University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Rural-urban contextual data triangulation for international engineering project work

Timmons, Alexandra Christina

Content Files
TIMMONS-THESIS-2021.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/110470

Description

Title
Rural-urban contextual data triangulation for international engineering project work
Author(s)
Timmons, Alexandra Christina
Issue Date
2021-04-14
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
  • Witmer, Ann-Perry
  • Rodríguez, Luis F
Committee Member(s)
Lleras, Christy L
Department of Study
Engineering Administration
Discipline
Agricultural & Biological Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2021-09-17T01:10:50Z
Keyword(s)
  • contextual engineering
  • international engineering
  • rural
  • urban
  • data triangulation
Abstract
Literature in the field of international engineering indicates that project failure is commonly a direct result of the exclusion of the community during important project and design decisions. This failure appears to be especially prominent for projects attempted in rural communities. The current emerging solution to address this community exclusion and resulting project failure is the application of contextual engineering. This involves a thorough and purposeful on-site study of community conditions with particular attention to social and physical conditions. However, this process is quite costly and time-intensive for foreign engineers to engage with and in times of global travel restrictions, it becomes impossible. This research acknowledges that the consideration of contextual factors is crucial to project success and studies the potential for a community's contextual conditions to be observed from abroad as a way to keep projects operational in situations where travel is not feasible. While rural community-specific data is largely uncommon, urban-level data is examined and interpolation is performed. By selecting the three urban cities, where data is plentiful, in closest proximity by travel distance to the rural community in question and weighting them accordingly, it is hypothesized that a contextual engineering data triangulation analysis can be performed to approximate the conditions of the rural community. This process is tested through a case study of rural Tikonko, Sierra Leone and the results are compared against known community condition data gathered on-site. The results highlight the yet irreplaceable need for on-site interactions while still acknowledging potential avenues of usefulness for this type of remote data collection, as well as future work pathways.
Graduation Semester
2021-05
Type of Resource
Thesis
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110470
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2021 Alexandra Timmons

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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
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