Risk management for construction projects with colored Petri nets: An agent-based modeling framework

Construction project is indeed a complex system, where many participants are involved and interact with each other. Risk interdependence brought up by interactions between participants is often ignored, which may lead to inaccurate risk assessment and inefficient risk management. This paper deals with the risk interdependence from a complex system´s perspective. We first explained how the risk interdependence arises through the interaction between participants, to draw forth the idea of establishing an agent-based model to manage risks in construction project system. Then a framework using colored Petri nets (CPNs) to establish an agent-based model for construction project system was introduced. Its application to manage risks was also briefly illustrated. Further research is about to realize the CPNs models for the construction project system and put it into application. It is believed that studying the risk interdependence will be helpful to more accurate project risk assessment and better risk management.