Browsing by Author "Ranasinghe, KAMK"

Now showing 1 - 17 of 17

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Architecture of ensemble neural networks for risk analysis
De Silva, END; Ranasinghe, KAMK; De Silva, CR; Thurairajah, N
Assembling of neural networks referred to as “Ensemble neural networks” consist with many small “expert networks” that learn small parts of the complex problem, which are established by decomposing it into its sub levels. Ensemble neural network architecture has been proposed to solve complex problems with large numbers of variables. In this paper, this architecture is used to analyze maintainability risks of high-rise buildings. An ensemble neural network that consists with four expert networks to represent four building elements namely roof, façade, basement and internal areas is developed to forecast the maintenance efficiency (ME) of buildings. The model is tested and the results showed good performance. The model is further validated using a real case study.
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Better values and characteristics in relationally integrated value networks to enhance total asset management
De Silva, END; Ranadewa, KATO; Kumaraswamy, M; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Construction contract types span a wide spectrum ranging from traditional contracting to relational contracting modes. Although weak collaborative supply chain networks exist even in widely practiced traditional contract modes, the potentially beneficial strong goals among stakeholders. Apart from addressing this relational forces remain untapped and'or fragmented, lacking well-defined common shortfall in the built asset planning, design and construction (project management) phase, relational contracts (RC) can also be extended to total asset management (JAM) by aiming at the relational integration of all stakeholders throughout the built asset lifecycle, by engaging them in cross linked value networks'. Such integrated networks were called 'relationally integrated value networks' (RIVANS) when initially proposed for the project management phase. 'RIVANS for TAM' were next proposed to provide a holistic approach to bridge the project management phase and the asset agement phase in the lifecycle of assets. The study reported in this paper, contributes to knowledge by identifying better values through adapting RIVANS as a holistic beneficial approach to the whole built environment. A questionnaire survey was conducted to identify common better values in RIVANS. These identified better values were then clustered to form similar groups using factor analysis to establish synergetic characteristics of RIVANS. Four characteristics were extracted to identify and target embedded synergies in RIVANS, for enhanced total asset management.
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Community stakeholder viewpoints on issues of urbanisation along the river Ma Oya, Sri Lanka
Thoradeniya, B; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Rivers situated in peri-urban landscapes are prime natural resource bases supplying the construction industry associated with urbanisation. The study analyses and presents the river Ma Oya community stakeholders views on the impacts of river resource uses. Systematic stakeholder consultations revealed that while the river is the source for water supply for many cities, sand and clay mining for construction industry and dumping waste are the major sectors causing negative impacts. Essential remedial measures proposed are fair and effective intervention of Government authorities, stakeholder (including politicians) education together with technical measures and economic instruments to internalize the externalities caused by social and environmental degradation.
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A Decision support tool for stakeholder involvement in sustainable water resource development
(2016-07-05) Thoradeniya, B; Ranasinghe, KAMK; Wijesekera, NTS
This paper describes the application of a decision support tool for stakeholder involvement in a proposed water resource development project in the Ma Oya river basin in Sri Lanka. The decision support tool is a five-step framework developed based on ‘Educated Trade-offs.’ The tool assesses the natural resource uses; identifies the present and future probable issues with regard to resource uses, elicit stakeholder views and then estimate the social and environmental impacts of a proposed development project. The results obtained through the application of the framework are direct inputs for stakeholder education for informed decision-making by the takeholders. This paper highlights the stakeholder education achieved in the proposed project area and the down stream areas. The study validated the ‘Educated Trade-offs’ framework which is the decision-support tool and demonstrated its effectiveness.
item: Article-Abstract
Economic analysis of water infrastructure: have we got it right?
Thoradeniya, B; Ranasinghe, KAMK; Wijesekera, NTS
The paper describes shortcomings of the general economic analysis procedure adopted in water infrastructure development projects in Sri Lanka. As a ease study an application of the'Educated Tradfl-off framework in the Ma Ova river basin is used to illustrate the shortcomings of general economic analysis procedure. lTiis framework facilitates ttie systematic identification of resource uses and tl^e possible Tange of environmental and social impacts l>y the water infrastructure project, through fhe involvement (consultation and participation) of key Stakeholders. The study revealed two types of shortcoming* (hat result in erroneous economic indicators: first, the lack of a competent process lo establrsh the baseline situation leading to tion'-inetusioii of some important social and environmental impacts, both positive and negative., by the project and, second, deviations from reasonable practices cither due to negligence or on purposes that give decision makers optimistic data which could resuft in questionable decisions.
