Epistemic uncertainty, risk management and information: the role of the detailed design

Abstract

Nowadays, the ability to face uncertainty and its related risks is increasingly required to the construction industry. This paper is based on the wide debate concerning the dual nature of uncertainty: aleatory uncertainty (also known as ontological uncertainty) which is associated to the randomness, and epistemic uncertainty, which is derived from missing or incomplete information, resulting in a partial knowledge of processes and of their characteristic phenomena.
In particular, the paper focuses on epistemic uncertainty in the context of the construction process, assuming the hypothesis that the detailed design – as the clarification moment in which design choices and technical details related to entire building life cycle are taken – is the proper venue for collecting and organizing all the required information and knowledge to reduce the uncertainty level and to identify, analyze and assess  the different types of risk (technological, process, economic, social, environmental, etc.) which can affect the building from its construction to its disposal.