The Clock is Ticking

July and August have been very unkind to the world. Wildfires, high temperatures, drought are some of the adverse impacts. Make no mistake, this is Climate Change brought on by Global Warming.

In India, monsoons have wreaked havoc in many areas, with the destruction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hotels and people’s habitats, which led to inhabitants as well tourists stranded without access to food, electricity, and water.

The unplanned development of Joshimath and its dire consequences were an early warning of things to come, especially with regards to what’s happening in the Lower Himalayas.

All of this brings to fore the importance of resilient infrastructure that can withstand extreme climate related stresses.

Giving the go-by or paying lip service to environmental issues and climate change is resulting in this mess. Infrastructural planning and implementation needs to take into account environmental factors and the destructive power of a changing climate.

In this context, the importance of clear and comprehensive information on matters of environment and changing climate is essential for the planning and execution of infrastructure projects. Such information can only be provided by geospatial systems supported by comprehensive data acquisition from sensors and people.

All agencies involved in infrastructure planning, execution and monitoring must make use of modern data acquisition systems and geospatial analytics.

There seems to be some catching-up as the growth trends in AEC illustrate. Marquee government infra schemes such as Gati Shakti are a step in the right direction, and Integration of different methodologies such as BIM with GIS is clearly the way forward.

Creating Digital Twins, using the power of Lidar scanning and satellite and aerial imagery, will create an information base through which all activities can be planned, executed and monitored. It is also important to understand the role of citizens and involve them in a two-way interaction for data and for evaluation of plans.

There is a need to combine different initiatives under a common goal of resilience to climate change. Separate activities like Smart Cities, Infrastructure, Environment need to be part of a holistic approach because there will be compromises to find acceptable solutions balancing conflicting needs of various sections of government, industry and citizens.

A common database, populated with curated data from different sources which can be accessed by all sections of society is needed. Analytics will play a major role and the use of techniques of Big Data and Artificial intelligence must be brought into play.

The real challenge is to plan for an ever changing future. Linear projections must be replaced by lateral thinking.