Large-scale infrastructure projects are likely to on the agenda of international governments over the coming year, according to a list of predictions from environmental engineering firm Max Fordham.
The company says governments will be forced to tackle the problems caused by climate change by introducing infrastructure-scale solutions to avoid a repeat of the flooding recently seen in the north of the UK. It is hoped that these will also give way to impressive examples of urban design, such as the US$335M scheme to upgrade Lower Manhattan's storm defences in the US.
Engineering is crucial to the reduction of fossil fuel use and to minimise environmental effects, the company said. As Phil Armitage, Senior Partner at Max Fordham, added: "Some of our predictions are quite optimistic, but they are intended to highlight the problems we face and some of the ways engineering can be used to help solve them."
