MANAGING KNOWLEDGE TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABILITY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

On the back of years of strong economic development and the boom of resource export more recently, new construction and redevelopment of infrastructure has become a critical issue in Australia. As the construction processes involved in these projects have significant impacts on the environment, people’s lifestyle and local economy, sustainability issues have been high on the discussion agenda for many stakeholders. However past research indicated that problems in pursuing infrastructure sustainability often lies with what should be done, who should do them and how mutual benefits can be delivered to those involved. These problems are compounded by the fact that very often there are no common understandings between the stakeholders. Other sectors of the industry, such as commercial office buildings, have been more successful in raising the bar of sustainability through rating tools, innovations, and policies, with up-to-date knowledge captured and encapsulated into these measures. To rectify the problems in the infrastructure sector, it is both feasible and timely to develop and expand the body of sustainability knowledge on infrastructure development and investigate ways of communicating with and managing it within the sector. Despite being a relatively new and emerging concept, knowledge management (KM) has been used to develop mechanisms and tools for managing information and knowledge in a diverse range of contexts i