neering (SE). Nowadays, this approach is more and more instructed by clients in the Netherlands. The switch to Systems Engineering was necessary because of the development of integrated contracts (UAV-GC; Uniform Administrative Conditions for Integrated Contracts) such as Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) and Design & Construct (D&C). Before the introduction of integrated contracts, mainly RAW contracts (Rationalization and automation Soil, Water and Road Construction) were used in the Netherlands for public procurement in infrastructure projects. In RAW contracts, the to be built system is described in detail and the segregation of responsibilities between client and contractor is distinctly defined. In integrated contracts, this distinctly defined segregation of responsibilities is missing. As a result of the integrated contracts, the projects became more complex and multidisciplinary, which asked for a more structured approach (Emes et al., 2012). Another difficulty of integrated contracts is the communication between client and contractor because more information has to be transferred. An important element of SE are the verification and validation processes. This validation process is considered complicated in the civil engineering industry. Four subproblems are determined by means of literature and practical knowledge. First, the interaction between client and contractor. Findings of a questionnaire performed by the CROW (2017) about the relationship between client and contractor are:56.9% of the contractors’ employees do not feel equally treated by the client, 43.6% of the clients’ employees and 69.7% of the contractors’ employees agree on the statement that the other party is mainly defensive instead of cooperative, another issue during the interaction between client and contractor is trust. 23.3% of the clients’ employees and 17.7% of the contractors’ employees say that the other party cannot be trusted, 73.6% of the clients’ employees and 73.5% of the contractors’ employees disagree on the fact that the other party puts the common interests of the project above their own interests. The second subproblem is the confusion between verification and validation. Verification is the process of determining if the system meets the specified requirements (Alsem et al., 2013). Nevertheless, the purpose of the validation process according to ISO (2015) is "to provide objective evidence that the system, when in use, fulfils its business or mission objectives and stakeholder requirements, achieving its intended use in its intended operational environment" (ISO, 2015, p. 74). The third subproblem is executing sufficient validation. The difficulty is to represent the client and stakeholders needs in requirements. Therefore, the validation is often conducted last-minute in the construction phase of the project. The fourth subproblem is that the effects of the use of 3D visualisation during design validation on project performances are unknown. These problems result in the following research objective and question. The aim of this research is to gain insight in the effects of 3D visualisation during the design validation on the project performances, namely time, costs and quality. What are possible effects of 3D visualisation on design validation within the civil engineering sector in the Netherlands? The methodology for this research consists of three phases: (1) context, which includes literature and project evaluations, (2) experiment, which contains baseline and follow-up measurements and (3) the results and conclusion. Phase two, experiment, is a gaming simulation called the ontwikkelstraat. In this research, the following definition is used for gaming simulation: "a special type of model that uses gaming techniques to model and simulate a system. A gaming simulation is an operating model of a real-life system in which actors in roles partially recreate the behaviour of the system (Meijer, 2009)". The Ontwikkelstraat is a two-day case imitating a project from tender till exploitation and includes design, construction and maintenance of a hydrogen factory. During this gaming simulation, three types of measurements are conducted: questionnaires, recordings of the interaction between client and contractor, and observations. According to the literature, sufficient design validation has to fulfil several conditions. The aim is to acquire proof that the system in its ability to achieve its intended use (ISO, 2015). Rijkswaterstaat (2017) prescribes three conditions the design validation should meet, namely design validation is an integral element of the design process, confirmation by client and stakeholders, and determine the validation process in cooperation with the client. There are multiple ways of conducting design validation. Several design activities are of importance for design validation. During the system design phase, these activities are analysing contract documents, as well as document functionalities, requirements and systems. In the preliminary design phase, these activities are based on the variants and validation of the design products. It is concluded from the three cases studied that alignment of the design products with client and stakeholders is a key validation step in all cases. Bryde et al. (2014), Sebastian and Van Berlo (2011), and Azhar (2012) described the capabilities of 3D visualisation. Three-dimensional visualisation can be static or dynamic. With a static image of the 3D model of the design, the communication and coordination between actors and disciplines are more detailed. By decomposition in subsystems and objects, the technical details of the design can be sufficiently discussed during the validation sessions with the client and stakeholders. Another capability of the 3D visualisation is expectation management between contractor, client and stakeholders. 3D visualisation can also be used for dynamic images for moving systems, such as locks and movable bridges, which can be used for showing the functionalities of the design. Dynamic images can confirm that the design meets the intended functionalities and use of the system that is going to be built. Currently, 3D visualisation is used within the civil engineering sector in the Netherlands is by means of BIM. Within the civil engineering sector in the Netherlands companies deviate in the BIM maturity level, as well as the multiple subsidiaries within the contractor firm VolkerWessels. According to the BIM wedge that is developed by Bew and Richards (2008), level 1 of the BIM maturity is implemented. Therefore, the use of 3D visualisation is implemented in all integral projects within the infrastructure branch of VolkerWessels. The 3D models are used for clash detection, reinforcement in concrete, immediate vicinity and quantities. Conclusion According the results of the gaming simulation, visualisation does not have an effect on the project performances time, costs and quality. A possible explanation that no effect of visualisation on the project performances has been found is that the physical model of the hydrogen factory in the ontwikkelstraat was only used during one of the follow-up measurements. During the other two follow-up measurement, the physical model was not used by the participants. The follow-up measurement where the physical model was used, it was used by one participant, who built the model. However, the participant did not communicate his findings from the physical model to the other project team members. Therefore, there are not enough results to conclude that there are no effects of visualised validation on the project performances. From observations during the gaming simulation, it can be concluded that not the availability of the 3D model, but the standard practice of project teams is the issue. This research aimed to fill the theoretical gap on the effects of 3D visualisation on design validation. Although this aim is achieved, every research has to make compromises to stay within scope. The main limitations are presented in the itemisation below. • Lack of proper literature regarding the conditions for sufficient design validation; • Small sample size of the gaming simulation, which makes it harder to generalise the findings; • Time constraints during the gaming simulation, the participants are under a lot of time pressure during particularly the design phases. Therefore it is possible they overlooked the physical scale model. Soms suggestions for further research are: • It is found that not the availability of the 3D visualisation is the problem, but the standard practice of project teams play a role. Therefore, research on the problems of implementation of 3D models during design validation and how to solve these problems would b relevant for the whole construction industry; • During the project evaluations, it has been found that the way of handling changes in the contract after procurement is challenging. It turns out that validation of the design is often obstructed because the results of the validation process can result in uncertainties for all actors in a construction project. Research on the politics behind the changes in construction projects is relevant, because of the uncertainties these politics bring in the development of projects and the relationship between all actors that are involved; • Lastly, further research on the interaction between client and contractor is needed. Research on the development of achievable strategies to manage the counterbalance between collaboration and competition between client and contractor would be significant. Recommendations for practice Based on the literature and project evaluations, a proposed approach, called visualised validation approach (VVA) is developed. The VVA is a combination of two different project management methodologies, which are the V-model and the scrum. During the System design phase, three activities are essential: determining V&V management plan, requirement validation, and interaction with the client about the intended use of the system. The preliminary design phase is an iterative process, with scrum design sprints and validation sessions with the client and stakeholders. The biggest challenge in the construction industry is the implementation of the visualised validation approach. According to an internal investigation, the accessibility of the process and in particular the 3D mod- els have impact on the implementation of the VVA. Several employees indicated that they are reserved to use new approaches because of the lack of skills or manpower.

