Symposium on Role of Engineers in Economic Development and Policy Formulation THE ROLE OF ENGINEERS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
By
Dr. Asad Sarwar Qureshi and Atif Nawab1
“Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been” (Theodore Von Karman)
Abstract Engineers are increasingly required to play a leadership role in sustainable development, overcoming global challenges, such as depletion of resources, environmental pollution, rapid population growth and damage to ecosystems. In the 20th century, engineering achievements were developed without considering their impact on social, economic, and environmental natural systems. Considering the problems facing our planet today and the problems expected to arise in the first half of the twenty-first century, engineers must revisit their mindset and adopt a new mission statement - to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. For that to occur, engineers must adopt a completely different attitude towards natural and cultural systems and reconsider interactions between engineering disciplines, non-technical fields and the society. As we enter the twenty-first century, we must adopt a more holistic approach to engineering. This will require: (1) a major paradigm shift from control of nature to participation with nature; (2) an awareness of ecosystems, ecosystems services, and the preservation and restoration of natural capital; and (3) a new mindset of the mutual enhancement of nature and humans that embraces the principles of sustainable development.
Keywords: Engineers, sustainable development, ecosystems, environmental pollution, society, economic resources, global challenges.
1. INTRODUCTION One of the first sources of confusion, particularly among those who are not engineers or scientists, is the distinction between science and engineering. The main focus of the scientist is to develop knowledge and understanding of the physical universe. Science is the pursuit of knowledge in its purest sense without any concern to the needs (or interpreted needs) of society, whereas engineering is the combination of both. The direction of scientific research has been described by some as curiosity- based research which is not necessarily driven by the values of society. Societal values (and resulting priorities) do not necessarily define the bounds, direction or scope of scientific curiosity. Engineering connects pure science to society (Figure 1). Unlike science, in engineering the environment in which engineers plan, design, build, manufacture, maintain and operate continually changes and so the engineer must be prepared within an ‘acceptable level of risk’ for all possibilities and outcomes.
Engineers have contributed very largely to society, but are a misunderstood group, as their efforts are often under-appreciated. Delivery of most of the services essential to modern life such as electricity, flight, television, medical imaging, sewage networks, the telephone, water networks and railway lines are the result of engineering.
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1. Senior Environmental Specialist and Junior Engineer, National Development Consultants (NDC), Lahore, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] 107 Dr. Asad Sawar Qureshi and Atif Nawab Paper No. 311
Societal Needs
Engineering
Scientific Knowledge
Figure 1: Relationship between societal needs, scientific knowledge and engineering.
Engineers plan, design and create the physical structure through which society lives, works and plays. Therefore in order to appreciate and understand the role of the engineer, we must examine the relationship between the engineer and society. Then, perhaps 21st century engineers can develop a sustainable world in balance with the forces of nature to combat some of the inventible global crisis if given the opportunity.
2. ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS IN 20th CENTURY AND FUTURE CHALLENGES For the past 150 years, engineering practice has been based on a paradigm of controlling nature rather than cooperating with nature. In the control-of-nature paradigm, humans and the natural world are divided, and humans adopt an oppositional, manipulative stance toward nature. Despite its drawbacks, this approach has led to remarkable engineering achievements during the nineteenth and especially twentieth centuries. For instance, civil and environmental engineers have played a critical role in improving the condition of humankind on Earth by improving sanitation, developing water resources, and developing transportation systems.
The 20th century have witnessed a great achievement in engineering technology in the field of design, information technology (IT), construction, manufacturing, robotic, advanced materials or even the engineering management techniques for problem solving. Some of the newly and enhanced technologies include: