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Mega projects and sustainable city image: evidence from Nuevo Norte Project of Madrid
... Destination marketers aim to brand cities and promote them to various target groups, pursuing economic, political or sociopsychological goals (Osorio-Andrade, Murcia-Zorrilla, & Arango-Espinal, 2020). In the era of globalization and urbanization, a city's image reflects and evaluates its comprehensive economic, political, and social factors on the international stage, constituting its intangible assets (Metaxas, 2024). The city's image is pivotal in urban tourism development, shaping visitors' perceptions and influencing tourism development (Hussein, 2020). ...
... City image is paramount in urban tourism development (Metaxas, 2024). It encapsulates visitors' evaluations, profoundly influencing their decision-making processes and shaping their mental benchmarks (Hussein, 2020). ...
Purpose – This study aims to critically evaluate the impact of government tourism promotion methods on city image and visiting intentions and to explore the moderating effect of tourism experience on two of the conceptualized relationships, using Macao as a case study.
Design/methodology/approach – The research analyzed responses from 407 Macao visitors during the pandemic to determine the effects of tourism promotion methods on the city’s image and visiting intention using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses.
Findings – This study revealed that tourism promotion methods positively impact the city’s image and visiting intentions. City image also mediates the relationship between tourism promotion methods and
visiting intentions. Furthermore, tourism experience moderates the relationships between promotion methods and city image and between promotion methods and visiting intentions.
Research limitations/implications – The study’s findings on the effects of promotion methods utilized by local governments support and expand upon existing theoretical frameworks within the realm of nonprofit organizations’ management and marketing for destination marketing organizations (DMOs). However, the cross-sectional design limits causality, and findings may not be generalizable beyond Macao without further comparative research.
Practical implications – This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and marketers to design promotional campaigns that deliver authentic and memorable experiences, aligning with their promotional promises, especially in post pandemic contexts.
Social implications – This research contributes to the theoretical and methodological advancement of management and marketing for DMOs from a public sector perspective, highlighting the critical role of government involvement in urban tourism promotion.
Originality/value – The research offers valuable insights into how promotional activities influence visiting intentions, advancing tourism management and marketing for DMOs from a nonprofit perspective. The study validates theories and adds unique insights by focusing on Macao’s post pandemic recovery, offering practical implications for similar urban settings.
The present paper discusses the case of the Madrid Nuevo Norte Project (MNNP) in order to examine the relation of this mega-project with the city’s sustainable development. For this reason, the study used a qualitative approach using semi-structural interviews with experts (Madrid’s town hall, Madrid State, and the program management office and other external) that relayed strongly with MNNP. The expert panel requirements are split in six expertise areas: sustainability, urban development, urban planning, government or public affairs, project management or Madrid Nuevo Norte (MNN) key stakeholders. The study highlighted the vital importance of MNNP as a flagship sustainable project for the rest of Europe, that meets sustainability criteria for contributing substantially in the improvement of the quality of life of final users and for the community in general. For instance, it contributes to the regeneration of the city’s degraded area, to the interconnection of an isolated part of the city and public transportation connection, improving the external image of Madrid. Despite of it, there are some challenges that should be carefully managed such as applying sustainable solutions from other cities not properly tailored to Madrid, housing pricing accessibility increase due to the lack of terrain in Madrid and the politization of the project as discussion topic between local parties. In this context, local authorities should give particular emphasis in complying with the principles of sustainability for improving the overall performance of MNNP, ensuring social justice and prosperity for the people of Madrid.
This paper examines the critical role of Mega Infrastructure Projects in sustainable urban and peripheral development by presenting a Sustainable Infrastructure Serum Analysis supported by primary field research. In the Athens Metro case study, we examined the project's impact on sustainable development by analysing the opinions of the project's users. As a result, the Athens Metro serves as a case study to help us better understand sustainable infrastructure as a framework for green growth from the standpoint of society. The three pillars of sustainable development are inextricably linked. This study focuses on the social comprehension and acceptance of a Mega Infrastructure Project effects. We attempt to demonstrate the interdependence of the three pillars of sustainable development through public opinion responses to our research by developing a statistical model fed by public responses to a prototype questionnaire that we developed to support our research objectives. The study's findings highlighted the project's social acceptability and necessity by establishing a direct positive correlation between sustainability, society, the economy, and the environment from the standpoint of society.
Since the late 20th century major, European cities have exhibited large projects driven by neoliberal urban planning policies whose aim is to enhance their position on the global market. By locating these projects in central city areas, they also heighten and reinforce their privileged situation within the city as a whole, thus contributing to deepening the centre–periphery rift. The starting point for this study is the significance and scope of large projects in metropolitan cities’ urban planning agendas since the final decade of the 20th century. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the correlation between the various opposing conservative and progressive urban policies, and the projects put forward, for the city of Madrid. A study of documentary sources and the strategies deployed by public and private agents are interpreted in the light of a process during which the city has had a succession of alternating governments defending opposing urban development models. This analysis allows us to conclude that the predominant large-scale projects proposed under conservative policies have contributed to deepening the centre–periphery rift appreciated in the city.
