Toward Holistic Infrastructure in China and Beyond

 

By Sean C.S. Chiao, AIA

Regional Chair AECOM, China

 

These days it is no longer appropriate to speak of infrastructure in a vacuum; roads, bridges, transit, buildings and landscape design and open space as separate entities. As the environments and economies become more and more interconnected and urbanized we are faced with new challenges and opportunities; our design solutions for this massive growth must be integrated from the very beginning at the master-planning scale. Indeed, as ecological realities confront economic viability holistic planning for transport, water, energy, open space and landscape will lead to better more functional, beautiful cities in China and beyond.

 

What, exactly, is infrastructure?

Generally speaking infrastructure refers to all the stuff that we use every day but never think about: water from the tap; the road to work; the ferry across the harbour, the footbridge we cross when we walk to lunch; the blackberry messages sent into invisible lines of communication. Infrastructure is made manifest when we take the Mid-level Escalator; the energy harnessed when we take a shower, we turn on a light, take the subway.  Infrastructure also includes larger things that make the global economy go round: airports, energy facilities, schools, hospitals and transit rail links, sea ports.

 

An unexpected consequence of the huge amount of infrastructure spending to come over the next few years is that it will continue the symbiotic convergence of economic and social systems between America, Asia and Europe.

 

 

Challenge	Poorly conceived urban infrastructure investments today will have negative environmental, economic, and social impacts in the future.
Strategy	To place sustainable development, infrastructure, and the environment at the forefront of our poverty reduction efforts.
Response	Putting sustainable infrastructure at the forefront by promoting infrastructure investment, improving water and sanitation, focusing on clean and renewable energy, driving sustainable transport forward, unleashing the power of the carbon market, and supporting private sector operations and public-private funding.

 

 

Infrastructure as a Means of Social Transformation

Demand for urban and rural infrastructure services in Asia is greater than ever. Investment in energy, transportation, communications, urban development, and water and sanitation infrastructure is essential. It can ensure poverty reduction and inclusive growth and contribute to environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.

 

Because infrastructure has a long shelf life, however, development must be holistic from the outset. Poorly conceived infrastructure investments today will place additional burden on future generations through negative environmental and social impacts.

 

In urban infrastructure, we focus on water supply, sanitation, waste management, and urban transport. We try to help countries reduce air and water pollution, develop cleaner modes of transport, improve systems for solid waste management, and reduce urban waste. In rural infrastructure, we invest in areas such as irrigation and integrated water resources management, and rural electrification.

 

China has nearly finished the construction of a high-speed rail route from Beijing to Shanghai at a cost of $23.5 billion. The authorities recently disclosed that they had 110,000 workers laboring to finish the route as quickly as possible.

 

China has already built as many miles of high-speed passenger rail lines in the last four years as Europe has in two decades.

 

By contrast Obama will spend only $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways in the United States and $1.3 billion on ageing Amtrak. Plans for China’s roads are no less ambitious. China’s Ministry of Transportation announced that 186,000 miles of rural roads would be paved, repaved or otherwise improved this year (2009). The plans call for 12 major highway routes across the country from north to south and east to west.

 

Placing sustainable infrastructure at the forefront

Our infrastructure investments are fundamental to achieving poverty reduction and inclusive growth. They contribute to environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.

Infrastructure spending globally over the next two years is set to dramatically alter the fundamental economic and strategic positions of the key global players, in particular China. For investors and entrepreneurs this infrastructure boom represents a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to profit from vast global government spending, creating holistic, integrated urban environments on a massive scale and ultimately make our cities better places to work, live and play.

 

So What?

The extraordinary scale and speed of Asian infrastructure development raises a large number of important social and environmental questions—questions that are re-shaping the way we practice as architects, engineers, landscape designers, urbanists and environmental planners and managers. Our task in China and beyond is not just to create buildings and landscapes, transit systems and water treatment plants. We are also addressing ecological and socio-economic challenges. With such feverish growth taking place, it is essential to think of infrastructure holistically. This requires us to combine art and science to achieve both beauty and practicality. This requires us to adopt the mindset of the economist and the sensibility of the ecologist because land values and water quality are just as important as the materials used in a building’s curtain wall. Responsible infrastructure design goes beyond aesthetics. It involves finding the balance between the built and natl environments.