Review of Fundamental Theories of Mega Infrastructure Construction Management: Theoretical Considerations from Chinese Practices by Zhaohan Sheng

China has experienced the fastest development of construction engineering in the past three decades, notably including many mega infrastructure constructions that are vital to national well-being and to the livelihood of the people. Thus, massive practical problems in mega infrastructure construction management have doubtless already attracted some attention of scholars worldwide and, at the same time, scholars argue whether the introduction and adaptation of existing construction management knowledge systems and methods centered on small-to-medium project management can directly apply to mega infrastructure constructions. Those curious about the management questions of mega infrastructure constructions will find Zhaohan Sheng’s solid treatment of the topic informative.

Fundamental Theories of Mega Infrastructure Construction Management by Zhaohan Sheng is theoretical guidance and support of mega infrastructure construction management practice activities. The book comprises four parts, and each part is composed of several brief chapters that address a specific point.

Part I, “Engineering, Mega Infrastructure Construction, and Mega Infrastructure Construction Management,” summarizes the most important and fundamental concepts of mega infrastructure construction including the definitions of engineering and project, the types of significant engineering constructions, and the important basic features of mega infrastructure constructions. Systematicness is the essential property for engineering and its management, while complexity is the essential property for mega infrastructure construction and its management. Sheng goes on to identify the significant differences between mega infrastructure construction management and construction management: as he wrote, “From construction management to mega infrastructure construction, a law of evolution from systematicness to complexity is formed and becomes an essential property.”

Sheng emphasizes being aware of the essence of distinct properties of mega infrastructure construction management and thus understanding the scientific connotation of construction management and mega infrastructure construction. The concepts of system, systematicness, and complexity of mega infrastructure construction and its management are elaborately discussed.

At the end of Part I, Sheng develops a basic paradigm of mega infrastructure construction management cognition. He indicates that mega infrastructure construction management organization can be seen as a “complex self-adaptive system” that comprises a decision-making subject, an integrated decision-making support system, and an integrated execution system. While on the subject of the management subject and organization of mega infrastructure construction, the management system and activities and the entire integrated mega infrastructure construction management constitute a type of “hierarchical self-adaptive complex system.”

Part II, “Fundamental Considerations for Mega Infrastructure Construction Management Theories,” focuses on the core mission and framework of developing the theory of mega infrastructure construction management. By giving the definition and differences of two modes of thinking in construction management, i.e., theoretical thinking and construction thinking, Sheng clearly explains why the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which plays an important role in construction management practices, cannot be regarded as the mega infrastructure construction management theory system. In the second part (i.e., Chapter 4) of Part II, Sheng argues that the system complexity’s principles of thinking, the integrated framework of the theoretical domain, and the mutual multilayered logic association should be adapted to construct the whole of the standardized technological approaches to develop the mega infrastructure construction management system.

Part III, “The Core Scientific Connotation of Mega Infrastructure Construction Management Theory,” attempts to establish a fundamental theoretical system for mega infrastructure construction management. The logical relations and the systematicness and orderliness of the entire theoretical system in mega infrastructure construction management are discussed. Nine basic concepts are compacted and extracted from practical activities and phenomena of mega infrastructure construction management: the mega infrastructure construction and environment complex system, management complexity, deep uncertainty, scenario analysis, management subject and core subject, management platform, multiscaling, adaptation, and function spectrum. These principles effectively reveal the basic rules of causality, association, and logical relations between practitioners, the operating principles, and the activities of mega infrastructure construction management. On this basis, six scientific problems related to the practice activities of mega infrastructure construction management are explored including the management organization mode and dynamic analysis, decision making in the deep uncertainty context, financial engineering, technical management, and risks of mega infrastructure construction.

In the last section of this book, Part IV, “Methodological System of Theoretical Research on Mega Infrastructure Construction,” the principle of the mega infrastructure construction management theoretical research method system is designed considering the integrity of mega infrastructure construction management activities and the complexity of management issues. The three types of key methods to solve problems involved in mega infrastructure construction management include the panoramic qualitative analysis method, scenario cultivation method, and mega infrastructure construction management federation modeling method. Sheng has done a good job of selecting some typical mega infrastructure construction management cases with the application of the three new methods. The book concludes with useful information on identifying the developmental tendency of mega infrastructure construction practice and social technology. For example, building information modeling (BIM) has been used as an intelligent construction and management approach in a mega infrastructure construction project.

In this book, Sheng has used many of the latest mega infrastructure projects in China as examples to illustrate the heavy theory. The examples include China’s South–North Water Diversion Project, the Three Gorges Dam Project, and the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge project. These examples help readers better understand his theoretical findings and opinions.

The book’s principle strength is that it showcases a revolutionary attempt to construct a whole new theory for mega infrastructure construction management, other than following existing project management theories. Also, in this book, Sheng combines the opinions of construction management scholars in China with traditional Chinese philosophy, contemporary integrated system theory, and an international comprehensive system of science to form a new and complex integral cognition about mega infrastructure construction management. The book is valuable to students and scholars in construction management, especially in the field of mega infrastructure construction management, in an academic setting. It is also helpful for project management practitioners who have rich experience in mega infrastructure construction.