Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Development and Operation: Innovative and Adaptive Project Planning, Management, and Finance Measures

Dear Colleagues,

As public goods, infrastructures produce varying degrees of positive and negative external effects on economic, social, and ecological systems. To prepare future-ready infrastructures for the fast-changing world, sustainability and resilience should be considered as key features and should be prepared for from multiple perspectives. The Paris Agreement goals and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) request that infrastructure construction and operation achieve environmental sustainability. Moreover, many developing and developed countries face unbalanced urban and rural development. Planning, constructing, and operating infrastructures should promote urban–rural integration and equal development to achieve social sustainability. Furthermore, many aging infrastructures are in critical need of updating. Multiple financing models, such as public–private partnerships (PPPs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs), should be considered in the renovation of infrastructure; this will enable infrastructure asset recycling to achieve economic sustainability. At the same time, infrastructure should be able to better cope with human-made and natural disasters and unexpected disruptions.  

To address these challenges and to embrace new opportunities, innovative and adaptive project planning, management, and finance measures should be emphasized during the life cycles of infrastructures. In terms of planning, factors from multiple aspects, such as social–economic–environmental system interactions, urban–rural integration, and life cycle assessments, should be considered. In terms of construction, advanced technologies should be considered in the realization of smart, sustainable, and resilient cities. In addition, infrastructure projects which are mostly public often experience cost-overrun and delay and thus are criticized of breaking the iron triangle of project management. A mechanism to balance short-term project objectives/values and the long-term value of infrastructures needs to be formed. In terms of operation, innovative and adaptive measures, such as carbon emission measurement and simulation and energy contract management, should be properly implemented to reduce energy consumption. Innovative and adaptive management measures, augmented with advanced technologies—such as big data, deep learning, digital twin, and Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart health monitoring—should be studied and implemented to enhance the resilience of infrastructures in the face of disasters and any health risks in long-term service.

This Special Issue aims to advance our collective knowledge of project planning, management, and finance to tackle the challenges of sustainable and resilient infrastructure development and operation. Within the scope of Sustainability, this Special Issue addresses social–economic, scientific, and integrated approaches to sustainable development.

For this Special Issue, we invite researchers and professionals from universities, research and development centres, enterprises, and government units to share new knowledge, ideas, innovations, experiences, and other research findings concerning any issues related to the sustainable development and operation of infrastructures. Both original research papers and review papers are welcome. In this Special Issue, submitted papers may address topics including, but not limited to, the following:

• Methods of evaluating and mitigating multi-dimensional infrastructure externalities to avoid market or government failure.
• Methods of estimating and reducing infrastructure carbon emissions to promote sustainable development.
• Approaches to considering or realizing urban–rural integration in infrastructure construction and operation.
• Mechanisms and good practices for designing the maintenance of infrastructures.
• The use of diversified financing models to achieve sustainable infrastructure construction and operation.
• Defining and evaluating the value of infrastructure project development beyond the iron triangle of project management.
• Ensuring the smartness and resilience of infrastructures.
• Achieving infrastructure safety and health monitoring and management through more intelligent and economic means.
• The mechanisms and modes of energy contract management in infrastructures.
• Developing or renovating future infrastructures to ensure that they are more resilient and intelligent so that they can better respond to various disaster events and reduce their impact.
• The factors which should be considered when developing high-value, human-centric underground spaces and infrastructures.
• Infrastructure disposal: maximizing recycling.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Lei Zhu
Dr. Jin Zhu
Prof. Dr. Chen Chen
Dr. Dan Li
Guest Editors

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