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Hew Merrett

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National Yunlin University of Science and Technology

National Yunlin University of Science and Technology

Bryan R Jenkins

The University of Adelaide

Stylianos Karatzas

University of Leeds

Annette Davison

University of 20 Aoùt 1955-Skikda

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Papers by Hew Merrett

A Systems Approach to Identifying Hazards in the Management of Stream Buffers for the Protection of Drinking Water Quality

Water

In drinking water catchments, exploiting ecosystem services provided by stream buffers has the po... more In drinking water catchments, exploiting ecosystem services provided by stream buffers has the potential to complement conventional engineering solutions such as water treatment and reduce the overall public health risks to consumers. These stream buffers interrupt the movement of contaminants and sediments from non-point source sources, such as agricultural land, to surface waters. Effectively managing stream buffers can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of factors that can directly and indirectly impact efficacy. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and Early Warning Signal Analysis based on STPA (EWaSAP) methodology to systematically examine the sociotechnical structures for managing stream buffers in surface water catchments using a theoretical scenario representative of typical surface water supplies. The combination of STPA and EWaSAP provides a practical approach for developing requirements for stream buffers in drinking water catchments, ...

A Systems Approach to Identifying Hazards in the Management of Vegetative Buffers for the Protection of Drinking Water Quality

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Electricity consumption prediction - A case study of a university library

Journal of building engineering, Oct 1, 2023

Comparison of the Technical Efficiency of Construction Industries—A Case Study of Taiwan and Mainland China

Sustainability, Jan 4, 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Exploring the Multilevel Perception of Safety Climate on Taiwanese Construction Sites

Sustainability, Aug 23, 2019

This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions betwe... more This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions between management and laborers on Taiwanese construction sites. With Taiwan's high rate of construction site safety incidents, implementing successful safety strategies requires understanding differences in SC perceptions between management and laborers. This study used a structured SC questionnaire with responses from 74 managers and 261 laborers. The analysis of collected data includes (1) descriptive statistics comparing the selected dimensions; (2) Pearson correlation analysis examining relationships between SC perception dimensions; (3) t-test and one-way ANOVA to assess relationships between the respondent's background and SC perception dimensions; and (4) Post-Tukey comparison analysis to compare the SC perception differences between management and laborers. The results indicate that management-level staff show a higher degree of SC perception than laborer-level staff. This level of SC perception varies between individual dimensions. The strongest convergence between the two groups is observed in the dimension of 'workmate care of each other', and the greatest divergence is found in 'risk decision making'. Previous studies regarding SC perception in Taiwan specifically focus on construction workers and neglect the differences in perception between management and laborers. The outcomes of this study contribute to the understanding of multilevel SC perceptions, which can be used in the development of targeted strategies to improve SC on construction sites.

Applications of geographical information systems and remote sensing in natural disaster hazard assessment and mitigation in Taiwan

Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, Jun 1, 2013

Geographic Information Systems (GISs) provide a powerful tool in managing and analysing spatial d... more Geographic Information Systems (GISs) provide a powerful tool in managing and analysing spatial data. Geographic Information System has been applied successfully to large variety of fields, one field of particular interest is the field of disaster mitigation. The island of Taiwan is well known for the typhoons and earthquakes which in recent past has claimed lives and caused significant damage.

Development of a framework for assessing the robustness of drinking water source protection programmes using critical success factors

Water and Environment Journal, Mar 28, 2021

Effective implementation of drinking water source protection (DWSP) programmes relies on a range ... more Effective implementation of drinking water source protection (DWSP) programmes relies on a range of factors working successfully for the effective protection of water quality. The objective of this research is to develop a weighted scoring framework for assessing the controls applied to risk management in DWSP programmes. The proposed scoring framework for DWSP programmes robustness is based on statistical analysis and pairwise comparisons of the perceptions of DWSP experts and professionals in Taiwan, Australia, and Greece on the importance of the control measures for the hazards involved in managing DWSP programmes. The scores show that although there is consistent opinion on factors for robustness of DWSP programmes, respondents’ background such as country significantly influences how effectively the factors are achieved. The systems in place for DWSP can be complex, and this approach provides a way of assessing the robustness of the programmes for protecting water quality under differing jurisdictional arrangements.

