Complexity and Sustainability in Megaprojects
Complexity and Sustainability in Megaprojects

Author: Edoardo Favari

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 3031308794

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book showcases the discussion about megaprojects carried out at the MeRIT (Megaproject Research Interdisciplinary Team) workshop 2022: the crisis, discontinuity, rising prices, and supply chains disruption force radical reflection for those involved in megaprojects. It raises a modern-day challenge, the creation of value for stakeholders. Indeed, the aim of the volume is to encourage readers to think more broadly, articulately and less stringently than the mainstream claims. There is a need to design, implement, and manage megaprojects by abandoning the old paradigm that leveraged solely on time and cost. We need to move beyond that by going to explore the value generated, the positive impact on people, communities and territories. Economic, social and environmental sustainability takes on a new and broader articulation: issues of the circular economy applied to megaprojects are addressed and ample space is ensured for the inclusion of social needs in current practices.

Megaproject Management
Megaproject Management

Author: Edoardo Favari

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-05-20

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 3030393542

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book investigates the various aspects characterizing Megaprojects from numerous perspectives and by integrating different disciplines: engineering, economics, business organization, human resource management, law, etc. It represents the first output of MeRIT (the Megaproject Research Interdisciplinary Team), and focuses on the intrinsic and unavoidable complexity of Megaprojects. The chapters have intentionally not been standardized, and humanistic topics are not separated from technical ones: this way of reading and interpreting Megaprojects through the cross-pollination of various disciplines reflects the MeRIT approach. Addressing the complexity involved in Megaprojects requires the use of a hermeneutic circle of sorts: understanding the project as a whole is achieved by referring to the specific parts, while each part can only be understood in relation to the whole. This circular approach appears to be the only one applicable to Megaprojects: no final destination, no final synthesis can be achieved. This volume consists of eight chapters written by researchers in law, economics, sociology, business organization, engineering, architecture and landscaping. The topics covered will be relevant to researchers, practitioners involved in the development of Megaprojects, and policymakers at the EU level.

Sustainability and Megaproject Development
Sustainability and Megaproject Development

Author: Franca Cantoni

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-07-08

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1000638375

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Megaprojects, also referred to in the literature as Large Engineering Projects or Major Projects, are generally defined as large-scale investment initiatives worth 1b€/$ or more and, facing similar problems independent of the country where they are implemented and the industry they belong to. The common feature of most megaprojects is that they are difficult to design and manage so that their realization and completion is always extremely expensive, often over budget and delivery deadlines also are not met. In the worst-case scenario, they remain unfinished. This book, through its multidisciplinary approach, offers food for thought and alternative interpretations for the complex world of megaprojects. While much research has been conducted and differing approaches have been developed over the last 20 years, there is still a lot of debate surrounding the topic, and a holistic approach for effectively managing these initiatives is still missing. What is clear to all researchers and experts in the field is that a traditional-linear management approach is simply not sufficient, as at many stages of a megaproject, iterative and feedback effect occurs due to stakeholder involvement and increasing and continuous interaction between them. The book promotes the debate among all categories of stakeholders involved in the megaproject’s supply chain, in order to increase the awareness of complex phenomena relating to the critical issues and common problems they face, all over the world, and to seek performance improvement across the whole life cycle of a megaproject, including the selection, design, construction, operation and de- commissioning.The multidisciplinary approach cultivated in the book conveys an innovative way to study megaprojects and their inherent complexities.

Sustainable Management of Transnational Megaprojects
Sustainable Management of Transnational Megaprojects

Author: Dario Cottafava

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-04

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 1040045111

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book analyses the seminal role of megaprojects for sustainable development, and the related, complex challenges they bring. It provides insights into the growing social responsibilities that megaprojects have, not only to be environmentally sustainable, but also towards the multitude of stakeholders involved, whether directly or indirectly. After an historical overview of the increasingly necessary links between sustainable infrastructure and megaprojects, the book builds on and applies stakeholder theory to stakeholder engagement and management in megaprojects. It also emphasizes the importance of building impact assessment frameworks that consider the unheard voices that are often passively sitting at the receiving end of a megaproject, as well as the local context where the megaproject is embedded. The book then proceeds to analyse the case of a very contested transnational railway megaproject between Italy and France, the Turin-Lyon high-speed railway, which has been suffering from stakeholder and communication issues for over thirty years, as well as from notable managerial and legal differences in the two countries. In this way, the book informs both theory and practice and encourages scholarly interventions into wicked problems. It contains a comprehensive review of the academic literature on the sustainability, sustainability challenges, and sustainability reporting of megaprojects. Conceptual models, frameworks and future research opportunities are provided to clarify the empirical challenges and highlight the gaps and opportunities to be explored by researchers and practitioners in future. The audience for the book is both academic researchers and practitioners in the field of megaprojects and more specifically, those dealing with managing transnational megaprojects. It also includes several topics that will be of interest to policy and decision-makers.

