A packed lecture theatre greeted Dr Juliet Mian and Pasquale Capizzi on Wednesday 6 November 2019 as they kicked off the first event in the 2019-20 sustainable infrastructure lecture series from University College London (UCL) Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management.
Pasquale highlighted the main message of the event for the audience, saying that “Resilience and sustainability should more and more be addressed and communicated together and that’s easier said than done.”
In their joint lecture, they talked about globally important sustainable and resilient infrastructure practice and set it in the context that, according to the UN, over 60% of the land projected to become urban by 2030 is yet to be built, mostly in South-East Asia and Africa. This means that development will likely test planning and design capacities, while climate change will compound risk and affect ecosystem services at an unprecedented scale.
Juliet Mian (Arup Associate Director, Technical Director of The Resilience Shift) and Pasquale Capizzi (Arup Associate, Lead of Climate Resilience, Arup International Development) presented practices from around the world in sustainable and resilient infrastructure (Kenya, Myanmar, China, Mexico, Mozambique, Japan, South-Africa, the US and Europe) and drew lessons for replication.
Summary themes from the lecture are summarised in the diagram below.
Watch the recording of the live stream below
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Dr Juliet Mian is Technical Director of the Resilience Shift, driving a programme of activities that support the global initiative to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure, supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Arup.
As an experienced Civil Engineer of over 20 years’ experience working on major projects for Network Rail, Highways England, HS2, the National Infrastructure Commission and many others both in the UK and overseas, Juliet has an in-depth understanding of infrastructure and specialises in the resilience of infrastructure systems.
Pasquale Capizzi is an urban planning professional at Arup, specialised in urban climate resilience and infrastructure. He has 17 years of experience in designing and managing programmes in cities of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
He currently leads the climate resilience portfolio of Arup International Development and leads on several climate resilient infrastructure and urban or regional resilience assignments in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Myanmar Nepal, Ghana, and Benin. He previously served in the United Nations for 15 years.
University College London (UCL) Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management is recognised across the world as a leading centre for research and insight in the management of projects and project enterprises, economics and finance, project-based networks and sustainability in the built environment.
The School’s keynote lecture series brings together leading practitioners, academics and professionals in the project management, infrastructure, economics and construction fields, to share their wealth of experience and spark discussions around the future of infrastructure
The 2019-20 keynote lecture series – Sustainable infrastructure: building a resilient future – explores the pursuit of global environmental sustainability and the role of the built environment industry in supporting this.
UCL Bartlett introduces the series by saying that now and in the future, enormous investment is required to develop infrastructure which considers economic, social and environmental factors. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals address the global challenges we face and set a blueprint for a more sustainable future. Our School actively supports research which works towards these goals.
They say, the role of infrastructure in society, and how we deliver massive infrastructure projects, is continually evolving to respond to our ever-changing needs. This year’s keynote lecture series will explore topics including climate change resilience, sustainable buildings and housing and green infrastructure.
Bringing together researchers, policy makers and leading industry innovators at the forefront of climate change and sustainable infrastructure, this series explores the potential future for a sustainable built environment.
Find out more about the UCL-Bartlett lecture series and future events.