Megaprojects are returning to play a key role in the transformation of rural Africa, despite controversies over their outcome. While some view them as promising tools for a ‘big push’ of modernization, others criticize their multiple adverse effects and risk of failure. Against this backdrop, the paper revisits earlier concepts that have explained megaproject failures by referring to problems of managerial complexity and the logics of state-led development. Taking recent examples from Kenya, the paper argues for a more differentiated approach, considering the symbolic role infrastructure megaprojects play in future-oriented development politics as objects of imagination, vision, and hope. We propose to explain the outcomes of megaprojects by focusing on the ‘politics of aspiration’, which unfold at the intersection between different actors and scales. The paper gives an overview of large infrastructure projects in Kenya and places them in the context of the country´s national development agenda ‘Vision 2030′. It identifies the relevant actors and investigates how controversial aspirations, interests and foreign influences play out on the ground. The paper concludes by describing megaproject development as future making, driven by the mobilizing power of the ‘politics of aspiration’. The analysis of megaprojects should consider not only material outcomes but also their symbolic dimension for desirable futures.
Madrid Nuevo Norte (Madrid New North) is an urban redevelopment program applied in the city of Madrid in Spain. Regarding this, the aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, the project examines if the Nuevo Norte project is aligned with the principles of sustainability. Secondly, the paper investigates the impact of Nuevo Norte on the application of city marketing strategies in Madrid. For those purposes, questionnaires were distributed through the Internet to 122 urban developers and planners located in the Spanish capital. The results indicated that overall, Nuevo Norte contributes to the sustainable development of Madrid; however, concerns were identified regarding the budget and the timeline of the project. In addition, Madrid Nuevo Norte provides significant opportunities to local authorities to implement sustainable city marketing strategies, aiming to improve the competitiveness and the quality of life in the city of Madrid. To this end, it seems that city marketing, through the construction of mega projects, should contribute to sustainability, ensuring a better life for local residents and communities in general. The research is expected to assist local authorities in Spain to harness the potential of mega projects such as Nuevo Norte in designing city marketing strategies and to promote Madrid in an international context as a city that gives emphasis in urban sustainability.
The sustainable urban redevelopment project to protect biodiversity was developed to regenerate the external spaces of an ancient rural farmhouse, Villa Framarino, in the regional Natural Park of Lama Balice, a shallow erosive furrow (lama) rich in biodiversity, between two suburbs of the city of Bari (Apulia, Italy) and close to the city airport. This work includes a complex system of activities aimed not only at a spatial revaluation, necessary to relaunch the urban image, but it is accompanied by interventions of a cultural, social, economic, environmental and landscape nature, aimed at increasing the quality of life, in compliance with the principles of sustainability and social participation. One of the means to revitalize a territory subject to redevelopment is the planning of events and activities of socio-cultural value that involve the population to revive the sense of belonging to the territory and the community and at the same time to protect the biodiversity of the urban park of the protected natural area.
With the acceleration of China’s urbanization, the functions and benefits of mega-projects are required higher. With the deepening of “the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road”, the quantitative evaluation of multinational investment projects will help strengthen cross-border communication among government, society and enterprises, which provide a basis for mutual trust. This study empirically analyzes and evaluates the impact of mega-projects on carrying capacity of cities, by using the DID method based on the panel data of 15 cities in China from 2000 to 2013. The results show that the construction and operation of the first-line project of the West-East gas pipeline has a significant positive impact on the improvement of carrying capacity of cities along the line. However, the degree of impact on three dimensions is slightly different. The impact on the social carrying capacity is the greatest, then the ecological and economic carrying capacity. Therefore, the decisions of domestic mega-projects should be unified with urban planning to promote the sustainable development of China’s economy and social. The investment of mega-projects abroad should also be coordinated with the carrying capacity of host cities, in order to enhance the competitiveness and creativity of Chinese multinational mega-projects investment.
Sustainable construction involves the judicious use of resources so as to satisfy the demands of both present and future generations. It is supported on three pillars namely economic, environmental and social. This study aims to understand the key performance indicators of sustainability. Based on the literature review, this study develops a set of performance indicators relevant to Indian construction industry. Questionnaires and interviews are conducted among the architects and engineers. Using Relative Importance Index, the identified indicators are prioritised.
Partnership is positioned as central to meeting the targets of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals that make up the United Nation’s Agenda for 2030 with Goal 17, ‘Partnerships for the Goals’, often described as pivotal to the transformational efforts required for its realisation. In view of this, Goal 17’s limited vision of partnership and its potential contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is disappointing. This article suggests that partnership needs to be articulated as a more vibrant vehicle for supporting the transformations needed to attain the Goals. This requires acknowledgement of the need for deeper multi-level and multi-actor relationships; the promotion of collective accountability for achieving the SDGs; and a stronger evidence base for partnership policymaking with more robust mutual exchange and learning.
Mega-events have different types of effects for host cities or countries. The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact indicators of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan from the perspective of tourism stakeholders and to investigate the effects of these impacts on the urban sustainability through the perceptions of stakeholders after the Formula 1 Grand Prix. The results indicated that environmental and social impacts exerted significant positive effects on urban sustainability. All positive dimensions of economic impact exerted significant positive effects on urban sustainability and 'prices rising' negative dimension exerted nonsignificant effects on urban sustainability. The results showed that except 'tourism infrastructure development' other positive dimensions (infrastructure development, protection of natural resources and cultural heritage) of environmental impact and only 'social welfare' positive dimension of social impact exerted significant positive effects on urban sustainability. This research contributes to policymakers by revealing the impacts of mega-events on urban sustainable development.
