Moving Forward

While we are proud of our past, Hyder Consulting is very much a company that is looking to, and helping to shape, the future. For the 150th anniversary, we asked a number of people to share their view of the demands that the future built environment may place on our profession. This is what our 2006 UK Graduate of the Year, Caroline Barlow, a water and environmental engineer, had to say.

"This world can only support one billion people. The fact that it is supporting six billion at the moment is in part due to the resilience of nature, in part thanks to civil engineering." This statement was made by David Bellamy during an ICE Conference in 1990. The world population now stands at 6.5 billion and it is predicted to rise to nine billion by 2050. For the water engineer, there is a huge challenge to manage and protect the environment with an expanding population and an ever increasing appetite for consumerism.

Added to this challenge, the world is now starting to feel the effects of climate change; rainfall patterns are changing, sea levels are rising, glaciers are retreating and incidences of extreme weather are increasing. The challenge for the engineer is to balance the ability to provide an environment which meets the quality of lifestyle demanded by the consumer without compromising the natural environment for now and for the future. The harder the engineer works to improve the civil environment, the greater the demand for improvement will be.

The UK water industry is a good example of ever increasing demands on water supply and the ever increasing battle to meet customer requirements. With Thames Water and Anglian Water enforcing drought orders in summer 2006, the issue of supply meeting demand has hit the media spotlight and raised questions as to whether water companies can meet future demand. From an engineer's point of view, the current increasing demand rate is not sustainable and will come at a cost to the environment. Desalination plants could be provided. However, energy supplies will be required to drive the process and the bi-product of concentrated salts will need to be disposed of. A national water supply network is possible but the installation of the infrastructure would require vast distances of pipeline installations and use significant amounts of energy to drive pumps not withstanding the initial environmental impact of installing such an infrastructure.

For the water industry to balance supply and demand, a compromise must be sought that would see consumers reducing their average daily consumption combined with improved water supplies. Behaviours have to change through education, awareness and promotion of water saving devices. We are now seeing evidence of the public taking more personal responsibility for the environment we live in. In response to consumer demand, supermarkets are starting to promote carrier bag re-use and food will contain packaging with carbon footprints for the consumer to make responsible choices. The engineer needs to ensure that as the consumer starts to take more responsibility, these choices are available and that the industry can live up to its side of the bargain with reduced flooding and improved water supplies. The more the public can see evidence that this compromise will work, the more people will be encouraged to do their bit.

The role of a civil engineer has been defined as one to direct the natural resources of man, but there needs to be the resources to do so, for now and for future generations. Engineers, environmentalists and scientists should take the lead and guide the public to a more sustainable way of life, before it is too late."