Exploring the Relationship between Safety Climate and Worker Safety Behavior on Building Construction Sites in Taiwan

Sustainability, Mar 17, 2021

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

This flowchart describes, step-by-step, the processing routine we used to map Nyamuragira lava flows. We used ERDAS Imagine image processing software and ESRI ArcGIS software in our study, but these instructions can be translated to other image processing and mapping programs. Applications of geo...

A Structural Equation Model of Success in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs

Sustainability, Feb 24, 2020

The management structures put in place for the protection of drinking water sources are multiface... more The management structures put in place for the protection of drinking water sources are multifaceted and include a range of government agencies, landholders and regulatory agencies. While source protection is widely practiced in the water industry, there is limited research on underlying constructs that support successful outcomes in drinking water source protection (DWSP) programs. This study builds on current research by further investigating the following proposed critical success factors (CSFs) for source protection: CSF1: policy and government agency support of source protection; CSF2: catchment condition information and risk monitoring; CSF3: support of operational field activities; and CSF4: response to water quality threats. This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to confirm the associations amongst the four CSFs. The results show that policy and government agency support for DWSP has a significant influence over how water service providers (WSPs) plan operational activities for risk management. This emphasizes the importance of the role policy and government agencies have in supporting DWSP. The relationships between the CSFs, which typically fall under the responsibility of WSPs, show that information on catchment condition influences operational activities for risk management, and these mediate the influence over response to water quality threats. The response to threats also showed a strong relationship with the function of monitoring catchment risk. The resulting SEM framework provides new insights into the underlying structures that influence outcomes in catchment management and source protection.

Electricity consumption prediction - A case study of a university library

Journal of Building Engineering

A Systems Approach to Identifying Hazards in the Management of Vegetative Buffers for the Protection of Drinking Water Quality

ECWS-7 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Comparison of the Technical Efficiency of Construction Industries—A Case Study of Taiwan and Mainland China

Sustainability

A strong construction industry is critical to any country’s economic and infrastructural developm... more A strong construction industry is critical to any country’s economic and infrastructural development. Facing declining business prospects in the domestic market, Taiwanese construction firms have sought new opportunities overseas, particularly in the mainland Chinese market. Without an adequate understanding of the market, making such investments involves significant risks. To better understand the differences in the markets, this study investigates the technical efficiency (TE) of the Taiwanese construction industry compared to mainland China. The focus was on TE values of construction companies across the two markets as well as the strengths and weaknesses to help inform the decision-making process. The TE evaluation was completed using the stochastic frontier approach (SFA) with a subinput efficiency model to evaluate three inputs (assets, costs, and labor) of 123 construction companies with 59 companies in mainland China and 64 companies in Taiwan. Results show that for the key ...

Exploring the Multilevel Perception of Safety Climate on Taiwanese Construction Sites

Sustainability, 2019

This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions betwe... more This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions between management and laborers on Taiwanese construction sites. With Taiwan’s high rate of construction site safety incidents, implementing successful safety strategies requires understanding differences in SC perceptions between management and laborers. This study used a structured SC questionnaire with responses from 74 managers and 261 laborers. The analysis of collected data includes (1) descriptive statistics comparing the selected dimensions; (2) Pearson correlation analysis examining relationships between SC perception dimensions; (3) t-test and one-way ANOVA to assess relationships between the respondent’s background and SC perception dimensions; and (4) Post-Tukey comparison analysis to compare the SC perception differences between management and laborers. The results indicate that management-level staff show a higher degree of SC perception than laborer-level staff. This level of S...