This systematic literature review explores the megaproject management literature and contributes by improving our understanding of the causes and cures of poor megaproject performance. The review analyzes 6,007 titles and abstracts and 86 full papers, identifying a total of 18 causes and 54 cures to address poor megaproject performance. We suggest five avenues for future research that should consider examining megaprojects as large-scale, inter-organizational production systems: (1) designing the system architecture; (2) bridging the gap with manufacturing; (3) building and leading collaborations; (4) engaging institutions and communities; and (5) decomposing and integrating the supply chain.
There is renewed interest in megaprojects worldwide. In contrast to high-modernist megaprojects that were discrete projects undertaken by centralized authorities, contemporary megaprojects are often decentralized and pursued by a range of stakeholders from governments as well as the private sector. They leverage cutting-edge technology to ‘see’ complex systems as legible and singular phenomena. As a result, they are more ambitious, more pervasive and they have the potential to reconfigure longstanding relationships that have animated social and ecological systems. The articles in this issue explore the novel features of contemporary megaprojects, they show how the proponents of contemporary megaprojects aspire to technologically enabled omnipresence, and they document the resistance that megaprojects have provoked.
Urban regeneration has to be based on rigorous methodological frameworks able to find a balance among preservation instances, economic development, urban quality and the well-being of the population. Considering these premises, this research is focused on the definition of the decision-aiding process for the reuse of an abandoned health care facility with several historic buildings. Both public and private interests have been taken into consideration, since they play an important role for the urban regeneration project and for the definition of urban regeneration policies. Given the complexity of this issue, the evaluation process has been structured by combining different methodologies to support the policy cycle: Stakeholder Analysis, to identify the actors engaged (Social sustainability); Nara Grid for the values elicitation of the Built Cultural Heritage (Cultural and environmental sustainability); and the subsequent definition of different sustainable scenarios evaluated by the Discounted Cash Flow Analysis (Economic sustainability). Four alternatives have been assessed with the support of a Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) aimed at defining the most balanced one considering heritage significance retention and urban regeneration. This work contributes to the literature on soft OR by exploring interactions among different stakeholders and addresses policy instances by providing a transparent methodology based on value elicitation.
Global freshwaters are severely depleted. Provision of improved water infrastructure technologies and innovation can address challenges posed by water shortages to environmental sustainability. China’s South-to-North Water Diversion Project has generated extensive debates over sustainability of water resources system in the northern drier region, which faces severe water scarcity hindering ecosystems, agriculture, industries and livelihoods. Some arguments extend the views that large infrastructure projects can have negative implications for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem goods and services. However, this study strengthens the opposite view, as such projects would resolve increasing environmental challenges northern China has been facing over many decades due to severe water shortages. The project empowers connectivity among individuals, community, and organizations that the sustainability of goods and services such as energy, irrigation and water supply are perceived, and livelihoods and the standard of peoples’ living is improved. A resilient, robust and adaptive water infrastructure framework can overcome the challenges of water shortages by meeting a long term social, economic and environmental goals for water resources systems in northern China. Such framework can also identify the thresholds of change and the threats associated with environmental sustainability.
In 2017, the Crown Prince of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced the new mega city “NEOM”. The city is envisioned to be an innovation hub; a “start-up the size of a country”, “inhabited by more robots than humans”. NEOM aims at attracting the “greatest minds and best talents”, the so-called “dreamers” offering them “innovation and technology with liveability at its core”.
The paper foregrounds city branding to understand what NEOM is all about; who is welcome in the imagined city, and who is not, what kind of social structure and urban fabric the city promises and how is it going to be governed. This aims at answering the question of how do city branding strategies aim at positioning NEOM within the global competition of places, reposition the Kingdom regionally and internationally, and represent a form of legitimization of the Crown Prince’s rule? This paper shows that NEOM’s city branding has been utilized, not just to position the city within the global competition of places, but rather, to brand the Crown Prince and reaffirm his power.
The purpose of this study was to identify the antecedent and outcome variables of host city image perceptions, and to analyze how these perceptions impact behavioral intentions from the residents’ viewpoint. To this end, the authors constructed a structural model, distributed questionnaires to residents in Saitama City for the Tour de France Saitama Criterium held in Japan from 2014 to 2016, and collected 636 usable responses. The results verified that the fit between host city and sporting event is a useful antecedent variable of city image. Furthermore, place attachment to host city was identified as an outcome variable. Development of these two variables could benefit behavioral intentions, suggesting that residents play an important role in sporting event development. In addition, the authors found that hosting a sporting event leads to place attachment among residents through fit between host city and sporting event and city image perceptions. Thus, hosting a sporting event has two potential impacts—one each on the event organizer and the host city—from the residents’ viewpoint. It benefits the organizers by developing the residents’ behavioral intentions and has a social impact on the host city through an enhancement in their place attachment.
The present study deals with the topic of post-seismic reconstruction focusing on landscape and social issues. Sustainable reconstruction requires a connection between the physical context of a given territory and the immaterial (historical, cultural, productive) values that constitute the place’s identity. In this perspective, those places that have been destroyed by severe earthquakes or other disasters could be labelled as “interrupted landscapes”, meaning a drastic break in the individual stories attaching the people to their own territory, as well as an abrupt alteration of the continuous process by which people attribute a sense to their own territory. The study discusses selected cases of post-earthquake reconstruction in Italy, providing an overview of different visions for development of the new towns, that oscillate between two contrasting approaches: the “new town” model, implying the construction of a new town off-site and the “in loco” model. Looking for the reasons for failures of the new town model reconstruction, the study also debates the social dimension of urban landscapes, reflecting upon the notion of ‘collective identity’ connecting place attachment to cultural heritage. These issues were finally considered when defining strategic guidelines for sustainable urban reconstruction promoting place identity and preserving the intimate characteristics of the affected landscapes. Governance actions were defined along with sustainability strategies based on the investigated case studies, outlining a series of best practices that may promote the permanent involvement of local communities.
