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Integrated Approaches to Occupational Safety in Construction: Managing Risks, Hazards,...
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Integrated Approaches to Occupational Safety in Construction: Managing Risks, Hazards, and Training for Safer Building Environments

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 1179

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Georgios C. Kafoutis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Interests: systems safety; occupational safety; project and site management; surveying; building information modeling (BIM)
Dr. Panagiotis K. Marhavilas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Production & Management Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Interests: safety science; occupational safety and health; risk management; risk assessment; risk analysis and engineering on constructions and industries; space electrodynamics; data analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Ioannis M. Dokas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Interests: systems safety; early warning systems; safety management systems; accident investigation; occupational safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Construction sites remain among the most hazardous workplaces worldwide, characterized by dynamic environments, fragmented supply chains, and complex, multi-phase operations. This Special Issue focuses on integrated approaches to occupational safety that combine risk management, hazard identification, training and competency development, human factors, and digital transformation to create safer building environments. We welcome studies that bridge academic rigor and practical applicability across the project lifecycle—from planning and design to construction, commissioning, and maintenance.

We particularly encourage contributions that demonstrate measurable safety improvements, present integrative frameworks, or showcase multi-disciplinary methods (engineering, management, ergonomics, psychology, and data science). Submissions that leverage Building Information Modeling (BIM), digital twins, sensor networks, and AI-driven analytics to predict, prevent, and mitigate incidents are especially welcome.

Dr. Georgios C. Kafoutis
Dr. Panagiotis K. Marhavilas
Prof. Dr. Ioannis M. Dokas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • occupational safety and health (OSH) in construction
  • integrated risk management and safety culture
  • hazard identification, exposure assessment, and controls
  • safety training, competency frameworks, and human factors
  • safety analytics, leading indicators, and near-miss learning
  • BIM, digital twins, and 4D (time)/5D (cost) safety planning
  • IoT sensors, computer vision, and wearables for site safety
  • systems safety and resilience engineering
  • regulatory compliance and standards
  • incident investigation, root-cause analysis, and lessons learned

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 798 KB  
Article
Influencing Factors of Workers’ Unsafe Behaviors in the Construction Cycle of Commercial Building: A Dual Perspective of Frequency and Entropy
by Yunxiang Yang, Rui Huang, Anjie Yang, Yige Chen and Lanjing Wang
Buildings 2026, 16(8), 1505; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16081505 - 11 Apr 2026
Viewed by 195
Abstract
Unsafe behaviors by construction workers are a primary cause of accidents in commercial building construction. While traditional studies focus on the frequency of violations, they often overlook the disorder and unpredictability of such behaviors. This study introduces “Unsafe Behavior Entropy” as a new [...] Read more.
Unsafe behaviors by construction workers are a primary cause of accidents in commercial building construction. While traditional studies focus on the frequency of violations, they often overlook the disorder and unpredictability of such behaviors. This study introduces “Unsafe Behavior Entropy” as a new index to measure the disorder of workers’ behaviors, complementing traditional violation frequency. Utilizing a dataset from a large-scale commercial building construction project in Wuhan, China, this research uses Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) and Gray Relational Analysis (GRA) to examine the influence of six key factors, including safety meeting coverage and supervision density. The PLSR results indicate that the number of workers supervised per safety officer is the most critical driver of both frequency and entropy, while the coverage rate of entry safety education significantly impacts behavioral stability. GRA findings further reveal a high degree of correlation between management interventions and reductions in behavioral disorder. The study concludes that optimizing safety resource allocation and standardizing educational processes are fundamental to controlling human-related risks. By integrating the dual perspectives of frequency and entropy, this research provides a more comprehensive framework for safety management in complex building projects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Approaches to Occupational Safety in Construction: Managing Risks, Hazards, and Training for Safer Building Environments)
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32 pages, 7607 KB  
Article
An Integrated Computer Vision and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Framework for Safety Risk Assessment of Construction Scaffolding Workers
by Haifeng Jin, Ziheng Xu and Yuxing Xie
Buildings 2026, 16(5), 899; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16050899 - 25 Feb 2026
Viewed by 423
Abstract
Safety monitoring of scaffolding operations is essential for preventing accidents in high-altitude construction. This study proposes an integrated computer vision and multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) framework that combines object detection, pose estimation, Analytic Network Process (ANP) and ELECTRE III methods to evaluate safety risks [...] Read more.
Safety monitoring of scaffolding operations is essential for preventing accidents in high-altitude construction. This study proposes an integrated computer vision and multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) framework that combines object detection, pose estimation, Analytic Network Process (ANP) and ELECTRE III methods to evaluate safety risks of construction workers. Specifically, computer vision techniques are employed to extract objective visual evidence related to workers’ behaviors, protective equipment (PPE) usage, and working environments, which serve as the basis for subsequent safety risk quantification. A four-criterion system, including action risk, PPE compliance, working height, and structural integrity, is established. Weights are determined via the ANP, and risk ranking is conducted using ELECTRE III. Experiments on a self-built dataset achieved an mAP@0.5 of 92.3%, a segmentation IoU of 67.2%, and a pose OKS@0.5 of 89.6%. The evaluation results correlate strongly with expert assessments (Kendall’s τ = 0.79). The proposed framework effectively identifies unsafe behaviors and quantifies safety risks, providing reliable decision support for intelligent construction safety management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Approaches to Occupational Safety in Construction: Managing Risks, Hazards, and Training for Safer Building Environments)
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