Identifying and evaluating the essential factors affecting the incidence of site accidents caused by human errors in industrial parks construction projects

Abstract

In terms of safety management, the implementation of industrial parks construction projects (IPCPs) is incredibly challenging due to the special working conditions and the specific type of use of the buildings. On the other hand, the possibility of causing accidents in these areas based on human errors is high and important for project execution due to the risks of human errors and financial losses. Therefore, this study tries to fill this existing research gap by identifying and evaluating the effective key factors leading to the occurrence of construction accidents caused by human errors in the development of IPCPs. After a holistic review of the reported literature, four rounds of fuzzy Delphi survey were launched to capture the individual opinions and feedback from various project experts. Accordingly, 41 key factors affecting human errors in the implementation of industrial parks construction projects in Iran were identified and classified into nine main groups of wrong actions, observations/interpretations, planning/processes, equipment, organization, individual activities, environmental conditions, rescue, and technology. Then, the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method was adopted to rate and rank the identified factors of human errors in the implementation of IPCPs in Iran. The research findings indicated that among the elicited factors, time factor (0.1226), delayed interpretation (0.1080), and incorrect diagnosis/prediction (0.0990) are the three most crucial factors leading to human errors in the implementation of IPCPs in Iran. The results of this research study have provided various major project stakeholders with an effective decision-aid tool to make better-informed decisions in managing and reducing the occurrence of construction site accidents particularly caused by human errors associated with IPCPs.