An occupational safety risk analysis method at construction sites using fuzzy sets

[admin]

An occupational safety risk analysis method at construction sites using fuzzy sets
G. Emre Gu¨ rcanli*, Ugur Mu¨ ngen
Technical University of Istanbul, Civil Engineering Faculty, Construction Management Department, 34469 Maslak/Istanbul, Turkey
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 18 February 2008
Received in revised form
26 September 2008
Accepted 15 October 2008
Available online 30 November 2008
Keywords:
Construction safety
Fuzzy sets
Accident likelihood
Accident severity
Risk assessment
a b s t r a c t
The nature of construction work ensures that uncertainties are inherent in every condition; and on-site
inspections generally use linguistic expressions rather than metrics to assess the risks of workers at
a construction site. Additionally legal records, statistical data and documentation produced by companies
are generally insufficient for determining risk. This fact increases the uncertainty of the job site atmosphere.
This paper proposes a method for assessment of the risks that workers expose to at construction
sites using a fuzzy rule-based safety analysis to deal with uncertain and insufficient data. Using this
approach, historical accident data, subjective judgements of experts and the current safety level of
a construction site can be combined. In the scope of this study, first 5239 occupational accidents in the
construction industry are identified from 40,000 unclassified occupational accidents in all industries.
Next, these 5239 construction accidents are investigated and classified in detail. Combining these data
and the subjective judgement of safety experts, we derive three parameters namely the accident likelihood,
current safety level and accident severity and they are utilized as input parameters for the fuzzy
rule-based system. The method is then implemented on a tunnelling construction site and risk level for
all type of accidents is derived.
Relevance to the industry: The relevance of this study to industry is linked to the possibility of providing,
through the use of proposed methodology, safety level scores for the construction sites that could result
in work improvement and productivity. The application of the proposed method can reveal which safety
items and factors are most important in improving workers safety, and therefore decide where to
concentrate resources in order to improve the safety of the work environment.

Hidden Content

Give reaction or reply to this topic to see the hidden content.