Badr Alsolami

Managing large-scale gatherings, such as global festivals, sporting events, and religious congregations, presents substantial challenges in ensuring crowd safety and control. Innovative frameworks are essential to address these complexities effectively. The Integrated Intelligent Crowd Control and Management (IICCM) framework combines cutting-edge technologies, including Computer Vision (CV), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), to enhance participant safety and optimize crowd management. CV enables precise real time identification and tracking, AI analyzes crowd behavior to anticipate risks, and IoT gathers environmental data to improve crowd flow, alleviate congestion, and provide timely assistance. Additionally, the framework facilitates emergency evacuation planning by modeling crowd dynamics and identifying safe, efficient escape routes. Although suitable for diverse events, the Hajj pilgrimage—a uniquely large and dynamic annual gathering—provides a rigorous test case for the IICCM framework. Managing millions of participants from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds highlights the system’s adaptability and robustness. By effectively addressing Hajj specific challenges, the IICCM framework demonstrates its scalability and applicability to other large-scale events. This research offers valuable insights for decision-makers seeking to implement advanced crowd management technologies.

Rapid urbanization across hot arid environments transforms local microclimates, yet linkages between density, layout, and outdoor thermal comfort remain inadequately characterized. This study investigates these correlations in the desert city of Biskra, Algeria. We conducted extensive in-situ measurement campaigns during peak summer and winter periods across six neighborhoods spanning low to high-rise density fabrics. We captured air temperature, humidity, and wind velocity to enable thermal comfort assessment via the Effective Temperature (ET) and Equivalent Temperature (TEK) stress indices. Index sensitivity to density metrics from 23–86% was explored through One-Variable-At-A-Time (OVAT) analysis. Results show marked summer comfort deterioration with rising density due to constrained ventilation. However, higher densities demonstrate superior winter warmth through wind blocking despite reduced sunlight exposure. Sharp nonlinear differences emerge between seasons. Precision density thresholds prove difficult to define conclusively given typological diversities. However, indicative ranges tied to hazards are identified, providing guidelines for informed climatic adaptation. This research delivers vital evidence to advance bioclimatic strategies for enhancing habitability amidst urban expansion across delicate hot deserts.

This study aims to evaluate the value management (VM) implementation barriers in construction projects. Consequently, information from 126 experts in the building industry was gathered via a questionnaire survey. Subsequently, the data were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and partial least square structural modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of EFA revealed that the VM barriers were grouped into six new constructs: client, knowledge, information, culture, resources, team members, and workshop. The barriers prioritization model was developed using PLS-SEM, and it indicated that team members are critical barriers to VM adoption. Although this study was limited to India’s VM context, its findings can be applied to other developing countries yet to implement VM in their construction industries. The study enhances stakeholder awareness and an understanding of the barriers affecting the implementation of VM, including building professionals, in India. It suggests strategies and activities overcome these barriers and facilitate a higher building quality, while maintaining a reasonable price.

Engineers use double-skin façades (DSF) to lower the energy consumption of buildings as they can potentially control incoming wind speeds and the amount of solar heat gain. The purpose of this present study was to (1) evaluate the use of DSFs, (2) its efficacy in improving the energy performance of high-rise office buildings in the hot, dry summer climate of the Mediterranean, and (3) to develop an optimum DSF model for this climate based on industry standards and recommendations for high-performance DSF parameters. In order to determine the efficiency of DSFs, two distinct variables, building orientation and the number of DSFs used, were taken into consideration. This study adopted an experimental (generate and test) research design and used Autodesk^® Ecotect^® Analysis software to develop computer simulations with which to assess 15 single façades, juxtaposed façades, three façades, and four façades on cardinal orientations. The recorded energy consumption and savings were then compared with that of the reference model. The results indicated that the three DSF model, i.e., the S14 model, reduced energy consumption during heating by 28% and by 53.5% when cooling a high-rise office building located in the hot, dry summer climate of the Mediterranean (Csa).