The critical geography scholarship on mega-events mostly adopts the framework of accumulation by dispossession, highlighting the disruptive legacies such as displacement and gentrification wrought upon host cities. Though the critique is largely correct, it has failed to capture the complex layers of historical and institutional contexts that underlie urban social change in mega-event cities. This article makes a case for broadening our analytical perspective by introducing the concept of aspirational urbanism, which refers to the diverse practices and discourses launched by state and business elites in an attempt to remake their cities bourgeois and world-class. Aspirational urbanism underscores the gap between global aspirations and local realities and draws our attention to the ad hoc economic, political, and cultural strategies used by state and business elites to bridge the gap. The concept is particularly useful for studying transformations in mega-event cities in the Global South, because these are the places marked by sharp contrasts between global city ambitions and developing-country realities. By way of introducing this special issue on urban transformations and spectacles in Brazil, this article presents a comparative analysis of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Beijing 2008 Olympics to examine how aspirational urbanism unfolded differently in the 2 cities.
Purpose
Today the decisions taken relating to urban renewal interventions are rarely supported by logical and operational methodologies capable of effectively rationalising selection processes. For this purpose, it is necessary to propose and implement analysis models with the aim of promoting the sustainable development of the territory. The aim of the paper is to define a model for the optimal allocation of scarce resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The Discrete Linear Programming (DLP) is used for selecting investments aimed at achieving financial, social, cultural and environmental sustainability.
Findings
The proposed model lends itself to the construction of investment plans on behalf of both types of decision-makers, of both a public and a private nature.
Research limitations/implications
All projects are evaluated according to multi-criteria logics, so that it is possible to find compromise solutions, in accordance with the stakeholders different preferences.
Practical implications
The model, written with A Mathematical Programming Language (AMPL) using DLP logics, is tested - case study - so as to define an investment programme finalized to urban renewal of a vast area.
Originality/value
With the model all projects are evaluated according to multi-criteria logics, so that it is possible to find compromise solutions, in accordance with the stakeholders different preferences.
Due to its strategic significance, the implementation of megaprojects usually requires lots of social resources, which indicates that megaprojects have magnitude social responsibilities. Although researchers and practitioners have done a large amount of efforts within the domain of megaproject social responsibility, the relevant studies are still limited and scattered. Research into social responsibility of megaproject is not as well developed a field as other aspects of project management research. This study aims to review relevant studies in this area. A systematic process employing a four-phase search method, objective analysis and subjective analysis, helps to provide enough potential articles related to social responsibility in megaproject management, and to reduce arbitrariness and subjectivity involved in research topic analysis. Basic information such as publication year, type, and megaproject stage and type were analyzed to provide an overview of the research area. Cluster and word frequency analyses were used to explore classification of megaproject social responsibility research. As a result, three main research topics addressing the key questions were derived. In addition, four research gaps and the corresponding research agenda were identified. This detailed review provides the basis for further studies on social responsibilities within the context of megaproject management. The research trends and gaps can serve as motivation for researchers and practitioners to work on the next generation of the studies to support the sustainable development of megaprojects.
This study looks at the critical success factors (CSFs) affecting integration of sustainability into project management practices of construction projects in developing countries. Having innovation diffusion theory as the theoretical point of departure, CSFs pertaining to the triple bottom line of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) were identified through a comprehensive review of literature. These were customised for the context of developing countries by conducting 16 semi-structured interviews and were presented in form of a conceptual model. The model was validated through a survey returning 101 completed questionnaires with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) as the method of analysis. This study contributes to the field by presenting one of the first studies in its kind focusing on CSFs for integration of sustainability into project management practices for construction projects within the context of developing countries.
Climate change is acknowledged as the largest threat to our societies in the coming decades, potentially affecting large and diverse groups of urban residents in this century of urbanization. As urban areas house highly diverse people with differing vulnerabilities, intensifying climate change is likely to shift the focus of discussions from a general urban perspective to who in cities will be affected by climate change, and how. This brings the urban equity question to the forefront. Here we assess how climate change events may amplify urban inequity. We find that heatwaves, but also flooding, landslides, and even mitigation and adaptation measures, affect specific population groups more than others. As underlying sensitivity factors we consistently identify socioeconomic status and gender. We synthesize the findings with regard to equity types – meaning outcome-based, process-oriented and context-related equity – and suggest solutions for avoiding increased equity and justice concerns as a result of climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation.
Urbanmegaprojects change the city in variousways over a long period of time. These changes may be very clear and calculable, but it is the changes that followwhich are unpredictable and extensive. Especially in fast-changing cities like Seoul, Korea, projects like the Cheonggyecheon Restoration have massive effects on the surrounding environment. The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatial changes in the downtown area after the Cheonggycheon Restoration Project (2005). The economic; social, and physical effect and the outcome of the restoration project have been studied before the restoration, but the actual changes that occurred afterwards were understudied. Since subsequent spatial changes in the surrounding area occur over a long period, continuous observation on the physical effects should be made. Thus, unlike most studies that focus on the immediate before and after effect of the Cheonggycheon Restoration Project, this study focuses on the ten years of physical changes that followed the restoration. The study covers roughly fourteen large blocks, which were divided into seven categories based on current land use and the historical background of the city form. Physical changes of newly-built buildings, the number of renovations or building extensions, and socio-spatial changes, such as the rise and fall of urban industries, changes in building use, and overall changes in the characteristic of the blocks, were analyzed in accordance with their historical development of the city form. Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Cheonggyecheon Restoration project, this study provides a better understanding of the overall effect of the project.
