Project Delivery Systems for Sustainable Civil Infrastructure: Systemic transformation to achieve Low-Carbon, Circularity, and Resiliency goals

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “Project Delivery Systems for Sustainable Civil Infrastructure: Systemic transformation to achieve Low-Carbon, Circularity, and Resiliency goals”

Journal: Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Submission deadline: 30 August 2026

Overview

This special issue—published by Emerald—addresses the critical need to transition civil infrastructure toward low-carbon, circular, and resilient futures. It argues that achieving sustainability requires moving beyond isolated technical interventions to focus on the institutional, contractual, and organizational structures that govern project delivery. The issue explores the "quadruple nexus" of carbon, circularity, resilience, and collaborative contracting, seeking research that examines sustainability as a fundamental governance and delivery challenge.

Key Research Themes

• Carbon Governance & Circularity: Frameworks for carbon budgeting and accountability, life-cycle value creation, material recovery, and business model innovation.

• Resilience & Risk: Approaches to adaptive capacity, extreme-event uncertainty, organizational learning, and infrastructure robustness.

• Digitalized & Industrialized Construction: AI-enabled planning, digital twins, offsite production, and Design-for-Excellence (DfX) strategies.

• Collaborative Governance & Transformation: Collaborative delivery models, policy drivers for system change, and the institutionalization of sustainability practices across infrastructure portfolios.

Submission Details

• Submission window: 10 February 2026 – 30 August 2026.

• Submission portal: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ecaam

• Special Instructions: You must select the special issue title from the drop-down menu during the submission process to ensure your manuscript is routed correctly.

• Submission Standards: The journal welcomes original research using qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, or simulation approaches. All manuscripts must strictly adhere to the ECAM Author Guidelines.

Guest Editor Team

• Sara Rankohi, University of Quebec in Montreal (rankohi.sara@uqam.ca)

• Yunping Liang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (yliang17@unl.edu)

• Alejandro Romero-Torres, University of Quebec in Montreal (romero-torres.alejandro@uqam.ca)

• Erik Poirier, ÉTS Montreal (erik.poirier@etsmtl.ca)

Why This Issue Matters

Large-scale public infrastructure projects are often hampered by fragmented, transactional delivery systems that struggle to balance competing sustainability objectives. This issue provides a vital platform for interdisciplinary research that connects engineering management with public-sector governance, helping to design and institutionalize delivery systems that can realistically meet long-term climate and resiliency goals.

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