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of residential satisfaction in facing the outbreaks of the COVID-19. It reveals the relationship between personal risk perception (PRP), preventive behavior (PB), residential satisfaction (RS) and level of compliance with government recommendations to stay at home (CGRS) of Makkah residents in Saudi Arabia in its effort toward containing the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional online survey design was used with a sample of 250 respondents from Makkah City selected using a simple random sampling strategy. The instrument for data collection was a developed and validated instruments tag “Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior against COVID-19 Questionnaire (RP-COVID-Q).” The data obtained through the questionnaire were screened and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Similarly, a Partial-Least Square Structural Equation Modeling procedure was adopted to test the hypotheses with a bootstrap mediation effect test. Findings: The results revealed that Makkah residents’ level of PRP, PB and CGRS was not found to vary with gender; however, the RS of the residents differs with respect to their gender. Moreover, the level of PRP was significantly related to PB, RS and level of CGRS. RS increased the likelihood of the Makkah residents to comply with government recommendations against COVID-19 while adherence to PB, which would contribute to the reduction in the spread of the pandemic in Makkah city. Further, the RS is recognized as a significant mediating factor between PRP and CGRS during the COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: The findings of this study help in understanding the role of residential satisfaction during pandemics and, hence, stressing the important of residential qualities that need improvements for better sustainable cities in the future. Originality/value: While all countries are strategizing to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, it is equally important to access residential satisfaction in the cities with high visitor inflow. Limited research has been done in Saudi Arabia.

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework provides a solid guideline for researchers to investigate a quality of online learning. However, there are still very limited studies that explore the pattern of relationships between CoI framework and accounting students’ satisfaction in online learning. In the context of online learning, self-efficacy plays a role to determine the level of students’ confidence to get success in the learning process. Students with a high level of self-efficacy will not perceive a difficult task as an obstacle to be avoided, but rather as a challenge to develop abilities. This research aims to explore the relationship between CoI framework and accounting students’ satisfaction through online learning self-efficacy. Self-administered survey was conducted to 437 accounting students. Hypothesis was tested using SEM-PLS. Results showed that CoI framework were good predictors of accounting students’ satisfaction. Different from most studies, this research found that students were more influenced by social presence instead of teaching presence. Higher educational institutions needed to focus on how to improve social presence in the online learning environment. In addition, higher educational institutions needed to manage students' online learning self-efficacy instead of technology self-efficacy.

Value management (VM) is one of the principles adopted by stakeholders to manage issues in the building industry. This paper aims to examine VM diffusion between residential building entities in the Egyptian residential building industry. This research was confined to the Cairo and Giza regions, with enough residential building experience from clients, consultants, and contractors. A quantitative questionnaire survey was generated to find answers from those active in the residential building industry. The results show that although VM’s most widely practiced activities in the Egyptian construction industry are only information phase activities, professionals in Egyptian building projects agreed that all VM activities are important. The results also demonstrated that there is a significant positive correlation among VM phases. The results constitute activities for the adoption of VMs in Egypt. Its guidelines will dramatically enhance the implementation of VMs both in Egypt and in other developing countries where similar projects are conducted. Finally, this research strengthens the residential building industry’s present management by enhancing VM tools and elements to generate value for money.

This paper presents the impact on energy performance and visual comfort of retrofitting photovoltaic integrated shading devices (PVSDs) to the façade of a prototype office building in a hot desert climate. EnergyPlus™ and the DIVA-for-Rhino© plug-ins were used to perform numerical simulations and parametric analyses examining the energy performance and visual comfort of five configurations, namely: (1) inclined single panel PVSDs, (2) unfilled eggcrate PVSDs, (3) a louvre PVSD of ten slats tilted 30° outward, (4) a louvre PVSD of five slats tilted 30° outward, and (5) an STPV module with 20% transparency which were then compared to a reference office building (ROB) model. The field measurements of an off-grid system at various tilt angles provided an optimum tilt angle of 30°. A 30° tilt was then integrated into some of the PVSD designs. The results revealed that the integration of PVSDs significantly improved overall energy performance and reduced glare. The unfilled eggcrate PVSD did not only have the highest conversion efficiency at ȵ 20% but generated extra energy as well; an essential feature in the hot desert climate of Saudi Arabia.