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PurposeThis paper investigates thermal mass performance (TMP) in hot climates. The impact of using precast concrete (PC) as a core envelope with different insulation materials has been studied. The aim is to find the effect of building mass with different weights on indoor energy consumption, specifically cooling load in hot climates.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopted a case study and simulation methods to find out the efficiency of different mass performances in hot and humid climate conditions. Different scenarios of light, moderate and heavyweight mass using PC have been developed and simulated. The impact of these scenarios on indoor cooling load has been investigated using the integrated environment solution-virtual environment (IES-VE) software.FindingsThe results showed that adopting a moderate weight mass of two PC sheets and a cavity layer in between can reduce indoor air temperature by 1.17 °C; however, this type of mass may increase the cooling demand. On the other hand, it has been proven that adopting a heavyweight mass for building envelopes and increasing the insulation material has a significant impact on reducing the cooling load. Using a PC Sandwich panel and increasing the insulation material layers for external walls and thickness by 50 mm will reduce the cooling load by 15.8%. Therefore, the heavyweight mass is more efficient compared to lightweight and moderate mass in hot, humid climate areas such as the UAE, in spite of the positive indoor TMP that can be provided by the lightweight mass in reducing the indoor air temperature in the summer season.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the thermal mass concept as one of these strategies that have recently been adopted to optimize the thermal performance of buildings and developments. Efficient TMP can have a massive impact on reducing energy consumption. However, less work has investigated TMP in hot and humid climate conditions. Furthermore, the impact of the PC on indoor thermal performance within hot climate areas has not been studied yet. The findings of this study on TMP in the summer season can be generated in all hot climate zones, and investigating the TMP in other seasons can be extended in future studies.

This paper describes the setting and infrastructure management at the University of Sharjah (UoS) as a continuous effort towards a livable and sustainable campus. The UoS has been participating in the UI GreenMetric World Universities Ranking (UIGWUR) since 2017 to measure its performance in the field of sustainability for continuous improvement. During the last three years, the UoS has succeeded in being among the best 150 universities in the SI category by achieving 70% of the score. However, the UoS managed to get 75% of the total score in this KPI and 100% in the open space per person KPI ratio. To become one of the leading universities, the Landscape and Building Management Sustainability Circle (LBMSC) at the Sustainability Office has analyzed the KPIs and suggested an action plan for continuous improvement. Two KPIs can be improved: sustainability efforts and the total area covered in plants. The UoS shall increase the sustainability efforts and budget and increase the internal and external planting in the coming years. For some KPIs, it cannot be applied to desert regions. It is recommended that the UIGWUR revisit its KPIs and make them more flexible and applicable worldwide. Furthermore, for the open space ratio to the total area KPI, it is recommended to revisit the distribution of the points to have fair comparison. Action plans to improve the sustainability and livability of the campus have also been addressed.Keyword: Setting and infrastructure, LBMSC, livable campus, open area, forest, water absorption, green area, sustainability efforts/budget, and GreenMetric

Neighborhood sustainability plays a fundamental role in preserving the city for population growth and future expansion. It also plays a significant role in reducing urban sprawl, one of the main issues facing rapidly growing cities. Ideal sustainable neighborhood planning should address the three sustainability dimensions: environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This paper aims to assess the urban sustainability of the Al Nasseriya neighborhood in Sharjah City according to the UN-Habitat's five principles of sustainable neighborhoods. The strategy depends on investigative procedures utilizing information examination, site visits, and data analysis. Conventionally, the study is based on the UN-Habitat's guidelines on practical neighborhoods that state that neighborhoods should be minimal, coordinated, and associated. They suggest a quantitative analysis scope as a maintainability investigation of neighborhoods using five primary administrators: an effective road network, high-density population, mixed land uses, social blending, and limited land-use specializations. The assessment shows that Sharjah's physical urban context has several shortcomings related to the UN-Habitat's criteria that should be addressed. The results of the study demonstrate the critical issues affecting urban sustainability practice in the study area. Finally, urban improvement guidelines are recommended to advance development and amplify proficiency.

