buildings' sustainability performance. Consequently, the current study aims to develop and...

Facilities management along with health care are two important aspects in controlling the spread of infectious diseases with regard to controlling the outbreak of global COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, with the increasing outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of examining the relationship between the built environment and the outbreak of infectio...

Revamping infrastructure development with the best-emerging technologies and innovative procurement initiatives is seen as the optimal way forward to sustainable development, improved safety and health, performance and management of built infrastructure. The global COVID-19 pandemic has amplified these imperatives highlighting the global need for ‘...

In Hong Kong, the accident statistics of the construction industry is still comparatively higher than other industries. However, accident rates within the industry have significantly decreased, starting from the implementation of diverse safety initiatives, including the Safe Working Cycle (SWC). In this study, a post-positivist philosophical stanc...

Purpose The average lifetime of a building in Iran is only one-quarter of the reported global average lifespan. A major reason why buildings in Iran have shorter service life is attributed to the inappropriate selection of the facility repair and maintenance (R&M) methods. Hence, selecting the appropriate R&M methods is critical in upholding or eve...

Purpose To reduce financial and human losses, managing risks associated with earthquakes is essential in practice. However, in using common risk management methods, experts are often faced with ambiguities that can create profound challenges for risk management. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a logical and straightforward risk assessment mod...

Earlier research works on fire risk evaluation indicated that an objective,reliable, comprehensive, and practical fire risk evaluation model is essentialfor mitigating fire occurrence in building construction sites. Nevertheless,real empirical studies in this research area are quite limited. This journalpaper gives an account of the second stage of...

There is a research gap in the use of digital systems to aid the sustainability performance assessment of buildings, which informs the development of the green-BIM assessment (GBA) framework in this paper. The study employed a conceptual framework design, expert surveys, and case studies to identify and establish the different components of the GBA...

This study uses the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method to prioritize contracting methods to determine the most suitable contract option for water and wastewater projects (WWP). Content analysis, a two-round Delphi survey technique, and a series of validation and reliability tests helped establish the 18 key criteria for FAHP analysis....

Purpose Building information modelling (BIM) is a novel technological advancement in the built environment. Despite the potentials of BIM, its adoption and implementation are undermined in facility management (FM) operations. This might be because of limited information on the critical success factors (CSFs) that can enhance its adoption. The study...

Purpose Building information modelling (BIM) research studies are highly contextual as the contexts provide lenses for interpreting the results. However, there has been a growing decontextualization in extant studies especially between the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms; and between developed and developing countries. Alb...

The construction industry is always a slow adopter of innovative technologies than other sectors of the economy. Although some technologies, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), robotics, among others, have been implemented, their adoption has faced some challenges. Blockchain technology is also considered a game-changer for the constructi...

The construction industry is always a slow adopter of innovative technologies than other sectors of the economy. Although some technologies, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), robotics, among others, have been implemented, their adoption has faced some challenges. Blockchain technology is also considered a game-changer for the constructi...

In Hong Kong, 6-day construction cycle always being used for constructing one typical floor of concrete building superstructure in a week. Work-zones are defined in the working platform for better allocation of limited resources. Once the work-zones are defined, the resources (labour, plant, materials) will be allocated to a specific zone to delive...

What are the different perceptions on safety climate (SC) by workers and managers/supervisors engaged in the construction industry of developing countries? Reconciling these two differing views is pivotal for mitigating and avoiding both the injured and fatal accidents in the construction industry, especially in those developing countries where saf...

Construction development of Commercial and Recreational Complex Building Projects (CRCBPs) is one of the community needs of many developing countries. Since the implementation of these projects is usually very costly, identifying and evaluating their Critical Risk Factors (CRFs) are of significant importance. Therefore, the current study aims to id...

The study aims to study the critical success factors (CSFs) for managing construction small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the developing countries of the Middle East. The statistical population included active experts in the field of construction in the study area. The sample size was determined using the Cochrane formula, and purposive an...

