Mapping and analyzing the cause-and-effect network between the risks of residential building projects in Iran: An approach based on the social network analysis (SNA)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Ph.D., Candidate, School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Road, Housing and Development Research Center, Department of construction project management, Tehran, Iran.
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Information Technology and Computer Engineering, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran.
4 Associate Professor, School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
5 Department of Civil Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
Abstract
In recent qualitative analysis of risks, the cause-and-effect relationship among risks and its impact on the final ranking, is questioned. It is worth to note that in usual methods which are conducted for ranking the risks, it is assumed that all variables are independent. But in a real case, it should be noted that a cause-and-effect relationships among risks is exist and consequently, the occurrence of one risk can impact on the probability of the occurrence of others. This important fact has not been seen in the process of conventional project risk ratings (functions including probability and effect). Due to this, in this article, 30 risks in residential building projects in Iran were first identified and then, using an innovative approach based on social network analysis tool (SNA), the cause-and-effect network between risks was drawn and analyzed. The results showed that the weighted in degree centrality and the weighted out degree centrality lead to the interpretable results, but the analysis of the betweenness centrality and closeness centrality showed that the results are not interpretable. As well, in this research the 10 most important risks based on engineering judgment and final results of weighted in/out degree centrality, were identified and analyzed.
Keywords

- Abdullahnejad, Ibrahim; Ahad Nazari and Milad Rahmati Nia. (2016). Investigation and evaluation of construction and commissioning risks in construction projects (hospital case study), Specialized Scientific Quarterly of Construction Engineering and Management, second year, seventh issue.
- Abedini, Saeedeh; Mohammad Hossein Ghotbi and Mohammad Hossein Dadpour. (2015). Risk Identification and Evaluation in Construction Projects: A Case Study of Mehr Housing in Qom Province, International Conference on New
Research in Management, Economics and Accounting, Istanbul, Ilia Capital Institute of Managers. [Persian]
- Bastian, M., Heymann, S., & Jacomy, M. (2009). Gephi: an open source software for exploring and manipulating networks. Icwsm8(2009), 361-362.
- Hossen, M. M., Kang, S., & Kim, J. (2015). Construction schedule delay risk assessment by using combined AHP-RII methodology for an international NPP project. Nuclear Engineering and Technology47(3), 362-379.
- Khaksar, Mansour, Shafei, Reza and Baharehullah Veisi. (1387). Identifying the sources of risk in construction projects and how to manage them (case study). Journal beyond Management, No. 7. [Persian]
- Mohammadi Talvar, Zanyar and Javad Panahi. (2016). Identification of effective criteria in risk assessment and ranking of construction projects, Conference on Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning in the Islamic world, Tabriz,
University of Tabriz - Shahid Madani University of Azerbaijan - University of Applied Sciences, Tabriz Municipalit. [Persian]
- Mohammadi, Mostafa and Nima Tavassoli (2016). Investigating the Impact of Risk Management in Construction Projects and Its Relationship with Project Success, International Comprehensive Conference on Iranian-Islamic Civil Engineering,
Architecture and Urban Planning, Tehran
, Koosha Gostar Conference Center. [Persian]
- Nummedal, T. A., Hide, A., & Heyerdahl, R. (1996). Cost effective risk management on aging offshore installations. In SPE Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Conference. Society of Petroleum Engineers.
- Project management body of knowledge (pmbok® guide), (2001).  In Project Management Institute, Vol. 11, No. 1, 7-8.
- Tabatabai Mir Hosseini, Ramin and Moin Rouhi. (2015) Risk assessment of high-rise buildings using AHP and TOPSIS methods, 11th International Conference on Project Management, Tehran, Ariana Industrial Research Group. [Persian]
- Ye, G., Jin, Z., Xia, B., & Skitmore, M. (2015). Analyzing causes for reworks in construction projects in China. Journal of Management in Engineering31(6), 04014097.
- Zarei Bosari, Aida. (2017) Risk assessment methods in construction projects, the second national conference on engineering management, Ashrafieh threshold, Mehrastan Institute of Higher Education, Guilan. [Persian]
- Zheng, Xian, et al. (2016). Review of the application of social network analysis (SNA) in construction project management research. International journal of project management 34.7, 1214-1225.
-Guide, A. (2017). Project management body of knowledge (pmbok® guide). In Project Management Institute.
-Molaei Barough, Armin and Muzaffar Khademi Shiraz. (2017). Risk management in construction projects; Case Study, 2nd International Congress of Contemporary Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning, Dubai, University of Naples, Italy.