The construction and waste industry would move towards applying Circular Economy (CE) strategies, to meet the circular ambition of the Dutch government before 2050. In order to accelerate this transition, it is necessary to explore and adopt more innovative and sustainable solutions within the construction and waste sector. A small amount of waste including materials and elements from the construction projects is being reused after End-of-Life phase, and this issue must be optimized considerably. On the other hand, the aforementioned sector suffers from the lack of a centralized and harmonized data platform which can contribute either to advancing of CE transition by optimizing reusability or the collaboration among the stakeholders involved in the deconstruction process. There are still various sustainable and circular issues that need to be taken into consideration when realizing, developing and enriching a newly designed data sources. Therefore, this research is aimed to conceptualize and develop a ‘Circular Construction Element (CCE) Information System’ as a tool which consists of an import sheet, an analysis and processing sheet and a dashboard. The ‘CCE Information System’ takes into account the functional performance characteristics of the existing elements and also the cost-related issues of the stakeholders involved in the deconstruction for reuse process. The developed tool is therefore intended to support various stakeholders in the decision-making process regarding reusing the existing elements. In this study, different functional performance properties of the existing concrete elements have been analyzed and it can be concluded that those characteristics depends largely on functional properties of the substances used in them. On the other hand, there are a large number of stakeholders involved in deconstruction process with different ambitions and benefits. The research showed that deconstruction for reuse is an uneconomic process for the actors, as this process requires more time, manpower, equipment and costly interventions. By measuring the Reuse Potential (RP) factor from a functional (qualitative) and economic (quantitative) perspective, it is possible to indicate the extent to which the functional residual value and also the profitability of reuse of the element is. The developed tool has been applied in real cases and the results showed that the existing elements have sufficient functional reuse potential value, but this depends largely on the function of the newly designed projects. Furthermore, the reuse cost including deconstruction and other associated costs can be optimized by the proposed tool. Thus, based on the results obtained by applying the CCE information system in real cases, it can be concluded that the existing elements can be kept in a closed loop by finding the elements and linking them to the most suitable project from a functional and economic point of view. Moreover, the client and the contractor (demolition company) can deal with many costs uncertainties, including benefits and loss. These parties may also face different uncertainties that can arise due to many other reasons such as the exceedance of process time, additional labor costs, and uncertainties regarding salvage value. Therefore, it can highly be recommended to analyze the impact of those uncertainties on the deconstruction cost and consequently on the reuse and other associated costs as these uncertainties will take into consideration in the deconstruction process.

One of the fundamental goals for the success of a construction project is found to be completion within the budget. To reach this goal, cost estimation is a key process which can be divided into the estimation of direct and indirect costs. Unlike direct costs, indirect costs are not directly connected with the performance of any particular element of a project which makes proper allocation of these costs a challenging issue. Although the classification in the ABK model (2018) provides clarity regarding the content of the indirect cost items, estimation of these costs (ABK) and especially the tasks for quantity take-off (QTO) were identified as time-consuming and lacking standardised guidelines and procedures. At the same time, Building Information Models (BIM), which are increasingly used, offer an effective platform for linking data regarding construction costs. The fifth dimension of BIM in particular adds cost information to the 3D construction model. Full interoperability between the various information models is still a goal that has not been reached yet within the construction sector. Recent studies have examined inefficiencies caused by inadequate interoperability, like manual re-entry of data and duplication of tasks. This research aims to positively contribute to the efficiency of the indirect cost estimation process by developing a 5D computer-based tool. The development of the tool was based on literature review and interviews with practitioners. Features of BIM applications were used and linked to the outcome of the indirect cost estimate. The tool was able to reduce manual interventions and reduce task durations, which resulted in a positive contribution to the efficiency of the indirect cost estimation process. Main benefits of the tool were hereby the structured guidelines for quantity take-offs, a reduction in manual intervention and time for QTO tasks and implementation of project changes within the outcome of the ABK estimate.

This research project focuses on the impact of lacking spatial information in the execution phase of Dutch infrastructure projects. In this research project, spatial information is defined as a combination of geometric and geographic object related information. Three construction projects have been examined through case studies and depth interviews with construction planners. As an answer to the research question, people seem to be the key. The greatest advancements on the issue of lacking spatial information currently seem to lie in the management of human errors.

