Sustainability Assessment in Infrastructure Projects

Abstract

We present an easy-to-apply method for assessing the sustainability of infrastructure projects. The proposed methodology consists of determining the evaluation criteria to be applied to the projected infrastructure, considering the three fundamental pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social), quantified according to impact values, in a range from zero to five. Once these were determined and assessed according to the range of impact, we established the sustainability limits or admissible impact limits for each type of infrastructure. The interaction between the sustainability limits assessed for each of the sustainability pillars and the evaluation criteria gives rise to the total influence factor (TIF), which is a value that represents the level of sustainability of the project analysed, according to which it can be classified into one of the five categories included, ranging from minor impact to unfeasible. It also allows for the local identification of criteria to which corrective actions can be applied, with corresponding scores calculated based on a rubric system. The result of the assessment of these corrective measures is the average of the scores of these three aspects. The corrective measures applied to the affected criteria will reduce the TIF and, therefore, increase the sustainability of the evaluated infrastructure.