Publications from the Centre for Advanced Built Environment Research (CABER)

This edited book addresses a gap in literature by advancing current understandings of the applications of immersive technology within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector. Globally, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector makes an enormous contribution to the socio-economic development of nations, which is primarily evidenced by its creation/provision of the built environment. The sector has, however, often been criticised for inefficiencies, waste, and diverse forms of adverse impacts that are associated with the lifecycle of the provision of built assets – design, construction, operations & maintenance, and end-of-life phases. Over the years, the inefficiencies, waste and adverse impacts have often been a catalyst for calls and initiatives to transform the AEC sector. The advent of the fourth industrial revolution (commonly referred to as, ‘Industry 4.0’), which entails the automation and digitalisation of production, presents opportunities to leverage emerging technologies to improve the image and productivity of the sector. Prominent among the emerging technologies in the Industry 4.0 era is that of immersive technology, which includes virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality. The capability of immersive technology to deliver beneficial impacts for multiple construction sector stakeholders throughout the construction lifecycle has been acknowledged within the industry and this continues to stimulate interest amongst practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. Despite this phenomenon, at present there is no dedicated compendium of research-informed text that focusses on the multifaceted applications of immersive technology throughout the lifecycle of the provision of built assets right from concept design to end-of-life. This book thus addresses this gap in literature by advancing current understanding of the applications of immersive technology within the AEC industry.  Readers will understand how the technologies are applied, the resulting array of impacts including benefits, drawbacks, challenges and future directions for applications, research, and development.

This Handbook presents opportunities, best practices, and case studies backed by cutting edge research on the drivers of continuous improvement of health, safety, and wellbeing in the architecture, engineering, construction, and facility management sector. The book consists of 23 chapters with six themes covering: ● Drivers of the business case for healthier and safer construction ● Opportunities and drivers of digital technologies for improving health and safety ● Drivers of human factors for improving health and safety ● Drivers of safer design and procurement ● Drivers of better health and wellbeing for construction. ● Opportunities for driving equality and inclusivity for safer construction. The book will be beneficial to academics, undergraduate and postgraduate (research and taught) students, professional institutions (such as the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health), health and safety professionals (health and safety officers, consultants and managers), occupational health professionals, mental health and wellbeing professionals, construction managers, architects, project professionals, engineers (design, construction, project, site, electrical, mechanical, civil, building services, and structural), facilities managers, quantity surveyors, and site managers. The aim of the book is to provide critical perspectives alongside evidence based practical examples of success stories, that should inspire readers and engender continuous improvement in health, safety, and wellbeing in the construction industry.

Pushing the boundaries of flood risk management research, this comprehensive Research Handbook presents pragmatic insights into all areas relating to flood risk. Through its use of dynamic and people-centred paradigms, it explores urban flood management within localities, properties, neighbourhoods and cities. Structured around the flood risk management cycle, chapters explore the critical importance of managing the consequences of flooding whilst examining key concepts such as mitigation, preparedness, emergency management and recovery. An international range of expert contributors from an array of disciplines recognize the inadequacies of existing governance approaches and mechanisms when it comes to addressing urban flooding, and identify the ways in which these can be strengthened in order to create an integrated flood and water management framework. Adopting a forward-thinking approach, the Research Handbook also investigates future directions of flood risk management research. The Research Handbook on Flood Risk Management will be an indispensable resource for academics, researchers and students interested in environmental geography, environmental governance and regulation, urban studies, politics and public policy, and the management of natural resources.

This handbook explores the critically important topic of embodied carbon, providing advanced insights that focus on measuring and reducing embodied carbon from across the built environment, including buildings, urban areas and cities, and construction materials and components. Split into five distinct sections, international experts, researchers, and professionals present the recent developments in the field of embodied carbon from various perspectives and at different scales of material, building, and city. Following an introduction to the embodied carbon question, the chapters in Section 1 then cover the key debates around issues such as the politics of embodied carbon, links between embodied carbon and thermal mass, and the misuse of carbon offsets. Section 2 reviews the embodied carbon policies in a selected number of countries. Sections 3, 4, and 5 approach the topic of embodied carbon from urban-, building-, and material-scale perspectives, respectively, and use case studies to demonstrate estimation techniques and present opportunities and challenges in embodied carbon mitigation. This will be important reading for upper-level students and researchers in Architecture, Urban Planning, Engineering, and Construction disciplines. Presenting case studies of embodied carbon assessment, this book will also help practicing architects, engineers, and urban planners understand embodied carbon estimation techniques and different mitigation strategies.

