Developing Risk Breakdown Matrix for Onshore Wind Farm Projects Using Fuzzy Case-Based Reasoning

• Author / Creator

  Somi, Sahand

• Many countries have invested in the development of renewable energy projects, particularly onshore and offshore wind farm projects because of their low adverse environmental impact on the environment. However, onshore and offshore wind farm projects are novel types of projects in most countries and risk identification of them are hindered by the scarcity of historical data, high cost for acquiring expert knowledge, and/or the limited research available on this topic. Previous research on risk identification of onshore and offshore wind farm projects are mainly focused on offshore wind farm projects because of their high-risk marine environment. The few studies conducted on risk identification of onshore wind farm projects focus mainly on project-level risks; work–package–level risks are not investigated in order to develop Risk Breakdown Matrix (RBM). Therefore, there is a gap in the research on the risk identification of onshore wind farm projects to develop RBM.

  Existing risk identification techniques mostly rely on expert knowledge and available research on project type. However, implementing those techniques is not appropriate for onshore wind farm projects because there is limited research and historical data available on this topic. Acquiring expert knowledge is also challenging because of the high cost of it. In addition, successful expert interviews highly depend on expert abilities, attitudes, and thoroughness which is a limitation of this technique. CBR techniques are well-known for their application to solve a new problem based on the similarity between different types of projects. However, there are a few studies on CBR techniques in hazard and risk identification, and those techniques did not consider subjective information in their techniques. Therefore, there is a gap in the research on developing the fuzzy-case based reasoning (FCBR) technique for risk identification of the novel type of project which captures the subjectivity of construction project information.

  To address these limitations, the main contributions of this research are twofold: (1) develop a risk breakdown matrix (RBM) for onshore wind farm projects by mapping each risk to those construction work packages affected by the risk. (2) proposes a new risk identification framework suitable for novel types of construction projects that are not comprehensively studied in the literature and have limited historical data.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Risk identification
  • Risk breakdown matrix (RBM)
  • Fuzzy case-based reasoning (FCBR)
  • Onshore wind farm
  • Renewable energy project
  • Work-package–level risk

• Graduation date

  Spring 2021

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-c3hr-6s84

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.