Mei Yuan’s research while affiliated with Queensland University of Technology and other places

To deliver tangible sustainability outcomes, the infrastructure sector of the construction industry needs to build capacities for the creation, application and management of ever increasing knowledge. This paper intends to establish the importance and key issues of promoting sustainability through knowledge management (KM). It presents a new conceptual framework for managing sustainability knowledge to raise the awareness and direct future research in the field of transport infrastructure, one of the fast growing sectors in Australia. A holistic KM approach is adopted in this research to consider the potential to “deliver the right information to the right person at the right time” in the context of sustainable development of infrastructure. A questionnaire survey among practitioners across the nation confirmed the necessity and identified priority issues of managing knowledge for sustainability. During infrastructure development, KM can help build much needed industry consensus, develop capacity, communicate decisions, and promote specific measures for the pursuit of sustainability. Six essential elements of the KM approach and their priority issues informed the establishment of a conceptual KM framework. The transport infrastructure sector has come to realise that development must not come at the expense of environmental and social objectives. In practice however, it is facing extensive challenges to deliver what has been promised in the sustainability agenda. This research demonstrates the importance of managing sustainability knowledge, integration of various stakeholders, facilitation of plans and actions and delivery of tangible benefits in real projects, as a positive step towards meeting these challenges.

Infrastructure development can cause major impacts on our environment, society and local economy. As the global realm of sustainability develops and evolves, it is increasingly accepted that sustainability issues should be put on top of the agenda when contemplating infrastructure development. While many construction organizations will not argue against pursuing sustainability, in practice problems often lie with what should be done, who should do them and how mutual benefits can be obtained. This is compounded by the fact that very often there are no common understandings between the stakeholders, and the gap between advancement of research and real life applications in actual projects is still significant. New approaches should be investigated to both develop and expand the body of sustainability knowledge on infrastructure development and investigate better ways of communicating with and managing it to overcome the various barriers within the sector. Knowledge management (KM) has shown its worth and promise in existing applications in the construction industry. Various attempts are being made to develop tools and mechanisms for the effective management of construction knowledge yet few are capable of handling specific characteristics associated with sustainability concerns and infrastructure works. An ongoing research project, undertaken by Queensland University of Technology in Australia, is introduced in this paper. It enlists two rounds of industry surveys to study the unique characters of infrastructure development as well as how sustainability knowledge is best shared and managed. A holistic KM approach is proposed to facilitate sustainability knowledge creation, capture, sharing and application, and the whole process is encapsulated in a general KM framework for decision making of infrastructure stakeholders. It is expected that this research will build up the links between KM activities, industry environment and organizational performance.

On the back of years of strong economic development and the boom of resource export more recently, new construction and redevelopment of infrastructure has become a critical issue in Australia. As the construction processes involved in these projects have significant impacts on the environment, people's lifestyle and local economy, sustainability issues have been high on the discussion agenda for many stakeholders. However past research indicated that problems in pursuing infrastructure sustainability often lies with what should be done, who should do them and how mutual benefits can be delivered to those involved. These problems are compounded by the fact that very often there are no common understandings between the stakeholders. Other sectors of the industry, such as commercial office buildings, have been more successful in raising the bar of sustainability through rating tools, innovations, and policies, with up-to-date knowledge captured and encapsulated into these measures. To rectify the problems in the infrastructure sector, it is both feasible and timely to develop and expand the body of sustainability knowledge on infrastructure development and investigate ways of communicating with and managing it within the sector. Despite being a relatively new and emerging concept, knowledge management (KM) has been used to develop mechanisms and tools for managing information and knowledge in a diverse range of contexts in many sectors of industry and business. An ongoing research project, undertaken by Queensland University of Technology in Australia, is introduced in this paper. The project is aimed at establishing a specific KM approach to facilitate better decision making during sustainable infrastructure development. It highlights the unique characteristics of the infrastructure industry as well as the nature of sustainability knowledge. Existing KM mechanisms and tools are discussed as well as adaptation plans to customize them to the context of infrastructure and sustainability knowledge. A platform of best practice for managing sustainability knowledge among all stakeholders will be developed through this project to promote sustainability uptake during project development lifecycles.

Sustainability is being recognized as an integral part of business operation and industry development. However in the construction industry, the gap between advancement of research and real life applications in actual projects is still significant. For infrastructure projects, which can typically cause major disturbance to the natural environment, span over a long duration, require a multitude of professionals, and consume significant amount of resources, drawing close relevance to all facets of sustainability and ensuring maximum level of exposure on sustainable agenda and actions is imperative. To date, this has not been achieved to full potential due to a variety of reasons. One of the major obstacles is the inability among stakeholders to agree on, capture, disseminate and apply the knowledge required to improve sustainability during infrastructure development. Therefore, there is a need for an integrated framework to incorporate sustainability issues within the infrastructure construction process. Knowledge management (KM) has been proven as a valuable tool for construction innovation. This paper introduces a research project aimed at establishing a knowledge framework for sustainable infrastructure development and using KM principles to raise. It discusses the identification and capture of decision making processes most appropriate to encapsulating the sustainability criteria for infrastructure, dealing with one-off project nature, multi-disciplinary teams, dynamic participation, and reliance on past experience and historical data. It also introduces the specific KM based approaches to promote the consistent application and measurement of sustainability criteria.