An increase in air traffic demand, aging pavement infrastructure, and limited funds make pavement management decision making a difficult process. Pavement management systems (PMS) are essential for pavement management. PAVER, the most common airport pavement management system (APMS) assists pavement managers by identifying the surface condition of pavement sections, however it’s based only on the pavement condition index (Greene, Shahin, & Alexander, 2004). Other criteria are taken into account by pavement managers to select the pavement sections that will be maintained or rehabilitated; however these criteria are not included in PAVER or any APMS. For pavement managers, it is very difficult to select the pavement sections that will be repaired because not all the sections in need of M&R can be selected. This research has focused on developing a pavement management decision making tool to help pavement managers prioritize and identify the sections that need M&R, based not only on PCI but on all relevant criteria needed for airport pavement management. The main research question to be answered in this research is: How can airport pavement management decision making be improved by means of data to identify the pavement sections that need to be maintained or rehabilitated? The chosen methodology to identify pavement sections in need of maintenance is the absolute Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). This research has explored the applicability of this methodology for prioritizing pavement sections in airports. Three major airports in Europe have been chosen as case studies for this research: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Brussels Airport, and Heathrow airport. Based on literature research and on these case studies, the required criteria used in airport pavement management for identifying pavement sections to be maintained have been identified. The required data for all criteria has also been identified. Based on all the criteria, the required data, and the AHP methodology, the mentioned tool has been designed. The design of the tool was presented to expert pavement managers to corroborate its applicability before its development. The tool has been developed in Microsoft Excel and its applicability has been illustrated by using partially real data and partially fictitious data. The AHP was successfully implemented allowing pavement managers prioritize large amounts of pavement sections, considering all relevant criteria. This research has revealed that pavement management decision making can be improved by means of data, by the development of tools like the one proposed in this research. It was also shown how big volumes of data can improve pavement management decision making, providing managers relevant information like the remaining structural life of pavement sections. Airports can benefit from this research by reducing the required time for prioritizing pavement sections and selecting those to be maintained or rehabilitated, by minimizing the amount of time spent on projects that will be disregarded, and by strengthening or facilitating the application of predictive maintenance.

In order to study the effects of Urban Heat Island and the possibilities of combating it with Vegetation Cooling, this thesis project proposes the use of available tools/information in Building Information Modelling. By building on an empirically validated model for the calculation of UHI, this project undertakes the translation of that model into the digital environment. By automating calculations and applying them to larger scales, the project then evaluates the validity of the initial model through a satellite thermal imagery comparison. Throughout the undertaking, much is experienced regarding the difficulties of BIM implementation in projects, which is later reflected upon.

From shallow to deep water, from the well to the ship, from the offshore field to shore or between countries, many kilometres of offshore pipelines for transportation of hydrocarbons (oil and gas) have been installed over the last decades. Allseas’ Tog Mor is a shallow water pipelay barge capable of laying pipes up to a water depth of 25 meters. Currently, Tog Mor is more than forty years old and is due for replacement. Therefore, Allseas has considered to replace Tog Mor with a new shallow water pipelay barge. However, it is unclear whether the current barge is optimised for pipelaying since it is designed for crane supported purposes. The aim of this research is to give insight into vessel properties which determine the pipelaying performances and to define a set of design requirements for the new shallow water pipelay barge, Tog Mor 2.0. To define the requirements of Tog Mor 2.0, the principles of Systems Engineering are followed. Based on the operational analysis, the performances of Tog Mor can be improved by a reduction of the theoretical peak cycle time, optimisations of the pipelaying process and a reduction of downtime. The output of the operational analysis in combination with the principles of pipelaying results in potential bottlenecks. Those performances and potential bottlenecks were the input of the functional definition of Systems Engineering. The aim of this functional definition is to allocate functions to systems and to prioritise the design focus point in terms of functions. Those functions were translated into hardware components and integrated in the total design. Due to the inversely proportional relationship of the number of production days and corresponding production costs, an increased number of stations and lay speed do not have an advantage in terms of costs. In order to reduce the theoretical peak cycle time, the specifications of the functional equipment are improved and the need of buoyancy modules is reduced. Less need of buoyancy modules is achieved by the increased capacity of the tensioner (two tensioners of 100 ton each) and an inner stinger. The pipelaying process is optimised by free deck space, a higher level of redundancy of the functional equipment and new technologies of equipment. The level of redundancy in combination with the improved workability results in a reduction of downtime. Those improvements results in a final concept design which proposes a barge with an off-centre firing-line of five stations (three welding stations, one testing & grit blasting station, one coating station). As a result of an improvement of each individual function and the interactions among those functions, an improvement of 30% in terms of theoretical minimum peak cycle is achieved by an optimisation of the pipelaying process and potential bottlenecks. A reduction of the peak cycle time, an optimised pipelaying process and a reduction of downtime percentages results in an improved overall performance of Tog Mor 2.0 compared to the current Tog Mor.

The current built environment is facing a transition from a linear economy towards a circular economy. In this new system, the building parts of today are used to construct the buildings of tomorrow. Reusing building parts requires knowing the qualities of those materials. However, the current AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry does not know what data is required to reuse building components and how this influences processes of modelling and decommissioning parties. Therefore, this research aims to answer the following question: “Which data is needed for circular component reuse and how does this data requirement influence the management of a BIM in new construction projects?” The goal of this report is to construct an ILS (Information Delivery System. Original Dutch name: Informatie Leverings Specificatie) that provides data requirements for reuse of building components. To answer this question two organisation types are interviewed: linear building organisations and modular building organisations. The linear companies construct projects with a permeant aim whereby building parts are not redeployed in subsequent lifecycles. Modular organisations, on the other hand, construct high-quality modular assets whereby building components and elements are reused a lifecycle. By interviewing both typologies the data requirements and process could be described and compared to construct a new ILS and process. The interviews expressed the data requirements and structures of both organisations. These inputs are processed and the “Circular Reuse ILS+” and “Circular Reuse ILS+” are constructed. These documents describe data requirements of digital models to ensure that building components could be reused. Implementation of these documents increases the length, complexity, and costs of the design phases since more properties and digital models should be created and stored during these phases. The disassembly phase, contrastingly, benefits from the data and documents prescribed by the ILS+ given that more information is available for the construction of redeployment plans and analysis of the qualities of the released components. During the use phase of an asset, data should be maintained to ensure that it could be reused in future lifecycles. However, the qualities, requirements, definition, and responsibilities of this data maintenance are still unknow. Future research could focus on data maintenance to ensure that all data could be used in a perfect circular world.

