This article examines how risk is reflected in infrastructure regulatory contracts, using examples from water utilities to illustrate key points. Partnerships between public and private sectors in ...intensive capital network services require risks to be assigned to the contractual party that is better able to mitigate them or to bear them. After identifying risks that must be addressed in infrastructure contracts, their classification, allocation, and impact are presented along with the measures to minimize risks. Two contracts in the water sector in Portugal are analyzed. One arrangement corresponds to a public–private partnership (PPP) of the purely contractual type (concession arrangement) and the other to an institutionalized PPP (mixed company). We conclude that risk is a key issue in contracts with the private sector; an appropriate allocation of risks is a necessary condition for successful contracts.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, FGGLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
AbstractConflicts are common in the construction industry. The characteristics of public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements make them prone to conflicts, some of which are acute and jeopardize ...the success of the project. Because litigation is time-consuming and costly, an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) might be a viable substitute for court action. Among the different types of ADRs, arbitration assumes prominence not only because of its extensive use, particularly as the last attempt before litigation, but also because the results of arbitration are attributable to rules, applied according to a contract and the discretion of arbitrators, for which appeal is seldom allowed. Therefore, although the idea of arbitration suggests a beneficial resolution, the public interest, proportionality, and fairness are not always ensured. Through an empirical case study, the sound features of arbitration are presented as are cautions to consider when adopting the ADR strategy of arbitration. Undue use of arbitration can become perverse. In particular, the public partner should avoid arbitration by endowing the contract with good governance practices and by compulsorily trying other types of ADR first. Moreover, the contract should stipulate that continuous information and knowledge about the project are provided to the public sector. Finally, the right to appeal should always be allowed even if the decision is allowed to stand to avoid stopping a project.
AbstractAlthough the Japanese water sector is economically and socially important, few empirical studies are available to help analysts and policy-makers understand the performance patterns in the ...industry. This study applies data envelopment analysis to 5,538 observations of 1,144 utilities that supplied drinking water between 2004 and 2007. With a comprehensive census of utilities, the present study controls for many factors affecting efficiency: region, prefecture, ownership/governance, water source, vertical integration (purchased or produced alone), water or integrated system, production, treatment, transport and distribution of water), peak factor, per capita consumption, customer density, water losses, monthly water charge, outsourcing, subsidies, gross prefecture product, and time. Thus, this study derives comprehensive conclusions regarding efficiency patterns in Japan. The analysis finds that the average level of inefficiency (weighted by volume) is 57% in the constant return to scale model, but only 24% for the (more flexible) variable return to scale model. Improving sector efficiency and transferring funds to more innovative sectors rather than using scarce funds to subsidize water distribution would benefit citizens. Thus, the application of advanced quantitative techniques to Japanese water utilities improves the understanding of efficiency patterns and underscores the importance of in-depth studies of the individual factors examined in this study.
In the last three decades, water shortages have become more common and have left an increasing and significant mark on the world economy. The lack of water in arid and semi-arid regions, along with ...the interest in water security in areas where the demand for water exceeds its availability, has caused water reuse to be considered as an alternative source in these areas and has prompted the authorities to change from the usual linear, take–make–use management approach to the circular management of resource preservation. This new approach to sustainable management, using the management of reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery, is called the circular economy (CE). However, although the potential for the reuse of treated wastewater is still insipient, CE in the water sector has gained a lot of attention lately. The aim of this paper is to systematically examine existing research published in the last five years on CE implementation in the water and wastewater sector. A sample of 64 articles was found through interactive keyword selection. Using the dynamic reading technique, data were extracted, and articles were classified according to five research motivations, which include, political, economic, legal, institutional, technical, and environmental. Most publications were from institutions in Europe, followed by North America and Asia. A similar trend was observed in terms of the distribution by authors, countries, and regions.
Urban services, like stormwater management, are complex tasks that depend on many actors and involve activities that fall within several fields of knowledge, but infrastructure solutions have been ...known for a long time. Recently, the view that urban water should be treated in an integrated way has become more pronounced, breaking the pathway dependency that treated it in isolation. Since the last decade, the perception that policies, institutions, and regulations (PIRs) condition good results has become more pronounced. The key question lies in incentives capable of mobilizing actors to produce aligned PIRs in a governance system. Better results can come from transformations in the incentives that currently exist for PIRs. The compatibility between incentives, which are not always identical for all involved, aligning them toward results, is the main objective. Based on these premises, aspects related to the necessary ideological change are analyzed here, that is, at the level of ideas and conceptions, which reflect the perception of objective, involving all actors, public and private, attracting them to solve the challenges posed, for example, the delivery of services according to sustainable development goals (SDGs). Examples of this in-progress transformation, a paradigm shift, are presented as support for reflection and experimentation.
