Sharif Digital Repository

The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of events such as earthquakes on businesses. Earthquakes can have a significant impact on the performance and profitability of businesses. Earthquakes can negatively affect the functionality of community infrastructure systems by damaging their components and this disruption in the functionality of the lifelines of the community can negatively affect the businesses that are dependent on their functionality. In addition, earthquakes will cause casualties and injuries, leading to a decrease in the workforce and the customers’ population. In such a situation, the activity of many businesses is disrupted and even stopped, which in turn has many... 

Project cost overrun is one of the most frequently occurring issues in the construction industry. Past research studies have investigated the project cost overrun problem from various perspectives. However, to date, only a few studies have focused on the identification of the root causes of projects cost overruns. A close review of these studies reveals that the studies often provide limited insight into the root causes of project cost overrun. These studies fail to consider the impact of project delivery system as a defining project characteristic that may influence construction cost overruns. In addition, past studies have relied on surveys that are not necessarily precise and highly... 

In earthquake-prone communities, the post-earthquake functionality of hospitals is crucial. Hospitals can dramatically reduce earthquake casualties if they can remain functional and retain service continuity. A variety of earthquake-induced problems such as damage to hospital components, unavailability of medical staff, disruption in medicine supply, and failure of supporting infrastructure systems can negatively affect the functionality of a hospital. Hospital administrators and facility managers require appropriate tools to assess the effect of these problems on hospital functionality. This research presents a probabilistic framework to assess the functionality of hospitals following... 

FIDIC as a proposed model for a contract and including patterns of regular international contract projects. In Iran, many giant construction projects such as petroleum projects, power plants, roads and water networks was signed based on FIDIC contract pattern and These projects have been faced with many challenges .The main challenges for this contract are not ready. Improper translation of the original, traditional look owners to contractors, FIDIC modern approach depends on the project parties (owner - Consulting - contractors), Iran's judicial laws, lack of private land ownership and the absence of allocated budget that indicates the appropriate use of this model contracts in Iran. To... 

Infrastructure systems play a critical role in the economic and social activities of a community. Effective and continuous performance of these infrastructure systems is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the communities. Infrastructure systems comprise networks of interdependent assets that are built through a long and costly process. These assets are subject to a variety of factors that reduce the performance and reliability over time. These factors also increase the vulnerability of infrastructure assets in face of future probable hazards. In order to ensure the continuous and uninterrupted performance of infrastructure assets in post-hazard situations, asset managers should plan... 

The aim of this research is to examine and propose solutions for financing projects aimed at reducing vulnerability in the oil industry's infrastructure against earthquakes and enhancing their seismic resilience. Design and construction issues, as well as the gradual deterioration of oil infrastructure, increase their vulnerability to earthquakes. Earthquakes can disrupt the proper and continuous functioning of these infrastructures by causing damage. Such disruptions or interruptions in the performance of oil industry infrastructure can have significant economic and social consequences. To mitigate these damages, investment in vulnerability reduction measures is essential. Financing... 

Asset management involves making decisions related to selecting the most cost-effective asset improvement strategies. There is an increasing interest of risk-based approaches in the field of asset management. During the asset life various risk factors might influence the asset performance and the maintenance cost, therefore, it is important to incorporate these risk factors, which affect the necessity and timing of various activities. This study develops a systemic risk-based asset management methodology (framework) to manage the maintenance of infrastructure assets. This paper presents an overview of uncertainty problems in cost estimating of bridge in the future and also discusses... 

The construction industry is faced with the problem of growing number of claims. If not settled, claims may lead to dispute among parties. Researchers have investigated claims from various perspectives. Nevertheless, more studies should be conducted in order to enhance the understanding about the root-causes of construction claims. The objective of this study is to utilize a systematic and well-structured methodology based on literature review, survey and interviews with experts in order to identify and classify the root-causes of claims of contractors as well as the situations that give rise to construction claims. Moreover, this study contributes to the claim terminology by distinguishing... 

The aim of this research is presentation of A framework to select the appropriate combination of retrofit and insurance in order to reduce earthquake losses. The vulnerability of buildings to earthquakes can lead to significant damage to owners and residents of these buildings. It is imperative that appropriate measures be taken to reduce these adverse effects before the risk occurs. Some of these measures, such as seismic retrofit of buildings, can reduce the vulnerability of buildings and, consequently, financial and human losses. Some other measures like insurance, in the event of an earthquake, can reduce the financial losses incurred by owners and residents of vulnerable buildings.... 

Cogeneration technologies such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) have promising features for providing the electrical energy that various industries require while reducing the emissions and other environmental impacts of these industries. Investments in CHP systems require substantial implementation costs followed by a relatively long period of recovering the invested capital through savings in utilities bills. Appropriate timing of CHP system investments can reduce capital expenses and enhance returns on investments. An appropriate investment valuation method is needed to identify the appropriate time to implement a given CHP system and to find the values of properly scheduled investments.... 

