We Need to Rethink Infrastructure.
By Phil Fieldhouse
July 2020
Humans built stability in an unstable world
Many of us hold the perception that our climate, environment, and even our land, are both fixed and stable. This is a dangerous assumption in a climate crisis.
Macro environmental variations normally occur on such long-term timescales that human experience is one of a relatively stable environment. Our knowledge has been derived from our experience of these times, and we have designed infrastructure to match.
To facilitate our survival and comfort we have largely built infrastructure assuming that our environment will continue to operate similarly to how it has been in the past few hundred years, when detailed record keeping began. On this assumption we have designed fixed physical infrastructure for a highly dynamic world. This could prove to be a fatal error.
Climate impacts are too much, too fast
The accelerated pace of climate change is already proving too much for our fixed infrastructure. Without a rethink of how and what we plan, design and expect from infrastructure, the safety and comfort that it has been built to provide is under threat.
Humans have an incredible capacity to adapt to situations quickly and climate change is the ultimate test. Our capacity for rapid adaptation is reflected in nature, which is highly resilient, surviving in some of the most hostile environments on the planet. However, it takes time to establish a natural system that interacts with the environment to create stable conditions for life to thrive.
Over thousands of years, we adapted and changed our immediate environment to become fixed and suit our needs. Now the global environment is changing and creating new, localised and unforeseen challenges that are forcing us to accept that our ‘fixed’ outlook might not be the most suitable after all. This perspective paints a stark picture of climate crisis forcing us to rapidly adapt to a new environment if society as we know it today is to continue to survive. It also overlooks another key question; if climate change is happening too quickly for humans to adapt to, how can nature and its long-term timescales stand a chance of adaptation?
Could nature be the solution?
We know, for example, that sea level rise is causing waves to topple coastal defences and flood reclaimed land. Nature had a solution for this in the form of coastal ecosystems that are made up of individual species all performing a specific role in the system to protect the whole.
We thought that hard engineering solutions, or ‘Grey Infrastructure’, could provide the same, more efficient and equitable services as, say, a mangrove forest. For a time we were correct, but climate change is rendering Grey Infrastructure obsolete well before the intended design life has passed.
Resilient infrastructure 101
These are broad, high level concepts and this article is designed to introduce you to my perspective on resilient infrastructure in todays world. It is a more philosophical introduction to a series of articles focused on resilient infrastructure and the role nature can play in providing us with the safety, security and resilience we need from our infrastructure for society to thrive.
Through this series we will discuss the climate stressors on society, infrastructure and nature, focusing on how Grey Infrastructure (GI) has supported us and where it needs re- evaluating. I will focus on resilience in infrastructure, how nature-based solutions (NbS) can be integrated and try to define new expectations for infrastructure beyond the traditional economic arguments for security and protection. Make no mistake; I do not undervalue the importance of economic requirements for infrastructure. But if we ask the right questions and understand first how to live within a dynamic system, then we can design a better one.
© 2020 Climate Just Collective