Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence

Construction incidents are essentially random events because they have a probabilistic component that causes their occurrence to be indeterministic. Thus, as with most random events, one of the best ways to understand and analyze construction incidents is to apply statistical methods and tools. Cons...

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Main Authors: Chua, D., Goh, Yang Miang
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2005
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14584
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author Chua, D.
Goh, Yang Miang
author_facet Chua, D.
Goh, Yang Miang
author_sort Chua, D.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Construction incidents are essentially random events because they have a probabilistic component that causes their occurrence to be indeterministic. Thus, as with most random events, one of the best ways to understand and analyze construction incidents is to apply statistical methods and tools. Consequently, this paper presents a statistical framework based on the modified loss causation model (MLCM). Even though the MLCM has been used for the framework, the approach can be readily adapted for other incident causation models. The MLCM is separated into two basic components: random and systematic. The random component is represented by a probability density function (PDF), which has parameters influenced by the systematic component of the MLCM, while the systematic component is represented by the situational variables and quality of the safety management system. In particular, this paper proposes that the PDF can be represented by the Poisson distribution. Besides being a convenient and simple distribution that can be easily used in applications, the Poisson distribution had been used in various industries to model random failures or incidents. The differences in contexts and the undesirable effects of adopting an unrepresentative distribution will require formal analysis to determine the suitability of the Poisson distribution in modeling the random component of construction incident occurrence. Incident records for 14 major projects were used in the analysis. Hypothesis testing using the chi-square goodness-of-fit and dispersion tests shows that the incident occurrences can be modeled as a Poisson process characterized by some mean arrival rate. The paper also presents some applications of the proposed Poisson model to improve construction safety management, focusing on two specific concepts: the Bayesian approach and the partitioned Poisson.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-145842017-09-13T14:06:28Z Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence Chua, D. Goh, Yang Miang Construction incidents are essentially random events because they have a probabilistic component that causes their occurrence to be indeterministic. Thus, as with most random events, one of the best ways to understand and analyze construction incidents is to apply statistical methods and tools. Consequently, this paper presents a statistical framework based on the modified loss causation model (MLCM). Even though the MLCM has been used for the framework, the approach can be readily adapted for other incident causation models. The MLCM is separated into two basic components: random and systematic. The random component is represented by a probability density function (PDF), which has parameters influenced by the systematic component of the MLCM, while the systematic component is represented by the situational variables and quality of the safety management system. In particular, this paper proposes that the PDF can be represented by the Poisson distribution. Besides being a convenient and simple distribution that can be easily used in applications, the Poisson distribution had been used in various industries to model random failures or incidents. The differences in contexts and the undesirable effects of adopting an unrepresentative distribution will require formal analysis to determine the suitability of the Poisson distribution in modeling the random component of construction incident occurrence. Incident records for 14 major projects were used in the analysis. Hypothesis testing using the chi-square goodness-of-fit and dispersion tests shows that the incident occurrences can be modeled as a Poisson process characterized by some mean arrival rate. The paper also presents some applications of the proposed Poisson model to improve construction safety management, focusing on two specific concepts: the Bayesian approach and the partitioned Poisson. 2005 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14584 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2005)131:6(715) American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) restricted
spellingShingle Chua, D.
Goh, Yang Miang
Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence
title Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence
title_full Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence
title_fullStr Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence
title_full_unstemmed Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence
title_short Poisson Model of Construction Incident Occurrence
title_sort poisson model of construction incident occurrence
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14584