Industrial Input on the Significance of WP3 as part of Construction Planning

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Chapter 2 Causal Factors for Construction Site Water

Pollution

This chapter is based on the following submitted manuscripts:
Belayutham, S, González, V.A., and Yiu, T.W. (2015), A Cleaner Production-Pollution Prevention Based Framework for Construction Site Induced Water Pollution. Journal of Cleaner Production, Submitted for Review.Belayutham, S, González, V.A., and Yiu, T.W. (2016), The Dynamics of Proximal and Distal Factors in Construction Site Water Pollution, Journal of Cleaner Production, 113, 54-65.

Introduction

Major triggers of construction site water pollution usually take place during the early stages of construction, which are the land clearing and site preparation stage (Ab Rahman et al., 2010). The
progressive change of land surface from a natural environment to a cleared bare land during the initial stages of construction creates impervious surfaces that further trigger the intertwined processes of excessive runoff, erosion and sedimentation (Auckland Regional Council, 1999). Sediment is a pollutant that results from the uncontrolled processes of excessive runoff and erosion. The mechanism starts with excessive runoff, which is generated due to impervious surfaces such as exposed earth that could not efficiently infiltrate rain water. The increase in runoff volume could easily erode the soil surface which is not stabilized. The erosion process will then detach soil from the land surface as sediment. At last, the domino effect will end at streams causing non-point source pollution (Wu et al., 2012). The aforementioned processes that trigger construction site water pollution have commonly been spelled-out in erosion and sediment control standards and guidelines (Auckland Regional Council,1999; Department of Environmental Resources, 1999). However, little effort has been made to identify the underlying causes in the upsurge of those factors, especially from the perspective of manmade errors (Yao et al., 2011). Hence, this chapter aims to establish the underlying factors for construction site water pollution towards addressing the core cause of the problem, rather than obscuring the issue only on the surface. The objectives of this chapter are twofold: 1) to identify the potential causes of construction site water pollution and 2) to categorize the causes of construction site water pollution into distal and proximal factors. The research methods used to achieve these objectives include in-depth interview, systematic review and literature review. Details of the methods will be discussed in Section

Misconceptions on the causes of site water pollution

Commonly, water pollution that predominantly occurs during construction may have conveniently placed the constructing organization as the responsible party (Houser and Pruess, 2009; Barrett et al.,1995; Lavers and Shiers, 2000). Little thought has been given to other complementing reasons such as change order, design error and schedule changes, which involve off-site personnel (designer and client) (Shrestha et al., 2014). Miao et al. (2015) argued that even though polluting companies are the direct source of pollution, they are not entirely to be blamed because their behaviors may have extended from the lack of supervision by the local agencies. Similar justification was established by McNeill (1996),who found that the water pollution incident could also be caused by outset factors such as client’s cost saving nature, besides the onset factors by contractors. Generally, outset factors can also be described as latent factors, which are often ignored without realizing its criticality where actions from upstream personnel could create the situation for onset factors to be generated (Suraji et al., 2001; Haslam et al., 2005). Therefore, it is essential to recognize not only the direct factors but also the latent factors for any event under investigation.The recognition of latent factors in the construction industry can be observed from the
establishment of causal theories in areas such as safety, productivity and sustainability (Han et al.,2014; Lee et al., 2004; Onat et al., 2014). Nonetheless, a Scopus search using the term ‘causal theory in construction’ found this term being used most in the field of construction safety and accident. Minimal research has been observed on the subject of environment, particularly construction site water pollution.This finding is reinforced by Fuertes et al. (2013), who stated that limited environment related research was found portraying causal models, potentially due to the difficulty in distinguishing the relation between causal factors and the environment.Current disregards of the latent factors in environment related construction research defies the growing call to implement prevention-based approaches such as ‘Cleaner Production’ and ‘Pollution Prevention’ that emphasize on source reduction and minimization of environmental impacts (Hilson,2003). In a situation where the source (latent factor) itself is not being recognized, the implemented solutions are merely controlling rather than preventing (Frondel et al., 2007). The common approach applied to control sediment from construction sites is by the use of end-of-pipe techniques such as check dam, contour drain, retention pond, silt fence, dewatering and flocculation (NZTA, 2010). The control facilities built to mitigate site water pollution do come with drawbacks that include high cost,reduction in usable site areas, changes to natural site hydrology and inflexible site design (Shaver,2000). Furthermore, the control facilities could only mitigate the already occurred pollutant rather than to prevent the occurrence at its source. Hence, latent factor (source) recognition would lead to the establishment of a holistic approach that supports the notion of pollution prevention in order to reduce the risk of an environmental disaster.

