Sustainability Constraints on Rural Road Infrastructure

• Published in: Sustainability 2024-08, Vol.16 (16), p.7066
• Main Authors: Li, Qin, Lv, Shuangning, Cui, Jingya, Hou, Dongchen, Liu, Yijun, Li, Wenlong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Construction; Delphi method; Economic development; Infrastructure; Project evaluation; Research methodology; Roads & highways; Rural areas; Structural equation modeling; Sustainable development
• ISSN: 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su16167066

Research on the sustainability of rural roads is of great significance to the integrated promotion of rural habitat improvement, the maintenance of regional ecological patterns, and the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. This paper examines the constraints to ensuring the sustainability of road infrastructure in rural Shaanxi, China. Rural road infrastructure plays an important role in poverty alleviation. Rural Shaanxi Province is situated among a variety of terrains and spans a large area. Therefore, using the current situation of rural roads in the province as a starting point, the constraints and their rankings that impede the sustainability of road infrastructure are identified through the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and structural equation modeling (SEM), which in turn suggests governance measures that can be taken. The data in this paper come from 498 valid questionnaires obtained from 50 townships and 101 sample villages in Shaanxi Province. Due to the huge number of questionnaires, the questionnaires were tested with the help of SPSS 26.0 software, which showed that the questionnaires had high reliability and validity, and then the structural equation model was validated and modified according to the recommendations of goodness-of-fit statistics measurement and the modification index. Finally, the key factors affecting the sustainable development of rural road infrastructure were finally identified.