Importance of Using Artificial Intelligence into Iraqi Construction Projects

02012


Introduction
The construction industry in general is the largest consumer of raw materials and natural resources in the world [1] and is also responsible for 40% of global greenhouse emissions, especially carbon dioxide CO2 [2][3] so it has become beneficial to reduce errors and waste, as well as for reducing time and costs through the use of artificial intelligence, especially in solving complex and difficult problems.The results showed that artificial intelligence will be an integral part of project management practice in the near future, especially in the field of information and difficult decision-making, and artificial intelligence can monitor schedules and adjust expectations in costs and time [4].Artificial intelligence can direct the project and help in making related decisions even at the highest levels [5], artificial intelligence can contribute to decision-making, especially for managers in various institutions and organizations through algorithms techniques [6].The need now for artificial intelligence has become more than in the past, because projects have expanded and become more complex, problems and risks have increased, costs have decreased, and the time required for construction has decreased too [7].Artificial intelligence is able to make project planning more accurate and effective, increase project efficiency and safety, and reduce errors and waste [8].There are studies indicating that it is possible to reduce the project duration by 40% and reduce the total costs to 20% [9].It is expected that artificial intelligence will soon occupy a larger place in the construction management of the project [10].

Concept of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be defined as the ability of the system to accurately interpret external data, learn from the data, and use what it learns in order to reach specific goals and tasks, make decisions and anticipate changes.Artificial intelligence goes through several stages, where the first stage is collecting and entering data, the second stage is done through organizing, classifying and analyzing this data, and the third stage is done through machine learning by taking advantage of this data and experiments and adapting with it, while the fourth stage is done through deep learning and the ability to analyze and make decision In a way similar to the nature of the work of the human brain through the coupling of several levels of neurons [11][12].

Development and infrastructure projects in Iraq
Development projects and infrastructure in Iraq suffer from many problems, starting from the beginning in the formation of the idea or need and the feasibility study, and ending with the removal and demolition of the project.Therefore, it was necessary to divide the project into known stages to demonstrate the importance of artificial intelligence in each stage, noting that these stages are the familiar stages in the establishment of important projects including development and infrastructure projects, especially in Iraq, which are as follows:

Stage of identifying an idea or need for the project
The process of establishing service and development projects begins with the idea or the need to establish a construction project that serves a number of the population.Here, the feasibility study process must be carried out to indicate whether the idea or need is feasible and worthy of implementation or not.Here, the study includes the following topics.
-The economic aspect, where the feasibility study is done to show the profits by studying the volume of demand, studying the construction cost of the project, operating and maintenance costs, and comparing that with the available alternatives, as well as the economic aspect, which includes the possibility of benefiting from local workers and available materials to achieve sustainable goals.
-The importance of the project and the number of beneficiaries of the services provided by the project, where the study is done for the current population numbers and the expected population increase over the life of the project.
-The environmental aspect, where the environmental impact must be studied through the design and construction materials during construction, as well as the environmental impact during operation, and even the possibility of reusing materials or recycling after the completion of the construction.
-The social aspect and here the feasibility study is concerned with aspects that affect the values and morals of society and its traditions, the standard of living and culture, and the extent to which this project is accepted by society.
-The technical aspect, where the local necessary capabilities of technicians, machines, techniques and materials must be studied for the implementation of the project.
-Security, geographical and climate aspects, where the security situation of the region is studied as well as the geographical situation and climate on the project during the construction and operation stage.After all the above points have been achieved, the project will be listed by the beneficiary in order to conduct the planning process.Artificial intelligence plays an important role at this stage, as it studies ideas through the large amount of information, chooses the best of them, carries out a feasibility study, finds the number of beneficiaries, and evaluates the importance of the project and its economic benefits.Artificial intelligence can also play an important role in determining the social impact of the project as well as the security, geographical and climate aspects.Artificial intelligence applications are so important at this stage in studying different environmental impacts during construction, operation, and even after the demolition and removal of the project.

