Federated Digital Platforms: Value Chain Integration for Sustainable Infrastructure Planning and Delivery

Konrad Nübel, Michael Max Bühler and Thorsten Jelinek
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Konrad Nübel: Chair of Construction Process Management, Technical University Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Michael Max Bühler: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Konstanz University of Applied Sciences, 78462 Konstanz, Germany
Thorsten Jelinek: Taihe Institute, 10787 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: Twenty-first century infrastructure needs to respond to changing demographics, becoming climate neutral, resilient, and economically affordable, while remaining a driver for development and shared prosperity. However, the infrastructure sector remains one of the least innovative and digitalized, plagued by delays, cost overruns, and benefit shortfalls. The authors assessed trends and barriers in the planning and delivery of infrastructure based on secondary research, qualitative interviews with internationally leading experts, and expert workshops. The analysis concludes that the root-cause of the industry’s problems is the prevailing fragmentation of the infrastructure value chain and a lacking long-term vision for infrastructure. To help overcome these challenges, an integration of the value chain is needed. The authors propose that this could be achieved through a use-case-based, as well as vision and governance-driven creation of federated digital platforms applied to infrastructure projects and outline a concept. Digital platforms enable full-lifecycle participation and responsible governance guided by a shared infrastructure vision. This paper has contributed as policy recommendation to the Group of Twenty (G20) in 2021.

Keywords: sustainable infrastructure; federated digital platform; governance; design; protocols; implementation; value chain; digitalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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