This edited book presents a significant and timely contribution to our understanding of a broad range of issues pertaining to COVID-19 and its relationship to occupational safety, health and well-being (OSHW) in the global construction industry. The editors first introduce the industry and its poor OSHW history before highlighting some of the broader impacts of the pandemic on the sector. The book is then divided into two sections. Section One focuses on the management of COVID-19 transmission risk. It captures insights, practices, technologies and lessons learned in relation to what has and is being done to prevent or mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission among the construction workforce. Construction Safety, Health and Well-being in the COVID-19 Era also details case studies, lessons and best practices for managing sites and workforces when infections inevitably do occur. Section Two brings together international chapters discussing the impacts of COVID-19 on the OSHW of the construction workforce both on and off-site, as well as the management of those impacts. Furthermore, this presents implications of the pandemic (at the short-, medium-, and long-term) for other performance measures of construction projects such as cost, schedule, quality and, most importantly, how the pursuit/non-pursuit of such performance measures have impacted/will impact the OSHW of construction workers and professionals in the industry. This book addresses the gap in literature by offering global perspectives on the OSHW impacts and implications of COVID-19 in the construction industry and will help its wide readership (including construction industry organisations, professionals, researchers, government bodies/policy makers and students) to understand a broad suite of issues pertaining to COVID-19 and its relationship to OSHW in construction.

The collaboration of HUG by LAUGH® and Milbotix SmartSocks® represents a groundbreaking, evidence-based approach to dementia care. HUG®, a sensory comfort device co-designed through the AHRC-funded LAUGH project at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK, combines soothing tactile stimulation that provides the reciprocal experience of giving and receiving a hug. It has a simulated heartbeat, and customizable music. SmartSocks® are a newly launched innovation developed through research at UWE Bristol and University of Bristol UK. They monitor physiological indicators of stress and anxiety, offering real-time, quantitative insights into a wearer’s emotional state. By integrating HUG® with SmartSocks® it has enabled rigorous evaluation of HUG®’s calming effects, producing data-driven evidence to support its adoption as a non-pharmacological intervention. Evaluations in the UK and the Netherlands have delivered significant results showing that HUG can promote better sleep, improve mood, enhance engagement and social connection, and in some cases reduce medication use by decreasing agitation. Both HUG® and SmartSocks® have received funding and support from Alzheimer’s Society and UK Government Research and Innovation. This presentation shares findings from the collaboration’s recent feasibility studies and highlights how these innovations can inform policy, advance compassionate non-pharmacological care, and inspire best practice in dementia and palliative support internationally.

Indoor climate monitoring is essential for ensuring occupant comfort, productivity, and energy efficiency in modern buildings. Effective regulation of temperature and humidity not only enhances well-being but also minimises operational costs and environmental impact through intelligent climate control. However, traditional methods for analysing sensor-based thermal data often demand specialised expertise in data processing, modelling, and visualisation, creating barriers for facility managers and other non-technical stakeholders. To address this challenge, this study presents an Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system that integrates a Large Language Model (LLM) with time-series forecasting for intuitive indoor climate analysis and prediction. The proposed framework combines the reasoning and retrieval capabilities of an LLM with the Prophet model for forecasting, enabling users to interact with complex environmental datasets through natural language (NL) queries. The system provides both descriptive analytics, including hourly and daily temperature, humidity patterns, seasonal trends, and variability, and predictive insights, such as short-term forecasts and long-term trend detection. Demonstrated using five months of real-world temperature and humidity data with projections for early September, the system illustrates how an Agentic-RAG-LLM can serve as intelligent intermediaries between sensor data and human decision-making. This proof-of-concept highlights a scalable, transparent, and user-friendly approach to indoor environmental intelligence, democratising advanced data analysis and supporting sustainable, human-centered building management.

