Complexity and Sustainability in Megaprojects

Megaprojects with high levels of complexity and innovation face many sustainability challenges, including environmental concerns, economic resources, and social impacts over decades. Due to the large scale of these projects and their significant consequences for the communities, scientific production focusing on different aspects of megaprojects has been increasingly developed. This research aims to first, present a general overview of the main research themes and hotspots within the literature on megaprojects, and second, provide the potential of the circular economy (CE) in supporting the megaprojects. To do so, a systematic review using keyword co-occurrence analysis was conducted on the megaproject scientific production. The results revealed five major research themes in megaproject-related research, including (i) construction and built environment, (ii) mega events and urban environment, (iii) risk management, (iv) project management, and (v) sustainability and governance. Moreover, challenges and prospects of incorporating the CE in megaprojects were provided and discussed. The findings shed light on the body of knowledge of megaproject research and can support policymakers, officials, and practitioners involved in the megaprojects toward the CE transition.

The understanding of the interactions between megaproject and social impact assessment disciplines is crucial and an effective implementation of a multi-dimensional perspective has been positively correlated with project success and failures avoidance. Current literature aims to encompass this role, extending the analysis of the impacts to the broader concept of stakeholders and local communities impacted by the project. The aim of the Authors is that these preliminary findings can inspire further and deeper research on these topics, looking for and integrated approach to include all of them into a cohesive framework for managing the social pillar in megaprojects management. The literature review leads to the identification of three different research areas related to the issue of the evaluation of the megaprojects from a social perspective: a first one related to the issue of power and equality that looks coherent with the critical management agenda both from a methodological and theoretical point of view; a second one related to the concept of social space as a construct to adopt in order to enlarge the alternatives in the evaluation process; the third one that depicts the role of technology and social media to manage stakeholders.

I deploy a stakeholder perspective to move forward the debate on the reasons behind cost growth in ‘megaprojects’ - the social tools that are designed by humans to produce capital-intensive technology. Using the case of High-Speed 2, a new railway network that is currently under planning and construction in the UK, to illustrate my claims, I argue that cost growth over the time it takes to plan and deliver a megaproject is not isomorphic with bad management neither with dishonesty. Rather, the root cause of cost growth are the limitations of project appraisal methods to formally recognise the wider social and environmental value that society ('us all') expects these capital investments to produce - value which goes above and beyond the threshold necessary for a megaproject to conform to law and existing regulations. This pattern occurs because we approve capital-intensive projects based on a narrow analysis of the user willingness to pay for the production costs, while ignoring wider benefits (and mitigation of disbenefits) that the project needs to produce in order to gain consent to progress from society. As a result of this limitation of project appraisal methods, before a capital investments is sanctioned, we lack a structure of incentives to encourage collaboration from stakeholders that control essential resources for the project to progress. A stakeholder perspective therefore suggests that cost growth over project time reflects a need to renegotiate the value proposition ex-post project approval towards the production of a socially valuable outcome from the perspective of essential stakeholders, a negotiation that, perforce, frustrates our ability to keep a megaproject within the initial budget that was approved.

While the existing research has mainly investigated a project management’s static view, this contribution aims at discussing the impacts of projects’ structure and dynamics on their performances, with a specific focus on the influence of stakeholder management within mega projects.

The chapter starts with the discusses a project as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS). In the second part, it analyzes stakeholder management as a key driver for managing complexity within mega projects. The proposed model integrates several previously developed tested project structures, adding a separate, even if complementary, structure for the negotiation process. Simulations describe the behaviors generated by the interaction of customized development processes in single-phase projects. Project performances are measured with common variables such as time, quality and cost. Originality/value – This research aims at showing how human behavior through stakeholder management is a key factor for the management of complexity within mega projects. With the aim of including the dynamic dimension, the extension of the models used to managing stakeholders within projects requires, for researchers and practitioners, a change of perspective and interpretation, especially regarding the mega projects.

Methodology - The system dynamics methodology provides some of the tools for developing and implementing such a wider extension in project models.

The complexity of megaprojects requires methodological methods able to analyze the interaction between multiple systems in an integrated way rather than analyzing isolated systems (e.g., either stakeholders or risks). However, although project management has devoted significant efforts to employing classical unidimensional networks to analyze either stakeholders or risks in an isolated way, there is lacking multidimensional analyses that integrate both perspectives to unravel complexity. By integrating the risks and the economic transaction between stakeholders in a multilayer network analysis, this study aims to constitute the first effort to develop multilayer analysis to unravel behaviors that are hidden in unidimensional analysis. Using a 220 million € Italian education megaproject, this study exposes the risk allocation patterns and potential suboptimal risk allocation patterns resulting in stakeholders' underperformance and project issues. The analysis exposed that public stakeholders with low interdependence demonstrated a good performance due to their active role in the monetary transfers but low-risk exposition, which highlights risk transfer to the private sector. Complementary, the analysis of the betweenness and eigenvector centrality in the aggregated multilayer network demonstrates that when is significantly lower than these metrics in the unidimensional money flow network, there is a potential suboptimal risk allocation that may result in underperformance of these stakeholders.

