The construction industry is experiencing changes in its processes and work methods, and the advancement of new technologies in recent decades has led to a new concept known as Construction 4.0, coined in 2016 in Germany. Since its definition is still diffuse, it was deemed necessary to conduct a review on the publications in this field to grasp how this concept is being understood. For that purpose, a bibliometric analysis was conducted among 260 research articles using seven keywords. The results reveal that the number of publications is growing exponentially, with the USA, the UK, and China being leaders in this field; besides, four technologies are essential to understand Construction 4.0 at present time: 3D printing, big data, virtual reality, and Internet of Things. The results of this review suggest that further reviews should be conducted every 3 years to grasp the rapid evolution of Construction 4.0.
Natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis foster the creation of effective evacuation strategies to prevent the loss of human lives. This article proposes a simulation model to find out optimum evacuation routes, during a tsunami using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithms. ACO is a discrete optimization algorithm inspired by the ability of ants to establish the shortest path from their nest to a food source, and vice versa, using pheromones. The validation of the model was carried out through two drills, which were conducted in the coastal town of Penco, Chile. This town was strongly affected by an 8.8 Mw earthquake and tsunami over February 2010. The first drill was held with minimum information, leaving the population to act randomly and intuitively. The second drill was carried out with information provided by the model, inducing people to use the optimized routes generated by the ACO algorithm. The results showed that, in case of an emergency, conventional evacuation routes showed longer escape times compared to those produced by the model developed in this research.
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