Suchergebnisse

[EN] Nowadays, sustainability assessments tend to focus on the biophysical and economic considerations of the built environment. Social facets are generally underestimated when the appraisal of investment in infrastructure projects is carried out. This study proposes a method to estimate the contribution of infrastructure projects to social sustainability. This method takes into account the interactions of an infrastructure with its environment, in terms of the potential for short and long-term social improvement. The method is structured in five stages:(1) social improvement criteria and goals to be taken into account are identified and weighed; (2) an exploratory study is conducted to determine transfer functions;(3) each criterion is homogenized through value functions; (4) the short and long-term social improvement indices are established; and finally, (5) social improvement indices are contrasted to identify the socially selected alternatives and to assign an order of priority. The method was implemented in six alternatives of road infrastructure improvement. The results of the analysis show that the method can distinguish the contribution to social sustainability of different infrastructure projects and location contexts. This article proposes a mechanism to measure the social efficiency of projects according to the early benefits and potential long-term equitable improvement. This method can be applied prior to the implementation of a project and can complement environmental and economic sustainability assessments. ; This research was funded by the Government of Chile under Doctoral Fellowship Program Abroad (grant CONICYT-2015/ 72160059) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness along with FEDER funding (project BIA2014-56574- R). The authors are grateful to the United Nation Development Programme and the Ministry of Public Works, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, both of El Salvador, for their participation in the implementation of the proposed method (Project 00074250). ...

[EN] Assessing the viability of a public infrastructure includes economic, technical and environmental aspects; however, on many occasions, the social aspects are not always adequately considered. This article proposes a procedure to estimate the social sustainability of infrastructure projects under conditions of uncertainty, based on a multicriteria deterministic method. The variability of the method inputs is contributed by the decision-makers. Uncertain inputs are treated through uniform and beta PERT distributions. The Monte Carlo method is used to propagate uncertainty in the method. A case study of a road infrastructure improvement in El Salvador is used to illustrate this treatment. The main results determine the variability of the short and long-term social improvement indices by infrastructure and the probability of the position in the prioritization of the alternatives. The proposed mechanism improves the reliability of the decision making early in infrastructure projects, taking their social contribution into account. The results can complement environmental and economic sustainability assessments. ; This research was funded by the Government of Chile under the Doctoral Fellowship Program Abroad (grant CONICYT-2015/ 72160059) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness along with FEDER funding (project BIA2014-56574-R). The authors are grateful to the United Nations Development Programme and the Ministry of Public Works, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development of El Salvador, for their participation in the implementation of the proposed method (Project 00074250). ; Sierra Varela, LA.; Yepes Piqueras, V.; Pellicer Armiñana, E. (2017). Assessing the social sustainability contribution of an infrastructure project under conditions of uncertainty. Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 67:61-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2017.08.003 ; S ; 61 ; 72 ; 67

[EN] Purpose - The increased need for, and maintenance of, infrastructure creates challenges for all agencies that manage infrastructure assets. To assist with these challenges, agencies implement asset management systems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the importance of barriers faced by agencies establishing transportation asset management systems in the USA and Libya to contrast a case of a developed and developing country. Design/methodology/approach - A literature review identified 28 potential barriers for implementing an asset management system. Practitioners who participate in decision-making processes in each country were asked to rate the importance of each barrier in an online survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Kendall Concordance W., and Mann-Whitney are used to analyze the collected data. Findings - Through an analysis of 61 completed questionnaires, 14 barriers were identified as important by both the US and Libyan practitioners. A total of 11 additional barriers, primarily in the areas of political and regulatory obstacles, were determined to be important only for Libya. These 11 barriers provide reasonable insights into asset management systems' barriers for developing countries. Practical implications - The list of barriers identified from this research will assist decision makers to address and overcome these barriers when implementing asset management systems in their specific organizational and country conditions. Originality/value - The research identified standard barriers to implementing asset management systems and identified barriers that were specific to the country context, such as political and regulatory barriers in Libya. When viewed with the asset management literature, the results show broad applicability of some asset management barriers and the need to contextualize to country context (e.g. developing countries) for other barriers. ; Beitelmal, W.; Molenaar, KR.; Javernick-Will, A.; Pellicer, E. (2017). Challenges and Barriers to Establishing ...

