Analysis and comparison of the infrastructure report cards as a decision making tool for sustainable development

Abstract

Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in a nation’s economic and societal progress. However, due to the substantial expenses and the constraints of a limited government budget, the need to assess the condition of each infrastructure and identify those requiring utmost attention has become imperative. To address the challenge of assessing and prioritizing infrastructure, national civil engineering associations have developed infrastructure report cards (IRCs) following diverse methodologies. The objective of this paper is to present and compare the existing IRCs, analysing their key characteristics and comparing them through the developed comparison guidelines. The findings offer valuable insights into IRCs, encompassing general knowledge, diverse practices, and areas for improvement. Furthermore, it provides guidance to civil engineering associations in nations lacking an infrastructure report card, as well as to governments and national infrastructure planners. Recommendations highlight the importance of government collaboration without direct control, transparent methodology explanations, and accessible results presentation. Enhancing IRCs based on these recommendations can facilitate structured, rational, realistic, and sustainability-based decision making. The study acknowledges limitations, including the challenge of assessing IRCs’ real impact and the limited dataset. Despite these limitations, this paper provides a crucial step toward improving IRCs and fostering informed infrastructure decisions.