Megaprojects have emerged as the preferred way to deliver results in a wide range of industries characterized by high complexity. Lately, due to the failure of several megaprojects because of poor stakeholder management, there was an increasing recognition of the need to involve the “non-market stakeholders” since the early stages. However, this awareness was not followed by the development of an applicable model for stakeholder inclusion in transport infrastructure, the subject of this work. After a review of specific literature, existing guidelines on citizen consultation were integrated with specific individual cases to balance the two contributions. At the end of the process, a framework composed of questions was proposed to guide the stakeholder involvement process. The questions were paired with cases related to transport infrastructure, to overcome the problem of the inherent generality of the guidelines. Finally, two megaprojects were analyzed through the proposed model, namely the enhancement of the A66 in the United Kingdom, and the preliminary stages of a similar Italian project. The Italian case study will then also be followed in later stages, allowing real-time comparison between the model and a megaproject, which will lead to the refinement of research questions and the integration of data.

The inability to effectively manage structural, social and emergent complexity is one of the main causes of megaprojects failure. The leader’s technical skills are beyond necessary but not sufficient to deal with situations of increasing complexity. High levels of complexity can only be addressed with radical new approaches. Specifically, this paper aims to shift the focus from a traditional concept of leadership acknowledged to a specifical individual within a project to an organization-wide, aware and sustainable (WAS) leadership exerted by key people. All key people involved in the implementation of the megaproject (designers, analysts, project managers, …) are invited to exercise a new leadership style that, in the model we propose, has three main characteristics. To give a practical imprinting to the research, a case study has been selected to describe the traits and skills of the WAS leader in megaprojects.

Communication is pivotal in the time, cost, risk and stakeholders’ management of megaprojects. Communication is the backbone of engineering, but, since every megaproject is unique, the solutions adopted to ensure efficient communication must be therefore tailored case by case, in particular by adapting to the actual situation the general procedures suggested by the chosen management standard, regardless if they come from the best practices of PMBoK®, Agile or others. This article illustrates the difficulties that may be caused by communications in a megaproject in the Middle East, and compares the communication management choices for two megaprojects in the Arabic peninsula, thus exemplifying how two very different environments may and should require antithetic answers in order to reach efficient and effective management solutions in the field of communication.

Taking decisions in the tendering and construction phases of complex infrastructures requires the integration of several information sources. This activity is nowadays mainly defined trough the experience of the single experts that work on the project with a consequent limitation in the used information and knowledge (the one that the specific expert knows) and the high risk on taking decisions that are based on personal biases.

Hence the need to explore the development of a DSS that can support the experts in taking decisions during these phases. As the expert does, also the DSS should be able to integrate several data sources that may be of different nature and require different techniques to be used. The objective of this paper is presenting a DSS knowledge framework highlighting the key data sources and the techniques that may be applied to extract the knowledge contained in the specific source. This research aims at creating a reference base for the development of analytical processes to discover knowledge in the different data sources (drawings, reports, etc.) that constitute the basis of design and construction activities.

One of the problems highlighted in the preparation of megaprojects, generally conducted by a consortium of participants from different countries and with a different organization, concerns the size of the resources, the number of partners and the sustainability of the project itself.

The experiences of some recent European projects can be considered to test the sustainability of organizational structures designed and of the potential performance of the partners, reducing the gap between expected and actual results that afflicts most of these projects.

A dilemma that can be posed to overcome these problems is whether it is necessary to reconsider the concepts of performance or if it is more convenient to review the working methods by replacing the growing amount of information currently required for the presentation of the projects with that realized through learning by doing.

In the paper, after a brief demonstration on the limits of the major types of performance indexes, will be described the use of didactics based on Practice Enterprise (PE) and Massive Open On line Courses (MOOCs) experimented in some Tempus and Erasmus projects and with the aim of increase the performance of organizations whose design is the basis of the projects themselves.