Problem definition: In the car park industry, a new trend has emerged, shifting the demand for parking from permanent one-of-a-kind parking structures towards temporary modular structures (Drenth, 2020). Meanwhile, the building industry faces a transition into a more sustainable industry. This requires rethinking of the design process, taking into account possible reuse of a building or its elements as well as potential use of different materials. Timber is a renewable material and as a result of developments in timber engineering, now allows the construction of taller and larger structures. Given these trends and challenges, the objective of this thesis is to provide a structural system proof of concept for a temporary multi-storey car park, using timber as primary structural material. Approach: A broad literature study provides background information on the various relevant topics and is followed by a refinement of the objective, substantiated by two sub-studies. This has resulted in two sub-goals: the minimization of total deck height (< 700 mm) and minimization of the structural systems weight (column load < 1,000 kN). A proof of concept is developed through a parametric study with structural validation into four main design variants (consisting of a deck and framing system), for which the effect of altering four geometric parameters (parking deck span, use of struts, distance between columns in transverse direction and minimum distance between joists) on these sub-goals is studied. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effect of altering the requirements concerning fire-safety, vibrations and deflections on the deck height and weight. Finally, the proof of concept’s performance is compared to five alternative modular and/or timber car park concepts in a case study. Evaluation: It is concluded, that design variants using long-span deck systems result in a relatively small deck height, but high self-weight. A CLT rib deck should be applied under “standard” assessment criteria, but significant reductions in deck height (31%) and weight (49%) can be achieved by using LVL rib decks when vibrations are not considered and deformation limits are increased. The total deck height of design variants with short-span decks, which use solid LVL panels, highly depends on the supporting framing system, but its self-weight is roughly halve of the long-span design variants. The effect of alternative assessment criteria on design variants with short-span decks is rather limited. It is concluded that the use of struts significantly reduces the total deck height (17-30%) and structures weight (5-11%) and a transverse column distance of a single parking bay width is preferred. The distance between joists is of less relevance, but a bigger parking deck span increases both deck height and total weight. The resulting proof of concept consists out of a short-span solid LVL deck system, which spans two times 2.5 m (single parking bay width). It is supported by glulam main girders, spanning the entire parking deck, which are simply supported by a set of columns at a transverse distance of 2.5 m and are additionally supported by slanted struts between the columns and main girders. The results from the case study show, that the total deck height of the proof of concept (666 mm) is smaller that the sub-goal of 700 mm and comparable to alternatives with decks made of steel, concrete and GFRP. Furthermore it is 40% thinner than the alternative in timber as a result of the use of LVL and struts. In terms of weight, the use of timber is much lighter than using concrete decks (<25%) and only 17% heavier than the extremely lightweight GFRP decks. Furthermore, it results in the smallest loads on the foundation (678 kN which is smaller than the sub-goal of 1,000 kN). A first extremely simplified durability analysis on amounts of embodied carbon in the main structural elements indicates timber has significantly lower amounts of embodied carbon in comparison to the alternative concepts. Implications: Based on the results presented, it is concluded that timber is applicable for almost all main structural elements of a temporary and modular multi-storey car park. The case study has shown that the proof of concept can compete with alternative modular car park concepts in terms of deck height and outperforms most alternatives in terms of the structures weight. It is also indicated, that timber has the potential to significantly improve the performance of a structure in terms of sustainability. For future research, it is advised to further develop the proof of concept, focussing on the connections and durability risks and study the incorporation of circular design strategies into the design and construction process of the proof of concept. Furthermore, alternative assessment criteria should be validated. Finally, it is advised to study the potential use of other innovative sustainable building materials like BauBuche and make a detailed LCA study assessing the performance on sustainability.

Risk based economic optimisation of water safety measures is presently being implemented in the more developed countries, but offers potential for developing countries too. With a limited budget, every penny needs to be well spent. It is however questionable if this method fits the circumstances in developing countries. Sufficient data is needed to get reliable results, while developing countries are often data scarce. The sensitivity to uncertainties in the optimisation process due to working with limited data is explored by means of a case study concerning the area of Nyaungdon, Myanmar, which inundates regularly due to the Ayeyarwady River.

Innovative solutions for safety and risk management on construction sites are required to reduce the amount of accidents that occur globally, as too many occupational accidents still happen in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. A particular problem is the fall from height (FFH) accidents on construction sites, due to failing barriers with the underlying cause of insufficient planning. In previous research it has been suggested to develop dedicated BIM plug-ins to automate and visualise risk identification and evaluation of construction sites as a means to assist the safety management process. To explore the impact of BIM on FFH accident reduction through automation and visualisation, a digital tool prototype is developed. This prototype focusses on fall from height (FFH) identification on construction sites during early project phases of civil engineering projects. It is programmed in Autodesk Dynamo for Revit, based on technical and functional requirements derived from literature and industry professionals. A simulation of the FFH tool prototype has been conducted through a pilot project. The result of this product development is a working fall from height detection prototype that is to be used as a supporting tool during the safety analysis of construction site design in Dutch civil engineering projects. The developed tool is added to the body of products that can be used for digitalisation and innovation within the construction process, where it digitalises part of the safety management process that is otherwise performed manually. The added value of the tool prototype is the addition of automated risk detection, creating support in the design and planning process and providing added information to group discussion on safety matters in risk identification and evaluation meetings. Recommendation for future use of the tool is to implement the FFH tool prototype during the design phase to provide the designer with insights in the safety of the constructability. Additionally, the FFH tool prototype can be implemented by safety managers to use the results during safety meetings for better discussion and evaluation of the construction site. For the implementation, improvement of the level of detail in the 3D models for the projects and including temporary construction site works is essential. For further development it is recommended to focus on improving the import of linked models into the script and developing alternative operations to determine the height differences. More developments and improvements can be made to the script to increase the applicability on more complex projects. Concluding, the FFH tool prototype is considered to bring added value in digitalising an otherwise manual process regarding safety management. It is suggested to incorporate use of the FFH tool prototype in the design and planning process to proactively engage in digitalising and innovating engineering processes.

