Civil & Environmental Engineering
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2221
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item DECISION ANALYSIS IN CONSTRUCTION CLAIMS(2016) Lessani, Arian; Baecher, Gregory B; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Claims in construction projects are inevitable and can result in costly litigation. Construction contract ambiguity, overly restrictive terms, and unfairly allocated risks are among the factors increasing the likelihood of conflict between parties in construction claims. The source of conflict is a gap between parties’ beliefs over specifics of a claim. This research introduces a settlement negotiation model that provides methods for disagreeing parties to understand the gaps in their beliefs and possibly to come to an agreement before litigation. The quantitative decision analysis approach identifies a range for the optimal settlement amount in the claim process. Each party holds private information regarding its belief over the specifics of a claim. The specifics of a claim are classified into Liability, the likelihood of the defendant being found liable at a trial, and Damages, unanticipated expenditures plaintiff incurred due to the defendant’s alleged fault. A Bayesian Network model quantifies parties’ beliefs over Liability and Damages. This model represents parties’ legal arguments and their respective strengths and credibility. These beliefs become inputs to a non-cooperative game theory model. Non-cooperative game theory analyzes interactions between the claim parties at each stage of the claim. The asymmetric information game considers each party’s actions and strategy based on its belief over the expected outcome from litigation, and its belief over the opponent’s expected outcome from litigation. The analysis results in equilibriums that help parties decide how to resolve the claim and avoid costly and timely litigation. The resulting approach reveals predictive outcomes in construction claims using economic theory to analyze construction disputes.Item Risk Analysis and Damage Assessment For Flood Prone Areas in Washington DC(2011) Lessani, Arian; Baecher, Gregory B; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis presents a loss estimation method regarding areas of District of Columbia susceptible to flooding, specifically the Southwest quadrant, the National Mall, and Federal Triangle. This thesis develops data for input to a flood model that considers parameters such as detailed digital elevation data, global warming potential, and storm surge for a category IV hurricane. The main goal of this study is to employ a standard method for estimating flooding damages in Washington by supplying combination of the mentioned parameters to the HAZUS-MH 2.0 program. The results of this research is useful for planning purposes, such as reducing natural hazard losses and preparing emergency response and recovery. It is predicted that in the projected storm surge flood more than 1500 buildings would be damaged and about ten thousand people would seek temporary refuge in public shelters. The estimate of total loss for flooding is approximately $1,300 million dollars.