All buildings require Repair and Maintenance (R&M) in their life cycle period. However, if R&M activities are not carried out properly, deterioration will occur, service life of buildings will be reduced, and maintenance costs will increase. Hence, selecting the appropriate R&M methods is pivotal, especially for developing countries, such as Iran,...

Earthquake is a random natural phenomenon, which can occur at any time and location in a given seismic zone with any magnitude. The earthquake vulnerability in buildings and urban infrastructures is a key issue for crisis management. Therefore, an assessment model should be developed to identify and prioritize the significant seismic risks involved...

Background The process of temporary accommodation after an earthquake is one of the most important issues in crisis management. Objective This research study attempts to identify and prioritize the key risks inherent with the post-earthquake temporary accommodation process in Sanandaj, Iran using the Fuzzy Delphi method. Methods To achieve this g...

The restoration of Worn-out Urban Fabrics (WoUFs), i.e., the disfiguration of fabric components of the city from their main shape, and the implementation of the urban housing development plan have always been pivotal activities for designing livable cities-especially in developing countries. Prior research, however, did not identify an appropriate...

Active learning has played an important role in recent years as it carries a highly positive effect of improving students' learning attitude and successiveness. Indeed, classroom design is a determinative factor in the performance of learning and teaching. Continuous assessment of learning performance is crucial that could indicate the direction of...

One of the newest advancements in manufacturing and project management is Building Information Modeling (BIM) which uses creative processes for production, analysis, and management of building information. On the other hand, the output of the Geographic Information System (GIS) model includes one or more actual locations, which satisfy all needs. I...

Over the years, there has been an increase in research outputs in the built environment leading to the need to make meaning out of this increasingly large corpus of research. The use of manual desktop review has been criticized for its lack of rigor, subjectivity, quantitative justifications, and capacity. In recent years, studies have been adoptin...

Purpose The government sometimes lacks sufficient financial, management and technical capabilities to deliver construction projects. As a result, it has recognized the need to introduce private sector capital and expertise to complete unfinished construction projects. This outsourcing paradigm is known as a public-private partnership, a form of pri...

In developing countries, governments are often unable to implement urban infrastructure construction projects (UICPs) on their own, mainly due to budget and financial resource limitations. The participation of the private sector, through public–private partnerships (PPPs), has been considered as an alternative effective method for increasing the ef...

Purpose- Despite the SMEs representing a large percentage of firms in the construction industry, there has been an under-representation of SMEs' perspective in BIM research studies. This paper aims to systematically review the few extant studies with a view of synthesizing the findings. Design/methodology/approach- Hermeneutic philosophy using the...

Purpose Privatization is a complex issue in many developing countries; therefore, it is vital to examine the obstacles that prevent its proper implementation. The goal of this study is to identify and analyze the barriers to private sector investment in the Water and Sewage Industry (WSI) and to suggest effective ways to attract the private investo...

Purpose Completion of abandoned public facility projects is one of the major concerns of governments struggling with budget issues. Various research studies have shown that this can only be solved with the help of the private sector. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the capacity of the private sector to complete abandoned public facility p...

Delays in the implementation and commissioning of rail transportation projects can cause economic damages to project stakeholders and the cities linked by such rail networks. Hence, the current study aims to investigate the key delay factors and provides salient recommendations. In this study, multi-criteria decision- making – the Analytic Network...

Purpose As construction of commercial and recreational complex building projects (CRCBPs) is one of the most important issues in many developing countries and requires a very high cost of implementation, it is important to identify and prioritize the risks of such projects. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and rank the risks of C...

Purpose Rising human aspirations leading to rapid urbanisation, amidst climate changes and other environmental pressures have aggravated the needs for better-focused sustainable urban development in general as well as for smart and sustainable cities in particular. Indeed, smart infrastructure (SI) development is a prerequisite for smart cities (SC...