Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableHow Can Decarbonisation Alternatives Be Prioritised to Achieve Carbon Neutrality in Building Projects?(ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers, 2023-01-01)The built environment generates approximately 40% of the annual global carbon emissions. To achieve the Paris Agreement target towards net-zero emissions, timely and sufficient plans for emissions reduction in the sector need to be made. One of the optimal strategies to realize sustainable structures is to select decarbonisation alternatives that will present a holistic view of environmental impacts. This research effort examined how decarbonisation alternatives are prioritised to achieve carbon neutrality in building projects. Based on extensive semi-structured interviews with experts, this research identified energy, emissions, economy, and exergy (4Es) as the four critical variables considered when making decarbonisation decisions. These 4Es were then assigned to different evaluation criteria, resulting in a total of 27 evaluation criteria. These findings will assist built environment professionals to prioritise decarbonisation alternatives across the entire project lifecycle. It will also provide policymakers with new insights for assessing potential impacts based on these four variables.
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ItemProceedings of the Port Competitiveness and Financing Research Workshop(University of Melbourne, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, 2018-04-10)Preface As an initiative of The University of Melbourne and partner universities, The University of Gadja Mada and Universitas Indonesia, a workshop of port researchers and senior practitioners was convened in Melbourne from 4th April to 6th April 2018. The researchers and practitioners have been brought together as a part of the Infrastructure policy and finance research being undertaken under the auspice of the Infrastructure Cluster Agenda of the Australia Indonesia Centre. This set of proceedings collates the presentations on the research day of the workshop conducted on the 4th April 2018. The researchers have been considering infrastructure and finance associated in improving port efficiency in situations where the port directly interfaces with a major city. The researchers have collectively critically reviewed the international literature, conducted surveys in Indonesia and Australia, conducted focus group meetings in Indonesia and Australia, conducted in‐depth interviews, participated in field trips to major port establishments and explored a range of case study projects in both countries. This workshop created the opportunity for researchers to seek opportunity to syntheses their collective research.
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ItemWhy may public infrastructure projects over-promise likely outcomes?(Australian Institute of Project Management, 2016-11-01)The prevailing approach to measure project success compares an ex-post outcome with the ex-ante plan. Comparisons of project success are often questioned, and actual success is unlikely to realised if the initial plan is excessively optimistic such as exaggerated benefits, overlooked risks, and unrealistic assumptions. Published literature suggests that technical inadequacies of estimation models, psychology of human mind, economic obligation for risk, and organisational misrepresentation may be factors that can explain this planning fallacy in projects. Nevertheless, these explanations are considered lacking as they do not adequately address the complexity of infrastructure project decision process. This paper goes beyond planning fallacy in a quest for a better explanation. A workshop of project experts was convened to test the earlier understandings relating to behaviours exhibited during the initiation of an infrastructure. Importantly it framed much of the interactive dialogues among participants around seven case study projects that were considered in the 2012 Parliamentary inquiry of the committee of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) that explored the effectiveness of decision making in Victorian infrastructure delivery. It emerged that one of the key behaviours was considered to be the use of power in decision-making during project initiation. Power manifests as the ability to influence others’ intent. In projects, its root lies in information, expertise, authority, legitimacy, and reputation. The notion of power has been recognised as a fundamental concept to explicate the behaviour of actors in a collaborative environment. This paper focuses on the delivery process of public infrastructure projects and investigates the asymmetry of power among participants in an attempt to unravel the complexity of decision authorities and delegations. In a conceptual isolation of central agencies from delivery agencies, a new concept of informal authority is devised to provide a reliable explanation of how delivery agency’s optimism may pay off in the presence of an asymmetric distribution of power. The paper concludes that power asymmetry is a critical success factor in public infrastructure projects and makes suggestions for future improvements.he prevailing approach to measure project success compares an ex-post outcome with the ex-ante plan. Comparisons of project success are often questioned, and actual success is unlikely to realised if the initial plan is excessively optimistic such as exaggerated benefits, overlooked risks, and unrealistic assumptions. Published literature suggests that technical inadequacies of estimation models, psychology of human mind, economic obligation for risk, and organisational misrepresentation may be factors that can explain this planning fallacy in projects. Nevertheless, these explanations are considered lacking as they do not adequately address the complexity of infrastructure project decision process. This paper goes beyond planning fallacy in a quest for a better explanation. A workshop of project experts was convened to test the earlier understandings relating to behaviours exhibited during the initiation of an infrastructure. Importantly it framed much of the interactive dialogues among participants around seven case study projects that were considered in the 2012 Parliamentary inquiry of the committee of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) that explored the effectiveness of decision making in Victorian infrastructure delivery. It emerged that one of the key behaviours was considered to be the use of power in decision-making during project initiation. Power manifests as the ability to influence others’ intent. In projects, its root lies in information, expertise, authority, legitimacy, and reputation. The notion of power has been recognised as a fundamental concept to explicate the behaviour of actors in a collaborative environment. This paper focuses on the delivery process of public infrastructure projects and investigates the asymmetry of power among participants in an attempt to unravel the complexity of decision authorities and delegations. In a conceptual isolation of central agencies from delivery agencies, a new concept of informal authority is devised to provide a reliable explanation of how delivery agency’s optimism may pay off in the presence of an asymmetric distribution of power. The paper concludes that power asymmetry is a critical success factor in public infrastructure projects and makes suggestions for future improvements.
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ItemHow do we instil experience into Young Engineers? The Use of Posters as a Learning Tool in Engineering Project Management(School of Engineering, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, 2015)