Analysing construction cost estimation factors as a map

Abstract

For construction projects, different factors such as the type the of project, material costs, project conditions and duration are combined to estimate the total project cost. Hence it is essential for the relationships between these factors to be well-defined in order to produce an accurate cost estimate of each stage of the project. The aim of this paper is to formulate and implement a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based approach that allows the user to properly quantify and visualize the relationship between these (non-spatial) factors in a virtual geospatial space, providing accurate cost estimates. To achieve this, Voronoi polygons are used in the developed method to transfer duration and completion time of each project stage from one-dimensional data into a two-dimensional space (spatialisation). A sigmoidal shape is then utilised as a profile and scaled to convert the two-dimensional map into a three-dimensional map based on the material costs and difficulty of each activity. This provides a visualization tool that is similar to a topographic map. The generated maps are then compared to quantify and identify inconsistencies between duration, difficulty and cost of each activity for a house-construction project. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method in identifying the best cost estimation scheme.