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This study aims to categorise the tree protection legislative provisions (TPLPs) being implemented by local planning authorities (LPAs) worldwide to protect their urban trees. Through inductive thematic analysis of content in numerous LPA websites and the legislation documents downloaded from the websites, this study identified five categories of TPLPs: 1) Tree Felling Prohibition, 2) Significant Tree Register Establishment, 3) Tree Conservation Area Designation, 4) Tree Preservation Order (TPO), and 5) Tree Protection Planning Conditions. The first TPLPs category is for LPAs to prohibit tree felling or other tree damaging activities without their consent. The second category is to allow LPAs establishing registers of trees that are considered significant for protection. The third gives power to LPAs to designate their conservation areas and protect the trees inside the areas. Next, the TPO is the orders made by LPAs to protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands in the interests of amenity. The final TPLPs category is about conditions imposed by LPAs on a grant of planning permission that requires the developers to retain and protect any tree. The comprehensive information gathered has also enabled and protected urban trees to be broadly categorised into two: 1) Regulated Trees, and 2) Registered Trees. Moreover, several concepts of urban tree protection were developed and described to elucidate the categorisation. The concepts are: "Prohibitive vs Directive" commands pertaining to approaches taken by LPAs to protect trees; "Specific vs Blanket" methods to declare the protected trees; and "To be Protected vs To be Preserved" status to explain implications of being in each of the protected urban tree categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The closing of final accounts without any disputes that satisfy all stakeholders is an important factor in measuring the success of a construction project, as it ensures that all financial matters are settled in a fair and transparent manner. It also provides an opportunity for the contracting parties (contractor and client) to reconcile their records and resolve any differences to ensure that the project is completed within budget. However, the closing of final accounts in the Malaysian construction industry has long been a problematic issue where settlements often take much longer than stipulated in the contract due to disputes and a lack of attention to settling the final accounts in a timely manner. This study aims to identify the determinants that constrain prompt settlement and contribute to disputes in the closing of final accounts as part of a broader research project. An extensive literature review was conducted to obtain relevant information relating to final accounts in the construction industry and the major determinants contributing to disputes in the closing of final accounts. The results suggest that the major determinants contributing to disputes in the closing process of final accounts can be categorised into seven aspects, namely: client, contractor, contractual, management, variation, human behaviour, and environmental/external. Through this research, a conceptual framework is proposed to serve as a reference for stakeholders to reduce disputes in the closing of final accounts. The findings of this research contribute to existing knowledge relating to issues in final accounts and enhance the understanding and awareness of contracting parties on the determinants that lead to disputes, thereby enabling them to prevent such conflicts at an early stage in construction projects. This ultimately serves to improve the closing process of final accounts in the Malaysian construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction disputes arising from claims have become common in this unique and complex industry. Resolving disputes leads to extra costs and is time-consuming. Most of the disputed claims in construction occur due to project delays. A claim for loss and expense is one of the claims incurred due to certain events that usually arise from the delay. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify disputes in claims for loss and expense related to the PWD form of contract based on Malaysian legal cases. Understanding why disputes occur in construction contracts can reduce the chances of their occurrence, and parties can establish a quick, cost-effective resolution process that will not jeopardise their potential in future business relationships when disputes arise. The research adopted a review related to construction law cases from 'Malayan Law Journal Report/Unreported'. Findings indicate that disputes in claims for loss and expenses related to the Public Works Department (PWD) form of contract can be categorised into contractual, documentation, and procedure. Understanding the contract provisions is a must for every construction party to obtain successful claims. This paper suggests identifying disputes related to PAM forms of contracts in the Malaysian construction industry, so that the contracting parties can understand the impact of the disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a technology and process that are transforming way of designing, constructing, operating and using the building or facility. In essence, BIM models is a platform for collaboration as it encourages intensive communication and interdependence among multidisciplinary project members. In Malaysia’s BIM Guide, this collaborative process can be seen in Level 2 BIM Maturity which all designers engaged in projects work together to create a single computer-generated 3D Model. From this process, many benefits that BIM promises such as clash free construction, quality of design and greater certainty could be achieved. Therefore, the Malaysian Government announced the implementation of at least 40% of Level 2 BIM for public projects costing RM100 million and above in 2019. However, despite mutual understanding between construction players, the full integration of BIM in the project lifecycle seems to be a daunting task. In the context of the Malaysian Public Sector, many uncertainties could arise pertaining to legal and contractual matters i.e. whether or not the existing contractual instruments are able to support the collaborative environment and digital information sharing that Level 2 BIM engenders. This paper presents a narrative review of published literature on the concept of Level 2 BIM and contractual consideration based on the utilisation of BIM within Malaysian Public construction projects, which includes books, government publications, conference presentation slides, newspaper articles and paper-based journal articles. This paper concludes that in order to legitimise multidisciplinary collaboration and integration of information in BIM within existing standard forms of contract, the development of a contract protocol and suitable procurement model are necessary.

