Assessing and Managing the Potential Environmental Risks of Construction Projects

Policy makers make key decisions regarding economic development, but engineers are central to the implementation of these policies. With the realization that economic development and environment are interlinked, engineers are well advised to ensure avoidance of adverse impacts on society and environment by adopting better practices during the design and implementation of construction projects. The objective of this paper is to present a project’s proponents and construction contractors with a framework to identify the environmental risks early in a project’s life so that a proper plan could be developed to mitigate the impact of them. The paper also discusses options currently available in Canada for environmental-type insurance and contractual liability indemnity clauses. A survey conducted among construction companies to assess current risk-management practices in the construction industry show that although many companies are concerned about the possible implications of environmental risks to their project, there still needs to be more emphasis on identification and mitigation of these risks and the need to have a comprehensive framework to properly identify and develop an action plan for environmental related risk issues. The current research trends to achieve these objectives are also outlined in the paper.