Information integration framework for a public–private partnership system of an urban railway transit project (Part A: System architecture)

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Abstract

The public–private partnership (PPP) financing mode has developed rapidly since its introduction into China's municipal engineering construction. However, successful PPP projects are rare due to the lack of a scientific information integration system. This study proposes an information integration framework of the risk and reward mechanism for urban rail transit (URT) PPP projects on the basis of data and knowledge warehouses. The proposed information integration framework is the core decision-making mechanism of URT project financing and further operation in China in recent decades. It can provide a supporting reference for URT project management in other countries.

Introduction

Since 2009, China has gradually introduced the public–private partnership (PPP) model into the field of transportation infrastructure construction, reducing the government's burden by injecting social capital and providing quality services [1]. By the end of 2017, 2940 municipal engineering PPP projects had been launched, accounting for 38.8% of the total number of projects in China. The total investment of these projects was 375.4 billion yuan, accounting for 31.6% of the country's total investment during that year [2]. With the rapid development of China's economy in recent decades and the increasing demand for transportation services, the investment in transportation infrastructure of many cities is doubling. In accordance with the statistical data of the National Development and Reform Commission in the 12th Five-year Plan (2011–2015), the total length of urban rail transit (URT) construction and operation lines is 2019 km, with a total investment of 1228.9 billion yuan [3]. The 13th Five-year Plan of the National Urban Infrastructure Construction published in 2017 states that the target URT operation mileage is 6000 km by 2020 [2].

Since Beijing Metro Line 4 introduced the PPP model into the construction and operation of URT projects in 2004, an increasing number of cities have also introduced PPP projects into the construction of URT, gradually accumulating experience. URT is an important component of PPP projects in municipal engineering. As of June 2018, knowledge-based PPP had 9 URT projects, while management knowledge-based PPP had 42 URT projects, covering 22 cities in China. Researchers have also demonstrated and analyzed the adaptability of PPP to China's URT projects and the problems that it encounters [4]. Although the PPP mode considerably reduces the government's financial expenditure and alleviates financial pressure caused by varying PPP project management policies in different regions, a standardized decision-making system for URT PPP projects has not yet been established. Therefore, the government and social capital cannot make effective and flexible decisions on all aspects of a project. This situation can lead to unnecessary time consumption and project risk [5], [6], [7].

Accordingly, the current study proposes an information integration framework that incorporates all decision-making information through the entire process of URT PPP projects to assist in scientific decision-making and avoid subjective assumptions and empiricism that result in unnecessary waste and loss. The contributions of this work are as follows.

  • (1)

    This study forms the perspective of research methods for formulating an information integration framework for URT PPP projects in developing counties, particularly China. URT PPP projects in developing countries involve multiple stakeholders, and the formulation of risk and subsidy plans is bound to be a complex process. The application of an information integration framework has considerable advantages. However, scholars are not overly concerned with the application of such framework to URT PPP projects, leading to the lack of a sound theoretical framework for URT PPP information integration in developing countries, and even worldwide.

  • (2)

    This work proposes an information integration system based on data and knowledge warehouses. This system is applied to the information integration framework of a URT PPP project to assist in decision-making. The information integration system can provide structured and unstructured data support to URT PPP decision-making, along with data collection, monitoring, and updating in the entire life cycle of a URT PPP project.

The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the application of an information integration framework to PPP projects and the development of PPP in infrastructure and URT construction in China. Section 3 presents the general information integration framework for a URT PPP project in China. Section 4 provides a summary and discussion of the study.

Section snippets

URT PPP projects in China

The PPP mode has been widely used in the construction of public infrastructure. A significant difference between URT PPP project and other projects lies in the huge amount of investments and long payback period. In contrast with highway and bridge PPP projects, URT PPP projects cannot recover construction costs and earn profits in the short term. The average construction period of URT is approximately 500 million yuan per km, and cost recovery takes approximately 20 years. In addition, a URT

Information integration framework for URT PPP projects

An information integration framework can more scientifically and objectively analyze, forecast, and manage all stages and decision-making processes in the entire life cycle of URT PPP projects. Therefore, restructuring the PPP project process and designing an information integration framework for URT PPP projects are necessary. In accordance with the "government and social capital cooperation mode operation guide" [39], PPP projects can be divided into five stages: project identification,

Discussions and conclusion

China's URT construction is currently in its golden age. With the large-scale construction of URT PPP projects, China's cities are also facing high risks and future uncertainties brought by the complex social environment. This study proposes a new, scientific, and reasonable information integration system for advanced decision-making in URT PPP projects to deal with the core issues of rail transit PPP projects efficiently and at a lower cost. The proposed information system integration

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial or other related interests or personal relations that could have appeared to influence the work report in this paper.

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