In the article “Why Climate Fight Needs Engineer”, Shah (2014) reported that professional engineers are in demand to come up with sustainable engineering solution. The author highlighted that rapid urbanization together with climate changes is pushing Singapore to transit into sustainable, urban and economic system. Khew, Deputy President of Institution of Engineers, stated that the main areas where engineering comes to play includes – “Clean environment and water resources; sustainable development and infrastructure sustainable energy and resilience and adaptation to climate change.” Kuttan, Director and Country Manager of the Clean Technology Centre, DNV GL also explained that in order to solve the challenges, it would require outstanding engineers with great understanding and innovation to tackle on the key areas. While I agree with the author that engineers have a crucial role, I feel that the article lacks elaboration on key areas and other factors engineers have to consider while solving challenges to climate changes.
Firstly, the author only briefly mentioned about the key areas where engineers can tackle without much elaboration. As water is a scared resource and with population increasing, there is an increase demand of technology for water recycling, water treatment, Chua 2015), drainage system and flood control. (Lapp 2005) (Li 2015) reported that high emission carbon is one of the main factors that results to drastic climate change, engineers will be needed in this field to reduce the current technologies and infrastructure emission of climate change causing gases while maintaining the efficiency. (Engineer the Future, 2011) conducted studies that shows that extreme weather, example; typhoon, flood etc increased the need for more robust and adaptable infrastructure, transport system and communication system as those are often the ones that get affected.
Secondly, the author did not provide analysis of other factors to consider while coming up with solutions. (Warry and Mair 2010) expressed their views that the effects cause climate change may not be simple to predict and engineers will often depend on probability or come up with solutions that are adaptable in the event the prediction did not come out as expected. In addition, they also mentioned maintenance of technologies and infrastructure can be costly, however, not many investors are willing to pay unless the amount can be recovered. If investors are not willing to pay to cover the cost, usually public are not willing to fork out extra for better infrastructures. (Lapp 2005) also reported that the solutions from engineers not only need to be acceptable in terms of technology, they also need to have acceptance from the public in order for the solution to be implemented well.
In conclusion, engineers have a crucial role in coming up with solutions to solve challenges posed by climate change. However, the solutions have many other factors to consider other than the key areas that author mentioned which increases the difficulty to innovate.
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References ( To be updated)
http://blogs.aecom.com/engineers-have-a-role-to-play-in-minimizing-climate-change/
http://www.eco-business.com/news/engineering-plays-crucial-role-in-climate-change/
Click to access issue45_opinion.pdf
Click to access infrastructure-rae-report.pdf
http://www.peo.on.ca/index.php/ci_id/20669/la_id/1.htm
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Joey Cheng 