Abstract
Construction activities taken place in ecologically fragile regions (EFRs) of China are facing a series of environmental obstacles. Studying critical success factors (CSFs) to arrive at the sustainable objectives for construction project in EFRs is needed. Understanding the interrelationships of these CSFs is one of the vital ways to achieve this. This paper identifies and analyzes 18 CSFs for construction projects in EFRs through a literature review from a multi-perspective and a case study of Korla City in China. The causal relationship between each CSF is obtained by pairwise comparisons and thereafter, an ISM (Interpretative Structural Modeling) method is employed to study the hierarchical structuring of the CSFs. As a result, we established a five-level ISM. Subsequently, an MICMAC (cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification) approach is implemented to partition and classify each CSF into four quadrants (independent, linkage, autonomous, and dependent) according to their driver and dependence powers. Through the implementation of an MICMAC approach, the degrees of relationship between each CSF is gained. The findings reveal that the studied 18 CSFs have a strong hierarchy and interrelationship. The project manager’s leadership style and economic viability are the root source of project success and has the highest influence, which is supported by the result of MICMAC analysis. CSF planning and implementation of sustainable strategies are more dependent and are influenced by others. The CSFs on the top level of ISM: conflict resolution, planning and implementation of sustainable strategies and resources of water play a significant role in arriving at the project success, and has a great potential for future study. The approaches implemented in this paper can be helpful for decision-makers and managers of construction projects in comprehending the interrelationships and the degrees of CSFs for construction projects in EFRs and for efficiently achieving the project success.
Highlights
At present, China’s construction productivity is growing and tremendous investments are made in the construction industry
The findings of this paper will provide an insight into critical success factors (CSFs) for a construction project in Ecologically Fragile Regions (EFRs), and can help participants and stakeholders who are involved in construction projects to obtain more effective strategies to arrive at project success in EFRs
This paper has identified 18 CSFs for construction projects in EFRs through a systematic literature review and a case study in China
Summary
China’s construction productivity is growing and tremendous investments are made in the construction industry. Construction project practice is facing a series of challenges in such regions where the environment is degraded beyond the level that can maintain the current human use and development for a long time under the current socio-economic and technological level [1,2] These particular regions are defined as Ecologically Fragile Regions (EFRs) [3,4] in this study. The lack of water resources and the vulnerability of the natural geographical environment are two important ecologically fragile factors in the arid regions of China [5,6] This means that construction activities taking place in EFRs are facing a series of environmental obstacles, including saline soil [7], reduction of groundwater, drying surface water, land salinization and the sharp decline in plant and biological species [8,9,10,11]. The findings of this paper will provide an insight into CSFs for a construction project in EFRs, and can help participants and stakeholders who are involved in construction projects to obtain more effective strategies to arrive at project success in EFRs
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