Search

PurposeA smart city is a city that functions in a sustainable and intelligent way, by integrating all of its infrastructures and services in a cohesive way using intelligent devices for monitoring and control, to ensure efficiency and better quality of life for its citizens. As other countries globally, the UK is keen on economic development and investment in smart-city missions to create interest in monetary environment and inward investment. This paper aims to explore the driving forces of smart road transport transformation and implementation in the UK.Design/methodology/approachThe study involved interviews with 16 professionals from the UK road transport sector. A semi-structured interview technique was used to collect experts' perception, which was then examined using content analysis.FindingsThe results of the study revealed that the technological advancement is a key driver. The main challenges faced during the implementation of smart-city elements in the UK road network are lack of investment, maintenance, state of readiness and the awareness of the smart road transport concept. The study concludes that an understanding of the concept of smart cities from a road transport perspective is very important to create awareness of the benefits and the way it works. A wider collaboration between every sector is crucial to create a successful smart city.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the field of digitalisation of road transport sector. This paper reveals the key driving forces of smart road transport transformation, the current status of smart road transport implementation in the UK and challenges of the smart road transport development in the UK.

PurposeThe UK water industry is a private sector that has no government mandate to implement building information modelling (BIM) but would benefit from its use. Research has identified that fragmentation and inefficiency still existed in the water industry project delivery processes. These issues can be addressed by harnessing the collaboration that BIM brings by using emerging information technology. The UK water industry has had little research in the use of BIM in the project delivery processes over the years.Design/methodology/approachThe aim of the research is to explore and examine BIM elements currently used in the water industry, as well as understand the organisational cultural support for BIM. It also investigated the adoption of BIM which will enable to improve water industry project delivery processes. An empirical study was performed in the UK given the relatively new and unexplored nature of the research problem, a qualitative research methodology was adopted. In total, 14 semi-structured interviews from six water sector organisations were conducted to collect data, which was then analysed using thematic analysis for inference and conclusion.FindingsThe study identified that BIM has already changed how projects are delivered by the water companies and their supply chain. Use of emerging technology such as Autodesk Revit, Civil 3D and virtual reality has gained traction and is leading organisations to continue investing in these areas to remain relevant. Although staff training was offered by all organisations within the study cohort, some interviews still thought that more can be done by their organisations as BIM is still maturing. Those interviewed regarded BIM models as data and information rich with the ability to enable the supply chain to obtain quicker approvals.Originality/valueThe paper provides a richer insight into the understanding and awareness of BIM elements used in the water industry to improve project delivery processes. This study suggests that the water industry supply chain has taken positive steps and started to benefit from BIM use. It also recommends that there is a need for cross-sector collaboration to capture and share best and worst practices relating to BIM adoption in the water sector.

In the global context, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a catalytic agent for innovation, productivity, and efficiency in the construction industry. BIM adoption in Kenya is rare, whereas the volume of construction is poised to increase and the gains that can be achieved via its use could be enormous. In the UK, all projects are to use a minimum of level two BIM to enhance collaboration and coordination with visual aids and a common data environment that enhances communication with the project proponents and all the other stakeholders. The main aim of this study was to determine the BIM gaps in terms of awareness and use in order to form a basis for the development of future adoption strategies in infrastructure projects in Kenya. The research was carried out in Nairobi and London. The study was designed as a survey that started with a desk study followed by semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the data was done using content analysis. The findings identify significant differences in BIM awareness and use, the influence of which could provide insight for the developed and developing countries. The state of research, training, and practice pertaining to BIM in Kenya remains largely undocumented, whereas in the UK, there are national-level initiatives driving its adoption. This paper concludes that BIM success is dependent on close collaboration between the client, consultants, contractors, and suppliers along with the establishment of a well-developed BIM protocol and the lessons learnt from the UK can easily be used by Kenya as it embarks on its BIM journey for an efficient and harmonious working environment in this era of globalization.

The Building Information Model concepts include a range of IT tools supporting the collaborative processes in an organisation. This approach allows all stakeholders to have an integrated system in which editing and retrieving up to date information on shared models will become easier changing the businesses processes. This paper will be presenting a review of research on the Building Information Model in practice. The Building Information Model has been around for some time and is becoming more popular as of its mandate in the UK back in April 2016. This research is based on case studies on BIM in practice in the transport infrastructure sector. The methodology for this research is a case study on a Tier 1 contractor in the UK who are using BIM as one of their processes. A brief overview of BIM will be explained and the key findings in the research will be highlighted identifying the business value of BIM, the results will demonstrate how BIM is being practised within the organisation and to improve design management, the challenges with the implementation of the new processes will be outlined, this paper will also show how the construction company have utilised the adoption of BIM to mitigate and manage communication issues within their projects. Research has shown that the key communication and management problems such as loss of documentation, poor communication and quality can be mitigated with the use of BIM. Finding out these challenges will allow the issues found along with the potential of BIM to be outlined and allows the conclusion that BIM is the future of construction.

By 2050, Two thirds of the world's population are soon to be residing in cities, this means a rise in the number of people and cars on roads, currently 55% of the world's population currently live in urban areas and this percentage is estimated to rise to 68% over the next 30 years. Smart motorways are one of the implemented strategies to accommodate for the population growth, smart motorways were introduced in 2006 and was first implemented on the M42 in the West Midlands in UK. Smart motorways are well known in the UK as there are many schemes constructing them at this time, the popular question which is asked by the public is what is a smart motorway and why is it smart? This paper is aimed to evaluate smart motorways, how they operate and what makes them smart. This paper will be beneficial to any researchers on technology in smart cities and widen knowledge on smart motorways. This paper also explores issued faced with contractors when constructing these smart motorways, the technologies used within the smart motorways will be discussed and technologies used within the construction stage will also be analysed. This paper will conclude on smart cities, are they worth it?

The UK government has defined BIM level 2 as a set of processes and standards that validate and control collaborative practices for the production, sharing and exchange of information during all stages of construction. All public-sector projects in the UK are mandated to be BIM level 2 compliant as of April 2016, and with this being a mandate, companies in the UK must understand the knowledge exchange partnership framework which will enable the organizations to successfully achieve the requirements in terms of the collaborative practices. This paper is based on a case study which focuses on the implementation of BIM Level 2 collaborative practices for a major infrastructure construction company in the UK who are Tier 1 contractors. The main aim for this paper is to investigate how the organizations are implementing collaborative practices which follow level 2 requirement. The key findings of this research suggest that with the use of BIM, organizations can improve collaboration with the right workflow implemented correctly. Implementing a BIM collaborative workflow would be enhanced by having a lot of training and raising awareness within the organization. Benefits from this research paper include making people aware of processes that need to be changed within a business to implement BIM correctly and enable the knowledge management process to become useful and provide benefits towards an organization. Results from this research will be documented in this paper and key highlight such as what challenges are being faced and how they are being overcome, these obstacles will be explored which will provide potential improvements for the future.