ENHANCING CONSTRUCTION SAFETY THROUGH DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN PAKISTAN’S BUILDING SECTOR

Abstract

The construction industry is one of Pakistan’s most significant economic and social sectors, but it is also regarded as one of the riskiest because of subpar safety procedures, unequal responsibilities, and insufficient regulatory monitoring. The use of technology in developed nations has favorably and significantly impacted industry production, but it has also led to hazardous working conditions. The concept of Design for Construction Safety (DFCS) has emerged globally as a cutting-edge method to incorporate worker safety considerations at the design stage rather than only during execution. To improve construction safety performance, this study explores the integration of Design for Constriction Safety (DFCS) concepts with emerging technologies like Building Information Modeling (BIM), Internet of things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Extended Reality (XR). Although structured design- safety techniques are provided by worldwide tools such as the DFCS toolbox, CHAIR, DFSP, and Tool-Shed, their local adaption is still restricted. This study employs a quantitative perception-based survey analyzed through questionnaire. This study examined the interrelationships among Design Integration, Technology Adoption, Stakeholder Roles and Barriers, and Safety Performance. The findings contributed to developing a proactive, technology-enabled design-safety framework contextualized for Pakistan’s building sector. This research maps with the UNSDGs like SDG3, SDG8, SDG9, SDG11, SDG16, SDG17 and NRP priorities are Human safety, occupational health & infrastructure resilience, Application of science & technology to industry problems, Disaster risk reduction and resilient built environment, Capacity building and higher education research, Direct citation/support.

Keywords: Design Integration, Technology Adoption, Design for Safety, Stakeholder Roles and Barriers, Safety Performance