Civil engineering work deals with nature and thus, is exposed to enormous discrepancies due to nature’s complexity compared to building works which are more certain. In the Malaysian construction industry, it is generally accepted that civil engineers administer civil engineering contracts and prepare tender documents. The Civil Engineering Preliminaries Protocol (CEPP) for conventional contracts is an ongoing research that deliberates on the cost-related items included in the Preliminaries. Preliminaries are subjective in nature and largely challenging to price. This paper considered previous research findings by conducting a literature review and accordingly, highlighted the problem statements raised on the contractual risks present due to the fallacy of item description. The identification of underlying problems and gaps within the area of study justifies the aim of the research to establishing a common protocol that is conversant to both engineers and contractors. The objective of the protocol is to eliminate disputes due to vagueness, ambiguities, and duplication of preliminary items in order to improve price accuracy. In practice, different approaches are taken by engineers and contractors in dealing with preliminary items. Engineers provide bills of preliminaries and contractors price them accordingly without establishing any mutual understanding and responsibility for risks. Conventional contracts prohibit contractors to provide their own preliminaries. Contractors instead have to obtain clarification on any ambiguities in the contract within the speculated time given during the tender period. As a way forward, the CEPP provides better clarity, accuracy, and transparency to engineers and contractors as well as the other construction players in general. Reliable descriptions of preliminary items ensure better price accuracy for the betterment of the construction industry.

Since the 19th century, the sustainability concept has grown rapidly especially in terms of recognition and the issues of achieving it have been addressed by the construction players. The Construction Industry Transformation Plan (CITP) aims by the year 2020 to develop the Malaysian construction industry into an environmentally sustainable construction industry to a point that it can eventually be rolled out as a model to the emerging world. In order to achieve it, the Project Manager’s involvement is important when confronting sustainable issues. Therefore, Malaysia has launched its first National Green Project Managers (GPM) Awards in 2015. Although it has been two years, the promotion of certification of GPM is still lacking. Hence, the aim of this paper is to determine the success factors of promoting certified GPM in the Malaysian construction industry. Using a questionnaire survey of 30 respondents, comprising of Project Directors, General Managers and Project Managers, this research focuses on three (3) objectives which are to : (a) explore the need of certified GPM; (b) identify the limitations of promoting certified GPM; (c) establish the success factors of promoting certified GPM in Malaysian construction projects. From the analysis using SPSS, this research discovered the top reason GPMs are needed in the construction industry is because of the responsibilities of GPMs to ensure successful delivery of green development goals. However, there are a number of barriers to promoting certified GPM, which include limited training for Project Managers that touch on sustainability elements. To date, a private sector organization, known as Bridgit, is the sole provider of specific training in GPM in Malaysia. Therefore, training for Project Managers is important to provide them with the necessary skill and knowledge towards becoming certified GPM and turn to achieve as a true success factor. Finally, the outcome of this research will become a baseline to promote certification of GPM in the future.