Stage of project planning
At this stage, an extensive study and planning of the project is carried out, starting with the selection of the management staff to carry out the planning process, which includes studying all the necessary requirements and supplies and coordination between the different steps to implement the project, which includes: -Determining the appropriate location for the project so as to achieve the greatest productive return for the beneficiaries.
-Determine who will carry out sustainable designs, conserve resources, and achieve all requirements with the best performance within the capabilities available locally as much as possible.
-Choosing manpower, materials and required equipment locally as much as possible that achieve the goals of sustainability and durability in hot climates.
-Dividing the work into specific items, making a schedule for these items, determining their periods for, determining the critical path, and finding the total duration.
-Estimate the amount of materials and estimate the costs that cover all expenses.
-Determine the paths that will be used for movement to and from the site in the transportation of equipment, materials and manpower to facilitate the smooth flow of movement.
-Determine responsibilities and appoint the concerned party in risk management to study the potential risks and find appropriate solutions for each risk as well as safety requirements.
-Studying the capabilities of the consulting, designing and implementing agencies, as well as studying the best method of assignment to choose the most appropriate for the project later, according to their efficiency.After completing the above paragraphs, it is usually sent to the concerned authorities to study the importance and need for the project and places it among the other projects that require approval for implementation and to choose projects according to their importance and proven priorities.
At this stage, there is a clear need for artificial intelligence through the available information to provide the best options in choosing a location and determining who will perform all the previously mentioned events.
Artificial intelligence can also divide the project into paragraphs, schedule these paragraphs, find the duration and critical path, and estimate the quantities and costs.It is important here, through artificial intelligence, to identify the entities responsible for predicting risks and determining responsibilities, and to predict the danger, determine its size and the possibilities available to reduce or exceed the effects of hazards [16].Also, artificial intelligence is able to determine the method of assignment and the best implementation of the project to reach the best results away from exploitation, bribes and threats that entered the reality of contracting and resulted in a lot of problems and waste of a lot of money from the country's economy [13][14][15].

Stage of project approval
At this stage, all projects submitted by several beneficiary parties, including development, infrastructure, maintenance and rehabilitation projects, are studied after the completion of planning, feasibility studies and cost estimates for them.They are classified according to the established priorities and according to the importance and need of the project, the size of the benefit, the size of expenses and the available budget.If the budget is insufficient, it is necessary to wait or borrow from financial institutions and banks to cover the required expenses.The artificial intelligence can approve the project and set priorities according to what was mentioned earlier [17][18].

Stage of project design
After the project is approved, it is referred to the design stage, and at this stage all the required architectural, structural and others designs are prepared that achieve sustainable goals in conserving resources and energy, especially since hot climates have become a lot of energy consumption in cooling devices.The design must also achieve the required durability, performance and shape as detailed below: -The design is carried out according to the requirements of sustainability, conservation of natural resources such as water, reuse of treated water, attention to hot weather, taking into account shading and insulation, and it is necessary to take advantage of software applications for thermal comfort, energy conservation, and determining the height of buildings and the distances between them optimally and commensurate with the environment in Iraq -It is preferable to adopt local construction materials by design, and these materials must be developed and use all the necessary research in terms of endurance, insulation, shape and durability.
-It is preferable that all designs take into account all the requirements that achieve safety and security within the local capabilities as much as possible.
-The design of concrete mixes must be taken care of to ensure that the requirements are obtained in hot weather and take all precautions such as in terms of keeping the construction materials in the shade and the use of Super plasticizers and retarders, according to the temperature and required time of mixing, transportation and casting considering traffic jams and their impacts on the properties of concrete.As well as determining the vibration method and controlling the shrinkage of concrete and the occurrence of shrinkage cracking in hot weather and choosing the appropriate curing method to complete the reactions and reach the strength and other required specifications.
-A three-dimensional model is organized of the project is prepared with all the details, materials, work progress schedule and cost to control the project and follow it during implementation to indicate the impact of changes obtained during implementation and the possibility of finding solutions with the least effort, cost and time.Through this building information model (BIM), time and cost can be recalculated closer to reality [19].
In this case, artificial intelligence may have the largest role in organizing and preparing all sustainable architectural and civil details, according to what was previously mentioned [20][21][22].It can also determine the mixing ratios for optimal concrete in a faster manner than the usual experimental mixtures in proportion to the requirements of durability, high temperatures [23][24][25][26] with determinations the quantities of additives and according to traffic congestion, by tracking it with GPS.Likewise, artificial intelligence clearly enters through the creation of an integrated three-dimensional building information model (BIM) through which the costs and time required for construction and the extent of the impact of variables on that are studied [19,27].

Stage of project assignment
Attention should be given to the issue of assignment and to choose the best method according to the following: -The nature of the project, its requirements and size -The available capabilities such as engineers, consultants, contractors and other requirements.
-Required quality of the construction.
-Time required for completion.
-The amount of funds available for the project.
Before the assignment of the contract, the criteria and requirements must be determined, the financial and material possibilities and the expertise available to those who will receive this assignment, the number of projects implemented and the time in which it was completed, in addition to determining the quality of the work performed, commitment to maintenance and cost.
Here, artificial intelligence has a distinct role in determining these advantages, on the basis of which it must choose the entity that will implement the project according to the assignment method away from relationships, bargaining, bribery and others.

Stage of project implementation
After the completion of the previous stages, the entity that will monitor the implementation process is selected, and during this process, attention should be paid to the following: -Monitoring of errors, obstacles, problems and changes occurring.
-Monitoring the risks, especially price changes, stoppages, delays, lack of skilled labor, construction materials, climatic and security conditions.-Monitoring all deviations due to the changes arising above in both cost and time or quality and fixing it and studying their impact on the final cost and time of completion of the project, preferably through (BIM).-The contractor shall be notified of all deviations and study the compensatory periods and costs whether there are any entitlements due to circumstances beyond the contractor's responsibility.
There may be a role of artificial intelligence in determining the responsibility for delays and stops, calculating compensatory and delay periods, as well as additional costs, etc., but it seems that monitoring the workflow on site and the quality of execution of paragraphs may not be significantly involved in artificial intelligence.

