Any major construction or development project today involves dozens of trades, systems and stakeholders, and must take into account its short- and long-term effects. Clearly, engineering is becoming increasingly complex.
Engineers, and those who train them, have concerns that go far beyond the purely technical, and now consider the human, environmental, social, financial and logistical management aspects of projects... The art of negotiating, of listening, of taking into account more intangible elements such as heritage value and local sensitivities, are all on the agenda, as is the integration of artificial intelligence tools in a field where technology is at the foundations of operations.
There's nothing simple about an aqueduct network; if, on top of that, it intersects with energy, transport and communications networks, and passes through the historic site of a high-density city center in an era of climate change and inflation... you'll need a whole team to manage the project, and even robots!
The world of engineering is at the heart of the Anthropocene, indeed it is the instrument at its source... and perhaps it will also be the one to restore our relationship with the biosphere. Given the scale of the challenges, we'll need all the engineering we can muster... and the wisdom to guide it.
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
