Obsolescence and the end of life phase of buildings

What is obsolescence? Numerous older housing blocks have been knocked down because of being obsolete. There is a general understanding that buildings, like machinery and durable consumer goods, should be replaced when they become obsolete. But is this true? Obsolescence is a serious threat for built property. Given its immobile, long lasting and...

Shaping decisions and processes for more sustainable urban environments

To know whether eco-cities or, indeed, any so-called sustainable urban environment, will be successful, an understanding is needed about how such places 'come into being'. Understanding how decisions have been made, who makes them and when and how they are made is crucial to ensuring that the 'right' people have been involved at 'right' time. In...

Using fuzzy logic modelling to simulate farmers’ decision-making on diversification and integration in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

To reveal farmers’ motives for on-farm diversification and integration of farming components in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, we developed a fuzzy logic model (FLM) using a 10-step approach. Farmers’ decision-making was mimicked in a three-layer hierarchical architecture of fuzzy inference systems, using data of 72 farms. The model includes three...

Upgrade or replace?: The effect of the EPBD on the choice between improvement or replacement

What is better: improvement or replacement by new construction? The choice between life cycle extension and replacement of existing buildings is at itself a vital but very difficult decision, involving a wide range of different aspects and affecting several contrary and often conflicting interests. The emerging ecological awareness of the...

Decision-making on Mega-projects: Drifting on Political Discontinuity and Market Dynamics

Decision-making on mega-projects is beset by a multitude of problems. Cost overruns and disappointing achievements are already well documented. Some of these pitfalls appear in the initial stages of the decision-making: the absence of an appropriate problem analysis, the lack of alternatives, ambiguities about scope, no programme of functional...

Problem structuring in interactive decision-making processes: How interaction, problem perceptions and knowledge contribute to a joint formulation of a problem and solutions

Water management issues are often complex, unstructured problems. They are complex, because they are part of a natural and human system wich consists of many diverse, interdependent elements, e.g. upstream events influence the water system downstream, different interdependent goverment layers, manage the water system, and multiple stakeholders...

Decision-making models and classifications of human during critical events

Bayesian estimation for decision-directed stochastic control