A heterogeneous decision criteria system evaluating sustainable infrastructure development: From the lens of multidisciplinary stakeholder engagement

Abstract

The evaluation of urban infrastructure development is a decision-making process with multidisciplinary stakeholder engagement assessing sustainability metrics in different dimensions. However, there are uncertainties in such an evaluation caused by the heterogeneity between different stakeholders' preferences and the difficulty in differentiating sustainability decision criteria (DC). This study aims to formalize a multidisciplinary DC system to evaluate sustainable infrastructure development, which represents the preferences to DC metrics heterogeneously weighted by stakeholders. An empirical survey was conducted to collect the stakeholders' preferences to 50 sustainability DC metrics in which 91 infrastructure professionals from six disciplines (i.e., owner, architect, engineer, contractor, supplier, and consultant) were invited to participate. As a result, this study identified one common and six disciplinary DC sets and defined 20 DC factors with weights information structuring the multidisciplinary decision-making process, which indicates the multidisciplinary DC system is formal to be leveraged on assessing the sustainability performance of infrastructure development. In addition, the proposed multidisciplinary DC system is comprehensive in reducing uncertainties through determining the weights of DC metrics across various disciplines. Theoretically, the multidisciplinary DC system advances the knowledge of sustainability measurement by not only integrating the planet-people-prosperity framework and the product-organization-process framework but mitigating evaluation uncertainty through representing stakeholders' heterogeneity. For practical significance, such a multidisciplinary DC system will serve as a precursor for managers and policymakers in decision-making processes to enhance sustainability performances of infrastructure development.

A Systematic Review of Sustainability Criteria in Infrastructure Development

“…Furthermore, it should undergo testing through specific case studies to evaluate its practical utility and applicability to real-world decisionmaking processes. There is existing evidence of approaches with frameworks and indices, such as the Functionality-Resiliency-Sustainability Framework [44], Composite Index [51], and decision criteria systems for evaluating sustainable infrastructure development [52]. However, these tools may be tailored for specific infrastructure types, focused solely on siting decisions without considering future maintenance, or they may lack a comprehensive approach that incorporates all stakeholders' perspectives into decision-making.…”

Assessment of regional development needs according to criteria based on the Sustainable Development Goals in the Meta Region (Colombia)

“…In the course of the process, it became clear that, to the best of our knowledge, there is not enough literature that directly addresses the SDGs in their entirety as decision criteria. There are references that specifically use some sustainable development indicators to evaluate investments or projects in specific fields in relation to the fulfillment of some of the SDGs or their Targets, for example, Xue et al (2022), Sreekumar and Rajmohan (2019), Adshead et al (2019), and Rickels et al (2016).…”

Understanding Sustainability in Off-Site Construction Management: State of the Art and Future Directions

“…Environmental and social sustainability will be pursued by benefit-oriented construction industry participants after their economic aspirations are met (Yuan et al 2021). In future research, the economic dimension should consider the entire life cycle stages, meaning not only reducing the direct cost associated with constructing buildings as well as considering the indirect cost of improving the social and environmental sustainability of OSC (Xue et al 2022).…”