The construction industry is a fertile source of dispute. Payment disputes in the Malaysian construction industry are ancient issues that have been causing problems among construction players for decades. The settlement of disputes can be done by using the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in lieu of other alternatives or as a complement to Litigation. This paper is focused on Adjudication as a preferred dispute resolution method for the Malaysian construction industry. The enforcement of the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act (CIPAA 2012) in 2014 is intended to provide swift dispute resolution and relief to unpaid construction industry claimants for work done, and facilitate cash flow in the construction industry as a whole. The purpose of this research is to establish the trends of adjudication cases that were intervened by the court within the period of April 2014 until February 2018, which is since the implementation of CIPAA 2012 in Malaysia. In order to determine a vast majority of matters that have been referred for adjudication under CIPAA 2012 and parties in dispute constitute the highest number of referrals, sixty-two court cases were identified. This research also reviewed previous case laws to identify the factors contributing to court referrals. Based on the review, most of adjudication cases in the Malaysian construction industry involve the Main contractor and Employer as dispute parties with the intention of challenging adjudication decisions as there has been excess of jurisdiction pursuant to Section 15 (d) applied by appellants together with the application enforcement of adjudication decision under Section 28 by respondents. The findings will be used as a platform to establish the dispute scenario of the Malaysian construction industry under the CIPAA 2012.

Fire ignition needs three elements consisting of heat, oxygen and fuel that may lead to a significant threat to life and property, in urban and rural areas. Various researches have produced statistics on fire breakouts around the globe that paid attention to residential fire. In the case of Malaysia, residential or dwellings have contributed to increased fire casualties especially related to the accidental fire that was caused by electrical origins, cooking appliances, faulty or misuse of equipment, careless handling of fire or hot substances as well as negligence. Due to that fact, the most critical features of safety in building in the fire event is evacuation or probability of safe escape. Building Information Modelling (BIM) can be utilized as it is effectively making sure that the evacuation plan is kept up to date and facilitate communications. Therefore, this paper aims to establish a conceptual framework for Dwelling Fire Safety Evacuation (DFSE). The method used for this paper is reviewing literature including journals, conference proceedings, reports and guidelines. The findings of this paper are the components of DSFE conceptual framework which consist of three elements including Fire Scenarios (i.e., design fire and boundary condition), Survival Strategies (i.e., extinguish, shelter and evacuation), and Safety (i.e., shortest time). The conceptual framework is expected to assist in future data collection for the development of the DSFE framework.

Industry 4.0 is a concept which include Big Data and Analytics, Autonomous Robot, Simulation, System Integration, Internet of Things, Cyber Physical System, Cloud Computing, Additive Manufacturing and Augmented Reality. The makeover, not only completely change the way on how physical structures are designed, developed and preserved, but also how they are used in the future with applications of avant-garde technology. However there is a tendency that construction companies may be hesitant to invest in them. Industry 4.0 aims to motivate construction companies to adopt new technologies. Therefore, this paper aims to review on literature in identifying technologies that are used in line with Industry 4.0 as well as investigate the potential barriers faced and factors which influence the Industry 4.0 technologies implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. Relevant academic materials were reviewed thus the purpose of this paper is to present a literature review and critical analysis of the implementation of technologies behind Industry 4.0. Based on the results of the analysis, applications and uses, benefits, barriers and future needs are discussed. The results also reveal that the acceptance can help improves the image of the industry.

Disaster Waste Management in Malaysia is still at the early stage of its research. Disaster can create large volumes of debris and waste and mismanagement of disaster waste can affect both the response and long term recovery of disaster affected area. The government of Malaysia is taking serious about this issue. This paper is aim to explore the issues, policies and strategies regarding disaster waste management in Malaysia. The objectives were to investigate the extent of disaster waste effects on the environment and to provide a basis from which the needs of waste management could be evaluated in disaster management guidelines. Qualitative method of data collection has been adopted in this study. The respondent are among the local authority and organization that involved in managing wastes. The finding shows that many of the policies regarding waste management in Malaysia has not been well implemented. The purpose of this paper is expected to improve the method of managing disaster waste in Malaysia.

