Decision Support Systems and their Application in Construction

Decisions are activities that we face and deal with every day. Decision support systems are used to support and improve decision making. They help people make better and faster decisions than they could make themselves. The construction industry witnessed a growth in the application of knowledge-based expert systems in the eighties and early nineties, followed by the application of fuzzy, artificial neural networks and hybrid (integrated) systems. Potential applications of the Internet in the construction industry have generated many research projects recently. The purpose of this chapter is to understand decision support systems and their basic technologies, and to review their application in the construction industry. The construction industry is rapidly realising the need to integrate information technology and artificial intelligence into its processes in order to remain competitive.