Sustainability, Vol. 12, Pages 1511: Research on Investment Decision-Making in Waterway Engineering Based on the Hub Economic Index (Sustainability)

Due to the wide range of waterway engineering strategies, the government often has the view that investment in hardware (such as construction, equipment renewal, etc.) is more important than that in software (such as information systems, service concepts, etc.) in the investment decision-making of waterway engineering. Besides, some government departments lack a consideration of coordinated development among different industries, resulting in the waterway industry lagging behind other industries (such as expressways, high-speed railway, etc.). To facilitate a more balanced infrastructure investment, we create a novel index, the Hub Economic Index (HEI), by incorporating the theory of the hub economy into the investment decision-making of waterway engineering. HEI consists of two major criteria, tangible and intangible assets, further divided into 10 indices. In particular, investment allocation between tangible and intangible assets is evaluated for the four major reaches of the North Jiangsu Canal. Multiple years of HEI values for the water transport industry are calculated for trend analysis and comparison with other industries. The results show that (1) through the comparison between the calculated values of the HEI investment model and the actual investment, the deviation of the tangible investment is 2.8% lower, and that of the intangible hub investment is 7.2% higher, which is basically in line with the actual situation. At the same time, it promotes the development of software; and (2) through the variation trends in HEI for various industries from 2008 to 2018, the HEI values of the different industries in the transportation system show a trend of steady growth. This is basically consistent with China’s economic development trend, but also reflects the development gap between the different industries. The research results are of great significance to help the government to make investment decisions in different fields and industries. The investment based on HEI values will further promote the integrated development of the water transport industry and other industries.