With the increasing refugee crisis worldwide, a great promise lies in the 2030 agenda to help ‘leave no one behind.’ This article aims to take stock of implementing the 2030 Agenda in the refugee ...camps of the Arab Middle East based on empirical data from Syrian refugees and Iraqi IDPs collected using a questionnaire distributed in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. SDGs’ indices were calculated using arithmetic mean and principal component analysis methods. Our study finds that the progress toward achieving the SDGs is diverse in three locations, mainly due to the policy applied in the host country. The respondents in Iraq ranked the best at social and economic sustainability, Jordan ranked the best at environmental sustainability, and Lebanon was the furthest left behind in the three dimensions. SDG7 has a high performance, but accelerating the progress toward achieving the remaining SDGs is essential. Without the substantial efforts of all stakeholders, the 2030 agenda will not be accomplished.
This paper focuses on "measuring what matters" in local government and presents a new evaluation model called Municipality Sustainability Index (MSI) based on the integration of a municipality's ...financial performance with community sustainability and governance. Using Multi-criteria Decision Analysis methodology (MCDA), we develop an additive evaluation model which aggregates 25 indicators across four dimensions of performance to assess local government sustainability. A decision-making group (DMG) composed of representatives drawn from a network of stakeholders involved in local government- provided information on the requirements needed for a precise evaluation of the performance of any municipality along with prescriptive guidelines for a better local government decision-making. The MSI is used as a tool for local government evaluation and municipal strategic management. In order to illustrate the operation of the model, we applied it to Lisbon and to the sub-region of Leziria do Tejo in Portugal in order to assess performance, financial sustainability and governance. The Portuguese MSI model thus constitutes integrated instrument for local government evaluation.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
China is one of the countries with the highest public-private partnership (PPP) experience. Although numerous studies on PPP in China have been published in different international journals in the ...past decades, few relevant reviews have been found. In this research, a bibliometric analysis of 139 peer-reviewed articles on PPP in China is performed to reveal the research evolution and trend. Besides, a meta-analysis of 111 empirical articles among the total 139 articles is conducted using multinomial logistic regression to examine how data characteristics and analytical features have been utilized in this area. The major findings suggest that, first, many studies are published in the subject areas of Business, Management and Accounting, and Engineering, and most topics are discussed from the micro-level perspective. Second, the issues in the procurement phase lack enough attention. Third, for studies with different research themes, how data characteristics and analytical features have been utilized significantly differ. In general, how PPP studies are approached in China contrasts with the global PPP research. Future research directions are proposed. The research contributes to the global PPP body of knowledge and methodology by providing the first quantitative review of studies on PPP in China and by combining the research methods.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Policies, Institutions and Regulation (PIR) aspects matter for different sectors’ growth and inclusive sustainable development, but there is little information in the literature on how to evaluate ...the effects of PIR on management options and outcomes or, on how positive results PIR changes can bring. In terms of stormwater management systems, or urban drainage, PIR is also a controversial and absent matter. Multidisciplinarity, several actors, countless formal and informal rules, and strong contextual path dependence make the subject complex and intricate. Considering the enabling environment, an alignment between policies, institutions and regulations is required to achieve good results and provide sustainable services. This study conducted a hybrid literature review of peer-reviewed papers in this field to provide an overview of how researchers have been studying PIR relations. The gaps show that the understanding of the PIR is fragile, as an important element for analyzing of results to be achieved, including SDG6, the financing and obtaining funds, guarantees and grants for the execution, delivery, operation and maintenance urban stormwater services and infrastructure. The contribution of this review is not only about what exists, but also mainly about what does not exist, since the void keeps waiting to be filled.
Municipal solid waste collection is a public service with impact on the environment, public health, and the appearance of a municipal area. The standard of efficiency achieved in providing this ...service has a direct impact on household expenditure, since the costs of collection are recovered through citizens’ taxes. The failure to consider relevant performance drivers recently led some Italian waste utilities into bankruptcy and financial collapse. Following prior research to identify the environmental and operational variables affecting the efficiency and quality of waste collection services, this study applies a more suitable and robust non-parametric method based on conditional order-m efficiency to identify the performance drivers of the waste collection services in 40 municipalities in Verona province, Italy. The exogenous variables studied could be clustered as 1) customer features (size of population served, population density, tourist flows, and percentage of non-residential customers; 2) household features, measured by number of inhabitants per house; and 3) operational features, represented by tons of waste collected for each load, method adopted (curbside or street bin), and maturity achieved with a given method. The study demonstrates that all variables affect the cost efficiency of waste collection with different intensity and direction.
•Integrating collection services of small municipalities does not improve the efficiency.•Best practices should be adopted to collect waste of non-residential customers.•Less famous resorts of the province should improve their collection activities.•The curbside method should be implemented in all municipalities.•Collection processes have to be innovated in highly populated areas.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
PDF