Back cover text: Megaprojects and Risk provides the first detailed examination of the phenomenon of megaprojects. It is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multibillion-dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, how the formula for approval is an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects. This results in projects that are extremely risky, but where the risk is concealed from MPs, taxpayers and investors. The authors not only explore the problems but also suggest practical solutions drawing on theory and hard, scientific evidence from the several hundred projects in twenty nations that illustrate the book. Accessibly written, it will be essential reading in its field for students, scholars, planners, economists, auditors, politicians, journalists and interested citizens.
In recent decades, the region of Madrid has experienced extensive changes in land use-land cover (LULC). Most of these changes are related to an increase in developed areas (urban, industrial, commercial and transport) and abandonment of agricultural uses. The general guideline for regional management has been disregarded and the legal framework overstepped, allowing such changes to go ahead unchecked. Using four maps for different points in time, 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2006, LULC dynamics are analysed and the changes are related to Madrid regional policies. The IDRISI Land Change Modeller is used in order to quantify the changes and find out where they took place. The results show that developed areas doubled in size between 1982 and 2006. Changes were concentrated around the Madrid metropolis and around the main road network, with an increase in urban sprawl and with new, small urban patches in mountain areas of high scenic beauty. These fast and extensive changes were largely made possible by public disinterest and limitations in land and natural resource conservation mechanisms and in housing market regulation.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2016.1139059
La historia urbanística que ha dado paso al denominado como “Madrid, Nuevo Norte” comienza a finales del siglo pasado, cuando se estudia programar para la estación de Chamartín y sus alrededores, una remodelación exhaustiva. Finalmente, este planteamiento, no consiguió que tuviera el suficiente reconocimiento institucional para que se llevara a cabo un plan urbanístico que resolviera la situación en la que se encontraba unos terrenos, y en unos suelos que comprendían la conocida como “Área de Planeamiento Específico (APE 08.03), Prolongación de la Castellana” (hoy “Madrid, Nuevo Norte”). A lo largo del presente estudio nos aproximamos, tal y como podemos comprobar en las variables integrantes de la Metodología desarrollada, los espacios residuales que forman parte de los Lost spaces, que predominan en este espacio geográfico. Punto de partida de ulteriores investigaciones en las que la referencia deben ser las actividades turísticas que se generarán en la que podríamos denominar etapa posterior a la “Covid-19”.
With the growing need for infrastructure development, governments have invested heavily in the construction of large infrastructure projects in the form of megaprojects. However, implementation of such projects requires lots of resources, and they have formidable financial, social and environmental impacts. Despite facing several sustainability issues, megaprojects proliferate. And there is lack of holistic examination of key sustainability issues and influence factors in existing literature of megaproject. This paper, therefore, aims to systematically answer: “what” are the key sustainability issues in megaproject management and “how” can these issues be tackled (influence factors), using 93 peer-reviewed articles obtained from three databases. Moreover, the article proposes an integrated conceptual model by linking the issues and incorporating the influence factors. Finally, some future research areas are presented. The findings of this study may be of significant value to the practitioners and policymakers in incorporating social, environmental and economic dimensions in management of megaprojects.
This paper evaluates two infrastructure mega-projects connected to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver’s downtown peninsula: the renovation of BC Place Stadium and the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion. These projects correspond to two categories of mega-projects often constructed alongside sporting mega-events with intended tourism development legacies that have a history of financial underperformance. Touching upon literatures concerning mega-events, event leveraging, urban development, as well as the public finance of sport and convention venues, this work focuses on fiscal impacts and opportunity costs for venue site locations where there are already high property values, with the aim of providing lessons for comparable future mega-event hosts contemplating similar event-related mega-projects. In addition to arguing for the alignment of venue design to efficiently maximize long-term operating returns and event portfolios for tourism development, this article highlights that venue location within a host city shapes the opportunity costs for government investors and that cost overruns to meet a fixed event deadline can undermine what may other be a sustainable financial structure. While a mega-event-related stadium or convention centre is at significant risk of becoming a financial loser when considering both capital and operating costs, as well as a sub-optimal platform for maximising an event portfolio, this does not have to be the case. Beyond more traditional measures of project return, this article highlights and further develops another key measure of evaluating financial and revenue outcomes, which can be summed up as the opportunity cost of alternative land uses on a venue site.
