Sustainability Factors and Performance

Abstract

A Transportation infrastructure projects often involve the considerable land use and huge resource that can cause serious impacts to the environment and social dislocation. Hence, implementation of sustainable factors is essential. This paper attempts (1) to review infrastructure project sustainability factor and performance, and (2) to propose a framework of relationship between the sustainability factors and performance for railway projects in Malaysia. The results from the literature show that sustainability factors and performance can be categorized under environment, economic, social, engineering/resource utilization and project management. Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ajqol.v3i9.86 Amiril, A., et.al. / Asian Journal of Quality of Life (AjQoL), 3(9) Jan / Feb 2018 (p.151-160) 152 , UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for EnvironmentBehaviour Studies), Faculty of IntroductionThe concept of sustainable infrastructure development has emerged since the Brundtland Report on 1987. The report defines sustainable development "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need", (Lim, 2009). According to Huang and Yeh (2008), the importance of sustainable infrastructure development is that it has a significant impact on the environment, economy and society. For instance, disturbance of human life and ecosystem resulted from construction and regeneration of infrastructure project development. Furthermore, infrastructure project development presents numerous challenges such as projects are time consuming, costly, and not always sustainable (Lothe, 2006).Previous research in the field of sustainability infrastructure development has defined the term sustainability in a number of ways. The United Nations ESCAP (2006) defines sustainable infrastructure as infrastructure in harmony with the continuation of sustainability in the economy and environment by designing and maintaining buildings, structures and other facilities with an eye towards resource conservation over the life of the infrastructure. National Research Council of the National Academies, (2009) has referred infrastructure sustainability as a lifeline system that enables meet the needs of current and future generations through cost-effective, physically resilient, socially equitable and environmentally viable.Sustainability of infrastructure transportation development is defined through it impacts on the economy, environment for and social benefits; measured by system efficiency and effectiveness (Khalid et al., 2012;Jeon & Amekudzi, 2005). On the other hand, Amekudzi et al. (2009) expressed sustainability of transportation development as a safe, efficient acc...

Exploring the Transport Infrastructure Sustainability Performance: An Investigation of the Transportation Projects in Saudi Arabia

“…The sustainability factors included in INVEST are intended to address sustainability throughout all stages of the project, namely: the planning stage, the development stage, and the operation and maintenance stage [21]. Among the sustainability factors included in INVEST are noise quality, ecology, biodiversity, visual impact, waste management, energy and carbon emissions, erosion and sediment control, flora and fauna, health and safety, life cycle cost, cultural heritage, public accessibility, and intermodal transport [22].…”

“…Time, quality, and money have traditionally been established as the fundamental standards for evaluating the success of building projects [35]. In their research findings, Amiril, Nawawi, Takim and Latif [22] show that the application of sustainability principles has resulted in improved decision-making, decreased waste, efficient project delivery, avoided delays, and decreased constructability-related issues (rework, claim, etc.). Similar results were found by Alotaibi, Edum-Fotwe and Price [9], whose research indicates that the performance of road projects resulting from the application of sustainability factors is to reduce pollution and environmental impacts, public acceptance, fit for purpose and quality, minimize maintenance and operation costs, mitigate risks, on-time completion, protect cultural heritage, safe construction, and other factors.…”