A Decade of Value Engineering in Construction Projects

Advances in Civil Engineering, 2022

Over the past half-century, value engineering (VE) has emerged as an effective tool to manage tim... more Over the past half-century, value engineering (VE) has emerged as an effective tool to manage time, costs, and quality with an aim to maximize value. It has been shown to be a highly effective approach for evaluating current construction projects. However, this tool’s application in the construction domain is quite variable. This research aims to provide an in-depth quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the application of VE in construction projects. It is found that new research over the past decade has continuously improved the efficiency and productiveness of VE practices. Current work focuses on integrating VE with other disciplines, applying VE in diverse project domains, assessing VE performance, and developing new VE technologies. This broad review highlights some of the key areas of interest that required future investigation to ensure the continued delivery of value in the ever-changing and evolving construction industry.

Comparison of STPA and Bow-tie Method Outcomes in the Development and Testing of an Automated Water Quality Management System

MATEC Web of Conferences, 2019

The technology available to water quality management applications needs to be advanced due to gre... more The technology available to water quality management applications needs to be advanced due to greater use of automation to increase ease of operation, support remote operation and reduce risks due to operator error. In this case study, a comparison is made between System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and the Bow-tie methodology for identifying process hazards and countermeasures which can be used to guide the design and testing of an automated water quality management system (AWQMS). For this study, the application considered is a small hydroponics installation where water quality management has been automated. The STPA methodology uses a system theory-based approach to identify hazards, which include operational failures, human errors, and component interactions. The Bow-tie diagram focuses on individual barriers for a given threat which can prevent the realisation of a hazardous event and unwanted consequences. Thus, the 22 preventative barriers and seven recovery barriers ide...

A Systems Analysis Approach to Identifying Critical Success Factors in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs

The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to... more The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to understand the hazards present in the catchment then plan and implement control measures to manage water quality risk to levels which can be controlled through downstream barriers. The programs in place to manage source protection are complex sociotechnical systems involving policy, standards, regulators, technology, human factors and so on. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyze the operational hazards of a typical drinking water source protection (DWSP) program and identify control measures to ensure safe operations. To validate the results a questionnaire was developed and distributed to specialists in DWSP in Taiwan, Australia and Greece. Using Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of the questionnaire responses, the study identified four critical success factors (CSFs) for DWSP. The four factors identified are ‘Policy and Government Agency Support of Sour...

Exploring the Relationship between Safety Climate and Worker Safety Behavior on Building Construction Sites in Taiwan

Sustainability

Construction occupational accidents are often attributed to workers’ having an insufficient perce... more Construction occupational accidents are often attributed to workers’ having an insufficient perception of how their actions influence safety in the construction site. This research explores the relationship between safety climate (SC) and personnel safety behavior (SB) of construction workers operating on building construction sites in Taiwan. The study discovered a significant positive relationship between SC and SB of Taiwan’s building construction sites, and in turn SC level had a positive impact on SB participation and overall safety perceptions. The higher the SC cognition of Taiwan’s building construction workers, the better the performance of SB was found to be. The dimension of "safety commitment and safety training" had the greatest relationship with SB. Safety training also had a deep impact on the cognition of SB. Therefore, the organizational culture and attitudes to safety coupled with the successful implementation of safety education and training can effectiv...

Development of a framework for assessing the robustness of drinking water source protection programmes using critical success factors

Water and Environment Journal

Construction Safety Success Factors: A Taiwanese Case Study

Sustainability

The international construction industry has long experienced high rates of occupational incidents... more The international construction industry has long experienced high rates of occupational incidents resulting in serious injury and death. The high rate of fatal construction accidents has clearly highlighted the importance and urgency of safety management improvement for building and construction sites. This paper analyzed 33 nominated success factors of the site safety management (SSM) of building construction projects using Principle Components Analysis (PCA) to extract the success factors (SFs) of SSM in Taiwan. The internal relationships among these SFs were further explored using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the underlying relationships. The results of this study indicate that there are moderate correlations present between the selected SFs for SSM. Management behaviors, a safe work environment and safety resources, the safety behaviors of workers, and prevention and remedial actions were found to be the major influencers for SSM performance. Furthermore, the st...

