Purpose – The topic of this thesis focuses on the Lebanese Construction Industry as it has been lagging in terms of technological advancements in the last few years. The purpose of this thesis is to find out the impact of technological advancements, specifically Building Information Management and Modeling, on the Lebanese Construction Industry, its penetration in the market in Lebanon in comparison to the MENA region, in addition to estimating the payback period of investments in BIM for small and medium engineering consultancy offices. Design/methodology/approach-Philosophic Approach and ...

Public authorities around the world have been historically responsible for the management of their municipal solid waste. The burden of this task has been increasing through the years considering the rapid expansion of urban cities and their corresponding populations along with a decline in land availability. The escalating figures in municipal solid waste generation increased the technical and financial challenges faced by local authorities, especially in developing countries. In the case of Lebanon, political conflicts and corruption, weak law enforcement and lack of planning in addition to ...

Given the high complexity of construction projects, these projects carry numerous inherent risks and uncertainties. Such risks if managed properly can turn threats into opportunities. With the current decline in the construction and economic sectors in Lebanon, the application of risk management in construction projects has become imperative and more needed than ever. This master’s thesis looks into the current state of-the-practice of risk management in construction projects in Lebanon focusing on procurement methods in these projects to identify the main obstacles in its application. The thesis ...

The general circulation models (GCMs) projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate an increasing temperature and a drying trend in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region by the end of the 21st century. Accordingly, Lebanon’s water resources are expected to be heavily affected, and concomitantly, urban water demand is expected to increase. In this context, this thesis focuses on the impact of climate change on water demand in Greater Beirut Area (GBA) and the water flow in El Kalb basin – which feeds 70% of GBA population. This study is the first to: (1) ...

Sustainable development has been tackled for the last four decades in various fields from education, management, climate change to politics all over the world. One of the major challenges faced by humanity nowadays is achieving the economic sustainability of our infrastructure facilities. To fulfill it, an economic tool called Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA), which takes into account all costs of an asset during its lifetime, is being used. In some countries, this technique is being incorporated in the procurement. It is used as a decisive factor in the procurement of their infrastructure ...

Qatar is an arid country with limited natural freshwater resources due to low rainfall and high evapotranspiration. The country, having the third largest natural gas reserve in the world, relies primarily on fossil fuel-powered seawater desalination to meet domestic water demand, estimated at around 600 liters per capita per day. Additionally, groundwater is being depleted to supply the agricultural sector, which consumes about 230 million cubic meters of freshwater each year. Hence, this paper aimed at improving the sustainability of the water management scheme of Qatar by developing a combination ...

The main and overarching objective of this research endeavor is to devise data-driven soft modeling tools that can provide fast, fairly accurate and computationally efficient predictions for: (1) the thermal conductivity of particulate composites (PC), and (2) the level of shielding provided by a porous structure from a high-yield explosion. The computational tools developed in this work constitute cheaper and faster alternatives to the relatively large and cumbersome numerical simulations or experimental testing campaigns that would otherwise be needed to make predictions of comparable ...

Purpose –This study aims to identify and assess the most important factors affecting the quality of construction projects in Lebanon before and after the economic crisis (in 2019), and to determine their impact on the cost overrun of the project. Design/Methodology/Approach –A quantitative statistical analysis was conducted to achieve the research objectives through a survey of 22 factors (distributed under 6 categories) filled out by 80 engineers working in the construction field. Collected data were used to rank and categorize these factors and to determine their impact on the cost overrun ...

In the context of aging structures, rapid urbanization, structural degradation, and environmental and socio-economic constraints, renovation and retrofitting have become indispensable for sustainable development. Retrofitting can be more challenging than new construction in some cases, as it involves significant uncertainty related to the original and current structural conditions, regulatory compliance, stakeholder expectations, and long-term performance. The complexity of such projects can lead to poor decision-making, cost overruns, schedule delays, and performance and longevity issues. This ...