Methodological Evolution of Risk Management in Infrastructure Construction and Rehabilitation Projects: A Systematic Literature Review
Abstract
Infrastructure construction and rehabilitation projects operate under complex and evolving risks. Addressing these risks requires a comprehensive understanding of the full risk-management pipeline of risk identification, taxonomic classification, ranking, quantitative assessment, and response. Existing reviews largely examine risk management within specific project stages or contexts, leaving limited understanding of its sequential development across the project lifecycle. This review addresses this gap by systematically reviewing 141 papers published between 2006 and 2026, tracing the methodological evolution of infrastructure risk management across the full pipeline. The synthesis indicates that literature- and expert-driven approaches remain prevalent in risk identification and ranking. At the same time, data-driven methods have gained recent momentum for identifying and assessing emerging and context-specific risks. However, the representation of risk interdependencies and the temporal dynamics of risk propagation remain limited. The review also reveals an imbalance in the literature, with rehabilitation projects receiving less attention than greenfield construction. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda to strengthen risk identification, assessment, and response for both construction and rehabilitation projects.