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Learn about resource-based planning in construction projects with emphasis on asking critical questions before providing solutions. Explore techniques to maximize available resources for sustainable and efficient outcomes.
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SHA Construction Course, March 16 – 20, 2009 in Walkringen Resourcebased planning Tom Schacher
Asking questions before giving answers Context analysis • What? • Who? • Why? • Wherefore? • When? • How? Resources
What? • What has happened? • What is requested: schools, health centres, etc.? • What are we good at (our expertise)? • Who made the assessment: competence, quality of assessment (e.g. HC in Iran) • Do we agree with the assessment: can we know better (own assessment), do we see other priorities?
Who? • Who requested: Government, aid community, our own strategy (e.g. we want to do schools), public
Why? • Why has it happened? • Why is it requested? • Reconstruction, because it was destroyed by the disaster? • Development, because there is a lot of international aid money? • What shall we do if it’s the second, and it’s a good way to use the funds?
Where? • Where are people now? • Where do they want to be in the future? Why? • Where are we supposed to build? According to whom? Any particular challenges (e.g. isolated / insecure areas)? • Who is concerned? Stakeholder analysis (SHA is part of the stakeholders).
When? • How urgent is it really? • How important is the competition factor (we want to be the first ones to show results)? • Political advantage in being fast? • Social/economic/psychological advantages in being fast? • External factors to define deadline (monsoon, winter, harvesting period-missing workers)?
Goal-based approach • What do I want to do, and • What do I need to achieve it?
Goal-based approach Advantages: • May respond to usual expectations (e.g. technique used) • No ‘loss of time’ for lobbying or technical development Disadvantages: • May be inappropriate for the area (climate, material, know-how) • Sustainability not ensured (repairability with local means)
Resource-based approach • What do I have, and • What can I make out of it?
Resource-based approach Advantages: • Responds to local potentials. • Quicker because of local availability (?) • Sustainable in the long run (repairable) Disadvantages: • May not respond to national expectations (legal, norms, policy, taste, etc.) • May need technical development and lobbying, thus take time (e.g. traditional construction methods)
How? (Hardware) What kind of resources do we dispose of: • Hardware: • Construction material • Transport facilities • People (workers, contractors, engineers, architects) • Money
Hardware: Construction material • Locally available: what is available where we want to build (e.g. sand, stone, water, cement blocks) • Regionally available: what can be brought in at reasonable cost (e.g. cement, bricks, steel bars • Nationally available: what has to be brought from far (e.g. steel profiles as in Iran) • Consequence on sustainability: how can bldgs be maintained in the long term?
Hardware: Transport • How is the accessibility to the site? • What kind of transport is available and can reach the site (e.g. big trucks, small trucks, pick-ups, donkeys, people)? • How does that influence on the type of building materials to be transported (e.g. length, weight)?
Hardware: People • Engineers: • Are there qualified engineers in the area? • How to find and choose them (e.g. bidding process?) and who chooses? • Architects: • Are qualified architects in the area? • Their usual role in construction (decorators, planners)? • How to find and choose them?
Hardware: People • Contractors: • Qualified ones in the area? • If not, political consequences of taking an outsider? • Agree to hire local workers? • Number and qualification of foremen? • Equipment for the requested construction method? • Workers: • Locally available and enough? • Avaiability for the whole project duration? • Possible consequences of ‘importing’ workers?
Hardware: Money • How much funding available? • How much can we do with it? • Effectiveness: better one big thing or several smaller things? • For how long (planning for subsequent years)? • How will int’l fund transfer work (banking regulations)? • How will people be paid (cash, bank transfer)?
How? (Software) • Software: • Know-how: workers, contractors, engineers, architects • Legal context: codes, procedures • Culture: public expectations • Politics: political priorities • Programme: our own priorities • Time
Group work on soft resources (software) • Add more questions • or add some answers • Or say where you don’t agree (15 minutes)
Software: Know-how • Engineers and Architects: • What kind of construction methods are they familiar with? • How qualified are they in disaster resistant bldg methods (e.g. earthquakes)? • Who assesses their know-how and chooses? • Are they willing to work with int’l experts (i.e. have their projects reviewed or changed)? • Shall we use our own engineers/architects in collaboration with locals (question of license)?
Software: Know-how • Contractors and workers: • What kind of construction methods are they used to and equipped for? • Are they willing to have on-site trainings if necessary? • Financial consequences and delays due to training and tight supervision? • Are we willing to include/provide on-site training (sustainability, go beyond mere construction, use construction for training)?
Software: know-how • Our own organisation: • What know-how do we have? • What has to be brought in? • Brought in from where (local or int’l)?
Software: Legal context • What are the procedures for a building permit? • Who decides what? • What kind of permissions are requested? • What are the relevant construction codes? • Who makes the codes and how can they be adapted, if necessary?
Software: Local culture • What are the expectations/image of decision makers (i.e. what does a school have to look like)? • What are the expectations of the public: image, use (e.g. boys/girls, evening use, etc), distance, safety, etc?
Software: Political priorities • Do we know anything about the political power balance (e.g. who decides what)? • Are decisions on where reconstruction should start politically influenced (i.e. favours)? • If yes, is that a problem for us? • If it is, how can we deal with it?
Software: Our own programme • What are our own priorities (public bldgs, housing, access roads and bridges, etc.)? • Who set them (local assessment, HQ?)? • Are they appropriate to the context? • If not, can they be changed?
Software: Time factor • How much time do we have to realise something? • Is this timeframe in tune with the project? • How urgent is construction really? • Would more time allow to understand the local context better? • To whom do delays cause difficulties: beneficiaries, on-site SDC, SDC HQ (political pressure)?