A Systems Approach to Identifying Hazards in the Management of Stream Buffers for the Protection of Drinking Water Quality

Water

In drinking water catchments, exploiting ecosystem services provided by stream buffers has the po... more In drinking water catchments, exploiting ecosystem services provided by stream buffers has the potential to complement conventional engineering solutions such as water treatment and reduce the overall public health risks to consumers. These stream buffers interrupt the movement of contaminants and sediments from non-point source sources, such as agricultural land, to surface waters. Effectively managing stream buffers can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of factors that can directly and indirectly impact efficacy. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and Early Warning Signal Analysis based on STPA (EWaSAP) methodology to systematically examine the sociotechnical structures for managing stream buffers in surface water catchments using a theoretical scenario representative of typical surface water supplies. The combination of STPA and EWaSAP provides a practical approach for developing requirements for stream buffers in drinking water catchments, ...

A Systems Approach to Identifying Hazards in the Management of Vegetative Buffers for the Protection of Drinking Water Quality

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Electricity consumption prediction - A case study of a university library

Journal of building engineering, Oct 1, 2023

Comparison of the Technical Efficiency of Construction Industries—A Case Study of Taiwan and Mainland China

Sustainability, Jan 4, 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Exploring the Multilevel Perception of Safety Climate on Taiwanese Construction Sites

Sustainability, Aug 23, 2019

This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions betwe... more This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions between management and laborers on Taiwanese construction sites. With Taiwan's high rate of construction site safety incidents, implementing successful safety strategies requires understanding differences in SC perceptions between management and laborers. This study used a structured SC questionnaire with responses from 74 managers and 261 laborers. The analysis of collected data includes (1) descriptive statistics comparing the selected dimensions; (2) Pearson correlation analysis examining relationships between SC perception dimensions; (3) t-test and one-way ANOVA to assess relationships between the respondent's background and SC perception dimensions; and (4) Post-Tukey comparison analysis to compare the SC perception differences between management and laborers. The results indicate that management-level staff show a higher degree of SC perception than laborer-level staff. This level of SC perception varies between individual dimensions. The strongest convergence between the two groups is observed in the dimension of 'workmate care of each other', and the greatest divergence is found in 'risk decision making'. Previous studies regarding SC perception in Taiwan specifically focus on construction workers and neglect the differences in perception between management and laborers. The outcomes of this study contribute to the understanding of multilevel SC perceptions, which can be used in the development of targeted strategies to improve SC on construction sites.

Applications of geographical information systems and remote sensing in natural disaster hazard assessment and mitigation in Taiwan

Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, Jun 1, 2013

Geographic Information Systems (GISs) provide a powerful tool in managing and analysing spatial d... more Geographic Information Systems (GISs) provide a powerful tool in managing and analysing spatial data. Geographic Information System has been applied successfully to large variety of fields, one field of particular interest is the field of disaster mitigation. The island of Taiwan is well known for the typhoons and earthquakes which in recent past has claimed lives and caused significant damage.

Development of a framework for assessing the robustness of drinking water source protection programmes using critical success factors

Water and Environment Journal, Mar 28, 2021

Effective implementation of drinking water source protection (DWSP) programmes relies on a range ... more Effective implementation of drinking water source protection (DWSP) programmes relies on a range of factors working successfully for the effective protection of water quality. The objective of this research is to develop a weighted scoring framework for assessing the controls applied to risk management in DWSP programmes. The proposed scoring framework for DWSP programmes robustness is based on statistical analysis and pairwise comparisons of the perceptions of DWSP experts and professionals in Taiwan, Australia, and Greece on the importance of the control measures for the hazards involved in managing DWSP programmes. The scores show that although there is consistent opinion on factors for robustness of DWSP programmes, respondents’ background such as country significantly influences how effectively the factors are achieved. The systems in place for DWSP can be complex, and this approach provides a way of assessing the robustness of the programmes for protecting water quality under differing jurisdictional arrangements.