Projected climate change will involve an additional threat for the sustainability of small ruminant production systems in Europe. Aiming to understand its implications, we conducted a literature review on climate change interactions with sheep and goat systems. The review first identifies the main potential impacts on productivity at the animal level (heat stress effects) and at the forage level (quantity and quality). Results from analysed studies suggest that heat stress thresholds for small ruminants could be higher than previously indicated, although they still will be affected during projected heatwaves. At the forage level, the potential positive effect of CO2 fertilisation will probably be counteracted in most of the cases due to extreme weather events and other limitations. Based on that findings, the review analyses the most suitable adaptation strategies on animal heat stress and pasture production. Particular attention is paid to integrated approaches, providing co-benefits at different levels. Finally, structural and practical challenges affecting small ruminants’ sustainability in a climate change context are discussed, together with potential synergies and trade-offs among different policies and/or strategies. According to the information reviewed, small ruminant systems could be particularly vulnerable to environmental changes, as they are often produced in harsh areas under already severe circumstances. At the same time, they have particular features that could involve advantages against other livestock systems to cope with –and fight against- future climatic conditions. Consequently, they should play a important role for the climate change adaptation and mitigation options within the livestock sector.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationships between the different strengths of ties (strong ties and weak ties), types of trust and project performance in megaprojects.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was conducted with various experts and professionals involved in megaprojects, and 350 valid responses were received. Data was analyzed by means of structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that both strong ties and weak ties have positive impacts on trust in megaprojects, but weak ties have a more significant positive effect than do strong ties. Unexpectedly, the introduction of interorganizational trust significantly weakens the effect of the strength of ties on project performance. The indirect influence of the strength of ties on performance has different paths. Weak ties have an indirect effect via calculative trust and relational trust. However, in a strong ties network, inferior stakeholders lack the information necessary to complete a megaproject, and they believe that calculative trust will not promote project performance until the megaproject is successfully delivered. Thus, the effect of calculative trust on project performance is not significant.
Research limitations/implications
These findings provide evidence in regard to strength of ties governance being a part of the effective strategy in improving megaprojects’ performance. It also demonstrates the mediating function of trust and advances the current understandings of the underlying mechanism of the strength of ties on project performance, thus providing implications for researchers and practitioners. However, this study has some limitations. For example, the strength of ties and trust between organizations are a dynamic process in megaprojects. This study does not conduct in-depth analysis of the evolution mechanism and investigate the different levels of trust at different stages of the megaproject. Future research can be guided by these directions.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this study is fourfold. First, this study enriches the literature on strength of ties by accentuating the roles of trust in megaproject context. Second, this study contributes to the theoretical development of a conceptual model for explaining the interrelationships among strength of ties, types of trust and project performance. Third, this study responds to the call “which dimension (i.e. strong ties or weak ties) is more influential” by exploring the direct and indirect effects of strength of ties on project performance. Finally, this study breaks through the limitation of traditional cognition that megaproject management can be met by relying on rigid contracts. In other words, trust can supplement the weakness of rigid contract by forming contract flexibility with different strength of ties. Meanwhile, the specific strategies to establish and maintain trust are given, such as building information model (BIM) collaboration platform and reputation management mechanism.
The aim of this paper is to examine the relation between city/urban planning and city marketing / branding procedures through the analysis of Strategic Place Marketing implementation in two Greek cities, Larissa and Kozani. The common objective of both cases was to design and test a methodology based on participatory processes in order to plan actions that will lead to the most effective city marketing strategy for each city. The main challenge was to find a way to propose specific steps regarding the implementation of marketing plans acceptable to local stakeholders. The methodology eventually led to a consensus at local level, highlighting certain strengths and weaknesses of the cities and revealing their uniqueness. Since city marketing is connected with specific assets, urban planning and governance issues are strongly linked with its implementation. Through testing hypotheses such as planning / branding as the core of urban strategies, or the conditions under which marketing / branding can be an effective part of a wider urban development strategy, the aim is to establish whether the connections lean towards plurality or constraints.
The reconstruction of a damaged historic/modern urban system following a natural catastrophic event, even if sophisticated, complex and expensive can become an opportunity to apply innovative methods of urban regeneration oriented towards environmental sustainability. A research by the University of L'Aquila exploring the consequences of the 2009 earthquake in central Italy, both in analytical and design terms, is focused on this theme, applying innovative principles to the reconstruction project of the city of L'Aquila, capital of the Abruzzo Region (Italy). The study carries out an analysis of the earthquake effects on urban systems and mobility and proposes an operating strategy based on a multidisciplinary approach that integrates urban design and sustainable mobility strategies. In particular, it outlines the components of Strategic Projects that has been developed for the reconnection of the urban fragments created by the dispersion of the city after the earthquake, which has applied the principles of multi-modal sustainable mobility.
The results of the study show that the post-quake reconstruction, if properly interpreted, can be a unique opportunity to conceive and construct the conditions to implement a new and more efficient urban sustainable transport model through advanced technologies based on outlining an innovative urban redesign approach.
Mega infrastructure investments currently feature as significant aspects in many of the development agendas worldwide. Such projects are often deemed 'unsuccessful' because they have been unable to meet their original expectations in terms of outturn cost, on-time delivery and construction quality. This paper aims to contribute to the debate concerning broader definitions of project success by presenting the findings from an evaluation of 27 mega transport projects drawn from nine countries with respect to their achievements towards multiple dimensions and challenges of sustainable development (SD). The study found the projects exhibited a generally low adherence to SD principles and that the lack of a shared vision threatens to undermine the potential for mega infrastructure to contribute positively to its delivery. The absence of clarity and consensus poses a number of critical challenges for mega infrastructure planning, including questions about whether they can effectively meet the needs of intra and inter-generational equity (and socioeconomic equity), as well as global concerns about such matters as emissions, fuel scarcity and climate change. ARTICLE HISTORY KEYWORDS Sustainable development; mega transport and infrastructure projects; project appraisal and evaluation
The grand project and urban governance in Madrid: Functions, fictions, frictions
Under what conditions can a big urban project be locally sustained in the era of austerity? The wakening of the metropolitan actors after a decade of crisis and dormant planning, reviving a project both as image and discourse, reconciling private and public interests, but with neither operational capacity nor financial room for manoeuvre, altogether creates a paradox. A set of theoretical tools (infrastructural functionalism, the actors’resources, soft spaces) help understand the reasons for the survival of a project that can never be implemented. While they expose two ways of legitimizing decisions, the authors reconstruct the dissymmetry in the protagonists’capacities for action, discuss the shift in power-relations, explain the frictions that arise from them. The result is as follows: the project is shrinking, but nothing changes fundamentally, except its spatial substance. The project’s intention is not oriented towards the regeneration of marginal and deprived northern districts. It envisages a mystified metropolitan periphery as a new frontier which could integrate and resolve all opposition and contradictions among Madrid planners.