Stage of project maintenance and operation
Here, the maintenance work must be completed for all the shortcomings, defects and damages that have appeared or may appear during this period to be repaired, and here the safety of the project is ensured and all the requirements are completed, as well as the settlement of all warranty amounts.Artificial intelligence has a clear role in monitoring the project at the maintenance and operation stage and follow their programs, controlling the completion of all deficiencies and defects, determining validity of the construction, releasing all warranty dues and terminating all belongings [2,27].

Stage of project structural health monitoring
In this stage, the projects are monitored periodically to state their health and safety through the following: -Sensors that are placed in specific places during implementation to monitor their health and safety.-Through monitoring programs, in which a team specialized in visual inspection to state the safety periodically.-Through inspection using non-destructive tests to ensure the integrity of the facility and identify damages and defects.Monitoring works should be carried out periodically for the project until the end of the service life and the periodic period is determined according to the importance of the project, the nature of use and the construction status of the project.
Here, artificial intelligence has a major role by analyzing the results of sensors, identifying inspection teams, periodic monitoring, analyzing the results of non-destructive tests, and then determining the state of the construction and its safety as well as determining the cost of maintenance, and determining the rest of the service life of the project [2].

Stage of project demolition and removal
At this stage, it should be carried out under specific controls so that the materials can be used as much as possible through reuse or recycling to reduce the environmental impact and to reduce the construction cost of the projects in which these materials will be used.This is an important stage that requires attention to the environmental impact and the possibility of reuse or recycling of construction materials through artificial intelligence, which will find the best places to use the remaining materials according to the need and characteristics of these materials after the demolition process as well as the specifications required in the projects.

Methods (Questionnaire)
To demonstrate the knowledge of the importance of using artificial intelligence in multiple stages of the project to reach the construction of sustainable projects in Iraq and benefit from this use, a questionnaire was conducted for a sample of engineers and faculty members in engineering colleges who have enough experience in construction projects and management to indicate the opinion on such importance of use.
A sample with five choices was adopted, where 1 stands for (strongly disagree) and 5 stands for (strongly agree).used to answer the questions and the statistical analysis was carried out to 50 answers out of a total of 58 forms that were distributed to those concerned with the answer and the results were statically analyzed using SPSS 14.0.Where: S.D.: Standard Deviation.RII: relative importance index.
The experience in years for such sample is shown in fig. 1.Also, Table .1 shows the sequence of importance of the artificial intelligence into project stages in descending order.The importance of the artificial intelligence into project stages is shown graphically in fig. 2.

Results
From the results shown in Table No. 1 and figure No. 2, experts in the field of construction find that there is a great need to use artificial intelligence, especially at the design and planning stages, and then slightly reduced at both the stage of identifying the project idea and need and the stage of determining the method of assignment.Also, the need is gradually reduced at both the stage of structural health monitoring and the approval stage, and then reduced at the maintenance and operation stage as well as removal and demolition stage.The need is minimal at the implementation stage.

Discussion and Conclusions
It is clear that there is a great need and there is an importance of using artificial intelligence in projects in Iraq as follows: -Design and planning stages, as projects have increased in size, complexity and interference, which require additional effort, as well as that the project planning process in Iraq, suffers from a lack of coordination, risk study, safety procedures, etc. -At the stage of identifying the project idea and the need for it, feasibility studies, as well as at the project assignment stage, there is a clear need, as there are a lot of projects whose feasibility has not been studied properly, and some of them were left out by their contractors and a lot of money was wasted due to the assignment of these projects through relationships, bribes, exploitation, etc. -In the monitoring stage, there is a need to use artificial intelligence, especially since this phase is specific to dam projects, power plants and oil installations and is poorly conducted in some other constructions such as bridges, tunnels and some other facilities.Therefore, attention is required through the placement of sensors that are monitored by computers or through a visual inspection team and the use of non-destructive testing, as well as at the project approval stage, there is a need for artificial intelligence in identifying projects that are important in providing the most benefits and setting priorities correctly.-In the maintenance and operation stage, the need for artificial intelligence appears through the follow-up of maintenance programs and the termination of all contract belongings after the maintenance and operation stage is completed.-In the demolition and removal stage, construction materials are usually placed in landfills, and there is a clear need for artificial intelligence in the search for projects where construction materials are used or recycled.-In the implementation phase, the need for artificial intelligence is the least because most of the works require the presence of a human being and his assessment of the workflow according to the practical experience gained and the skills acquired through working with projects.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.The experience in years for the sample.

Fig. 2 .
Fig. 2. Importance of the artificial intelligence into project stages.

Table . 1
The sequence of importance of the artificial intelligence into project stages in descending order.