Building maintenance involves preserving a building so that it can retain its economic value and durability. Maintenance is a very important aspect of facilities management that requires planning, because lack of maintenance leads to serious economic loss. This research work was carried out to access the current state of maintenance of public buildings in public institutions in Nigeria using the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a case study. It also proffers solutions to maintenance problems. The field investigation focused on staff residential houses, students' hostels, offices and classrooms. Questionnaires were used to collate data/information on 500 residential apartments, offices and a total of 260 hostel rooms were examined. The results were analyzed statistically. The results show that about 80% of the buildings within the University require immediate maintenance. Maintenance works are also needed at the staff residential buildings, students' hostels, offices and classrooms. They are also needed in the plumbing works, bathrooms, toilets, doors, windows, the painting, walls, floors, roofs and electrical installations of the buildings. 74.60% of the residential buildings need roof maintenance, 57.30% need floor maintenance, 60% need wall maintenance, 71.30% need re-painting, and 68.60% need window maintenance. In the students hostels, 61.70% of the hostels need door maintenance, 59.50% need to have their toilet facilities maintained while 72.40% of the hostels need to have their plumbing works maintained. It is concluded that lack of maintenance policy and funding is the major cause of public building deterioration in University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It is recommended that a holistic maintenance framework should be adopted in line with International best practices in developed countries. In addition, the University should adopt preventive maintenance policy by employing outsourcing maintenance services. The University should also introduce the use of one stop shop maintenance services including the use of information and communication technology.

Purpose This study aims to promote the idea that social equity is a significant objective that needs to be achieved to attain a smart city and further reveal the current research focus of smart city in relation to social equity. Also, it will propose determinants of social equity for smart city development. Design/methodology/approach The first part of this study was conducted by reviewing ten existing smart city models and assessing their elements, in a bid to find a relationship between the existing smart city models and social equity. These models were sorts from scholarly publications such as books, journals and other related articles sourced from google scholar and Scopus database. To give more credence to this study, a second aspect of this study was necessary; this was conducted using a bibliometric approach, and the data was gathered from the Scopus database. Keywords such as “smart-city” OR “Digital-city” OR “Intelligent-city” OR “Computer-city” OR “Technology-city” AND “Social-equity” were used for article extraction. VOSview was used to analyse the bibliographic data obtained. Findings This research revealed that studies that relate, link or discuss the idea that social equity is a significant objective that needs to be achieved to attain a smart city are low considering that only 48 articles were extracted, and most of the studies did not specifically focus on social equity in smart city development. Further findings revealed that the ten reviewed smart city models never linked or discussed the idea of social equity in smart city development. Additionally, this study revealed that emerging countries aiming to develop smart cities, particularly in Africa, are not paying much attention to the importance of creating social equity policies to attain smart cities. Practical implications This study revealed a knowledge gap in the study of smart cities in developing countries. Governments of various developing countries can implement the ideas from this study by creating and applying social equity policies to drive sustainable development, which will positively influence smart city attainment. Originality/value The contribution of this study is that it promotes the idea that social equity is a significant objective that needs to be achieved to attain smart cities. This study’s further originality and value lie in adopting a bibliometric approach of analysis that has not been used in this form in previous studies.

The use of construction technologies is to improve working conditions, improve health and safety, scheduling and improving quality of the construction products. Construction automation redefines construction with machines and advanced technology to mitigate the problems faced in construction, such as labour-related issues among others. To adequately understand the impact of automation and robotics in the construction industry, this study is aimed at reviewing extant literature on how automation and robotics can be put into use in the construction industry as it is being used in the manufacturing industry. The study employed a systematic literature review approach and sourced for published journal and conference articles from Web of Science and Scopus databases. The review revealed that construction automation and robotics increase accuracy of components’ dimension through the use of lasers for dimension analysis, promote design specifications through the use of computer aided designs, increase quality of construction products by ensuring standards are met, brings cost effectiveness as value for money spent is achieved, eliminate material wastage due to accurate and precise estimate of materials needed, reduce construction accidents due to the usage of machines for dangerous construction activities, improve working condition as workers’ are more secure and safety is guaranteed, and reduce labour cost given the fact that machines are deployed for construction activities.

No abstract