Most developing countries are suffering from random unplanned economic
growth and excessive resource consumption that limit creating a more Public Works
(PWs) infrastructure projects which are essential for suitable human life. Jordan as
one of the developing countries is suffering from limited natural resources and
problems in achieving a high level of socioeconomic growth. Indeed, the increased
number of people in Jordan imposes the government to plan for creating more PWs
infrastructure projects development. In this regard, PWs development should be
designed, built, maintained, and adopted in ways that meet the changing needs of
society and provides environments in which people live and work enjoyably and
efficiently and improves the quality of life and service provision.
In line with the need to create PWs development that can reduce
environmental damage, achieve social welfare, improve community wellbeing and
enhance economic growth, sustainability becomes increasingly popular worldwide.
However, sustainability is not well recognised into PWs development in developing
countries including Jordan. The evidence that PWs development still has long-lasting
environmental, social and economic negative impacts upon communities. This is
clear that in order to reduce long negative lasting impacts of PWs development, its
development from creating policies and plans, to select individual projects should be
assessed to what extent they contribute to sustainable development in Jordan.
Sustainability assessment (SA), however, is currently not factored into the
existing practices of PWs development that leads to unsustainable development
being promoted in Jordan. This research, therefore, seeks to show how to integrate
SA into PWs development in Jordan. In order to achieve this, Modified Grounded
Theory (MGT) was used. The incorporation of recommendations and findings
resulting from the MGT have helped to propose a novel integrated approach. The
findings indicated that there is a need to change the existing PWs development
practices by identifying the SA process, goals and targets, linking the development
levels, creating an enabling environment, and, lastly, restructuring the policymaking
process to select individual projects. Then, the integrated approach was validated
with Jordanian and Non-Jordanian experts. The validation’s findings recommended
several suggestions that need to be carried out for the improvement of the integrated
approach. This indicated that it is favourably recommended for its usability,
usefulness, and appropriateness and its application to assess the extent to which
emerging policies, plans, and projects of PWs achieve sustainable development.
