Post-disaster reconstruction, critical in restoring the affected community, provides new opportunities to redevelop the disaster affected region for economic growth, future vulnerability reduction and sustainable development as well. However, previous studies reveal that these opportunities have not been fully exploited. Many reconstruction projects have performed poorly due to various political, administrational, social, and policy/regulation-related reasons. To address the spotlighted gaps in post-disaster reconstruction, Public-Private-People Partnership (4P) is proposed and developed to procure more sustainable public infrastructure and to improve the overall performance of disaster management (DM) through integrating preparedness and mitigation into reconstruction processes. Public- Private Partnerships (PPP), which have demonstrated superior performance compared to the traditional approach in many infrastructure projects, are the practical and theoretical foundation of the proposed 4P. The integrated 4th P-‘people’ refers to major stakeholders who play critical roles in reconstruction, namely Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), local communities, academia, professional groups and media. A 4P framework, comprising of a procurement framework and a partnership framework, was developed based on the consolidated findings from a literature review and empirical data. The procurement framework provides a three-stage procurement process to deliver a typical 4P project, including planning for post-disaster reconstruction procurement, establishing framework agreement and 4P delivery. Through pre-disaster arrangements formally linking potential participants in advance, it enables targeted 4Ps to mobilize faster, while being more efficient and sustainable. The partnership framework provides the corner-stone of establishing sustainable and successful relationships among multiple participants, to ensure smooth execution of 4P projects. Developed on significant findings from previous research on partnerships/relationship management in the construction industry, it describes the partnership structure, role of each major participant and institutional and relational strategies to improve the partnership/relationship. A comprehensive research design enabled collection of the data required to achieve each objective of this research project. The first-round semi-structured interviews were conducted to mainly investigate the feasibility of applying PPP in reconstruction and integrating ‘people’ into PPP, so as to narrow down the potential scope of the proposed 4P. Findings from the first-round interviews, current practice and pitfalls in the DM cycle especially in reconstruction were examined in the subsequent two parallel sets of questionnaire surveys targeting DM and PPP professionals. The results derived from 14 first-round interviews and 81 responses received in the questionnaires clearly suggest that 4P has great potential to deliver better performance in reconstruction projects of certain types. Nine second-round interviews helped to test and improve the established preliminary 4P framework. In addition, to further probe into the role of ‘people’, case studies of ‘Project Mingde’, which comprises of three construction projects including a Sichuan reconstruction project, were implemented. The proposed 4P framework, developed based on the above research, was validated through a focus group meeting. It is concluded that the 4P approach could help realize better performance and sustainable redevelopment in appropriate reconstruction scenarios, as well as contribute to improving the overall DM. The 4P framework also provides a basic methodology and conceptual foundation to procure 4P projects in industry with pointers for future development in academic research. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

While regional infrastructures are being actively pursued by the Hong Kong governments in recent years, the impacts brought by the cross-boundary infrastructures have not been comprehensively scrutinized. This study is aimed to fill in the research gap by examining the interrelationships between regional planning, transport planning and real estate economics. As concerns on accessibility and transport convenience are key factors determining the price of a flat, transport improvements made to the residential area should lead to an increase in residential property prices. On the other hand, as regional infrastructures are often justified with their impacts in fostering further economic development, retail rental prices in the service coverage areas should experience positive impacts. Therefore, changes in price gradient of residential properties, and that in transaction prices of commercial properties will be both taken into consideration in understanding the impacts of regional infrastructures. When examining these impacts, an additional dimension will be incorporated to investigate the impacts across the initial stage, planning stage, post-feasibility stage, construction stage as well as the post-project completion stage of the projects. Hedonic pricing models will be applied in this study for assessment. The empirical case will focus on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor (SWC) project and the associated areas of Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long and Tusen Wan, to obtain the relevant data to understand the interrelationships across the different stages of the SWC project. In the research finding, as far as residential property sales are concerned, it is observed that a general decrease in property prices has been experienced from the commencement of the SWC, as a result of the combination of factors such as construction pollution and catchment problems. While for the retail rental prices within the study scope, a contrasting uprising trend has been instead generally observed, attributed to the differences in the accessibility to the areas and the availability of business opportunities experienced in the focus area during the various stages of the project. The empirical results reveal that cross-boundary cooperation in coordinating time of infrastructural project completion is exceptionally crucial. If the coordination of the infrastructures bridging the two sides of the borders are not coordinated well, the problem of SWC in the early stage of commissioning will happen again, causing the unavailability for areas connected to the border to enjoy the business opportunities, economic and spatial efficiency in the area. Also, the residential property prices may even be driven down by the cross-boundary infrastructure, which is considered to be strategic in fostering economic development and enhancing transport efficiency upon regional integration of the Pearl River Delta cities. Therefore, careful planning and regional coordination are needed to enhance the efficiency of the cross-boundary infrastructure, so as to achieve its objectives to facilitate economic growth, social harmony and environmental sustainability. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

Thesis (M.S. in Civil Engineering)--Kansas State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 61). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1997. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M Arch)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: John Brittingham. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-69).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Description based on contents viewed July 9, 2009; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-63).

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-162). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.