Industrial Megaprojects
Industrial Megaprojects

Author: Edward W. Merrow

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-05-03

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 047093882X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Avoid common pitfalls in large-scale projects using these smart strategies Over half of large-scale engineering and construction projects—off-shore oil platforms, chemical plants, metals processing, dams, and similar projects—have miserably poor results. These include billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once finally completed. Industrial Megaprojects gives you a clear, nontechnical understanding of why these major projects get into trouble, and how your company can prevent hazardous and costly errors when undertaking such large technical and management challenges. Clearly explains the underlying causes of over-budget, delayed, and unsafe megaprojects Examines effects of poor project management, destructive team behaviors, weak accountability systems, short-term focus, and lack of investment in technical expertise Author is the CEO of the leading consulting firm for evaluating billion-dollar projects Companies worldwide are rethinking their large-scale projects. Industrial Megaprojects is your essential guide for this rethink, offering the tools and principles that are the true foundation of safe, cost-effective, successful megaprojects.

Megaprojects and Risk
Megaprojects and Risk

Author: Bent Flyvbjerg

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-02-13

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9780521009461

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Megaprojects and Risk provides the first detailed examination of the phenomenon of megaprojects. It is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multi-billion 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, experience and hard, scientific evidence from the several hundred projects in twenty nations and five continents that illustrate the book. Accessibly written, it will be the standard reference for students, scholars, planners, economists, auditors, politicians and interested citizens for many years to come.

The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management
The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management

Author: Bent Flyvbjerg

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 625

ISBN-13: 0198732244

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This Handbook provides state-of-the-art scholarship in the emerging field of megaproject management. The 25 chapters cover all aspects of megaproject management, from front-end planning to project delivery, including how to deal with stakeholders, risk, finance, complexity, innovation, governance, ethics, project breakdowns, and scale itself.

The Strategic Management of Large Engineering Projects
The Strategic Management of Large Engineering Projects

Author: Roger Miller

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2001-03-12

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780262263511

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book is based on an international research project that analyzed sixty LEPs, among them the Boston Harbor cleanup; the first phase of subway construction in Ankara, Turkey; a hydro dam on the Caroni River in Venezuela; and the construction of offshore oil platforms west of Flor, Norway. As the number, complexity, and scope of large engineering projects (LEPs) increase worldwide, the huge stakes may endanger the survival of corporations and threaten the stability of countries that approach these projects unprepared. According to the authors, the "front-end" engineering of institutional arrangements and strategic systems is a far greater determinant of an LEP's success than are the more tangible aspects of project engineering and management. The book is based on an international research project that analyzed sixty LEPs, among them the Boston Harbor cleanup; the first phase of subway construction in Ankara, Turkey; a hydro dam on the Caroni River in Venezuela; and the construction of offshore oil platforms west of Flor, Norway. The authors use the research results to develop an experience-based theoretical framework that will allow managers to understand and respond to the complexity and uncertainty inherent in all LEPs. In addition to managers and scholars of large-scale projects, the book will be of interest to those studying the relationship between institutions and strategy, risk management, and corporate governance in general. Contributors Bjorn Andersen, Richard Brealey, Ian Cooper, Serghei Floricel, Michel Habib, Brian Hobbs, Donald R. Lessard, Pascale Michaud, Roger Miller, Xavier Olleros

Tools for Complex Projects
Tools for Complex Projects

Author: Kaye Remington

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2016-02-24

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1317009827

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Traditional project management approaches assume that project contexts are unchanging and key factors, though complicated, are reducible to unambiguous elements for management and control. Whilst this assumption has simplified the task for writers and educators, it is increasingly being recognised that these techniques do not work in projects which may be described as complex (due to their size, technical difficulties, conflicting environmental and political constraints or poorly understood or shared goals). Tools for Complex Projects draws on research in the areas of project management, complexity theory and systems thinking to provide a ready reference for understanding and managing the increasing complexity of projects and programmes. The main part of the book provides a series of fourteen project tools. Some of these tools may be used at the level of the whole project life-cycle. Others may be applied ad hoc at any time. In each case, the authors provide: detailed guidelines for using the tool, information on its purpose and the types of complexity for which it is most appropriate, the theoretical background to the tool, a practical example of its use, and any necessary words of caution. This is an example of advanced project management at work; sophisticated tools that require a level of project and management expertise and offer rigorous and highly practical methods for understanding, structuring and managing the most complex of projects.