Speeding in motorway work zones lowers the perceived safety of road workers and increases the accident risks of traffic participants. In a work zone, traffic participants share the road with road workers. Road workers are often vulnerable and feel threatened by vehicles passing with high speed. Traffic participants are also at risk since driving with high speeds in work zones increases the severity of risky events. This study aims at designing and testing a new speed management measure for a typical overnight Dutch motorway work zone. To design a new solution for the problem, a design method is chosen which incorporates human behavioural factors and system engineering. This design method is called Human System Integration (HSI). The current system is lacking flexibility and therefore the work zone and speed limit are sometimes interpreted as not credible. Also, some work phases are more dangerous than others and information about these phases may increase the awareness of the work zone with drivers. The designed solution aims to optimise the credibility of the total work zone system. To optimise credibility, the work zone should meet the drivers' expectations. In this study a portable changeable message sign (PCMS) is added to the design to set driver expectations about the work zone. The possible displayed messages depending on the work zone phase are: 'Placement of traffic measures', 'No visible work activity', 'Work on crash barrier' and 'Removal of traffic measures'. Furthermore, if there is no visible work activity in the work zone, the speed limit is increased from 70 km/h to 90 km/h. The design is tested on the A12 motorway in one work zone and compared to two different work zones on the A12. For the evaluation, minute aggregated loop detector data is available. To incorporate these spatial and temporal factors like on-ramps and truck share a Multiple Linear Regression Model (MLRM) is estimated. The PCMS has a small but significant effect of -1 km/h. The spatial impact of the PCMS is significant up till 2.7 km downstream of the sign location. The evaluation of the increased speed limit shows that speed limit compliance is higher during the 90 km/h speed limit in the 'no visible work activity' phase. Based on the field trial, the verification of the design requirements and validation of the designs performance, it is concluded that the design looks promising. However, it has not been researched what are the most important factors in the credibility of work zones. It can still be studied which kinds of messages improve the credibility of work zones. And while this field trial uses road side systems, in-car technology may be even more effective in providing this kind of information. The HSI design method could be applied and tested in a more complex technical project. In most traffic systems and in the development of automated vehicles, human factors are important. It is thus recommended to study if the HSI design framework can be useful in this industry as well.

The transition to a circular economy requires reducing waste and rework in construction projects. Thereby, the evaluation of building circularity in the early design phase is of great importance. However, due to the current design workflow, such practice is hindered because there is not enough information to evaluate building circularity in detail in the early design stages. An improved workflow to emphasize circularity more in the early design phase is thus needed. This research explores the current workflow and designs an improved work procedure with limited information available by incorporating an automated decision support tool to assess early design phase building circularity, aiming to improve the working efficiency and efficacy. This tool has been designed based on interviews and literature studies, and verified and validated with practitioners. This study serves as a starting point to rethink the workflow to improve circularity with current technological potentials.

One of the crucial aspects of BIM is the data rich environment connecting project information from different sub-sectors. (Mesároš et al., 2020). Therefore, developing models with consistent and trustworthy building data has gained significant importance in the industry. In contrast, incorrect or incomplete building data in a model could result in chained mistakes across disciplines, rework, or inadequate models for other stages of the building lifecycle. Most of the improvements in BIM data in organisations take place in data quality reviews by BIM specialists. The lack of integration and complexity of existing data checking tools raised the expertise leading to assessment tools used mostly by BIM specialists. After a specialist reviews a project, corrections are communicated to the designers to solve the data issues in their models. This process is repeated until the desired quality is reached by the design team. Furthermore, missing, or wrong basic data structure can often lead to incomplete or inaccurate data checking processes. The higher goal of this research is to produce perceivable benefits in the organisational data checking process. This is approached by facilitating the implementation of BIM standards and increasing the compliance of objects during design periods before entering the organisational review. Previous research showed that professionals would prefer to use simple dedicated quality checkers that can minimise manual tasks precisely and reliably instead of advanced software solutions. Thus, the goal is not to replace current workflows and practices, but instead to enhance basic data structures in models before entering the data reviews, by developing and implementing a new design-integrated checking and reporting tool. The new checking process was verified and validated with specialists and modelers in three ongoing projects. This research showed that the developed design-integrated tool can produce the perceivable benefits in the organisational data checking process explained below: •Enhancements in data quality before and after regular organisational checking reviews. •Decrease in the duration and iterations in the organisational reviews. •Increase of effectiveness and efficiency in detection and correction of data quality issues. •Decrease of personnel frustration in the organisational process. Thus, the research fulfilled the main objective to produce perceivable benefits in the organisational data checking process by developing and implementing a dedicated solution that engages designers in the process. The role-specific approach was essential to achieve a solution that meets the specific needs and system requirements of the target group, the designers. The purpose was to add a new prechecking layer to support and enhance existing data quality practices and processes. The result was a steering instrument for modelers working on the detailed design phase to involve them in identifying and correcting data quality issues. Although the perceived benefits may vary in different contexts and organisations, the new data checking and reporting solution would raise awareness and promote designers’ engagement in the organisational data checking process, who are in a dominant position to identify and correct data quality issues.