Urban planners must ensure that urban public spaces are enjoyable to use to create a lively city that expresses their culture and traditions and welcomes social diversity. This study aims to develop a theoretical index for assessing the livability levels in tourist districts. Therefore, a survey-based study accompanied by a literature review is used to derive criteria for livability. In addition to using the analytic hierarchy process to develop an importance-based hierarchy of criteria, mathematical analysis is applied to derive the livability index. Furthermore, one of Sharjah's well-known public spaces, Al Qasba Tourist District, is assessed as a case study. This study discussed the main concepts and factors of livability in urban public spaces to examine the livable extent of Qasba and the significance of criteria. Results show that the current livability level in Al Qasba is less than 50%, confirming its urgent need for further urban improvement. This study explores the livability assessment criteria and their influencing parameters. Using the suggested conceptual livability index enables decision makers to assess the livability level, analyze the influencing factors, and suggest solutions to improve the overall livability levels of open public spaces.

This paper addresses a multi-objective single-product network design and operations problem that consists of selecting the suppliers, allocating the orders, routing a single vehicle to collect the ...

PurposeThis paper develops a framework for selecting the most efficient and effective preventive maintenance policy using multiple-criteria decision making and multi-objective optimization.Design/methodology/approachThe critical component is identified with a list of maintenance policies, and then its failure data are collected and the optimization objective functions are defined. Fuzzy AHP is used to prioritize each objective based on the experts' questionnaire. Weighted comprehensive criterion method is used to solve the multi-objective models for each policy. Finally, the effectiveness and efficiency are calculated to select the best maintenance policy.FindingsFor a fleet of buses in hot climate environment where coolant pump is identified as the most critical component, it was found that block-GAN policy is the most efficient and effective one with a 10.24% of cost saving and 0.34 expected number of failures per cycle compared to age policy and block-BAO policy.Research limitations/implicationsOnly three maintenance policies are compared and studied. Other maintenance policies can also be considered in future.Practical implicationsThe proposed methodology is implemented in UAE for selecting a maintenance scheme for a critical component in a fleet of buses. It can be validated later in other Gulf countries.Originality/valueThis research lays a solid foundation for selecting the most efficient and effective preventive maintenance policy for different applications and sectors using MCDM and multi-objective optimization to improve reliability and avoid economic loss.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential of renewable energy as an essential future energy source in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. This paper summarizes the main projects and measures established to start the transition toward renewable energy. The opportunities and challenges for developing renewable energy projects have been discussed to reach a better understanding of the future of renewable energy in the region. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a literature-based study on the status of the renewable energy sector in the GCC, including potentials, projects, targets and strategies. The opportunities and challenges of the development of renewable energy sources in the GCC region have been discussed based on the literature. Findings The paper shows that the GCC countries have begun to adopt a more proactive approach toward renewable energy, while the reorientation of strategies and plans for renewable energy is evolving in these countries. All of the GCC countries focus on solar and wind energies and plan to invest in waste-to-energy (WtE), while only Saudi Arabia is interested in going for geothermal. Originality/value The paper contributes to the provision of an extensive literature review on the development of renewable energy in the GCC countries. It provides an updated and comprehensive overview of the region’s renewable energy potential and highlights the main renewable energy strategies and targets. This paper targets regional decision-makers as well as multilateral stakeholders to formulate a set of recommendations to promote renewable energy deployment and improve industrial capabilities.

The growth of any country depends upon the development of public sector organizations that satisfy the needs of their stakeholders and achieve their happiness. Therefore, and in order to fulfill the national strategies of United Arab Emirates (UAE), A Government Excellence Model; used to referred to as 4th G, has been developed to suit the requirements of UAE public sector organizations for achieving superior performance and a leading position worldwide. This paper uses the qualitative research technique to study the critical success factors which affect the implementation of UAE’s 4th G in the public sector. An ISM approach is applied to establish the interrelationship between the various critical factors. With the help of Fuzzy MICMAC technique, driver-dependence power diagraph is created. From our analysis, a new factor was identified by the experts participating in developing the ISM model that is “budget priorities”. It has been also found that “top-management commitment” has the highest driving power which helps in successful execution of 4th G excellence model. Variables “reputation” and “sense of belonging” have the highest dependence power. The success of these variables depends on the success of the variables below them. Finally, the limitations of using the above techniques are discussed and then suggestions are made for the further research.