Construction megaprojects represent major challenges. Their time extension, high budgets, the multiplicity of stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams, together with their social, economic, political, and environmental impact, demand technical innovation and the implementation of trend management tools that seek to maximise the productivity of these projects. However, in a sector characterised by low levels of productivity and digitalisation, this is no easy task. In the context of Construction 4.0, the emergence of digital twins represents the possibility of centralising project success factors, focusing on the design and management of projects based on the monitoring, prediction, automation, and optimisation of processes, synchronising physical and virtual environments. While computer visualisation allows access to and control of the digital twin environments, achieving higher levels of immersion and interaction would increase its benefits and allow aspects not considered to be addressed. Extended reality (XR), understood as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies, is proposed as the new paradigm for human–machine interaction with digital twins. Through them, the technologies of Construction 4.0 are linked to these environments. To this end, considering safety management in construction as an application case, this research integrates safety management processes and actions through XR interaction environments linked to the digital twins of construction. Thus, a process flow is presented with examples to demonstrate the application potential.

Construction projects’ complexity increases with their size, stakeholders’ environment and engineering specialties. This condition is accentuated in the context of megaprojects.

On the one hand, BIM has helped to manage the complexity of construction projects, transforming all project components into a digital system. On the other hand, enterprise architecture (EA) allows managing the organization as a system and decomposing interrelated components into a model. BIM and EA aspire to interoperability and collaboration as their application maturity increases beyond project boundaries. The joint work between BIM and EA could manage the project’s complexity and accelerate BIM maturity in project-business management.

This paper seeks to identify the connections between BIM and EA through a literature review showing the advantages and synergies of their combined application. Advances and challenges are discussed for future studies to achieve stronger exploitation of BIM and EA working together.

This paper analyzes, from a theoretical perspective, the evolution of the use of tax incentive and considers the foreseeable implications that the Pillar Two Proposal could have in their respect. During the last two decades, the fight against (harmful) tax competition became indeed an overriding challenge for both the OECD and the EU institutions, which aimed at contrasting profit shifting to low or no tax jurisdictions. Such concerns were also fostered by the rapidly digitalizing economy that prompted governments to reach an international agreement on a “Two-pillars” solution. However, both the speed of implementation and some political compromises inherent in the Solution cast some shadows on its possible developments and interactions with the international tax framework.

The article, once focused on the relationship between taxation and megaprojects, proposes to verify how the Italian legal system allows for a preventive dialogue between tax authorities and taxpayers in order to prevent situations of tax uncertainty that may characterize a given economic transaction. Specifically, particular attention will be paid to the interpello institute - and, precisely, to the so-called “interpello” on the new investment s as a potentially useful tool for those who intend to start megaprojects in Italy - and to the regime of collaborative compliance, as a regime that allows the establishment of a constant dialogue between (large) companies and the tax authorities in order to ensure full and proper tax compliance.

The writing deals with the problem of the current inflation’s level in megaprojects, in order to avoid that it leads to their failure. Firstly, the paper focuses its attention on the megaprojects' contracts concluded when the purchasing power has been low and stable for a long time. In relation to these cases, the present devaluation of money is an extraordinary and unpredictable event, at least because it is due mainly to the war between Russia and Ukraine, and partly to the long Covid-19 economics effects too. As a result, both under many European contract laws and international models it can be addressed in terms that involving, directly or indirectly, the client in a renegotiation, whose goal is to rebalance the megaprojects contract’s performances considering the new reality. Secondly, the author tries to identify best practices in relation to contracts that has been concluded when the inflation was already at current level, or it was predictable that it would have been such a strong rise. In these situations a good solution would be the so-called stabilization clauses, as foreseen by a recent Italian statute in the field of public procurement, and for megaprojects contracts by NEC and Fidic models.

This contribution, investigates the relationship between megaprojects, environmental sustainability, sustainable development, ESG factors and taxation. More precisely, the article proposes to highlight how taxation nowadays represents a factor that could be used to assess the sustainability of a company and its investments, also in light of recent EU regulations.

Organizations are turning their projects towards multicultural environment, which adds value to these projects. On the other hand, this diversity may push the project towards the abyss as well. In this essay, I will try to collect the pros and cons of working in a multicultural environment and provide a literature review of the hottest managerial topics related to multiculturalism and diversity through the teamwork, with an intensive focus on the communication tool between management and teams, following its impact on projects and organizations, whether negatively or positively. Then I will provide a roadmap for each manager working in an organization that contains multicultural team projects, to take advantage of this diversity and twist it to an opportunity that can be developed through the evolution of the project towards more success. The competence of project managers in managing communication in a multicultural work environment depends on a set of knowledge skills and tools, the most prominent of which are related to communication in such a situation will be addressed in a progressive and coherent manner.

