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Improving sustainability performance in developing infrastructure projects is an important strategy for pursuing the mission of sustainable development. In recent years, the business model of public-private-partnership (PPP) is promoted as an effective approach in developing infrastructure projects. It is considered that the distribution of the contribution on project investment between private and public sectors is one of the key variables affecting sustainability performance of PPP-type projects. This paper examines the impacts of the contribution distribution between public and private sectors on project sustainability performance. A model named the sustainability performance-based evaluation model (SPbEM) is developed for assisting the assessment of the level of sustainability performance of PPP projects. The study examines the possibility of achieving better sustainability through proper arrangement of the investment distribution between the two primary sectors in developing PPP-type infrastructure projects.

There is increasing sophistication in corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures by international construction companies (ICCs). Nevertheless, a systematic analysis of the trends and prospects is yet to appear. This study fills that knowledge gap by providing an understanding of the idiosyncrasies of CSR disclosure and by offering suggestions for future reporting exercises. By examining the top fifty ICCs' CSR/sustainability reports using content analysis, it found that the more negative impacts a company may have, the more remedial strategies it will disclose in a CSR report. ICCs from economically more developed countries maintain a high level of CSR disclosure, while their counterparts from developing countries have caught up in this CSR cause. As a way to improve the consistency and integrity of disclosed information, ICCs are increasingly adopting CSR reporting guidance frameworks and using third-party assurances. CSR disclosures present a high degree of uniformity while they also show nuanced and intriguing diversity. This research helps understand comprehensively the trends of CSR disclosure in international construction. It will help ICCs extrapolate their future CSR reporting exercises.

Boreal winter and spring snow cover extent and snow water equivalent over Eurasia experienced an obvious decrease in late 1980s. A concurrent surface warming is observed over the North Atlantic and Eurasia. The present study documents the relationship among the interdecadal changes in snow, surface air temperature, and wind and the plausible reason for this change. Analysis shows that the snow decrease contributes to the temperature increase only in some limited regions and that the surface warming is largely related to the change in atmospheric circulation. The effect of atmospheric circulation change on surface warming is manifested in wind-induced heat advection and cloud-radiation changes. The wind changes over the North Atlantic and Eurasia feature a wave train with an anomalous anticyclone over Europe and anomalous southerly winds over midlatitude east Europe and Asia. The anomalous southerly winds contribute to surface warming through advection of warmer air from lower latitudes. The anomalous anticyclone contributes to surface warming over Europe through anomalous warm advection by bringing warmer air from ocean and enhanced downward shortwave radiation by suppressing upward motion. The wave pattern appears to be connected to equatorial Atlantic warming. Warmer sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean enhances convection and induces a lower level anomalous cyclone to the northwest of the SST warming. The role of equatorial North Atlantic SST increase in the formation of the wave train over Eurasia is supported by numerical experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model.

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