Façades within the building industry ore one the most important and expensive aspect of a project. They are the outer skin of a structure and are responsible for improving energy efficiency, while being both innovative and attractive. At the same time, façades need to accommodate requirements to withstand the outdoor environmental conditions. To meet all of these requirements, there is need for designers to either have knowledge on the different subjects, such as human comfort, sustainability, stability, among others; or work together with different specialist to achieve an ideal design. Following a traditional design process, once the conceptual design is defined it goes through an iteration process between designing and detailing before reaching the manufacturing stage. This process, even though is already considered within the planning of a building, is highly time consuming. Considering this process, the idea of bringing the manufacturing knowledge into the early design stages to speed up the design process was taken into consideration. The idea of bringing the manufacturing knowledge upwards in the design process would help designers, focus only on designing, while the considerations for product availability and manufacturing possibilities are already taken into account. On the other hand, the increasing use of parametric modeling to improve building solutions, has been a growing field. In regards to façade design, the inclusion of free form architecture in the building industry has pushed the need for innovative solutions. It has been proved in these projects that the use of parametric modeling highly increases the speed in which designs are developed. However, the need to adapt existing products and manufacturing techniques to these complex geometries, generates more iteration times and increases the costs of the final product. Now, imagine that not only the available products are adapted to the conceptual designs proposed, but that these designs include from their conceptual stages knowledge acquired from previous experience. This would help avoid the iterations between designers and manufacturers, plus would improve the possibilities of generating a bigger amount of modularity in the design process. With these considerations, the proposal for this project aimed to develop a proof of concept tool that would be capable of encoding a manufacturers knowledge in a digital model, and use it to design a façade that is almost ready to manufacture. For this purpose, the knowledge and information from the façades manufacturer Vianen Kozijnen was used as base for the development of this tool. Once this was established, the modelling phase for the façade design tool begun. Initially the input parameters were set, the knowledge is gathered from the company's input, allowing the designer to set up a model within the possibilities of the manufacturer. In the back end of the tool, the build-up of the main modular panel is generated. Four main variables were defined to generate the geometry of the panel and these are determined by the input parameters. Next, with a finalized panel design, the testing phase is set in place. This phase was divided into two processes. First, the replication of the panel throughout an entire façade. This process begins with a conceptual shape that will be filled with the already designed panel. The results from this process determine the total amount of modular panels and the percentage and amount of customized panels needed. Secondly, the panel is tested for Building Physics aspects relevant in early design stages, which for this case were daylight and sound proofing. The tool then with the geometrical parameters given, includes simulations for both daylight and sound proofing. The results obtained, give information on the performance of the design. For daylight simulations, the results given are for daylight autonomy and daylight factor; and for sound proofing the results obtained give information on the insulation value of the façade, sound proofing of the structure and typical sound proofing. Both results, are information that is useful during early design stages, and can help shape the final project. To test the functionality of the tool, the Sluishuis building was taken as a case study and the tool was applied to design and test one of the façade surfaces of the building. The results obtained through this case study led to conclude the feasibility of encoding manufacturing knowledge. It was determined that as a proof of concept approach the tool generates almost immediate results that include the knowledge needed for manufacturing. However, to be applied into a real project further improvements need to be made; with more focus on, first, being able to apply the tool to a completed building and secondly, include more manufacturers knowledge to generate a library of possibilities; making it useful in real life projects.

Various tasks in the construction industry are tedious due to the high amount of repetition or time-consuming nature. In recent years Deep Learning within computer vision has made it possible to automate various tasks using images. The Hoofdvaarweg Lemmer-Delfzijl has been assessed using images and a pointcloud. The images were being worked with two employees over a month. This is time-consuming and there are a lot of images to go through. Our project statement is thus: Develop a tool using computer vision techniques to reliably detect problematic corrosion on piling sheet within 4-5 months to understand what the state is of this topic for asset managers. We first start with an analysis in which we looked at the existing the literature, the data, the existing methods and how Witteveen+Bos is assessing the images. We then set the requirements to which the algorithm should adhere to. Literature study has shown that most models, with data-sets of above 3000 images, achieve above 90% for both accuracy and mean average precision. Afterwards we start writing the algorithm and model testing various model structures as part of the synthesis procedure. The models are variating in structures, filters, depth, and augmentation. We created a classifier, of four and six classes, and an object detection algorithm and conducted various evaluation techniques. The four-class classifier performed better than the six-class classifier. This could be due to the six-class classifier being made up of less data, classes that are vague, parts of the data showing imbalance problems. An object detection algorithm was created to detect dimensional features to estimate the height above water and distance of the bumps. To convert the pixel distance to actual distance, we trained the model to detect a reference object. The object detector performed well, but did not meet the requirements we set. The dimension estimation provided can only provide a rough estimation. This may be the result of not every image, in the training set, contained a reference object. Creating the data-set was a tedious task and our data-set with two classes, took around eight hours to finish training. We can conclude that for image classification, the structure of the model and the trainable parameters play a role. The object detector can count elements, but the predicted bounding box is sometimes larger than expected. Some recommendations are to increase data and classes. A robust feasibility for Witteveen+Bos regarding AI. Repurposing the algorithm for progress monitoring and exploring the interoperability between software relevant for the manager.

With the growing demand for expanding sustainable energy production in the Netherlands, investigating potential renewable energy sources has become imperative. Scheduled replacement projects for weirs along the river Meuse within the next decade present an excellent opportunity to assess the feasibility of integrating hydropower plants into these future weirs. This thesis explores the feasibility of implementing hydropower plants in future weirs along the river Meuse, addressing criteria such as hydraulic aspects, impact on vessel navigation, fish migration, and economic viability. To achieve this objective, an initial case study was conducted, focusing on the development of a design for the weir replacement at Grave. Subsequently, the broader applicability of the developed design was explored to investigate large-scale implementation in the river Meuse. At the outset of this study, no specific design existed for the future weir at Grave. Therefore, the initial research phase concentrated on creating a future weir design for the Grave location. Following this, the optimal method for integrating a hydropower plant into this future weir was explored, employing the basic engineering design cycle as applied in civil engineering. The Archimedean screw turbine technology was selected, leading to the development of multiple hydropower plant designs using this technology. Initially, their direct integration into the weir was explored. However, it was determined that placing more than two of these turbines directly within the weir was hydraulically unfeasible, posing risks to water safety. To overcome this challenge, three potential implementation concepts were developed: temporary removable turbines, a hydropower plant in the floodplain, and turbine integration into weir pillars. The optimal design for integrating a hydropower plant into the future weir complex at Grave was determined through a Multicriteria Analyses and the calculation of the internal rate of return for the various design variants. An essential finding is that economic feasibility depends on factors such as electricity prices and subsidies. The research suggests promising potential for hydropower implementation but underscores the need for further investigation. The design appears widely applicable to future weir projects along the river Meuse, which could potentially provide sustainable energy to approximately 32,000 households. Nevertheless, complexities necessitate additional research. It is crucial to emphasize that this thesis serves as an exploration rather than a definitive assessment of hydropower plant implementation in future river Meuse weirs. The study concludes by offering recommendations for further research.

