Construction Industry from Perspective of Force Majeure and Environmental Risk Compared to the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Systematic Literature Review

Mohammad Omar Alfadil, Mukhtar A. Kassem, Kherun Nita Ali and Wael Alaghbari
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Mohammad Omar Alfadil: Architecture and Building Sciences Department, College of Architecture and Planning, King Saud University, Riyadh 12372, Saudi Arabia
Mukhtar A. Kassem: Department of Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
Kherun Nita Ali: Department of Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
Wael Alaghbari: Architectural Department, Sana’a University, Sana’a 1247, Yemen

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-22

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic represents a type of force majeure that significantly and unexpectedly affected all human lifestyles. This study includes an integrative review of articles published across Scopus and Web of Science journals and compiled using the systematic review methodology based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) Statement and VOSreview (visualization of similarities) software by defining keywords that include “construction industry” and “force majeure” and “environmental risks” as a starting point. Moreover, the research years and the countries covered by this research were determined in a second stage. Finally, the abstracts of selected studies were reviewed in order to extract factors similar to the pandemic conditions of COVID-19 along with the brief results of the research. Out of 6384 publications identified and 56 publications reporting, 20 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria with full text. Based on our findings, there has been a continuous growth of publications on construction risk and environmental research since 2010. Malaysia had the greatest contribution to the research topic of the countries covered by the study, followed by Egypt. The Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management journal published the greatest number of publications related to the research topic. In this review, the most important previous studies are classified according to their handling of force majeure and environmental risks and the most important factors mentioned in these studies are identified. In addition, recommendations are made for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and for mitigating its effects on the construction industry in the Arab world and Malaysia. The results of this review will benefit researchers and construction companies alike in furthering research on reducing the risks of COVID-19 to construction projects and avoiding the significant economic loss that results from stopping these projects.

Keywords: construction industry; force majeure; environment risk; risk management; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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