It is a common conviction that project management, construction management, and site management are the tools for improving the performance of the construction project as a whole. Notwithstanding the similarities and differences between all of them, construction management which consists of off-site and on-site activities is deemed to have the major influence on the succession of a project. Consequently, a competent construction manager is required throughout the particular phase to shape the construction stability and geared up to complete the proposed development as according to several common objectives. Nonetheless, a competent construction manager will not just appear “out of the blue”, they need to be teach, train, and develop in order to equip them with comprehensive competency sets. For that reason, education, training, and continuing professional development (CPD) are in place to provide the required knowledge, skills, and abilities. However, the debates on the inadequacy and problems on current construction management programs are continued to impede Malaysia’s construction environment. It has been observed that lack of term of reference on the technical competency for construction manager is became the major setback. Hence, this paper tries to unfold the circumstances by offering a preliminary countermeasure to alleviate the situation through analysis of literatures. It was found that, the associated central phenomenon is believed to be explored holistically with the inclusion of multi layered thematic analysis as a tool to assist the exploration processes. Then, the respective outcomes from the analysis are deemed to be ready for subsequent phases, for instance the validation phase.

Fire is an ignition of heat and smoke materials, which can pose a significant life and property threat. Residential fire in Malaysia has a high percentage of fire cases due to electrical sources, cooking appliances, defective of equipment, careless and negligence. Evacuation during fire is the most critical features in building safety. This includes the utilization of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in developing a good and efficient fire evacuation. This research paper aims to propose and established a conceptual framework of Dwelling Fire Safety Evacuation (DFSE). This paper utilizes the technique of systematic overview from previous research which includes journals, conferences proceedings, reports, framework and guidelines. The outcome of this paper consists the elements of dwelling fire safety evacuation including the element of Fire Scenarios (i.e., Fire characteristic, Building characteristic and Occupant characteristic), Influences Perceived Risk (i.e., Individual-Based, Physical and Social), Survival Strategy (i.e., extinguish, shelter and evacuation) and Safety (i.e., shortest time and awareness) which contributed to the development of the conceptual framework. These findings will assist the extended investigation of DFSE for accidental fire situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to establish the success factors in promoting certified Green Project Managers (GPM) in Malaysia’s construction projects. A set of self-administered questionnaires through snowball sampling method was used to retrieve information among 30 respondents within various backgrounds which include project directors, general managers and project managers. Based on the analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), this research has discovered that the main reason GPMs are highly needed in Malaysia’s construction industry is to ensure a successful delivery of green development goals. Nevertheless, this research found a number of challenges in promoting certified GPM, which include limited training for project managers that incorporates sustainability elements. This research found that training is significant to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge towards becoming certified GPM to date, a private sector organization known as Bridget is the sole provider of specific training for GPM in Malaysia. The respondents of this study are limited among project directors, general managers and project managers in the Klang Valley who are currently involved in green building projects. This paper fulfils the recognized need to study the success factors on the implementation of certification for Green Project Managers (GPM) in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is one of the Asian countries which are prone to disaster: flooding is one of the natural disasters that are becoming more common in Malaysia every year, threatening life. Disaster waste management is, therefore, one of the most important issues to address. Furthermore, as urbanization, population growth, and economic development increase, this leads to larger quantities of disaster waste requiring more systematic management, and this is becoming one of the most critical environmental issues to be tackled. This research aims to highlight possible entry points for waste management adoption into disaster management guidelines for Malaysia. Furthermore, the extent of disaster waste affecting the environment will be investigated, to identify the needs of waste management to be adopted as disaster management guidelines. Ultimately, the research intends to propose the adoption of a post-disaster waste management plan into the existing disaster management guidelines in Malaysia. In fact, an act and policies with regard to waste management have already been enacted and developed, but none of them focuses on disaster waste. Comparative studies will be conducted to benchmark waste management practices in other countries, to produce a systematic plan for post-disaster waste management in Malaysia. Qualitative research design methods will be rigorously applied by reviewing existing studies and carrying out semi-structured interviews. This paper presents an overview of disaster waste management, outlining the issues and challenges encountered during managing disaster waste, exploring existing guidelines on waste management, and discovering ways to improve the current situation by comparing it with the disaster waste management planning of more experienced countries, such as Japan, the USA (North Carolina), and Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]