- Author
- Haas, C. T. | Burleson, R. C. | Goodrum, P. M.
- Title
- Multimedia Design Aid for Project Hazard Identification and Remediation. Part 1. Functional Capabilities and Design of the <u>Design for Safety Toolbox</u> Prototype.
- Coporate
- University of Texas, Austin
- Report
- Source Document 107, May 1995, 111 p.
- Keywords
- construction
- Abstract
- Throughout the schematic and design development phases of any built structure, design decisions are made that will impact the safety of the construction worker during the project erection cycle. Many of these same decisions will also impact the safety of the end users, maintenance and repair workers, and construction crews during renovation or deconstruction cycles. While contractor practices, worker training, and existing regulations can be effective means of reducing worker injuries and death, they rely heavily on individual and group behaviors. Personal and collective values regarding risk, moral and social responsibilities toward workers, perceived returns on safety investments, as well as personal jobsite habits often make these measures unreliable as a means of reducing injuries and death. The designers and owners of a project can become actively involved in safety performance and alleviate many of these behavioral factors by designing so that the physical environment of the construction workers and end users is improved with regard to safety. The Design for Safety Toolbox is an expert system that will guide design professionals through a systematic safety analysis process in which the users are encouraged to develop their own design solution to project hazards as they are identified. This is a departure from the traditional expert system which uses expert knowledge and inference procedures to solve problems for designers. The Asymetrix Multimedia Toolbook authoring tool, an integrated software tool kit used to create interactive, stand alone, software applications, was selected as the building tool for the research efforts. The application has been designed to encourage designers to think about hazards, to provide a knowledge base concentrating on the construction phase, to abe flexible enough to be used for all types of construction projects, and to be efficient and easy to use.