ANNEX 2 DEFINING THE LINEAR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT CYCLE

WWF’s Visioning Futures study is concerned with a holistic perspective on the project cycle for linear infrastructure—from landscape and system level planning (“upstream”) to individual project selection, design, construction and operation (“downstream”).

There is no universally accepted definition of the project cycle for developing linear infrastructure or sequencing of its phases, with different approaches providing various levels of detail and emphasis. There are, however, common features of many descriptions of the project cycle. Similarly, there is no clear delineation between upstream and downstream phases. For example, the following three diagrams depict slightly different characterizations:

This report does not assume that a universal definition of the project cycle is necessary, nor advocate for the adoption of the sequencing employed within, but instead uses a characterization of phases that matches experience within the region and understandings of the intersection of various regulatory mechanisms with different phases. See Figure 4 in the full report for a summary of the characterization of the linear infrastructure lifecycle employed in the study.