Container terminals are critical infrastructure for the economy, and the need to digitalize is felt in the industry. One solution is to combine digital integration and process automation with a digital twin. This is an ideal tool to identify weaknesses and opportunities in the operations of a container terminal. However, digital twins are often developed for a single terminal with unique characteristics, which means that the tool cannot be easily scaled to other sites. To optimize operations at multiple container terminals, it is necessary to explore how the twin can be scaled. Such a strategy for scaling digital twins at container terminals cannot be found in literature. Therefore, this research aims to fill this gap by developing a criteria-based roadmap for the senior management of global container terminals. The scaling strategy focuses on scaling up to multiple locations instead of scaling out to several processes on the same terminal. After a detailed review of the literature and conducting interviews, the main findings were combined into design criteria for the roadmap. The three phases for the timeline are shown as three columns in the roadmap. The phases are 'developing the digital twin', 'using the digital twin' and 'scaling the use of the digital twin'. Most used in transformation projects is the People, Process and Technology (PPT) framework, so people (key actors), process (operations and strategy) and technology (data, hardware and software) are the three themes and shown as rows in the roadmap. When all criteria were established and the roadmap template was designed, the logical steps of the roadmap were identified for each of the three phases. These steps were complemented and validated to see if important information was missing. For each step, it was determined which themes (people, process and technology) were applicable. After the first design, several interviews with experts from the container terminal industry were conducted to validate the roadmap. Based on their feedback, the roadmap was improved. Six stages were added to the final phase to emphasize the scaling phase. Each stage describes an essential element for scaling up and it is important to understand these to establish successful scaling procedures. In conclusion, the roadmap developed in this study is useful for container terminals looking to scale up digital twins. It provides insight into the steps required to develop, use, and ultimately deploy digital twins on a larger scale. Especially for terminals that have no experience with such projects, it serves as a starting point to define the strategy and free up resources within the organization. Because the roadmap was developed at a strategic level, not all steps are very detailed, so an organization will need to do further research to determine its strategy. Each organization can determine for itself which steps are familiar and which steps require more attention. Therefore, this roadmap serves as a solid starting point for senior management looking to scale digital twin solutions.

The construction industry has always been plagued with a high number of accidents and fatalities. The Dutch construction is not an exception in this case and had the highest percentage of workplace accidents among all industries in the national economy, in the year 2019. The high number of accidents and resulting fatalities can be attributed to a plethora of factors. Traditionally, the construction industry has relied on inspections by safety coordinators and supervisors to monitor compliance to the safety regulations by the workers. However, in this manual approach, accuracy of recognizing hazards and making proactive interventions is subject to experience and competency of the supervising personnel and has often proven to be unreliable. Thus, a more objective approach is required to for recognizing hazards and thereby making proactive interventions to prevent accidents.This can only be achieved by analyzing observational data from the construction site in real time. The problem is that with increased use of technology, the sheer volume of data generated by construction projects has surged exponentially. Massive amounts of data are being generated throughout a project’s life cycle but there is a dearth of data management processes which can help construction organizations manage health & safety of workers on construction sites in real time. Thus, this research develops a process map to achieve data driven health & safety management in the construction industry. Various causal factors of accidents in the construction industry and have been identified from literature and co-related with the ones found in archival health & safety data from AECOM Netherlands and opinions of industry experts. The common factors are discerned and later steer the design of the process map. Moreover, type of data, specific data management technologies and best practices to implement these technologies to mitigate the risks, have also been identified. Based on the findings and the researchers’ critical thinking, ten requirement specifications have been formulated. The ten requirement specifications and the identified best practices are then used to design subsets pertaining to the four stages of data management process proposed by Mello et al. (2014), which are data acquisition, data organization, data analytics and data application. Furthermore, an integration framework has been developed, which is used to integrate the individual subsets and develop the final process map. The integrated process map clearly demonstrates checkpoints, placement of data acquisition technologies, data & information flows, actors & responsibilities, to achieve data driven health & safety management on construction sites.The process map is then validated by interviewing experts from construction organizations, which have deployed the innovative technologies used to develop the process map in this research, albeit not in an integrated manner. From the information shared by the experts and their opinions, it has been deduced that the developed process map will secure the construction site against specific risks. Moreover, the developed process is expected to expedite a cultural shift towards a more organized and consistent approach to construction and establish consistency of work environment across an organization’s project portfolio. However, the developed process also has certain shortcomings as well, which in turn may give rise to secondary risks. The findings of this research are not limited to a specific type of construction projects. However, it is more suitable for implementation on large construction projects, in order to realize return on investment. The integrated process is also likely to find suitors in the upstream oil and gas industry, wherein ensuring safety of workers is more complicated. On a holistic level, this research determines that there is immense potential in data acquisition, organization, analytics and application, for the construction industry to exploit. By discerning the primary techniques and real-world solutions, the research establishes the necessary groundwork for the development of a real time health & safety management system, which would help construction organizations in achieving semi-automated management of health and safety conditions on construction sites.

