1 INTRODUCTION The paces of technological development, hence con- sumption of environmental resources, and generation of environmental impacts have all increased exponen- tially over the past 200 years. The Global Footprint Network (2013) has found that the rates of human de- mand for resources and disposal of waste required 1.47 times the planet Earth capacity in 2009, and would demand two Earths to support life by the 2030s; should the current pace continued unrectified. Accordingly, the principles of sustainable develop- ment have gradually infiltrated most fields of human activities; probably as far as the late 1960s, and the construction industry is no exception. The body of knowledge related to sustainable construction, how- ever, did not begin to shape and gain momentum ex- cept during the late 1980s (Matar et al. 2010). The construction industry and its products have been identified to contribute to consumption of re- sources and generation of environmental impacts at a scale that dwarfs many other human activities and in- dustries; being responsible for: (1) more than 30% of energy consumption in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, in- cluding the United States, the European Union, Japan, and others, (2) 16% of freshwater withdrawals in the United States and about 20% worldwide, and (3) about 33% of global greenhouse gas emissions, just to name a few (Pearce et al. 2012). Recognizing the magnitude and impacts of this industry, coupled with countless efforts from different research entities, or- ganizations, and institutions resulted in a proliferation of literature related to sustainable construction; with still much space for progress. Logically, the particular topic of assessing or evaluating sustainability in the construction sector has drawn much attention, result- ing in the development of more than 600 sustainabil- ity rating systems worldwide, with evaluation criteria that range from 5 to over 170 (Matar et al. 2008, Berardi 2012). Both the large number of assessment tools and the lack of consensus on evaluation criteria are potentially alarming. Moreover, wide discrepan- cies between assessment results during the planning and design phases, and the actual performance during real life operation have been found. While energy per- formance is very often cited as the most important sustainability indicator, it was found to be the least realized (Scofield 2009, Berardi 2012). Finally, it is very notable that most of the available sustainability assessment tools address buildings, while very few of them address civil infrastructure projects (Jennings Evaluation of Civil Infrastructure Sustainability: A Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Approach Mohamed Matar 1 , Hesham Osman 2 , Maged Georgy 3 , Azza Abou-Zeid 2 , and Moheeb El-Said 4 1 PhD Candidate, Structural Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt 2 Associate Professor, Structural Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt 3 Associate Professor, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia 4 Professor, Structural Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt ABSTRACT: The consideration of sustainability in delivering construction projects – including civil infrastruc- ture projects – has become a fundamental requirement of the construction industry. Over more than two decades, a plethora of modeling schemes, evaluation tools and rating systems have been introduced. But many of these lack the consensus on evaluation criteria, and do not necessarily deliver reliable results when comparing rated versus actual sustainability performance. Moreover, very few of the evaluation tools available satisfactorily address infrastructure projects. This paper introduces a systems model that abstracts the environment, the con- struction product, and its production system as three interacting systems of systems, and utilizes this setup to capture and quantify material, energy, and information exchange between these systems, with the objective of evaluating sustainability. The paper highlights the importance of giving enough consideration to infrastructure projects, and demonstrates the model utility using a typical water pipeline installation project that uses horizon- tal directional drilling (HDD) technology as an example.