Developing an innovative assessment framework for sustainable infrastructure development

Infrastructure plays a vital role in improving people s standard of living and contributing to economic growth. Compared with other construction types, infrastructure has longer operational periods, more complex supply chains and more significant impacts on communities. As a result, the concept of sustainable infrastructure has been put forward, and scholars have been developing assessment frameworks to ensure balanced economic, environmental and social outcomes of infrastructure projects. By reviewing the existing assessment frameworks for infrastructure projects, it has been found that there is a lack of criteria for measuring the intangible impacts of infrastructure projects on local communities, such as public mental health and intangible heritage management. The measurement of social sustainability is also insufficient in most assessment frameworks. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by developing an innovative assessment framework to incorporate the components and subcomponents highlighted in the literature and those that are usually overlooked but significant in measuring the intangible influences and social sustainability of infrastructures. The research adopted mixed methods, including a questionnaire survey, focus group interview and confirmatory factor analysis, to evaluate the reliability and validity of the proposed framework. The data analysis outcomes confirmed that the final framework has reasonable reliability and validity and, therefore, it can serve as a valuable reference for future sustainable infrastructure development.