Special issue call for papers from Smart and Sustainable Built Environment
Development in the Gulf: sustainable, intelligent and smart
The Gulf area witnesses a huge boom in construction. The total value of construction projects planned or underway in the six Gulf Cooperation Council states – the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman – was about $1.9 trillion in 2011. Gulf countries have unique characteristics and these affect the systems, operations and activities of their construction industries. Unfortunately, little is currently known about these characteristics and as a consequence, there is doubt over whether the built environment shall be able to sustain this level of growth, or if the social, economic, technological and demographic pressure will prove too much for the Gulf states. Clearly there are gaps in our knowledge of how institutes of higher education are responding to such pressure. In particular, whether the construction industry is smart in the response it is making to the pressure for change and if this is based on the innovative design and application of systems, operations and activities needed to sustain the built environment. This special issue shall focus attention on the potential of what it terms “sustainable, intelligent and smart solutions” for the built environment in the Gulf states and ability of the construction industry to meet this challenge by drawing upon the breakthrough ideas, innovations and applications operating in other parts of the world.
The editors of this special issue are particularly keen to learn about the potential such knowledge transfer activities hold for the Gulf states and how smart technologies can help generate the intelligent systems needed to sustain the development of the built environment. The editors are looking for papers that capture what technical systems of this kind can add to the sustainability of the built environment and particular contribution the construction industry is able to make to their effectiveness, safety, health and welfare.
The topics would include, but not be limited to the following:
• The role of higher education sector in underpinning the construction industry’s response to such pressure for change and supporting the innovative designs and applications it calls for;
• The construction sector’s use of smart technologies and intelligent systems within the Gulf states;
• The interdisciplinary and integrated nature of the design and implementation of such technical systems in the built environment;
• Managing the transition to technical systems with the built environment that are both intelligent and smart;
• The skills needed and competencies which are required to manage built environments whose technical systems are both intelligent and smart;
• The construction, operation and use of smart building technologies within intelligent systems;
• The regulation and governance of smart building technologies within intelligent systems;
• The role of academics, professional and governmental agencies as stakeholder communities in assessing the contribution such technical systems make to the sustainability of the built environment;
• The practical lessons learnt about sustainable development, intelligent systems and smart technologies as driving forces in this transformation of the built environment;
• Institutional impediments to such a innovation-led and creatively inspired transformation of the built.
The guest editors welcome original contributions that stimulate thinking and which help the construction industry further their understanding of what leading edge technical systems can contribute to the sustainability of built environment in the Gulf.
Important dates and publication timeline
30 March 2013: Deadline for submission of the full paper.
1 September 2013: Final paper decisions completed.
November 2013: Publication of the Special Issue.
Submission guidelines
Manuscripts should be submitted to the Special Issue of SASBE, Development in the Gulf using the journals online submission and peer review system, ScholarOne manuscripts. Registration and access is available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sasbe.
Comprehensive instructions on how to submit a paper (including full manuscript requirements) can be found in the author guidelines.
For further information on the journal’s editorial criteria and or editorial team please visit the journal web page: www.emeraldinsight.com/sasbe.htm
For any query please contact the following guest Editors:
1. Dr Bhzad Sidawi
Associate Professor
University of Dammam, College of
Architecture and Planning
31451 Dammam, P O Box 2397, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Tel: +966 (0)38577000 ex: 2447
Email: [email protected]
2. Professor Mark Deakin, Dip.TP, MPhil, PhD, MRICS, FHEA.
Professor of Research into Built
Environment
Edinburgh Napier University, School of Engineering and Built Environment
Merchiston Campus
10 Colinton Road, Edinburgh
EH10 5DT, UK
Tel: +44 (0)131 455 2480
Email: [email protected]
3. Dr Husam Al waer
Lecturer and Director, Msc Advanced Sustainability of the Built Environment
University of Dundee, School of
Architecture
7th Floor, Matthew Building, 13
Perth Road, Dundee
DD1 4HT, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1382 348 805
Email: [email protected]