Infrastructure projects are notoriously hard to manage so it is important that society learns from the successes and mistakes made over time. However, most evaluation methods run into a conundrum: either they cover a large number of projects but have little to say about their details, or they focus on detailed single-case studies with little in terms of applicability elsewhere. This book presents Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as an alternative evaluation method that solves the conundrum to enhance learning.

Toward More Sustainable Infrastructure: Project Evaluation for Planners and Engineers provides readers a framework for understanding and evaluating infrastructure projects to improve their performance and sustainability, taking into account not only the financial and economic issues, but also the social and environmental impacts that affect the sustainability of infrastructure. Based on a course designed developed by the author over ten years at M.I.T., this text demonstrates how to apply the basic methods of engineering economics in evaluating major infrastructure projects and also demonstrates how these same techniques can be useful with many routine business and personal decisions. It introduces students to project management, system performance, concepts of sustainability, methods of engineering economics, and provides numerous case studies, examples, and exercises based upon real world problems. This text fills a void in the education of many planners and engineering students, namely an understanding of why major infrastructure projects are undertaken, how they are structured and evaluated, and how they are financed. Toward More Sustainable Infrastructure: Project Evaluation for Planners and Engineers prepares readers to evaluate projects based upon an appreciation of the needs of society, the potential for sustainable development, and recognition of the problems that may result from poorly conceived or poorly implemented projects and programs.

Infrastructure projects represent one of the largest asset classes globally with the estimated cost of potential new projects planned to 2030 totalling US$70 trn. The sector splits into social infrastructure which is the group of projects that support urban living and economic infrastructure that, following the recession that began 2007/8, has become the global economic methodology du jour to stimulate economic growth. However, unless the host state has surplus financial resources, as has China and the Gulf states, large scale investment may be not be affordable given the capacity constraints and fragility of the international capital markets. Moreover the majority of large complex infrastructure projects are delivered late and over budget. Whatever the initial estimates and plans, sponsors face project distress usually in the last quarter of the development with budget increases ranging from 40% to over 100%. Many major projects are socially necessary but sponsors will fail if they persist in trying to attract investment by pretending that projects are financially viable using the criteria employed by commercial concerns. A new methodology is required. This book explores the reasons these large projects rarely conform to their original plan and what can be done about it. It also examines how the trend to greater complexity will exacerbate this problem unless a new methodology is adopted. The book concludes that unless more realism is introduced developed nations will be unable to renew their infrastructure and developing nations will not be able to establish the foundation of a modern economy. The author is a director of the Institute for Infrastructure Studies and consults globally.

This timely Research Agenda examines the ways in which public–private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure continue to excite policy makers, governments, research scholars and critics around the world. It analyzes the PPP research journey to date and articulates the lessons learned as a result of the increasing interest in improving infrastructure governance. Expert international contributors explore how PPP ideas have spread, transferred and transformed, and propose a range of future research directions.

It will be useful for those experienced and senior professionals who are charged with authorizing and controlling projects. Recommended. P.F. Rad, Choice Building on the seminal work of Bent Flyvbjerg, this book is a collection of expert contributions that will prove essential to anyone wanting to understand why mega-projects go wrong and how they can be made to work better. Professor Sir Peter Hall, University College London, UK This book offers a refreshing and fascinating look at mega-projects from the perspective of public evaluation and planning. With the changing role of the public sector in planning and implementing large-scale projects and a subsequent strong emergence of private public modes of operation, mega-projects have become a problematic phenomenon. This volume is a major source of information and reference. It provides the reader with unique insights and caveats in mega-projects planning. Peter Nijkamp, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands This book enlarges the understanding of decision-making on mega-projects and suggest recommendations for a more effective, efficient and democratic approach. Authors from different scientific disciplines address various aspects of the decision-making process, such as management characteristics and cost benefit analysis, planning and innovation and competition and institutions. The subject matter is highly diverse, but certain questions remain at the forefront. For example, how do we deal with protracted preparation processes, how do we tackle risks and uncertainties, and how can we best divide the risks and responsibilities among the private and public players throughout the different phases of the project? Presenting a state-of-the-art overview, based on experiences and visions of authors from Europe and North America, this unique book will be of interest to practitioners of large-scale project management, politicians, public officials and private organisations involved in mega-project decision-making. It will also appeal to researchers, consultants and students dealing with substantial engineering projects, complex systems, project management and transport infrastructure.

Studying Complex Interactions and Outcomes Through Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Practical Guide to Comparative Case Studies and Ethnographic Data Analysis offers practical, methodological, and theoretically robust guidelines to systematically study the causalities, dynamics, and outcomes of complex social interactions in multiple source data sets. It demonstrates how to convert data from multisited ethnography of investment politics, mobilizations, and citizen struggles into a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). In this book, Markus Kröger focuses on how data collected primarily via multisited political ethnography, supplemented by other materials and verified by multiple forms of triangulation, can be systematically analyzed through QCA. The results of this QCA offer insight on how to study the political and economic outcomes in natural resource conflicts, across different contexts and political systems. This book applies the method in practice using examples from the author’s own research. With a focus on social movement studies, it shows how QCA can be used to analyze a multiple data source database, that includes results from multiple case studies. This book is a practical guide for researchers and students in social movement studies and other disciplines that produce ethnographic data from multiple sources on how to analyze complex databases through the QCA.

This book discusses the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in global transportation infrastructure. Seen as a way to provide vital services in an era of shrinking government budgets, public-private partnerships have become an increasingly important part of travel infrastructure worldwide. This book describes and analyzes the structure of various models of PPPs in various countries, evaluating their effectiveness, and drawing policy implications for future use. Written by leading international researchers and practitioners in the transportation field, each chapter is a case study on the adoption, implementation, and outcome of transportation services in different municipalities. Taken together, these diverse case studies provide an integrated framework for evaluating and using PPPs. Providing rigorous empirical analysis of PPPs in transportation, this volume will be of interest to researchers in public administration, political science, and economics as well as practitioners and policymakers involved in establishing and monitoring PPPs in transportation.

Abstract: "This paper focuses on problems and their causes and cures in policy and planning for large infrastructure projects. First, it identifies as the main problem in major infrastructure development pervasive misinformation about the costs, benefits, and risks involved. A consequence of misinformation is massive cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and waste. Second, the paper explores the causes of misinformation and finds that political-economic explanations best account for the available evidence: planners and promoters deliberately misrepresent costs, benefits, and risks in order to increase the likelihood that it is their projects, and not the competition's, that gain approval and funding. This results in the "survival of the unfittest," where often it is not the best projects that are built, but the most misrepresented ones. Finally, the paper presents measures for reforming policy and planning for large infrastructure projects, with a focus on better planning methods and changed governance structures, the latter being more important."--World Bank web site.

Critical infrastructure provides essential services to citizens. The mutual dependencies of services between systems form a complex “system of systems” with a large perturbation surface, prone to be damaged by natural and anthropic events. Their intrinsic and extrinsic vulnerabilities could be overcome by providing them adaptive properties to allow fast and effective recovery from loss of functionality. Resilience is thus the key issue, and its enhancement, at the systemic level, is a priority goal to be achieved. This volume reviews recent insights into the different domains (resilience-enhancing strategies, impact and threats knowledge, and dependency-related issues) and proposes new strategies for better critical infrastructure protection.

The publication presents best practices and lessons learnt in the management and organisation of fifteen large infrastructure projects in Europe. This research has been executed as a research programme in the Sixth European Framework Programme (FP 6) of the European Union.