The world is heating up quickly. Since 1901, the temperature in the Netherlands has risen about twice as fast as the global average and the effects of climate change seem clearly noticeable. With sea levels rising and peak river discharges increasing an enormous pressure is mounting on the current Flood Protection Programme in the Netherlands and measures to prepare for an uncertain future are being developed. Although expensive, the most commonly used strategy as in the current Flood Protection Programme is to increase the retaining heights of the existing dikes. A new method to improve the flood defence system in the South West Delta of the Netherlands is the Delta21 concept. With discharging instead of raising the dikes in mind, Delta21 poses an alternative strategy to reinforcing dike sections for the downstream area of the Rhine and Meuse. The idea of Delta21 is a future-proof solution for the Southwestern Delta of the Netherlands. A solution for not only flood risk management, but energy transition and nature restoration as well. Between the coastline of the Tweede Maasvlakte and that of the island of Goeree-Overflakkee, the Delta21 project aims to construct a flood defence in the form of a row of dunes, multiple pumping stations and a closable storm surge barrier. Considering protection against flooding, Delta21 strives to limit the water level at Dordrecht to a maximum of NAP + 2.5 m. The flood defence ensures that a lake of about 20 km2 is created in the sea, as it were. By closing off the newly created Tidal Lake by means of a storm surge barrier and opening up a spillway to the Energy Storage Lake, pumping stations are able to pump excess river water from the Energy Storage Lake into the sea. The dunes and the closable storm surge barrier together provide sufficient protection against high seawater levels. This thesis aims to come up with a preliminary, integral design for the Delta21 storm surge barrier taking into account the new Delta21 landscape design as such that the required functionality of Delta21 is met. This design must fulfil the functional and structural requirements and must fit within the ideology of Delta21. To achieve this, the hydraulic engineering design method is used. The first step in this cycle is to analyse the system with the purpose to better understand the situation in order to formulate the requirements and boundary conditions more accurately. The first design phase is concluded with the basis of design where the processes and functions of the Delta21 system explored in the system analysis are translated into the requirements and boundary conditions used for the design. The Basis of Design provides mostly "SMART" formulated functional- and structural requirements and boundary conditions. Boundary conditions at sea have been determined using Hydra-NL software. Climate change plays a vital role in this, as mostly sea level rise influences the boundary conditions significantly. Wishes from stakeholders, which are also explored in the system analysis, are translated either in requirements or evaluation criteria. In the second step a gate type variant study is conducted. From an inventory of multiple concepts, the vertical lift gate and the segment gate remained after verification. After evaluation of the two remaining concepts using the functional requirements and criteria from stakeholders, the vertical lift gate came out as most suitable for the Delta Barrier. Subsequently, in the second step, a spatial and functional design is presented which satisfies all functional requirements. A new Delta21 flood protection process is proposed in order to more effectively protect the hinterland from flooding. The reliability of the closure operation has been researched after which is concluded that the closure procedure can be considered reliable until a sea level rise of ca. 1 m. It is verified with a hydrodynamic model that an effective flow area of 6000 m2, defined below NAP, is to be preferred where mostly the impact on the ecosystem was governing. In order to enable passage of shipping, a location of a separate lock complex is proposed and bridge girders are incorporated into the design in order to enable the passage of road-traffic over the barrier. Furthermore, it is concluded that using tidal turbines to generate electricity with tidal flow behind the Delta Barrier is unfeasible due to the shallow water depth behind the barrier and the relatively low tidal flow velocities through the barrier. Hydraulic cylinders are chosen as driving mechanisms for the gates as it is expected that hydraulic cylinders are less expensive and have a lower failure probability than e.g. a rack and pinion system. Lastly, using a climate adaptive pathway approach, three general strategies are presented to the closure reliability problem of the Delta Barrier after ca. 1 m of sea level rise. Firstly, the barrier could be closed permanently as part of the "protected closed" strategy. Secondly, the dikes in the hinterland could be strengthened, the bottom protection could be strengthened, the probability that the closure of gates fail could be decreased and the Tidal Lake water level could be increased during a non-closure event. Additionally, the Water Act allows for redistribution of failure probabilities over dike segments and failure mechanisms. Changes in the closure regime could also prove beneficial. These solutions are part of the "protected open" strategy. Thirdly, inhabitants of the lower lying areas of the Netherlands could be stimulated to move to higher ground in the Netherlands as part of the "move along" strategy. It should be noted that a combination of either three strategies is very much possible and perhaps to be preferred. The Delta21 project enables the adaptation of any climate adaptive pathway where especially the "protected closed" and "protected open" strategies seem in line with the ideology of Delta21. Whereas the solutions above are presented within the context of the Delta21 flood protection system and the Delta Barrier, the problem is not specific to the Delta Barrier alone and a solution placed within an integral flood protection strategy for the entire (South West) Netherlands might be preferred. As the third step, a structural design is presented which satisfies all structural requirements. Firstly, it is determined that a prefab construction method suits the construction of the Delta Barrier best, where the piers are to be sunk on to a prepared bed and most of the assembly of the barrier is to take place from the water using specialised vessels and equipment. Secondly, the 40 m long and 10.4 m high steel gates (25 in total) are designed. Thirdly, all main elements of the concrete civil superstructure are designed consisting of the 25 top beams, 25 sill beams and the 26 piers. In general, all concrete elements are restrained from cracking and post-tensioned. Finally, the global stability of the Delta Barrier is verified, taking into account horizontal, vertical and rotational stability, uplift, scour and internal erosion. A geometrically closed granular bottom protection is designed to tackle the latter two failure mechanisms. In a structural sense, the Delta Barrier is able to withstand a sea level rise of 3.81 m corresponding to the median projection of climate scenario SSP5-8.5 and has a design life of 200 years. The construction of the Delta Barrier will take ca. 5 years, is assumed to be completed in 2050 and will cost between ca. 2.67 and 3.50 billion euro (price level 2022). It is recommended to further investigate the ecological impact of the Delta Barrier. Furthermore, a detailed driving mechanisms design and as such a more profound estimate for the probability that the closure of the gates fail is to be recommended.