A CEDA - IADC Conference

Dredging for Sustainable Infrastructure

Investing in Stakeholder Engagement

19-20 November 2018. Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Sustainable infrastructure projects operate on the boundaries of physical, ecological and socio-economic domains. As a consequence a multitude of interests and backgrounds are involved in the successful development of such projects. This is why they are usually complex and of high exposure. Thoughtful management of these interests – as well as combining them as much as possible in a specific design – is essential to project success. Effective incorporation of interests can only be achieved by careful engagement of stakeholders.


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Today, more and more projects are developed in a stakeholder-inclusive way. Different stakeholders have different reasons to participate in such development. Careful selection of partners and management of opposition can help to make a project feasible and successful. Furthermore, due to their novel and innovative nature, sustainable solutions can encounter resistance, as unfamiliarity often triggers a conservative response. Attentive identification and involvement of stakeholders can help make dynamic, sustainable solutions feasible.

Stakeholders can be defined as ‘any group or individual who can actively affect or be affected by the project'. As such, stakeholders can be anything from individuals affected by a project through to large-scale NGOs whose organisational goals are related to aspects of the project. A practical approach for stakeholder analysis relies on a systematic identification and classification of relevant stakeholders, followed by the assessment of their interests and power.

Last update: 26 July 2018