Exploring the Relationship between Safety Climate and Worker Safety Behavior on Building Construction Sites in Taiwan

Sustainability, Mar 17, 2021

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

This flowchart describes, step-by-step, the processing routine we used to map Nyamuragira lava flows. We used ERDAS Imagine image processing software and ESRI ArcGIS software in our study, but these instructions can be translated to other image processing and mapping programs. Applications of geo...

A Structural Equation Model of Success in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs

Sustainability, Feb 24, 2020

The management structures put in place for the protection of drinking water sources are multiface... more The management structures put in place for the protection of drinking water sources are multifaceted and include a range of government agencies, landholders and regulatory agencies. While source protection is widely practiced in the water industry, there is limited research on underlying constructs that support successful outcomes in drinking water source protection (DWSP) programs. This study builds on current research by further investigating the following proposed critical success factors (CSFs) for source protection: CSF1: policy and government agency support of source protection; CSF2: catchment condition information and risk monitoring; CSF3: support of operational field activities; and CSF4: response to water quality threats. This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to confirm the associations amongst the four CSFs. The results show that policy and government agency support for DWSP has a significant influence over how water service providers (WSPs) plan operational activities for risk management. This emphasizes the importance of the role policy and government agencies have in supporting DWSP. The relationships between the CSFs, which typically fall under the responsibility of WSPs, show that information on catchment condition influences operational activities for risk management, and these mediate the influence over response to water quality threats. The response to threats also showed a strong relationship with the function of monitoring catchment risk. The resulting SEM framework provides new insights into the underlying structures that influence outcomes in catchment management and source protection.

Electricity consumption prediction - A case study of a university library

Journal of Building Engineering

A Systems Approach to Identifying Hazards in the Management of Vegetative Buffers for the Protection of Drinking Water Quality

ECWS-7 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Comparison of the Technical Efficiency of Construction Industries—A Case Study of Taiwan and Mainland China

Sustainability

A strong construction industry is critical to any country’s economic and infrastructural developm... more A strong construction industry is critical to any country’s economic and infrastructural development. Facing declining business prospects in the domestic market, Taiwanese construction firms have sought new opportunities overseas, particularly in the mainland Chinese market. Without an adequate understanding of the market, making such investments involves significant risks. To better understand the differences in the markets, this study investigates the technical efficiency (TE) of the Taiwanese construction industry compared to mainland China. The focus was on TE values of construction companies across the two markets as well as the strengths and weaknesses to help inform the decision-making process. The TE evaluation was completed using the stochastic frontier approach (SFA) with a subinput efficiency model to evaluate three inputs (assets, costs, and labor) of 123 construction companies with 59 companies in mainland China and 64 companies in Taiwan. Results show that for the key ...

Exploring the Multilevel Perception of Safety Climate on Taiwanese Construction Sites

Sustainability, 2019

This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions betwe... more This study investigates multilevel differences in safety climate (SC) perception dimensions between management and laborers on Taiwanese construction sites. With Taiwan’s high rate of construction site safety incidents, implementing successful safety strategies requires understanding differences in SC perceptions between management and laborers. This study used a structured SC questionnaire with responses from 74 managers and 261 laborers. The analysis of collected data includes (1) descriptive statistics comparing the selected dimensions; (2) Pearson correlation analysis examining relationships between SC perception dimensions; (3) t-test and one-way ANOVA to assess relationships between the respondent’s background and SC perception dimensions; and (4) Post-Tukey comparison analysis to compare the SC perception differences between management and laborers. The results indicate that management-level staff show a higher degree of SC perception than laborer-level staff. This level of S...