This paper explores subtle strategies that megaproject teams develop in practice to manage stakeholders external to the project team. A governmentality approach is used to account for these strategies. A metro rail megaproject in India provides the case for the study. The strategies were identified through a content analysis of 640 project and non-project based Tweets posted by the metro rail organization. We augmented this dataset with the community's response through social media, as well as through semi-structured interviews that captured the project teams' responses. The findings indicate that the megaproject used various strategies: promoting the organization, giving progress updates, appealing to the community, as well as targeting of specific sections of the population. The effect of these attempts at governmentality through branding were observed in community discourses on social media platforms that echoed the strategic discourses projected by the megaproject while interviews enabled us to access the project team's responses. For the project community, the effects included a positive brand image, creating community brand advocates and building support for the project during contentious episodes. For the project team, the effects included job attraction, enhanced job perception as well as the creation of project team brand advocates. The relation between the governmentality instruments and their corresponding effects are theorized in six propositions.
The development of public construction megaprojects in China has been booming during the last decade, and projects of this type are expected to achieve sustainability economically, socially, and environmentally. Despite this, their social sustainability level is relatively low and is yet to be improved. A potentially important reason is the lack of a comprehensive evaluation mechanism to determine if public megaprojects are socially sustainable in the Chinese context. As a prelude to the development of such a mechanism, this paper provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the various social sustainability indicators (SSIs) involved from a multistakeholder perspective. Different research methods (e.g., literature review and questionnaire survey) are adopted to collect the relevant information, both locally and internationally. The data are then analyzed with various statistical techniques in terms of mean score ranking, tests of Kendall's coefficient of concordance, Spearman's rank correlation, and factor analysis. The results uncover six sets of SSIs: improved quality of daily life, appropriate macropolicies, harmonious connections with the surroundings, unique local identity, effective public participation, and others. The work is validated by interviews, and the comments raised by the interviewees are reported. The research findings are expected to benefit both the government and the construction industry at large for better addressing social concerns when delivering public megaprojects in China.
Megaprojects are characterized by large investment volumes, high complexity and ambitious goals of their promoters with respect to technological, economic or aesthetic performance. There are a number of cases which show massive failures with planning, procurement, construction and operation of megaprojects in the transport sector. But there are also positive cases which underline that it is not a natural law that megaprojects fail rather than in the first instance a missing accountability of the planning and decision processes. In this context the criteria for success or failure have to be defined appropriately, because the widely used time and cost overruns are only rough indicators. Furthermore, the methods of evaluation have to be extended to allow for an integrated assessment of all sustainability aspects. Long planning and construction times imply that coping with uncertainty is a crucial issue such that risk and change management, stable legal, financial and political framework, and wide acceptance by stakeholders are essential requirements for a successful planning and implementation process.
Planning literature has generally presented strategic planning as an alternative to top-down land-use planning and modernist urban design. Spatial strategies have been depicted as the product of more or less formalised processes of strategic planning, without fully acknowledging the nexus with other forms and scales of planning and large-scale projects. We use the case of Turin (Italy) to observe in practice this theoretical blind spot. Indeed, the city and region of Turin have been an important ground for experimentation in Italian and European planning. Its long-term continuity in politics, its close-knit policy networks and the substantial restructuring of its economic base have been the conditions for developing a strand of comprehensive and strategic plans and large-scale projects that, together, profoundly changed Turin between the early 1990s and the mid-2010s. Turin's experience shows not only that spatial strategies derive from multiple modes of planning, but also that the involved actors may, on the contrary, perceive strategic plans as the main place for developing spatial strategies. The case provides insights regarding the intertwining of spatial strategies with urban design and planning at both urban and metropolitan scales. In order to understand how spatial strategies work and impact the city, one must look beyond strategic planning alone.
Compared to the prior discussion of the emerging research on entrepreneurship and sustainable development , the purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of the entrepreneurial activity to simultaneously enhance economic growth, advance environmental objectives, and improve social conditions in developing countries. We mainly found that entrepreneurship in these countries positively contributes to the economic and social dimensions of sustainable development, while its contribution to the environmental dimension is negative. The results of causality test confirm the interactions among entrepreneur-ship and these three dimensions in both short and long-run. Limitations and future research directions, some managerial and policy implications for entrepreneurial action in sustainable development are also discussed.
International heritage doctrine and the Operational Guidelines (OG) for the Implementation of the World Heritage (WH) Convention discourage the reconstruction of cultural heritage. Only ‘exceptional circumstances’ justify this practice, namely armed conflicts and natural disasters. The UNESCO WH Committee recently expressed its support for the reconstruction of damaged WH properties in view of such circumstances and requested the development of new guidance to address this timely issue (Decisions: 39 COM 7 and 40 COM 7). Guidelines will be prepared and provided to the Committee accordingly (Decision: 41 COM 7). We can therefore foresee revisions and additions to Paragraph 86, which is currently the only guideline in the OG, deemed ‘inadequate’ by the Committee. This research paper brings into focus the status of reconstruction in WH policy formulation and takes a normative position. Drawing on document analysis and the most up-to-date studies, I argue that its status should formally shift from exceptional case ruled out a priori to conservation treatment ruled in. I encourage a fruitful international exchange of ideas among a broad interdisciplinary readership to contribute to policy-making. Readers who dispute my position, no less than those who support it, may come to see reconstruction in a different light.
