{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,10]],"date-time":"2025-11-10T21:22:54Z","timestamp":1762809774330,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":67,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,14]],"date-time":"2025-06-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1749859200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"China University of Mining and Technology Research Center for Transformation Development of Resource-Based Cities and Rural Revitalization","award":["2021-11158"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021-11158"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Systems"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The public\u2013private partnerships (PPP) mode is very popular in public infrastructure projects. The PPP model for sponge city construction (SCC) provides an effective way to curb and manage the increasingly serious ecological water problems in China. The quantitative evaluation of value for money (VFM) is an evaluation method that obtains quantitative values through a certain calculation process. However, the current studies lack a dynamic quantitative evaluation of VFM for the entire life cycle of SCC PPP projects, and cannot observe the impact of key factors on the VFM value. By constructing a system dynamics (SD) model for the VFM quantitative evaluation of SCC PPP projects from the perspective of the whole life cycle, this study can intuitively and transparently observe the impact of key factors (such as discount rate and profit margin) on the evaluation results and feasibility of adopting a PPP model in the project, offering policymakers a tool to mitigate the risks of \u201cPseudo-PPP\u201d projects. After collecting cases in Anhui province from the China PPP Center, this study constructed a life cycle VFM quantitative evaluation system dynamics model suitable for SCC PPP projects that consist of the public sector comparison (PSC) value and PPP value. The results indicate that the system dynamics model can be effectively applied to the dynamic quantitative evaluation of SCC PPP projects and clarify the influence degree on and sensitivity of various factors to the VFM value. Specifically, when the discount rate increases, the decrease in the PPP value is greater than that in the PSC value, leading to an increase in the VFM value. Moreover, a reasonable profit margin is more sensitive to the VFM value and decreases as the reasonable profit margin increases. In addition, choosing different availability service fee calculation methods will result in varying the adjustment range to a reasonable profit margin that drives the adoption of VFM quantitative evaluation. These research findings have provided a viable dynamic research methodology for the quantitative VFM evaluation of SCC PPP projects. This methodology enables the dynamic visualization and easy determination of the acceptable ranges for relevant factors, offers rational policy recommendations for the quantitative evaluation of key factor values, and thereby effectively prevents PPP project violations, promoting fair and reasonable cooperation between governments and private enterprises.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/systems13060471","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,16]],"date-time":"2025-06-16T06:40:27Z","timestamp":1750056027000},"page":"471","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Quantitative Evaluation of Value for Money in Sponge City Construction Public\u2013Private Partnership Projects Through a System Dynamics Model"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Heng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China"},{"name":"School of Management Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu 233030, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-7240-4161","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiang","family":"Chang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Architecture and Design, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tianci","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Business School, Hohai University, Changzhou 213200, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"772","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landusepol.2018.03.005","article-title":"\u201cSponge City\u201d in China\u2014A breakthrough of planning and flood risk management in the urban context","volume":"76","author":"Chan","year":"2018","journal-title":"Land Use Policy"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jenvman.2018.10.024","article-title":"Comprehensive performance evaluation of LID practices for the sponge city construction: A case study in Guangxi, China","volume":"231","author":"Li","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. 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