Maintenance has a critical role in the transportation industry, as it is the guarantee for public transportation in providing continuous and safe services. The current study aims to explore the maintenance practices employed by public transport sector and investigate the environmental impact of the common maintenance practices. A comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art literature related to maintenance practices and environmental sustainability key performance indicators was conducted. Then interviews with experts and practitioners in the buses maintenance domain were conducted. After that, a cross-sectional survey to validate the literature and interview findings was performed among a sample of 132 bus maintenance practitioners working in Dubai transport sector. The results revealed that preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, and condition based maintenance are the most commonly practiced in bus maintenance. Furthermore, it was found that waste, noise, and emission measures should be considered while selecting the maintenance practices. Eventually, the results exhibited that Preventive Maintenance is the right maintenance practice when considering waste and noise pollution as environmental selection criteria. On the other hand, Corrective Maintenance is the suitable maintenance practice when considering the emissions as environmental selection criteria. It is very important to identify the most important environmental criteria when selecting the right maintenance practice. It is obvious that the selection of the proper maintenance practice should be aligned with the environmental sustainability requirements. We consider this new practice, that is to say, the environmental sustainability based maintenance as a unique maintenance strategy that can be considered not only in automotive maintenance, but also in different contexts involved in maintenance phase of different physical assets. It is recommended that this study be extended to study other sustainability aspects of maintenance practices such as the financial aspect and service availability aspect in addition to study other transportation modes such as taxi vehicles, metro, and marine vessels.

The involvement of the public in the decision-making process is essential, especially in the early stages of a design process. This study aims to achieve the development of an architectural program for a memorial public project, using the outcomes of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on public opinion. It employs a novel approach that sharply focuses on public involvement in the design process, using a quantitative methodology for the development of a suitable building program and selecting a memorial form that meets the public's needs in a practical way. The study drew on data from various memorial projects to identify possible spaces and their selection criteria. A written questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 105 members of the public, to narrow down the number of spaces according to public response. Then, a hearing (spoken) questionnaire was conducted on a sample of 20 to produce the program for development by generating the most strongly preferred form of memorial. The results contradicted the existing norm for a memorial as a sculpture; it was revealed that most of the public preferred memorial landscapes to buildings and great structures. The study concluded that AHP could be used to further involve the relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process of the design of a public project.

Despite various planning efforts, airspace capacity can sometimes be exceeded, typically because of disruptive events. Air traffic flow management (ATFM) is the process of managing flights in this situation. In this paper, we present an ATFM model that accounts for different rerouting options (path rerouting and diversion) and preexisting en route flights. The model proposes having a central authority to control all decisions, which is then compared with current practice. We also consider interflight and interairline fairness measures in the network. We use an exact approach to solve small- to medium-sized instances, and we propose a modified fix-and-relax heuristic to solve large-sized instances. Allowing a central authority to control all decisions increases network efficiency compared with the case where the ATFM authority and airlines control decisions independently. Our experiments show that including different rerouting options in ATFM can help reduce delays by up to 8% and cancellations by up to 23%. Moreover, ground delay cost has much more impact on network decisions than air delay cost, and network decisions are insensitive to changes in diversion cost. Furthermore, the analysis of the tradeoff between total network cost and overtaking cost shows that adding costs for overtaking can significantly improve fairness at only a small increase in total system cost. A balanced total cost per flight among airlines can be achieved at a small increase in the network cost (0.2%-3.0%) when imposing airline fairness. In conclusion, the comprehensiveness of the model makes it useful for analyzing a wide range of alternatives for efficient ATFM. Funding Agencies|University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates [1702040585]; VINNOVA, the Swedish innovation agencyVinnova [2018-02998]

The Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) schemes are a potent tool for monitoring small to moderate variations in the quality characteristics in production lines of manufacturing industries...