[EN] Ground transportation infrastructures, particularly road infrastructure, are essential for economic and social development. The quality level that the user perceives is mainly determined by the pavement condition. More than 400 billion dollars are invested globally each year in pavement construction and maintenance; these tasks increase by 10% the environmental impact generated by vehicle operation. Therefore, a sustainable approach should be incorporated in the assessment of preservation alternatives that consider technical, economic, environmental, political and institutional aspects in an integrated manner over their life-cycle. The purpose of the present research is to examine the models and practices for the economic and environmental evaluation of pavement assets, in order to analyze the advantages and limitations of the current state of the practice and identify the opportunities to improve their sustainable management. One of the main limitations identified is the lack of models that consider the economic and environmental aspects integrally. A need for models which consider the impact on users in work zones, as well as the use of new technologies and recycled materials that are more respectful of the environment, has been detected. ; [ES] Las infraestructuras de transporte terrestre y particularmente la infraestructura vial son fundamentales en el desarrollo económico y social. El nivel de calidad percibido por el usuario viene determinado, principalmente, por el pavimento. A nivel mundial se invierte anualmente más de 400 mil millones de dólares en la construcción y el mantenimiento de pavimentos; tareas que aumentan en un 10% el impacto ambiental generado por la circulación de los vehículos. Surge así la necesidad de incorporar un enfoque sostenible en la evaluación de alternativas de conservación que considere aspectos técnicos, económicos, medioambientales, políticos e institucionales de forma integrada y armónica a lo largo de su ciclo de vida. La presente investigación tiene por objeto ...

Pavement maintenance is one of the major issues of public agencies. Insufficient investment or inefficient maintenance strategies lead to high economic expenses in the long term. Under budgetary restrictions, the optimal allocation of resources becomes a crucial aspect. Two traditional approaches (sequential and holistic) and four classes of optimization methods (selection based on ranking, mathematical optimization, near optimization, and other methods) have been applied to solve this problem. They vary in the number of alternatives considered and how the selection process is performed.Therefore, a previous understanding of the problem is mandatory to identify the most suitable approach and method for a particular network. This study aims to assist highway agencies, researchers, and practitioners onwhen and howto apply availablemethods based on a comparative analysis of the current state of the practice. Holistic approach tackles the problem considering the overall network condition, while the sequential approach is easier to implement and understand, but may lead to solutions far from optimal. Scenarios defining the suitability of these approaches are defined. Finally, an iterative approach gathering the advantages of traditional approaches is proposed and applied in a case study. The proposed approach considers the overall network condition in a simpler and more intuitive manner than the holistic approach. ; The authors gratefully acknowledge members of the research group at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile for their contributions and resources during the study. The research team acknowledges Conicyt-Fondef/Decimoseptimo Concurso de Proyectos de Investigacion y Desarrollo del Fondo de Fomento al Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnologico, Fondef/Conicyt 2009 (D09I1018) for funding this project. Support of the associated institutions is also appreciated: Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo), Regional Government for Metropolitan Region (Gobierno Regional de la ...

Project delivery team integration generally involves early involvement of general contractors and key specialty contractors in the design process. Team integration has been found to improve an owner's probability of success. However, during difficult economic times, owners can forego early team involvement and move toward low bid procurement to take advantage of competitive markets. This study explores the performance of integrated teams in the Spanish multifamily building construction market in light of the 2007 financial crisis. After conducting structured interviews of 31 residential building projects with the owner and main contractor of each one of them, this study identified eight projects for in-depth case studies. These eight case studies represented the best performing, worst performing, and atypical cases. The results show that Spanish building owners experience higher success by developing integrated teams. This integration begins with how the owner organizes the team for success (i.e., integrated builder services, qualifications-based procurement, and prior experience) and promotes integration throughout the project process (i.e., timeliness of communications, shared commitment to goals, and development of team chemistry). © 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. ; The authors are indebted to all the participants in this research. It was partially supported by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte) that funded a scholarship for the first author at the University of Colorado-Boulder (reference PRX12/00066). ; Pellicer Armiñana, E.; Sanz Benlloch, MA.; Esmaeili, B.; Molenaar, KR. (2016). Exploration of Team Integration in Spanish Multifamily Residential Building Construction. Journal of Management in Engineering. 32:05016012-1-05016012-11. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000438 ; S ; 05016012-1 ; 05016012-11 ; 32