Comparative study of selected greenfield development projects

Abstract

Objectives: To compare Greenfield development projects that formed part of creation of smart cities, and thereby identify the variables that show correlation with the total area of the site developed. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Ten Greenfield development projects were chosen for data collection. Projects were so chosen that they are from different sizes. They vary from, as small as 0.36 sq. km to, as large as 150 sq. km. Data were collected from the respective project reports. Fifteen variables were compared. Correlation analysis was used as the tool to know how different variables exhibit relationship with increasing size of sites chosen. Findings: Variables such as population hosted, distance of the site to nearest city, commercial land use, provision of special economic zones, educational land use, wasted managed on a daily basis and lush greenery show significant correlation with the size of the project (with correlation coefficients respectively as 0.9627, 0.8421, 0.8556, 0.7847, 0.837, 0.8847 and 0.7323). When areas are reasonably large, their centroid will usually be located far away from the nearby major city. Such mega projects have additional provision of transport infrastructure to connect the site to the nearby city. It is also found that not all variables showed correlation with the area of the site. Employment, project cost and its duration are some examples (with correlation coefficients of 0.0532, 0.0637 and 0.5331 respectively). This is against normal intuition that when the greenfield development area is larger, it could cost more or it could provide more employment. However, findings above show otherwise. Such findings are helpful for urban planners drafting projects for smart cities to take into account the key variables that have correlation and carefully plan for the variables that show no correlation. Application/Improvement: Correlation analysis proves to be a simple and effective tool when applied in the comparison of Greenfield development projects, as smart city initiatives are increasing in the recent years.