Jordan is one of the few countries in the Middle East that has very limited resources of fossil fuel such as natural gas and crude oil. The country is fast growing with a population growth rate of 1.8%. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Jordan reached USD 40.4 billion in 2015 with a population exceeding 9.96 million. Food and energy demands are increasing every year. Energy security and maintaining energy flow to meet the yearly demands are the biggest economic challenges facing Jordan. Renewable energies are the most vital solutions that provide energy security and accelerate economic growth. There are numerous studies and projects that focused on solar and wind power systems as an energy mix strategy. However, biomass to energy is not deeply explored in Jordan. Biofuel production from renewable biomass has a big potential for biogas and bioethanol production. The biofuels in Jordan can play significant roles in reducing dependency on imported oil and gas, and significantly reduce Jordan’s energy bill. The bioethanol utilization as a source of fuel can reduce the oil import bill by mixing it with classical gasoline. From a mechanical point of view, a normal car engine can handle up to 10% bioethanol blend without engine modifications. The bioethanol blend can save up to 200 kt of imported oil which will have a direct impact on the Jordanian economy. Jordan has a big biogas production potential despite the very humble projects for biogas production from renewable resources. The available resources for direct biogas production can replace about 5% of the total gas consumption for power generation. In this paper, we will discuss the right policy and mechanism to implement biofuel mix and blend which aims at reducing the energy bill.

Today's intense competition under the global economic framework requires organizations in all sectors regardless of their ownership type or size to innovate. This competition justifies the increasing interest in the literature concerning investigating different issues of innovation. Little attention, however, has been given to the possible linkage between structural organization characteristics and innovation in the services sector. Enriching the literature, this paper investigates this issue in the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) service sector. Data required for this study were collected from 85 organizations offering different types of services. The results showed than more than 86% of these organizations can be classified as innovative because they introduced either new or considerably improved services and or new or considerably improved processes during the past three years. Moreover, the organization size advantage that has been found for the manufacturing sector in past research also exists for the UAE service sector. However, unlike most of the relevant studies, no association was found between ownership type and innovation. The results of this study could be of value to services organizations in the UAE and other countries that have similar environments.

This paper suggests and introduces a new concept that is based on the quality circles concept and suggests introducing it to enhance the sustainability performance in higher education institutions. This concept is called the Sustainability Circles, which is adapted from the well-known Japanese quality circles concept. A sustainability circle indicates that a group of volunteer members with interests in a sustainability-related track, such as energy, water, transportation, etc., meets regularly to identify, analyze, and suggest initiatives. It has a significant advantage in engaging all university stakeholders. It aims to engage members of Institutions of Higher Education community (students, administrative/technical staff, and faculty members) in its endeavors to develop a culture of sustainability and incorporate sustainability in every aspect of campus life. The results of the implementation of the sustainability circles concept at the University of Sharjah are presented. Using the sustainability circle will help prepare the students, engage the faculty members and administrative staff to work together with partners from government and business, and international organizations and community leaders on solutions to local, regional, and global sustainability challenges. This will lead the Institutions of Higher Education to achieve excellent sustainability performance.

The high probability of failure of concrete bridges due to their deterioration over time necessitates the implementation of risk assessment tools. One risk assessment tool that has been applied extensively and proven to be effective is the failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA). The purpose of FMECA is to determine and assess all possible failure modes and analyze their causes and effects in order to eliminate them before they can occur. The application of FMECA in construction and infrastructure industries, in general, is limited. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to build a framework for implementing FMECA in bridge risk assessment in combination with the VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizcija I Kaompromisno Resenje in Serbian) method to avoid the problems associated with the traditional FMECA method. The aim of the proposed model is to serve as a guide for ranking and prioritizing failure modes of concrete bridges under a fuzzy environment.