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Evidence Based decision making (EBDM) in project management - case of the University of Moratuwa
Ranasinghe, KAMK; Gunawardena, ND
This paper describes the application of Evidence Based Decision Making (EBDM) in management of specific quality and performance enhancement projects at the University of Moratuwa (UoM), Sri Lanka. The paper takes the view that there are three distinct roles for evidence in decision-making in project management, depending on whether it is being used to make, inform or support a decision. With that view and the premise that the primary stakeholders of a University are the faculty members who teach and the students who learn to earn a degree at the end of their university stay, this paper describes how the resulting actions based on EBDM in project management contributed towards the improvement of quality and performance at the UoM, the well being of its primary stakeholders and to become what it is today in the eyes of the Sri Lankan public.
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Evidence based decision making in University Education - case of the University of Moratuwa
Ranasinghe, KAMK
This paper describes the application of Evidence Based Decision Making (EBDM) to university education with respect to University of Moratuwa (UoM), Sri Lanka. The paper takes the view that there are three distinct roles for evidence in decision-making practice, depending on whether it is being used to make, inform or support a decision. With that view and the premise that the primary stakeholders of university education are the faculty members who teach and the students who learn to earn a degree at the end of their university stay, this paper describes how the resulting actions based on EBDM contributed towards the improvement of the UoM, the well being of its primary stakeholders and to become what it is today in the eyes of the Sri Lankan public.
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Impact of aesthetic appearance to facilitate corporate business objectives in organisations
Chathuranga, DAK; De Silva, END; Dahanayake, KWDKC; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Aesthetic appearance is a judgment of value based the appearance of an object. Shapes, proportions, rhythms, scale, degree of complexity, colours, and illumination are the subject matter of formal aesthetics. Aesthetics appearance is an important field in psychology as aesthetics influences the human mind and can lead to psychological reactions, both positive and negative. Creating an aesthetically distinctive identity of development will become an integrated part of the nmity because user’s state of mind and feeling affected by the emotional elements in design. However this area has not been addressed in detail. Thus, this research focused to identify and analyse parameters of aesthetic appearance of buildings and their impact towards corporate business objectives of commercial organisations. The research used case study approach and two commercial buildings were selected as cases. Data collected using semi structured interviews. Data analysis was done using content analysis Five parameters were established to analyse the aesthetic appearance. Findings revealed that all forms and elements of aesthetic appearance are full of potentially symbolic meanings and have considerable impact on corporate business objectives. Though, there are considerable aesthetic adaptation as mention above still tere are substantial deficiencies in current practices of adaptation of aesthetical appearance for building design in Sri Lankan context.
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Maintainability approach for lean maintenance
(2016-06-21) De Silva, N; Ranasinghe, KAMK; De Silva, CR
The concept of lean maintenance is promoted to eliminate maintenance waste and to maximize efficiency of the manufacturing process for overall cost reduction. The optimum usage of labour,material and technology is thus, proposed to eliminate waste during the maintenance process. This paper proposes a maintainability approach to minimize maintenance waste in order to promote lean maintenance concept to the construction industry. The approach has widened the focus of existing lean maintenance concept by moving it boundaries from the maintenance phase to early phases of the development process. Eight challenges of lean maintenance have been established from fifty one maintainability causes of high-rise buildings. Their impact to maintenance cost was evaluated using a case study and found 40% reduction in the maintenance cost as wastage
item: Article-Abstract
PPF-An Expected approach for infrastructure development in developing country
Tanabe, SM; Shelboun, MA; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Conventionally in the procurement of public physical assets, govemment/public agencies have engaged the private sector to construct facilities and/or supply equipment, and public agencies will then own and operate the facilities or equipment to deliver sen-ices to the public. However, Public Private Partnership (PPP) is another form of best sourcing that can be used to work with private sector to deliver services and a favorable approach for a government that is expecting further involvement of the private sector in development of new physical assets/inffastructures. On the other hand, under PPP, the private sector can look forward to providing a wider range of services and over a longer period. Through closer collaboration with the private seciot, public sei vices can be delivered in a more value for money way by making optimal use of the public and private sectors expertise, resources and innovation to meet public needs effectively and efficiently. The role of government in providing the public service be switched from a provider to a buyer of services through PPP and the government can focus on its core responsibilities of policy-making and regulation. While involving the private sector can be an important option for sustainable economic growth of a country, various types of risks exist in implementing the infrastructure, projects. The features and the magnitude of the risks identified for a project are different depending on the project. It is, therefore, necessary to formulate and assess a project from various aspects. This paper aims to present an overview of PPP and a framework to assess various risks involved in public infrastructure projects in PPP.
