Evaluating the Sustainability of Non-urban Land Development Projects

Former construction projects usually emphasize more on the cost, schedule and quality objectives, while less on the environmental, economic and social sustainability. The sustainability of a non-urban land development project stands out from the others, not only because it covers a longer project lifecycle but also involves the change of natural planting, the protection of slope and the impact on the culture of the local community. There has been not yet a sustainability evaluation system for non-urban land development projects. Without such an evaluation system, it is difficult for the planners to plan the sustainable project objectives, for the contractors to select the sustainable execution alternatives, and for the facility managers to operate sustainable constructed facilities. This paper proposes a Non-urban Land Development Project Sustainability Evaluation Indicator Framework (NULPSEIF) via the reviews of legal and theoretical backgrounds from literature, focus group meetings, domain expert surveys, and case studies. Finally, a real-world non-urban land development project was selected to verify the applicability of the proposed NULPSEIF. The result of this research provides not only a useful tool to the owners and participants of non-urban land development projects to evaluate the overall project sustainability, but also the right direction to improve the sustainability of land development projects.