Mega infrastructure projects as agents of change: new perspectives on ‘the global infrastructure gap’

Abstract This article seeks to highlight the need for the development of enhanced and adaptive strategic decision-making frameworks for mega infrastructure investment. The authors contend that contagious narratives about ‘the global infrastructure-gap’, and related estimates of more geographically-specific ‘infrastructure deficits’ are in danger of effectuating inapt outcomes if set against the multiple critical challenges of the 21st century and failing efforts at meeting global and local goals of sustainable development. They argue that as new knowledge and evidence emerges about the advances made and damage incurred by past mega infrastructure investments, and as prospects offered by new technological horizons evolve, it is timely to systematically scrutinise previous practice to ascertain what has been done well and what has not, and decide what should be done differently to deliver more sustainable outcomes. It is argued that research and development of this kind can significantly benefit from new scientific findings and technological innovations fast being brought into the public domain, informing more resilient investment approaches when accompanied by meaningful analyses of the sensitivities of key contextual forces that mould infrastructure development.