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Public-private partnerships : the case study of the Colombo fort city
Thoradeniya, DL; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are defined as “…a cooperative venture between the public and private sectors, built on the expertise of each partner that best meets clearly defined public needs through the appropriate allocation of resources, risks, and rewards”. It is noted that not all PPP projects are successful. This has resulted in a number of studies focused on identifying critical success factors in order to maximize advantages and reduce risks for all parties involved in the project. The Colombo Port City Project (CPCP) is widely regarded as the largest and most ambitious Sri Lankan PPP and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) undertaking to date and is a collaborative project between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the China Harbour Engineering Corporation (CHEC) Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd. The project faced early setbacks and controversy due to alleged mishandling of key processes. This study provides an in depth analysis of the CPCP which provides valuable insights on the nature of PPP projects in the Sri Lankan context. This in turn helped establish the factors to be considered for the successful implementation of future PPP projects in Sri Lanka and other developing nations. Information was gathered from the review of various types of literature, key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey. Attempts were made to contact a wide range of respondents with various levels of involvement in the project in order to obtain a holistic view of the project and its issues. The Summary Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) was reviewed and the separation of the CBA based on GOSL and CHEC perspectives indicated that the GOSL receives a lower Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) compared to the Summary CBA, while the CHEC receives a negative NPV. This indicates that the Chinese backed CHEC’s motives for the project are likely to be strategic, long term economic and political benefits. The findings revealed that fewer than 66.7% (2/3rd) of the population support the CPCP due to environmental, social and political concerns. Fewer than 66.7% (2/3rd) of the population believe that the CPCP is a PPP, although there is agreement of the presence of some PPP characteristics in the CPCP. The analysis of major issues indicated that although the media primarily reported on environmental issues, political and governance issues too were considered very important.The ranking of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) indicated that there is a considerable difference between the ranking of CSFs in the Sri Lankan context and in other countries such as Australia and the UK. The Sri Lankan study reveals that overall, respondents placed greater importance on non-economic CSFs relating to governance and politics in comparison to rankings by other countries in previous studies. However, the ranking of CSFs based on the perspective of supporters of the CPCP preferred to assign greater importance to economic CSFs, indicating that their support is based on the perceived economic benefits of the project. In contrast, those who oppose the project ranked political and governance issues much higher than most economic CSFs indicating that their opposition is based on concerns over political and governance issues. The general percentage agreement between the two groups was very low at only 34.4%. However, the ranking of ‘a favourable legal framework’ and ‘conducting in-depth studies for a through and sufficient EIA’ were ranked in the top 5 by all parties, while ‘the ability of regulatory authorities to act independently’ and ‘consideration of demands placed by the project on existing infrastructure were ranked in the top 2 spots overall
item: Thesis-Abstract
Public-private partnerships for water supply to urban poor
Dharmapala, NHDP; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Development of new infrastructure, providing social services efficiently and effectively, and better targeting of services to those in most need, are critical to alleviate poverty and provide economic opportunities for the less fortunate. Reforms using "quasi- public" contracts, commercializing public agencies, contracting out specific services to the private sector, and transferring responsibility for providing services to the private sector would be better alternatives to leverage with private sector skills and resources. Small-scale entrepreneurs and urban poor communities are the focus of this paper in developing a model as a feasible strategy of private sector financing of development and operation of water services for improved efficiency and reduced wastage. The case study on urban water supply at Halgahakumbura low-income settlement is developed using base data of various pilot studies of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board in the recent past and the recent initiative of 'Pro-poor Public-Private Community Partnership' to provide an individual water connections in urban low income settlements. The analysis shows that further subsidy is required to make the project viable. It is clear that in order to reap the maximum benefit to the economy as well as attracting competitive private service providers, the users should pay the full cost of service. If the social affordability level is inadequate, then the Government should complement user fees with a carefully targeted subsidy payment, ensuring the subsidy to those in most need.
