Plan today for the infrastructure of tomorrow
Domenico Grasso is provost of the University of Delaware and a member of the faculty of environmental engineering Sheila Tobias
Domenico Grasso
is provost of the University of Delaware and a member of the faculty of environmental engineering
Sheila Tobias
is the editor of Engineering- Enhanced Liberal Education courses, an online resource provided by the American Society for Engineering Education
Both major-party candidates for president have released "bold" infrastructure plans to build the "next generation of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, seaports, and airports."
Hillary Clinton's plan totals $275 billion over five years, plus an additional $225 billion in loans and loan-guarantee programs. Donald Trump's plan calls for an outlay of $800 billion to reverse "decades of decay in the nation's public transportation arteries and create millions of jobs."
These are bold plans - but not bold enough. The fact is, the infrastructure of the future is not going to be the infrastructure of the past.
The new infrastructure has to deal not only with capturing new opportunities but also with foreseeing and addressing new challenges. Rebuilding the infrastructure will not be about technology alone, but about building integrated systems that take advantage of humanity's singular capacity for creativity and expression in all aspects of our lives and society.
In the "super smart societies" that engineers and other planners are anticipating, we will have to not only rebuild but rethink our infrastructure. That's because information and data are already driving 80 percent of our economy, and tomorrow's energy sources might not look like today's. Here are a few examples:
The hydrogen economy is going to need an infrastructure to support it; recharging stations for electric cars are already here; semiautonomous vehicles will change the way roads are built, as well as highway signage (interacting with cellphones and automobiles directly instead of people).
On food systems, people in cities are looking more to local farm-to-plate community-supported agriculture, where consumers can buy a share of a farm, changing food-delivery patterns that drive much of today's transport of food production.
"Smart cities" will not only be outfitted with myriad sensors but will also be complex in different ways from now: bicycle-friendly, featuring parklike downtowns like the New Cleveland designed in time for the Republican convention.
Before we rebuild water sources and water-treatment plants, shouldn't we look at wastewater - no longer just a flow-through for treatment - as a mining resource, for minerals and other uses?
Since the last infrastructure was designed and built, cybertechnology has greatly changed the way we live. The smartphone was introduced only 10 years ago, but think about the new sharing economy that has emerged in just that short time. A device as small as a telephone can now enable us to handle more personal and professional tasks without having to leave our homes or offices.
As we depend more on technology, some are taking the opportunity to divest themselves of their own personal responsibility. For example, the use of GPS navigation has caused some motorists to drive blindly into lakes while following automated commands rather than using common sense. Clearly, even when we automate, we cannot abdicate responsibility for ourselves and others. To counter the mind-dumbing effects of an overprescribed and controlled society, a few cities in Europe are reducing the number of road signs (!) to force drivers to use their judgment and pay attention to their environs.
And then there is the demographic challenge - for some nations more than others. The Japanese, facing the need to care for an aging population, are heavily investing in robotics-based care. And now that we have the capacity to bring lectures, encyclopedias, and even scientific experiments directly into our homes, shouldn't we rethink the entire educational infrastructure to determine how to make these opportunities equally available to everyone?
Yes, our infrastructure is crumbling, but we can't just replace it with the same type of roads, water plants, and schools, ignoring advancements in technology and other developments since the existing infrastructure was created.
Rebuilding our next-generation infrastructure is not only about shovels in the ground. We must start by investing in a new breed of engineers who think holistically, are extraordinarily innovative, and will work with economists, attorneys, policy analysts, and journalists to support life and happiness in the 21st century.
Our next president must not miss this opportunity. Rather, our nation's new leader must have the thoughtfulness and foresight to partner with higher-education leaders and invest heavily in educational paradigms that will help engineers address the complexities of an uncertain and unforeseen future.