Analysis and Comparison of the Infrastructure Report Cards as a Decision Making Tool for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in a nation’s economic and societal progress. However, due to the substantial expenses and the constraints of a limited government budget, the need to assess the condition of each infrastructure and identify those requiring utmost attention has become imperative. To address the challenge of assessing and prioritizing infrastructure, national civil engineering associations have developed infrastructure report cards (IRCs) following diverse methodologies. The objective of this paper is to present and compare the existing IRCs, analysing their key characteristics and comparing them through the developed comparison guidelines. The findings offer valuable insights into IRCs, encompassing general knowledge, diverse practices, and areas for improvement. Furthermore, it provides guidance to civil engineering associations in nations lacking an infrastructure report card, as well as to governments and national infrastructure planners. Recommendations highlight the importance of government collaboration without direct control, transparent methodology explanations, and accessible results presentation. Enhancing IRCs based on these recommendations can facilitate structured, rational, realistic, and sustainability-based decision making. The study acknowledges limitations, including the challenge of assessing IRCs’ real impact and the limited dataset. Despite these limitations, this paper provides a crucial step toward improving IRCs and fostering informed infrastructure decisions.

Towards an Evaluation System of Disabled Individuals’ Friendly Communities from the Perspective of Inclusive Development—A Case Study in Jinan

“…A nation's ability to advance economically and socially depends heavily on its infrastructure. However, it is crucial to evaluate the condition of the infrastructure, determine the regions that require the greatest care, and allocate the government's constrained budget to those areas [6]. More specifically, it would be effective and crucial to evaluate the present state of accessibility in a city to identify the areas that require updating and more relevance to the actual needs of people with disabilities.…”