item: Conference-Abstract
Relationally integrated value networks for sustainable procurement
(2015-04-08) Weerapperuma, S; De Silva, END; Kumaraswamy, M; Ranasinghe, KAMK
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Risk factors affecting building maintenance under tropical conditions
(2016-06-21) De Silva, N; Ranasinghe, KAMK; De Silva, CR
Purpose – The factors contributing to maintenance cost include the life-long environmental factors that the building is exposed to during its useful life as well as parameters relating to the design, construction and maintenance processes. The performance of risk associated with these factors decides the future maintenance requirements of buildings. Ignoring these risks factors generally result in high maintenance costs. The purpose of this paper is to identify the maintainability risk factors and their implications on maintenance costs. Design/methodology/approach – A survey based methodology was used to establish the risks factors of building maintainability. A sample of high-rise buildings was selected to evaluate these risk factors that were identified through an extensive literature review and survey of substantive experts. Further, these risks factors were applied to a real case study. Findings – A total of ten risk factors of maintainability were identified in relation to high-rise buildings. They were analyzed using a case study and the implications on maintenance cost were evaluated. The results show that there is a considerable reduction in maintenance cost when these risks are minimized. Research limitations/implications – The research was limited to the USA and its six biggest cities. The results presented are predominantly qualitative and the results rely on extensive evaluation. Originality/value – The paper provides useful information to the designers and users on the maintenance problems related to buildings. Also it highlights critical risk conditions that should be considered to minimize maintenance costs.
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University research and commercialization - experience of the University of Moratuwa
Ranasinghe, KAMK
While the focus of universities in Sri Lanka is to produce employable quality graduates, the prevailing attitude amongst decision makers seems to be that it is good to have research in universities but not essential. In addition, a number of issues seem to impede both research in universities and their commercialization. There is hardly any dedicated funding for research in universities. Also, there is a misconception that output from university research can and should be commercialized. In reality, the objective of university research is to find something new that is publishable and may be to obtain a patent and never the commercializing of the research. To prepare a research project for commercialization as a bankable proposition, the process requires at the very least, a proof of concept, prototype and a business plan from the idea that was successful at the laboratory. This paper identifies and discusses possible interventions by the government and the universities on the short term and the long term and suggests the way forward for universities in Sri Lanka based on the experience of the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
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Use of ANN in risk analysis
(2011) De Silva, N; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Artificial Neural ,Network (ANN) has been used for risk analysis in various applications such as civil engineering, financial, facilities management and so on. However use of ANN has become extremely difficult when the problem is complex when handling large number of variables. Ensemble network architecture is proposed to overcome such difficulty, by combing individual "expert networks " thai learn small parts of the problem. In this research, ANN was used to analyze risks in maintainability of high-rise buildings. Analysis of maintainability risks of a building involves a large number of variables as it consists with number of components such as roof facade, etc., Therefore use of a single neural network has become impossible due to small set of data from less number of high-rise buildings in Sri Lanka. Therefore, ensemble network architecture was used in this research. The results showed that ensemble network has performed well in solving complex problems (i.e. building), by decomposing the task of the problem into its sub levels (i.e. components).
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Viability of private sector involvement in infrastructure project development in developing country
Tanabe, SM; Ranasinghe, KAMK
Since public infrastructures underpin economic and social development. infrastructure project development is essential for the sustainable growth of a country\ In many developing countries, large scale infrastructure projects are undertaken through conventional public procurement, using bilateral and/or multilateral funding. On the other hand, the financial capacity and practical project management know-how of the private sector is an attractive option for the government for the sustainable construction of new infrastructures from the macro aspect. For example an infrastructure development financed by the private sector is off-balance sheet, enabling the government to invest more public funds for social projects. The more popular index used for evaluating the economic feasibility> is the Economic Internal Rate of Return (EIRR). The calculation of the EIRR does not capture the feasibility or viability of a project when (he private sector is involved in its development because the realistic financial and other risks are not sufficiently assessed and incorporated into the analysis. This paper aims to present a framework to assess the viability■' of public infrastructure projects reflecting the various risks involved in a project by quantifying and incorporating them to the cash flows and the financial analysis.