Pursuing Sustainable Development Goals
A Critical Evaluation of Sustainability Criteria in Large-Scale Infrastructure Projects and an Overview of Türki̇ye’s Infrastructural Investments through Critical Thinking
Ferda Uzunyayla, Bülent HocaIn recent years, as large-scale infrastructure investments have been seen as a catalyst for economic revival, they have also become a part of the sustainable development agenda due to their huge economic, social and environmental impacts. Natural disasters, climate change and the pandemic have been seen as reasons for applying sustainability assessment to mega infrastructures by international organizations and multilateral initiatives. Such concerns have led to the development of many criteria to integrate social and environmental considerations in the building and operation processes of infrastructure projects. Based on these criteria, it is suggested that economic, environmental and social principles should be met for a resilient and sustainable infrastructure. In this context, this study firstly aims to question economic, environmental and social sustainability criteria and their applicability in large-scale infrastructure projects on a theoretical level. Secondly, it focuses on the empirical analysis of Türkiye’s mega infrastructural investments, within the scope of projects built in the 2000s, which is a period when mega scale projects have become one of the key driving forces in economic growth. Accordingly, the paper will explore whether or to what extent Türkiye’s large-scale infrastructure investments meet the economic, environmental and social criteria, even though this is a problematic evaluation under the capitalist relations of production. Accompanied by all these inquiries, the findings of the study are as follows: At the theoretical level, although the economic sustainability of infrastructure is evaluated based on criteria such as economic development, employment opportunities and intergenerational distribution, the achievement of sustainable development goals economically is a conflictual process. The risk of raising economic fragility due to the high costs of projects, the conflicts among SDG targets, the use of cost benefit analysis which does not sufficiently take into consideration social and environmental costs are the problems that arise in the evaluation of infrastructure projects in terms of economic sustainability. The environmental sustainability evaluation also has problems because the sustainable development goals may prioritize economic concerns which may not be compatible with the natural cycle of renewal and weaknesses of the environmental assessment, such as stage of EIA, limited access to information or deficiencies in public involvement, and does not allow an adequate evaluation. Lastly, in applying social aspects to sustainability, the use of a social impact assessment has procedural and methodological problems in documenting and evaluating social impacts. As a second part of the findings, the empirical study of Türkiye’s large-scale infrastructure investment shows that projects cannot meet the economic, environmental and social sustainability criteria which are even problematic themselves.