Earthquakes can cause significant economic damage to society. These damages include direct economic damage, ie, the cost incurred by the community to rebuild damaged infrastructure. In addition, damaging the infrastructure, the earthquake reduces the level of infrastructure service, and thus, disrupts the businesses that rely on it. The consequences of such disruptions, such as a decline in the level of productivity and efficiency of firms, or an increase in the rate of unemployment and migration from the community, can cause indirect economic damage to society. The costs incurred to society by disasters can be reduced by adopting appropriate solutions. In many cases, however, the incentives... 

The increasing dependence of urban communities on infrastructure highlights the importance of resilience in the event of natural disasters, including earthquakes. Every society is made up of various infrastructures such as water supply, electricity, transportation, hospitals and so on.Every infrastructure to serve the community depends directly or indirectly on the electricity infrastructure.The power supply infrastructure consists of three main systems of electricity generation, transmission and distribution. Power substations, as nodes of the transmission and distribution network, are considered to be very vital nodes that it is important to maintain their serviceability after severe... 

In this study, reform strategies to enhance private sector participation in infrastructure projects is provided. The study is presented in the form of words that government institutions could use in the highest level. the pattern used for this study is based on system thinking in which all components are in causal relationship with each other. It was made effort to policies and upstream objectives of the country be respected. To provide research content, content analysis of successful experiences in the world was done. Finally, obtained strategies was presented to the experts, reformed and important cases was investigated. Lack of information and difficult access to country's infrastructure... 

The aim of this study is to quantify the social impacts of infrastructure failure for community resilience after seismic hazards with the focus on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many studies have investigated the failure of infrastructures and their interdependencies for community resilience; however, there is a lack of comprehensive quantitative resilience framework considering social interactions along with lifelines. The upcoming research is based on the Rtx framework, which was developed at Sharif University of Technology for community resilience analysis. In the mentioned framework, the performance of different community infrastructures is simulated using probabilistic and... 

Since the awareness of project costs is a prerequisite for resource allocation and budget planning in construction projects, it is crucial to forecast project costs. In addition, as a part of the decision-making process, managers use predicted construction costs to assess and reduce project time risks. This study aims to estimate and predict residential building construction costs using hybrid machine learning models. In this research, to estimate the construction costs, in addition to considering the general characteristics of buildings, economic parameters are also considered. These physical and economic features are determined using experts' opinions and the results of previous studies.... 

Occurrence of natural disasters such as earthquake could seriously damage most buildings especially those with insufficient resistance located in urban worn-out textures. In order to reduce unpleasant consequences of an earthquake, appropriate policies need to be considered to persuade the beneficiaries to follow retrofitting standards in the process of planning, designing, and construction of buildings. These policies shall be implemented through institutions in arbitrary or obligatory forms, by encouragement or penalty mechanisms. In order to consider these policies, first of all we need to identify the beneficiaries and their particulars. By studying and considering subjects discussed in... 

This study proposes a probabilistic framework to quantify the seismic resilience of urban natural gas distribution networks. Infrastructure resilience is defined as the ability to maintain performance after a hazard or, in case of a loss of performance, return to the minimum desired level in the optimal time. The framework presented in this research is comprised of multiple interconnected probabilistic models. These models work in harmony to characterize the impact of the earthquake on various infrastructures such as the buildings and urban gas distribution network components, as well as the probable consequences of the earthquake. The post-earthquake recovery of the gas distribution network... 

Optimal use of available resources for construction projects depends on proper decision-making on how to spend resources. Optimization of resource consumption should be done taking into account project revenue. In this regard, investors need a suitable mechanism to predict the selling price of the construction project and the resulting profit. Therefore, investors and stakeholders need a suitable model with the help of which they can make decisions such as choosing materials to guarantee the desired profit from the sale. This research will provide a framework for constructing models for estimating the price of residential units by considering some features of the building and some economic... 

Estimation of indirect economic losses due to natural disasters, especially earthquakes, is one of the essential issues in disaster management. This study presents a framework that uses an economic model of the community under study and calculates the indirect economic losses caused by an earthquake. To this end, first, the earthquake-induced direct economic losses are quantified using appropriate risk analysis models. The direct losses are used to characterize the consequent shock to labor and capital. These shocks are then used as inputs to the regional economic model. In the proposed framework, a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model uses various data about the state of the community... 

Natural disasters can damage the infrastructure of society. Damages to the infrastructure components of society can disrupt their service delivery. Disruption in providing services to society's infrastructure can disrupt social and economic activities and impose various significant costs on society. The cost of repairing the damaged infrastructure and reducing the income of households are among the economic damages of accidents. The decline in the quality of life, as well as the death and injury of people due to the breakdown of the infrastructure or the disruption in their services, are among the social damages caused by accidents. In the same way, natural disasters are considered a...