A MODEL FOR ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN CONTRIBUTING TO THE ATTAINMENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Construction activity is commonly considered to have adverse impacts on the environment, which is the basis of sustainable development for human being. It is considered that the proper development and operation of a construction project can make significant contribution to the mission of sustainable development. However, the existing difficulty is the lack of the guidance for implementing sustainable development principles in construction business. Whilst the concept of sustainable construction has become popular in research, there is little existing work providing methods to assess the degree of the contribution of developing a construction project to the attainment of sustainable development. This paper develops an alternative quantitative model for assessing the feasibility that a construction project involves in contributing to sustainable development. The development of the model is based on the general principle of sustainable development, which carries three dimensions, namely, economic, environmental, and social development. The model is proposed for the application at project feasibility stage when project investment decision is made. A practical case is used to demonstrate the application of the developed model.