This is a collaborative research about Transparency in Real Estate Markets and its definition. The research is initiated by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), run and supported by the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK (UWE Bristol), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) and The European Group of Valuers' Associations (TEGOVA). The research uses a global comparative study to examine the nature of transparency in real estate markets and identifies key differences between national markets due to the regulatory, economic, political, social, and cultural environment in which sellers and buyers operate. Market transparency reflects informational market efficiency and information asymmetry. The research is concerned with the perception, definition, and measurement of transparency in real estate markets and explores transparency deficits that negatively affect the economy and society. To obtain comparable evidence, data was collected using an international online survey and utilising the ‘purposive sampling’ technique, whereby professionals working in the field of land administration and management and in property surveying across the private and public sectors as well as in the higher education sector have been invited to contribute their insights. These included FIG, RICS, IVSC, CASLE and TEGOVA members. Understanding market transparency, beyond the current measures available for selected countries and selected real estate sectors only, should help improve policies aimed at enhancing market efficiency. From a global perspective, the results of this research inform policymakers and support the more vulnerable members of society who are often deprived of their real estate rights due to market opacity. Furthermore, the applied scientific approaches and the preliminary findings offer a framework for additional global research.

The need for sound land administration and governance has been highlighted as a necessity for attaining several of the Sustainable Development Goals. This, in turn, creates a need for education and training of suitably qualified professionals. Land administration curriculum designers have at their disposal several guidelines to support them in this endeavour. Among these, the most notable include the Teaching Essentials on Responsible Land Administration (TERLA), Guidelines for the Development of Curricula on Land Governance in Africa, and the recently released Land Administration Domain Model in the Classroom. Each of these educational guidelines has been developed by a different organisation (the Global Land Tools Network, the African Union, and the International Federation of Surveyors, respectively) for different audiences and purposes. Additionally, guidelines in support of improved land governance in general (not education-specific) have also been published, specifically the African Union’s Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa. While having such an array of good quality guidelines is undoubtedly an asset, curriculum developers may experience the paradox of choice, whereby having too many choices leaves one overwhelmed, insecure, and unable to decide. We reflect on these curriculum development guidelines and provide recommendations for curriculum developers navigating through this myriad of ideas and approaches. We take a two-pronged approach: 1) Through a globally distributed online survey, we investigate the knowledge and uptake of the abovementioned guidelines by educators as well as their perceived usefulness. The uptake of TERLA was last assessed in 2021 – this project builds on and extends this work. 2) Through interviews with educators in land governance, we assess existing land administration and governance curricula at selected higher education institutions against existing guidelines. Drawing the two prongs together, our aim is to produce a comprehensive description of how guidelines are being used in support of land administration and governance curriculum development, with suggestions for improvements. Being a work in progress, this paper presents preliminary results only. The authors seek feedback from conference participants on matters related to higher education curriculum development for land administration and governance.

Industry 4.0 technologies have potentials for addressing challenges to circularity of building materials and facilitate the transition to regenerative smart circular construction (SCC). However, building firms lack guidance from a maturity model on the systemic adoption of technologies and the steps needed to achieve the transition. This study aims to develop a framework of maturity levels to guide the implementation of SCC. A systematic literature review, including 157 journal articles, was conducted to develop a conceptual framework comprising five maturity levels of smart technology implementation to support building firms in achieving circularity. Level descriptors were created based on smart circularity achievement that firms need to accomplish per level. Findings revealed that maturity towards completing the transition to SCC requires a strategic progression from ad-hoc practices to a systemic embedment of technology use to prioritise circularity in firms’ operations. Findings emphasised the need for indicators to measure actual achievement of each maturity level and, ultimately, firm’s progression towards SCC. The framework will be used in future research to develop a maturity model to guide firms' transition to SCC.