It is time for an ‘engineering renaissance’ new ICE President Paul Jowitt said yesterday at his official inauguration.
Addressing an audience of over 500 politicians, engineers, built environment professionals and industry associations Paul Jowitt spoke frankly about the challenges facing our critical infrastructure such as terrorism, natural disasters, population growth and the complexities of climate change.
“We are often hours away from social collapse if our critical infrastructure fails.
It is time for an ‘engineering renaissance’, to build and rebuild our infrastructure in a burgeoning world and in the face the challenges that lie ahead,” he said.
The world’s population is now over 6bn and set to rise to 9bn by 2050. Urbanisation is increasing apace and there is a tide of humanity heading from the countryside to the city - tens of millions per year.
Paul Jowitt stressed that civil engineers have a significant role to play in mitigating these challenges.
“The demand for effective infrastructure services is immense. Now is the time for engineers to provide the solutions that will give the politicians assembling in Copenhagen in December the confidence to make the right decisions and not bury them.
“Practitioners - planners, architects and engineers – and the engineering research community - must work together with end users and stakeholders to build these sustainable environments. We have the imagination and we have the innovative solutions.
“When the politicking is over, it will be down to us as engineers to do get the job done.”
Paul Jowitt will be focussing on three key themes in his year, around infrastructure, international development and education:
Infrastructure is critical for society and must be invested in and protected
The inter-related issues of sustainable development, climate change and poverty reduction can all be tackled by engineering
Skills development is crucial to harness the passion of young engineers
In keeping with the international development theme, Paul Jowitt has also extended the presidential apprentice programme.
The 2009/10 scheme will include 12 young engineers, twice as many as normal, and will focus on providing the apprentices invaluable experience in the role civil engineers play in international development. They will be working closely with specialist tutors to develop a toolkit for engineers ‘An engineering project delivery plan for international development and the UN MDGs’.