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Over the last decade, the construction industry has entered a point of transition in the environment in which it operates. Due to global changes in the movement of population densities, there is a noted regression in rural population densities in favour of urban environments (United Nations, 2008a, 2008b, 2010), resulting in the need for extensive redevelopment of urban centres. With the significant increase in the development of urban centres (Angel, Sheppard & Civco, 2005) and the continued influx of population (Li et al., 2007), increased development of urban centres is essential to accommodate the population explosion (Jones & Evans, 2008; Roberts & Sykes, 2000). In addition, urban centres are not expanding outwards but, contra to belief, are being re-developed from within (Biddy, 2009), thus further illustrating the increased development of inner city, urban site development in the industry.
With this increased urban development comes increased management of the available space. The site which occupies the majority of the site is now commonplace (Tindiwensi, 2000), which results in increased management of the various resources on-site. Effective site management of a construction project can be largely attributed to the characteristics of the site environment in which the development is located (Chau & Anson, 2002; Lambeck & Eschemuller, 2008). In urban centres, increased spatial restrictions are present, resulting in increased management of various resources (Singer, 2002) such as the need to acknowledge and accommodate the various facilities within a specific space (Tam, Tong, Leung, & Chin, 2002; Samdani, Bhakal, & Singh, 2006; Zhou, Abourizk, & Al-Battaineh, 2009), but in particular, on-site personnel.
The effective management of the construction industries most important resource – personnel (Egan, 1998) requires considerable management interface (Thomas & Horman, 2006). This is illustrated in the high fatality figures present in the industry (Sawacha, Naoum, & Fong, 1999; Perttulaa, Merjamab, Kiurulaa, & Laitinen, 2003; Mitropoulos, Howell, & Abdelhamid, 2005), reduced productivity (Thomas et al., 2006; Enshassi, Mohamed, Mustafa, & Mayer, 2007), improper site layout planning (Tam et al., 2002; Elbeltagi, Hegazy, & Eldosouky, 2004) and effective scheduling and programming (Thomas et al., 2006; Faniran, Love, & Li, 1999). In addition, effective spatial management is often conducted in an ad-hoc, intuitive nature, thus further exasperating the issue (Arditi, Sikangwan, & Tokdemir, 2002; Mohamed & Anumba, 2006; Winch & North, 2006). As a result, the need for effective management of the assignment and utilisation of the limited space on-site to meet the requirement of personnel is a factor in the management of urban, confined site environments.