The outbreak of a pandemic of global concern, the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has tested the capacity of healthcare facilities to the brim in many developed countries. In a minacious fashion of rapid spread and extreme transmission rate, COVID-19 has triggered a shortage of healthcare facilities such as hospital bed spaces and ventilators. Various strategies have been adopted by the worst-hit countries to slacken or halt the spread of the virus. Common Isolation Space Creation (ISC) measures for the COVID-19 pandemic containment includes self-isolation at home, isolation at regular hospitals, isolation at existing epidemic hospitals, isolation at retrofitted buildings for an emergency, isolation at Temporary Mobile Cabins (TMCs), isolation at newly constructed temporary hospitals for COVID-19. This study evaluates the ISC measures and proposes offsite and modular solutions for the construction industry and built environment to respond to emergencies. While this study has proposed a solution for creating emergency isolation spaces for effective containment of such pandemic, other critical COVID-19 challenges such as the shortage of healthcare staff and other facilities are not addressed in this study.

A major challenge for foreign lenders in financing PPP infrastructure projects in an emerging 4 market is the bankability of country-related risks. Despite existing studies on country risks in 5 international project financing, perspectives of foreign financiers on bankability of country-6 specific risks in an emerging market is yet to be explored. Hence, using a mixed methodology 7 approach to research, three PFI/PPP projects in Sub Saharan Africa (Nigeria) were used to 8 investigate the bankability requirements for political risk, sponsor, concession and legal risks 9 in PPP loan applications. Focus group discussions and loan documentations obtained from 10 foreign project financiers with experience in PPP financing in Nigeria were used as sources 11 of evidence. Results identified 22 bankability criteria for evaluating country-related risks 12 (political risk, sponsor, concession and legal risks). These criteria were later put in a 13 questionnaire survey to local and international project financiers with experiences in PPPs 14 within Nigerian. Reliability analysis and significance index ranking were carried out. The 15 significance index ranking helped ascertain the top 7 criteria influencing bankability of 16 country-specific risks in emerging market PPPs. A conceptual "Risk and Bankability 17 Framework" was then constructed from the findings and validated with new data from other 18 PPP financiers in emerging markets. The proposed conceptual framework represents critical 19 parameters for winning foreign financiers' approval for PPP loan applications from emerging 20 market.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of the big data technologies for health and safety risks analytics in the power infrastructure domain with large data sets of health and safety risks, which are usually sparse and noisy. Design/methodology/approach The study focuses on using the big data frameworks for designing a robust architecture for handling and analysing (exploratory and predictive analytics) accidents in power infrastructure. The designed architecture is based on a well coherent health risk analytics lifecycle. A prototype of the architecture interfaced various technology artefacts was implemented in the Java language to predict the likelihoods of health hazards occurrence. A preliminary evaluation of the proposed architecture was carried out with a subset of an objective data, obtained from a leading UK power infrastructure company offering a broad range of power infrastructure services. Findings The proposed architecture was able to identify relevant variables and improve preliminary prediction accuracies and explanatory capacities. It has also enabled conclusions to be drawn regarding the causes of health risks. The results represent a significant improvement in terms of managing information on construction accidents, particularly in power infrastructure domain. Originality/value This study carries out a comprehensive literature review to advance the health and safety risk management in construction. It also highlights the inability of the conventional technologies in handling unstructured and incomplete data set for real-time analytics processing. The study proposes a technique in big data technology for finding complex patterns and establishing the statistical cohesion of hidden patterns for optimal future decision making.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to commence the discourse on the non-inclusiveness of the dynamics of reputation within the construction industry by identifying and examining the key product and process drivers of reputation in mega-construction projects. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected through an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach which commences with a qualitative study and culminates with a quantitative study to identify product and process drivers of reputation in mega-construction projects. Findings The findings suggest that “project quality”, “robust social and environmental sustainability plan”, “project team competence and interpersonal relationship” and “project process efficacy” are the four key drivers influencing the reputation of mega-construction projects. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study are solely based on the perception of UK construction practitioners; therefore, the results may only be considered valid in this context. The identification of these key drivers provides a pathway where stakeholders, professionals and organisations can identify and prioritise critical issues associated with enhancing and sustaining the reputation of mega-construction projects. Originality/value Findings of this research make a significant contribution to the discourse on the concept of reputation within the construction industry by identifying its specific drivers of reputation.

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