A fuzzy approach to construction project risk assessment and analysis: construction project risk management system

The construction industry is plagued by risk, and poor performance has often been the result. Although risk management techniques have been applied, the lack of a formalised approach has produced inconsistent results. In this paper, a hierarchical risk breakdown structure is described to represent a formal model for qualitative risk assessment. The relationships between risk factors, risks, and their consequences are represented on case and effect diagrams. Risk descriptions and their consequences can be defined using descriptive linguistic variables. Using fuzzy approximation and composition, the relationships between risk sources and the consequences on project performance measures can be identified and quantified consistently. (C) 2001 Civil-Comp Ltd and Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.