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Knowledge sharing for sustainable development in civil engineering: a systematic review

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Abstract

Sustainable development (SD) knowledge in civil engineering-related disciplines is evolving rapidly. As such, it is increasingly important that engineers share SD knowledge to allow them to systematically enhance the environmental performance of engineered systems. This systematic review identifies published primary data collection studies of SD knowledge sharing (KS) approaches in a civil engineering-related context with the aim of understanding the KS concepts studied, the research strategies used and the key KS findings. A predefined research protocol guided the selection of relevant studies. Analysis revealed that collaboration and education were the major KS concepts and that most studies reside at the positivist end of the research strategy spectrum. Practically all of the identified studies emphasise the need for social interfacing, which enhances the way engineers share complex SD knowledge. The article concludes by describing the practical implications of the research.

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  1. Keyword lists are available from corresponding author.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), through the Bristol/Bath Engineering Doctorate Centre in Systems Engineering, for the work reported in this paper.

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Meese, N., McMahon, C. Knowledge sharing for sustainable development in civil engineering: a systematic review. AI & Soc 27, 437–449 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-011-0369-8

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