These are proposed principles of action that we believe would have a positive social or economic impact.
These positions are developed through working groups and/or during the process of producing articles.
Peak Infrastructure
Developed economies are approaching peak infrastructure, a maximal useful stock where continued expansion provides diminishing returns. Most of the assets we need already exist.
Developed economies should pivot from building new infrastructure to using and maintaining existing infrastructure better.
Developing economies should prioritise building infrastructure to reach a critical mass that meets basic social and economic needs whilst minimising environmental costs.
In transport, developing nations should be connecting urban centres. Developed nations should improve those existing connections.
This is explored further in our paper on Peak Infrastrucutre, by Ashley Barratt, Joe Inniss, and team.
Amphibious Infrastructure
Climate change is intensifying storms and causing ecosystem degradation. Urbanisation and economic evolutions are changing our use and requirements of the built environment. Existing infrastructure assets in many urban centres are aging and becoming obsolete.
Infrastructure and urban planning should move from designing against coastlines to designing with coastal zones.
Approaches to urban and coastal planning need to adapt, to move from defence to coexistence. For example, investing in assets designed to get wet.
Urban plans should seek to exploit the huge opportunities with amphibious infrastructure to improve social and economic resilience and prosperity. For example, using water for transport and logistics, using coastal zones to make spaces nicer to be in, and using sustainable urban drainage solutions to reduce environmental impacts.
This is explored further in our paper on Amphiobious Infrastructure, by Ashley Barratt, Joe Inniss, Michael Fishman, and team.
Inclusive Infrastructure
Responding to the demographic shifts and increasing costs of labour that are associated with economic development, infrastructure owners should continually improve accessibility, maintainability and increasingly automate physical work that would otherwise be undertaken manually.
Interactions with infrastructure should be as inclusive as possible, considering how people interact with infrastructure across whole asset lifecycles.
The broadest range of people should be able to access, use, operate, maintain, construct, and decommission assets.
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