Green hydrogen is one of the keys for meeting the European Union’s target of net zero emissions by 2050. It is classified as green if produced through electrolysis utilizing the energy produced by renewable sources such as solar or wind energy. The idea is to build up a compact system to be placed in containers able to produce and store green hydrogen. Stored hydrogen can then be utilized where needed. This product can be of interest for small-medium customers with renewable energy production, such as farm owners and companies. It’s not a huge investment and the risk is low, but if widespread it can contribute both to planet’s health and customer’s wallet.

First, the correlation between per-capita GDP and infrastructural endowment is investigated, at the national level, at the regional level and at the provincial level. A simple regression is then set up at the provincial level in Italy: the role of the highway index is confirmed as significant in explaining economic growth. A case study is then presented: the development of the Brescia-Padua A4 highway in the last 70 years, in parallel with the socio-economic evolution of the provinces where the highway was built (“Alta Padana”). A counterfactual exercise is carried out: the same analysis is undertaken on “Bassa Padana”, a neighboring area where no highway was built. Several themes are analyzed: demography, the value of production, the dynamics of enterprises, tourist attractiveness, quality of life and the environmental system. It is concluded that the A4 highway has “accompanied” development of the “Alta Padana” area, by fostering its physical and economic interconnection.

The assets and services provided by Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova, since 2020, are affected by the construction of the new Brescia-Verona High Speed/High-Capacity railway. It is the first time in its history that the concessionaire has found itself managing a huge “control” operation of a maxi-construction site that deeply concerns it, but which is not within its strict competence. Given the enormity of the task, Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova has decided to acquire an external Project Management Office (PMO) focused on the smooth delivery of the project, a pioneering decision for the Italian infrastructure market. In the first phase, PMO was responsible to write the Project Management Plan (PMP), in which the methods of execution, monitoring, control, and closure of project activities were defined to ensure the meet of the Autostrada’s needs. The second phase, PMO work to apply the guidelines, procedures and processes defined in the PMP for the governance of the project. In addition to supplying the lack of expertise to deal with an atypical situation to its core business, other aim of the project was the possibility to increase the Project Management culture among the internal structures.

A proper identification, assessment, and allocation of risks are essential for reducing the likelihood of time and cost overruns. Aiming for lowering the overall cost of claims and disputes, this study aims for the identification, assessment, and allocation of the risks in private building projects in Chile. Based on a thorough examination of the literature, reveals 104 risks that are organized into four categories and eleven subcategories. The allocation, probability, and impact of these risk variables were estimated by experts consulted through questionnaires. Results show that delays in approval/permits, delays in decision-making, poor design, equipment problems, planning deficiencies, poorly trained skilled labor, unclear contract clauses and conditions, late design changes, competition, resource availability, and unrealistic baseline scheduling are the top-ranked risk factors. The study’s respondents’ recommendations regarding the risk allocation were compared with the contractual risk allocation in the projects analyzed unraveling that over 50% of the most critical risks had disparities between contractual allocation and respondents’ recommendations. The study’s findings are useful for assisting practitioners in allocating risks to those stakeholders who are better equipped to evaluate, manage, and control those risks. The risks can be prioritized for response planning using the generated risk priority.

Could something apparently “light” like a soft mobility infrastructure become the backbone of a territorial megaproject? Yes, if it represents the trigger action of a strategy for the regeneration of a wide area from Swiss to Milan, involving multiple public and private stakeholders and investors and supporting long-lasting requalification of a territorial system in its economic, social and ecological components. The Olona Valley Masterplan is the expression of this strategy, based on a new bicycle lane that crosses the territory of Varese alongside the Olona river and, by touching dismissed industrial areas, cultural sites and precious landscapes, brings new life to them, reinterpreting their identity and roles, moving people and goods, giving back significant sites to local communities. The masterplan brings together economic subjects, representatives of the public administration, researchers and innovative companies and local communities towards a vision of the future based on resilience, adaptability and the rediscovery of the intrinsic potential of the territories.

Megaprojects are intended to generate positive impacts for society at regional, national, or international levels. However, the potential unintended consequences associated with the activities in various stages of the megaprojects’ lifecycle, such as air pollution, waste generation, and social challenges, can adversely affect the sustainability of these projects. In this article, based on a systems thinking approach, a causal-loop diagram is developed to address the sustainability challenges of high-speed railway megaprojects. The two stages of construction and operation of the project have been considered and the effects of relevant variables on the three pillars of sustainability are discussed. The analysis and provided insights shed light on the significance of considering both short-term and long-term effects of the activities directly or indirectly linked with megaprojects and confirm systems thinking as an appropriate approach to analyze the sustainability issues of these projects.