A Decade of Value Engineering in Construction Projects

Advances in Civil Engineering, 2022

Over the past half-century, value engineering (VE) has emerged as an effective tool to manage tim... more Over the past half-century, value engineering (VE) has emerged as an effective tool to manage time, costs, and quality with an aim to maximize value. It has been shown to be a highly effective approach for evaluating current construction projects. However, this tool’s application in the construction domain is quite variable. This research aims to provide an in-depth quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the application of VE in construction projects. It is found that new research over the past decade has continuously improved the efficiency and productiveness of VE practices. Current work focuses on integrating VE with other disciplines, applying VE in diverse project domains, assessing VE performance, and developing new VE technologies. This broad review highlights some of the key areas of interest that required future investigation to ensure the continued delivery of value in the ever-changing and evolving construction industry.

Comparison of STPA and Bow-tie Method Outcomes in the Development and Testing of an Automated Water Quality Management System

MATEC Web of Conferences, 2019

The technology available to water quality management applications needs to be advanced due to gre... more The technology available to water quality management applications needs to be advanced due to greater use of automation to increase ease of operation, support remote operation and reduce risks due to operator error. In this case study, a comparison is made between System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and the Bow-tie methodology for identifying process hazards and countermeasures which can be used to guide the design and testing of an automated water quality management system (AWQMS). For this study, the application considered is a small hydroponics installation where water quality management has been automated. The STPA methodology uses a system theory-based approach to identify hazards, which include operational failures, human errors, and component interactions. The Bow-tie diagram focuses on individual barriers for a given threat which can prevent the realisation of a hazardous event and unwanted consequences. Thus, the 22 preventative barriers and seven recovery barriers ide...

A Systems Analysis Approach to Identifying Critical Success Factors in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs

The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to... more The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to understand the hazards present in the catchment then plan and implement control measures to manage water quality risk to levels which can be controlled through downstream barriers. The programs in place to manage source protection are complex sociotechnical systems involving policy, standards, regulators, technology, human factors and so on. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyze the operational hazards of a typical drinking water source protection (DWSP) program and identify control measures to ensure safe operations. To validate the results a questionnaire was developed and distributed to specialists in DWSP in Taiwan, Australia and Greece. Using Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of the questionnaire responses, the study identified four critical success factors (CSFs) for DWSP. The four factors identified are ‘Policy and Government Agency Support of Sour...

Exploring the Relationship between Safety Climate and Worker Safety Behavior on Building Construction Sites in Taiwan

Sustainability

Construction occupational accidents are often attributed to workers’ having an insufficient perce... more Construction occupational accidents are often attributed to workers’ having an insufficient perception of how their actions influence safety in the construction site. This research explores the relationship between safety climate (SC) and personnel safety behavior (SB) of construction workers operating on building construction sites in Taiwan. The study discovered a significant positive relationship between SC and SB of Taiwan’s building construction sites, and in turn SC level had a positive impact on SB participation and overall safety perceptions. The higher the SC cognition of Taiwan’s building construction workers, the better the performance of SB was found to be. The dimension of "safety commitment and safety training" had the greatest relationship with SB. Safety training also had a deep impact on the cognition of SB. Therefore, the organizational culture and attitudes to safety coupled with the successful implementation of safety education and training can effectiv...

Development of a framework for assessing the robustness of drinking water source protection programmes using critical success factors

Water and Environment Journal

Construction Safety Success Factors: A Taiwanese Case Study

Sustainability

The international construction industry has long experienced high rates of occupational incidents... more The international construction industry has long experienced high rates of occupational incidents resulting in serious injury and death. The high rate of fatal construction accidents has clearly highlighted the importance and urgency of safety management improvement for building and construction sites. This paper analyzed 33 nominated success factors of the site safety management (SSM) of building construction projects using Principle Components Analysis (PCA) to extract the success factors (SFs) of SSM in Taiwan. The internal relationships among these SFs were further explored using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the underlying relationships. The results of this study indicate that there are moderate correlations present between the selected SFs for SSM. Management behaviors, a safe work environment and safety resources, the safety behaviors of workers, and prevention and remedial actions were found to be the major influencers for SSM performance. Furthermore, the st...