B5 - Justin Hileman - Group E

The topic of this week's blog post is "Uses of databases in construction firms".

Currently, databases are used a variety of ways in construction firms. It is believed that there is still so much room for improvement through the use of databases. Technology is steadily advancing and databases are getting more in depth and detailed, allowing construction firms to use them for more tasks and activities.

Databases in construction firms that are being used presently are mainly for cost and scheduling purposes. One of the common databases used for calculating/estimating costs is RSMeans. This database can be used when estimating the price per square foot of a specific type of building/residence. This database is very useful and assumed to be very large. The database uses information and standards for different jobs and shows an average price that can be used to calculate how much your project would cost.

An article titled "Sustainability in the construction industry: A review of recent developments based on LCA" discussed how construction firms use databases for environmental evaluations. LCA stands for life cycle assessment. This topic is important because it analyzes how the construction industry is trying to improve social, economical, and environmental aspects through the use of databases. This is being accomplished through these databases that are analyzing what are environmental concerns and how construction firms can address these issues and improve them. The article discusses such programs as LEED standards, that are used in America.

Comments

In response to the post written by Giovana Pelisser, I enjoyed the introduction and background on what a database is. I notice that there is not a lot of discussion on how databases are used in construction firms. You briefly discuss how important they are with the increasing amounts of data and how the systems react with timing, but that's not necessarily all they are useful for. There is a large variety of databases types and it would've been nice to read about those.

In response to the post written by Alex Nunes, raising the question "What is a database?" and then answering the question was an interesting start to the blog post. It caught my attention because I wanted to read how you described a database. Again, the topic of how construction firms use databases was briefly discussed. I appreciate you referencing BIM and how databases are used for that purpose. I agree that companies have their own databases that they use for important information.

In response to the post written by Hang Wang, first of all, the organization of your blog post is great. Having separate subtitles and dividing your post the way you did really helped me read through and understand the different topics you were addressing. The specific examples that were used in the post really kept the interest of the reader and allowed the reader to be able to relate. This was a very good, thorough, post.

Sources:

http://www.rsmeans.com/

"Sustainability in the construction industry: A review of recent developments based on LCA". Ortiz, Oscar; Castellas, Francesc; Sonnemann, Guido. 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061807003005