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ABSTRACT
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
GLOSSARY
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
CO-AUTHORSHIP FORMS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
1.2 Research Motivation
1.3 Research Problems
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives
1.5 Research Scope
1.6 Research Methodology
1.6.1 Research Method
1.6.2 Ethical Consideration
1.7 Thesis Outline
CHAPTER 2 CAUSAL FACTORS FOR CONSTRUCTION SITE WATER POLLUTION .
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Misconceptions on the causes of site water pollution
2.3 Causal Theories
2.4 Research Method to Establish the Underlying Factors in Relation to Construction Site Water Pollution
2.4.1 In-depth Interview with Industry Practitioners
2.4.2 Systematic Review (SR)
2.4.3 Content Analysis
2.5 Result and Analysis for the Causes of Construction Site Water Pollution
2.5.1 In-Depth Interview Result
2.5.2 Systematic Review Result
2.5.3 Collated Interview and Systematic Review Results into Distal and Proximal Factors of Construction Site Water
Pollution
2.6 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3 THE DYNAMICS OF DISTAL AND PROXIMAL FACTORS IN CONSTRUCTION SITE WATER POLLUTION
3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Causal Network
3.1.2 Causal Loop Diagram (CLD)
3.2 Research Method to Develop CLD for the Distal and Proximal Factors of Construction Site Water Pollution
3.2.1 Stage 1: CLD Development Using Collated Systematic Review and Interview Data
3.2.2 Stage 2: Verifications for the Causes of Site Water Pollution and the Use of CLD
3.2.3 CLD Model Validation
3.3 CLD Model for Construction Site Water Pollution
3.4 CLD for Case Project
3.5 Discussion
3.6 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4 THE CONCEPTION OF PREVENTION-BASED APPROACH TO MANAGE CONSTRUCTION SITE WATER POLLUTION
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Concepts in the Environmental Management Practices
4.2.1 Concept of Mitigation
4.2.2 Concept of Prevention
4.2.3 Cleaner Production (CP) and Pollution Prevention (P2)
4.2.4 Cleaner Production: The Environmental-Production Improvement Strategy
4.3 Construction Planning and Operation
4.3.1 Construction Planning and Site Sediment Pollution
4.3.2 Construction Operation (Earthworks) and Site Sediment Pollution
4.3.2.1 Lean Production / Lean Thinking
4.3.2.2 Lean and the Environment
4.4 Research Method for Conceptual Integration between Construction Management and Environmental Prevention Approaches
4.4.1 Stage 1: Construction Planning – Water Pollution Prevention Practices
4.4.2 Stage 2: The Integration between the Concepts of Lean Production and Cleaner Production
4.5 Relationship between Construction Planning and Water Pollution Prevention
4.5.1 Preventive approaches to manage runoff and erosion
4.5.2 Theoretical linkage between WP3 and Construction Planning
4.6 Relationship between the Cleaner Production and Lean Production (Clean-Lean) Approach
4.6.1 Integrated Cleaner Production (CP) and Lean Production (LP)
4.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5 INDUSTRY ENHANCED INTEGRATION OF CONSTRUCTION PLANNING WITH WATER POLLUTION PREVENTION PRACTICES FRAMEWORK
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Research Method to Identify Industry Input on the Integrated Framework of Construction Planning and Water Pollution Prevention Practices
5.2.1 Semi-structured Interview
5.2.2 Description of Respondents
5.2.3 Deductive Data Analysis
5.3 Industrial Input on the Significance of WP3 as part of Construction Planning
5.3.1 Construction Schedule
5.3.2 Construction Method
5.3.3 Construction Site Layout
5.4 Theoretical-Practical Based Framework
5.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6 CLEAN-LEAN APPROACH TO MANAGE THE DISTAL FACTOR (ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSES) OF CONSTRUCTION SITE WATER POLLUTION
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The Side-Lined Administrative Processes in Construction Performance Improvement .
6.3 Lean Administration in Construction
6.4 Case Project Background
6.5 Research Phases to Develop Clean-Lean Administrative Processes
6.6 Analytical Framework of the Relationship between the administrative process waste, production (time) and environmental (sediment pollution) variable
6.7 Lean-Based Approach to Improve the Administrative Process Waste
6.8 Discussion and Conclusion
6.9 Chapter Appendix
CHAPTER 7 CLEAN-LEAN APPROACH TO MANAGE THE PROXIMAL FACTOR (EARTHWORKS OPERATION) OF CONSTRUCTION SITE WATER POLLUTION
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The Proximal Factor of Earthwork Production
7.3 Research Method for Clean-Lean Earthwork
7.4 Clean-Lean Method Development
7.5 Conclusion
7.6 Chapter Appendix
CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Achievement of Research
8.3 Value and Significance of the Research
8.4 Research Limitations
8.5 Recommendations for Future Research
8.6 Summary
REFERENCES
APPENDICES