DISTRIBUTIVE FAIRNESS AS A CRITERION FOR SUSTAINABILITY - EVALUATIVE MEASURES AND APPLICATION TO PROJECT SELECTION

In evaluating civil engineering projects and management alternatives, the distribution of project impacts among groups in the same generatio n (intratemporal impact distributions) and between groups in different generations (intertemporal impact distributions) may be used as indic ators of project viability and potential sustainability. Empirical mea sures of distributive fairness among groups at one point in time have typically been applied in project selection. These measures are often based on one of three views of fairness, namely allocation of impacts based on equality, equity, or need. The appropriateness of these measu res for different applications may be determined based on whether they meet a set of required characteristics. This paper classifies the com mon distributive fairness measures for impact distributions at one poi nt in time, describes the required characteristics of each measure, an d extends these measures for considering impact distributions that are experienced over time. New measures of intratemporal and intertempora l distributive fairness are suggested and the challenge of evaluating these in a long time horizon is discussed. The application of distribu tive fairness measures to the selection of an electricity supply proje ct is then presented.