Abstract
Sustainability has become a high profile objective in all aspects of our lives, including the development of our infrastructures. Flexibility can enhance sustainability endeavors, yet its contribution is not clear to most. In this chapter, authors investigate the role of flexibility in sustainable port development in order to promote its incorporation in port projects. We establish that the greatest payoffs from flexibility are achieved through initiating new life cycle for a capital-intensive port infrastructure, though reuse of the elements and materials also contributes to flexibility . Reuse concurrently optimizes use of natural resources, limits waste and pollution in the environment, conserves energy, and thus limits the overall negative ecological impact. It also results in significantly lowers lifecycle costs. Thus, flexibility helps achieve (long-term) financial viability in face of economic uncertainty, while reducing environmental and social impacts. Therefore, flexibility considerations are important during design, procurement, and contracting of engineering projects. The best way to redirect the choice of decision-makers towards flexibility is to make visible its long-term benefits, and its contribution to sustainability . We discuss some evaluation methods and propose that the quantitative methods are more likely make a case for flexibility .
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Economisch meest voordelige inschrijving.
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This research is carried out within the framework of Port Research Centre Rotterdam-Delft and Next Generation Infrastructures.
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Taneja, P., Vellinga, T., Ros, R. (2014). Role of Flexibility in Sustainable Port Development. In: Gheorghe, A., Masera, M., Katina, P. (eds) Infranomics. Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02493-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02493-6_4
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