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Current Topics and Trends on Durability of Building Materials and Components. Proceedings of the XV edition of the International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components (DBMC 2020) Barcelona, Spain 20 – 23 October 2020, ISBN:978-84-121101-8-0

Construction project costs often reach values higher than planned. Accuracy in project cost estimation is one of the most important criteria for project success, even for its sustainability.The main idea of this research is to examine the relationship between realized cost and contracted cost values for residential buildings. The aim of the research is to determine the mathematical relationship between realized and planned costs in the project implementation phase by using a few mathematical methods and some machine learning methods in comparison to linear regression. This would enable validation of methods themselves by comparing and evaluating the obtained relevant parameters.Comparison would be performed on two levels, based on its general characteristics, as well as on the results of their application on the basis of 24 building reconstructions and new buildings by comparing the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and the determination coefficient (R2) using Predictive Modelling Software DTREG (pronounced D-T-Reg). The relationship of realized and planned costs will be determined for the building as a whole and for certain types of construction works. That relationship would enable more realistic budget planning of similar future projects. Cost overrun factors will be analysed for particular types of construction works, as well as the probability of their occurrence, and what measures should be undertaken to prevent or reduce them in similar future projects. The phenomenon known in project planning as "optimism bias" will be analysed in the context of research focus of exceeding the construction cost.

This paper introduces the ForestValue research project CLICKdesign – delivering fingertip knowledge to enable service life performance specification of wood. The consortium is working on a primary innovation to move from the complex, fragmented and general to the easy-to-use, consolidated and specific by provision of a digital tool for specifiers. Other materials tackle this and provide designers and architects with software. The specification of performance of wood products is complex and fraught with inconsistency and requires use of multiple platforms for data, experience, standards and national recommendations. CLICKdesign will provide a tool that has within it the decades of research, the complexity of the standards specification systems and the variation of approach due to tradition, materials and culture across Europe and beyond. A simple tool for nonexpert public users will be available as well as a tool accessible to professional users that will be refined with industry to ensure relevancy and accelerate uptake and use.

Life-cycle management of urban road networks as a part of an urban system is a very complex process from the management standpoint of social, technical and economic aspects. The complexity and multidisciplinarity of such a problem suggest the need for using soft computing tools as well as multi-criteria analysis and group decision- making. Recently, there is a significant increase in using various soft computing tools, especially neural networks, for different prediction purposes in the field of road construction planning and management. Along with known advantages of such a prediction method, yet some applications showed the shortcomings. In that sense, the focus of this research is on possible applications of neural networks related to the life-cycle phases during the management of urban road projects. This is done in both horizontal (projects’ life-cycle phases) and vertical (hierarchical decision-making levels) approach. The final aim of the research is to compare and highlight the possible applications of neural networks as a prediction tool and support for decision-making in urban road management.

The lack of systematization in the collection of building defects leads to a wide range of data that is not used to its full potential. Unfortunately, this opportunity is missed since lessons could be drawn from analyzing this data by systematically mapping and investigating building defects. This paper presents the results of a statistical analysis on 27074 cases of building defects provided by a Belgian insurance company, ranging from 1991 up to 2019. This analysis focuses on the types of damage, the occurrence in relation to the construction time and the typology of the claims. Spearman correlation tests, X² tests, and Kruskal-Wallis tests are performed to assess the significance of correlations. Moisture problems constitute 49% of all technical defects, followed by structural issues (19%), and cracking (17%). Within the category of moisture problems, the roof is the dominant location for problems to occur, followed by basements, façades, windows, and rising damp. 50% of the judicial cases were closed after 3 years, whereas cases without lawsuit are typically settled after 1-2 years.