The proceedings of a major conference on the built environment ran by the RICS to examine recent research and development in: investment; building procurement and construction; and building performance analysis.

This book presents the proceedings of an international symposium which aimed to establish at the highest level the best practice and research in three important scientific and technical themes within the domain of residential buildings across the European Community: quality management and liability building economics construction management. In addition the symposium will discuss the future evolution and development of each theme.

The construction industry is an information-intensive sector and low levels of productivity are often blamed on inadequate integration of information. This book shows how the different types and sources of information can be integrated to benefit individual construction projects, construction companies and in the construction industry at world-wide level.

Collecting, Managing, and Assessing Data Using Sample Surveys provides a thorough, step-by-step guide to the design and implementation of surveys. Beginning with a primer on basic statistics, the first half of the book takes readers on a comprehensive tour through the basics of survey design. Topics covered include the ethics of surveys, the design of survey procedures, the design of the survey instrument, how to write questions and how to draw representative samples. Having shown readers ...

You’re now responsible for a programme, or you’ve got a portfolio to manage? Where do you start? Right here!Projects are not simply the bread and butter of an organisation. Form them into programmes or portfolios and they can be prioritised and integrated to deliver change to your organization in line with your strategic vision. You will be able to control costs and risks and bring together a complex series of themes effectively.This overhauled second edition now combines p...

The issue of data quality is as old as data itself. However, the proliferation of diverse, large-scale and often publically available data on the Web has increased the risk of poor data quality and misleading data interpretations. On the other hand, data is now exposed at a much more strategic level e.g. through business intelligence systems, increasing manifold the stakes involved for individuals, corporations as well as government agencies. There, the lack of knowledge about data accurac...

What is text mining, and how can it be used? What relevance do these methods have to everyday work in information science and the digital humanities? How does one develop competences in text mining? Working with Text provides a series of cross-disciplinary perspectives on text mining and its applications. As text mining raises legal and ethical issues, the legal background of text mining and the responsibilities of the engineer are discussed in this book. Chapters provide an introduction t...

Enterprises, from small to large, evolve continuously. As a result, their structures are transformed and extended continuously. Without some means of control, such changes are bound to lead to an overly complex, uncoordinated and heterogeneous environment that is hard to manage and hard to adapt to future changes. Enterprise architecture principles provide a means to direct transformations of enterprises. As a consequence, architecture principles should be seen as the cornerstones of any a...

Requirements engineering is one of the most complex and at the same time most crucial aspects of software engineering. It typically involves different stakeholders with different backgrounds. Constant changes in both the problem and the solution domain make the work of the stakeholders extremely dynamic. New problems are discovered, additional information is needed, alternative solutions are proposed, several options are evaluated, and new hands-on experience is gained on a daily basis. Th...

Many new technologies – like RFID, GPS, and sensor networks – that dominate innovative developments in logistics are based on the idea of autonomous cooperation and control. This self-organisational concept describes „...processes of decentralized decision-making in heterarchical structures. It presumes interacting elements in non-deterministic systems, which possess the capability and possibility to render decisions. The objective of autonomous cooperation and control is the achievement o...

As the ever-changing skylines of cities all over the world show, tall buildings are an increasingly important solution to accommodating growth more sustainably in today’s urban areas. Whether it is residential, a workplace or mixed use, the tower is both a statement of intent and the defining image for the new global city.The Tall Buildings Reference Book addresses all the issues of building tall, from the procurement stage through the design and construction process to ne...

This volume comprises a collection of papers presented at an Open Data in Education Seminar and the LILE workshops during 2014-2015.In the first part of the book, two chapters give different perspectives on the current use of linked and open data in education, including the use of technology and the topics that are being covered.The second part of the book focuses on the specific, practical applications that are being put in place to exploit open and linked data in educatio...