Social risks and their management are critical to infrastructure delivery that minimises negative impacts while optimising societal and community benefits. Risks arising from community concerns, socio-environmental issues and cultural considerations are recognised in policy and practice as having material effects on project delivery. Yet social risk and its management remains a nascent field, both in terms of definitions and practice. This Executive Summary highlights efforts of I2S and our industry partners to better define social risk, identify key factors that indicate the likely presence of social risks and deliver tools for integrated risk management.
I2S is leading research to better define, assess and manage social risk. Ultimately, we aim to see social risk integrated with financial, technical and environmental risk management, raising the profile and understanding of social and community concerns in major project environments.
Our efforts are supported by the Australian Research Council and our Industry Linkage Project Partners.