Global Megaprojects

8Megaprojects and Mega Risk: Opportunity, Risk, and Resilience Management

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, desire

— Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

Introduction

Natural and man‐made disasters around the globe, including earthquakes, pandemics, cyclones, oil spills, tsunamis, devastating floods, and political unrest, remind us that catastrophic risk is all around us and, as project managers, we must be vigilant and constantly prepare for the unexpected. However, it is not just the catastrophic risk that is of concern on megaprojects, but the everyday routine performance of tasks potentially resulting in serious harm or damage claims that can exceed potential catastrophic loss. For instance, the U.S. Department of Labor statistics indicate that on an annual basis slip and fall cases constitute the biggest single cause of loss on construction projects (DOL 2021).

Megaprojects bring tremendous value to the countries, regions, and municipalities where they are built yet also bear great risk to the many people involved in building these projects. To illustrate,

The Panama Canal brings in almost $3B annually for Panama but between 1904 and 1913 some 5,600 workers died due to disease or accidents. (McCullough 1977)

The South North Water Transfer Project in China which began in 2002 has a 48‐year construction schedule and, when completed, it will supply 44.8B cubic meters of water each year to the local population. ...