Green and sustainable remediation (GSR) has become a global trend in the contaminated land remediation field. Growing numbers of countries have adopted GSR procedures published in regulatory and/or technical guidance. China is fast becoming one of the largest remediation markets in the world, and is beginning to engage with GSR. Among other efforts, a taskforce is currently developing the first Chinese technical standard on GSR. This paper presents the context positioning and development of a sustainable remediation assessment indicator set for China. This sustainability indicator set was formed based on existing sustainable remediation guidelines and literature. LCA was used to evaluate environmental impacts, and the results combined with social and economic appraisal via MCA. The indicator set was applied to a remediation 'mega-site' in China. The results showed that compared to excavation and landfill, an alternative treatment strategy of soil washing, thermal desorption and S/S brought about relatively less waste generation, better worker safety, and preferable local impacts, leading to higher scores in the environmental and social-economic domains. However, the social-economic scores were limited by a lack of public engagement. The results of the case study have shown that the indicator set is valid, with lessons learnt and suggestions for improvement discussed.
In the years 2006–2014, urban planning reform was seen as the major remedy against housing shortage in Sweden. The present government has the continuation of such reform on its agenda, but as of yet has made no proposals; instead, other housing policy measures have been introduced.
In light of the uncertainty as to the future course of urban planning reform, possible future steps can be discussed. This article accordingly investigates whether German urban planning law and implementation could provide interesting reference points for discussion of further urban planning reform in Sweden, and if so, what parts of the German experience should be the center of attention.
The article covers three aspects of German planning that influence the uncertainty, duration, and cost of residential planning as well as social goals addressed through planning: planning law, focusing on facilitated planning procedures of German planning law, measures taken in the organization of planning authorities to make development planning more efficient, and planning-related city demands for affordable housing.
The conclusions encompass proposals for the further reform of the Swedish planning process in the form of a facilitated and accelerated development planning procedure for housing projects, as well as the introduction of private initiative in development planning. Further improvements to the organization and incentives of planning authorities are proposed. More research is required into municipal demands for affordable housing in the form of inclusionary zoning; such research should draw on the extensive international experience of such zoning, relating it to a Swedish pilot project.
In recent years, the concept of smart sustainable cities has come to the fore. And it is rapidly gaining momentum and worldwide attention as a promising response to the challenge of urban sustainability. This pertains particularly to ecologically and technologically advanced nations. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the field of smart (and) sustainable cities in terms of its underlying foundations and assumptions, state–of–the art research and development, research opportunities and horizons, emerging scientific and technological trends, and future planning practices. As to the design strategy, the paper reviews existing sustainable city models and smart city approaches. Their strengths and weaknesses are discussed with particular emphasis being placed on the extent to which the former contributes to the goals of sustainable development and whether the latter incorporates these goals. To identify the related challenges, those models and approaches are evaluated and compared against each other in line with the notion of sustainability. The gaps in the research within the field of smart sustainable cities are identified in accordance with and beyond the research being proposed. As a result, an integrated approach is proposed based on an applied theoretical perspective to align the existing problems and solutions identification for future practices in the area of smart sustainable urban planning and development. As to the findings, the paper shows that critical issues remain unsettled, less explored, largely ignored, and theoretically underdeveloped for applied purposes concerning existing models of sustainable urban form as to their contribution to sustainability, among other things. It also reveals that numerous research opportunities are available and can be realized in the realm of smart sustainable cities. Our perspective on the topic in this regard is to develop a theoretically and practically convincing model of smart sustainable city or a framework for strategic smart sustainable urban development. This model or framework aims to address the key limitations, uncertainties, paradoxes, and fallacies pertaining to existing models of sustainable urban form—with support of ICT of the new wave of computing and the underlying big data and context–aware computing technologies and their advanced applications. We conclude that the applied theoretical inquiry into smart sustainable cities of the future is deemed of high pertinence and importance—given that the research in the field is still in its early stages, and that the subject matter draws upon contemporary and influential theories with practical applications. The comprehensive overview of and critique on existing work on smart (and) sustainable cities provide a valuable and seminal reference for researchers and practitioners in related research communities and the necessary material to inform these communities of the latest developments in the area of smart sustainable urban planning and development. In addition, the proposed integrated approach is believed to be the first of its kind and has not been, to the best of one’s knowledge, produced elsewhere.
This paper presents a case study investigating the most salient impressions and unique attractions of Hong Kong, perceived by government officials, inbound visitors and local residents. The study utilizes neural network analytical content analysis as a tool to understand the shared and disparate images and perceptions of the uniqueness of Hong Kong by quantifying the occurrence of open-ended self-reported textual answers by the respondents. The clustering of the answers and perceptual mapping confirms that the stakeholder groups think of Hong Kong as a conventional tourist destination and as a cosmopolitan metropolis. This strong stereotype, which displays an obvious knowledge gap between visitors and residents, as well as inter-group discrepancies, has created obstacles to innovating Hong Kong's image and branding.