Dear Colleagues,

Construction industries throughout the world are challenged to improve their performance if they are to contribute fully to the achievement of economic prosperity, sustainable environments and healthy, fulfilled populations. One of the most important features differentiating construction from other industries is its complexity, as it involves a number of stages which must be appropriately adjusted and managed through different multi-aim decisions.

Fuzzy logic has been increasingly applied to the research area of civil engineering in the last decade. Fuzzy research can be divided into two wide-ranging fields: (1) fuzzy set/fuzzy logic and (2) hybrid fuzzy techniques. These are applied in four main mays: (1) decision making, (2) performance, (3) evaluation/assessment and (4) modeling. The main objective of this theory is to represent inaccuracies existing in some expressions in a natural language. Many authors claim that combining the method of incomplete information with fuzzy set theory to represent inaccurate information can be used to describe the phenomena of the world more thoroughly and naturally.

Prof. Dr. Edyta Plebankiewicz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fuzzy sets
• fuzzy logic
• civil engineering
• construction management
• decision making

Title: Estimation of the duration of construction works with fuzzy modeling of the level of influence of risk factors
Authors: Nabi Ibadov
Affiliation: Civil Engineering Faculty, Warsaw University of Technology, Armii Ludowej 16, 00-637 Warszawa, Poland
Abstract: One of the most current problems in the implementation of construction projects is the extension of the planned time, which has a significant impact on the efficiency and cost of projects. The reason for this state of affairs is the incorrect estimation of the duration of construction works, which involves limiting oneself to normative values without taking into account factors that disturb the implementation of construction works. Therefore, the aim of the article is to develop an innovative approach taking into account specific risk factors and their level of impact on construction works. Due to the fact that the determination of risk factors and their influence in the design phase of construction works is unknown and it is very difficult to model it using classical probability theory (the probability distribution of a given factor is unknown), it should be emphasized that this is a situation of planning and implementation in conditions of non-statistical uncertainty. Therefore, the article proposes an approach using elements of fuzzy set theory, in particular fuzzy rules and linguistic variables, to determine the delay in the duration of individual works. The proposed approach involves assessing the extension of the duration of construction works at a set level of probability of a risk event occurring and the impact of this event. The article also contains a theoretical description of the proposed approach and practical computational examples, based on which it can be concluded that the approach proposed by the authors significantly improves the accuracy of construction time prediction, providing more reliable data for project planning and management. The application of fuzzy set theory and risk matrices in this context contributes to more effective risk management, reducing the likelihood of missed deadlines and improving the overall success of construction projects.