One of the major roles undertaken by a project manager is the management of the risk of a project. However, this duty is particularly complex and inefficient if good risk management has not been done from the beginning of the project. An effective and efficient risk management approach requires a proper and systematic methodology and, more importantly, knowledge and experience. Previous research results in Chile have shown that both, owners and contractors do not systematically apply risk management practices, resulting in negative consequences for projects' performance. This paper addresses the problems of risk management in construction projects using a knowledge-based approach, and proposes a methodology based on a three-fold arrangement that includes the modeling of the risk management function, its evaluation, and the availability of a best practices model. This approach is part of a* research effort that is underway. A major preliminary conclusion of this research is the fact that risk management in construction projects is still very ineffective and that the main cause of this situation is the lack of knowledge. It is expected that the application of the proposed approach will allow clients and contractors to develop a project's risk management function based on best practices, and also to improve the performance of this function. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.