Designing a Knowledge-Based System to Facilitate the Process of Fall Risk Assessment in Construction

Abstract

Fall from height (FFH) accounts for a large number of fatalities and severe injuries in the construction industry worldwide. Several approaches have been proposed by many researchers to enhance the safety performance of construction industry by preventing falls. However, fall incidents continue to impact the construction sector more in developing regions compared to developed countries. This could be achieved through fall risk assessment (RA) method. The entire safety procedures are likely to fail, if RA fails, as this is one of the critical safety processes in construction industry. But, the traditional method of RA fails to identify safety risks involved in construction activities due to lack of experience and time. To address these safety challenges, some researchers recommended to integrate knowledge management (KM) concept into construction safety management. Unfortunately, there has been few studies that attempts to integrate KM into safety in construction. Hence, this study focused on integrating KM into the safety planning to facilitate the process of RA in the Indian construction industry focusing on preventing falls. This research was presented in the context of traditional vertical formwork because the use of formwork in construction frequently involves working at heights and its operations are associated with a high level of falls incidents and injuries across all construction operations.