The Influence of the Environment on the Successful Completion of Construction Projects

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Environmental Sciences, grade: A, The University of Chicago, language: English, abstract: All projects must take place within an environment. The environment represents in this case, are the external conditions that affect the development of any project. Therefore these conditions may be economic, political, technological, or social. They make up the environment within which any project operates. A project will in one way or the other be impacted by these factors during the course of the project cycle (Fewings, 2005). These factors will either impact the project negatively or positively and in the long run affect the completion of the project. In real scenarios in project management, the external conditions are risk factors which affect the completion of the project. They act as risk factors because they will affect how the project is carried out. In the case that these factors are not mitigated then it is not possible to have a successful project (Halpin & Senior, 2010).

People and communities also stay within the environment. Development initiatives when initiated have an effect on the people who live within a given environment. It is thus paramount these people are taken care of during the process of development in order to ensure minimal impact from these activities (Klinger & Susong, 2006). This has led to the development of concepts such as the environmental impact assessment reports that are carried out to provide information on the impact of a project on the environment. This is done so as to try and shield people from the effects that come from the continued development activities in the natural environment (Himes, 2008).

The prep-planning phase to the completion phase all interact with the environment. The larger the project the higher the amount of activities involved within them. These activities if not controlled could damage the environment to a big extent. Construction projects interfere with so many things within the natural environment and this is what leads to resistance when the development of a new building is initiated. The resistance first comes from the people who live close to the site (Klinger & Susong, 2006).