MEng Civil and Structural Engineering

In recent years, there have been considerable concerns raised about whether our current infrastructure systems are sufficiently resilient to environmental change, and how to minimize their impact on the climate and the environment. We will depend on existing infrastructural assets for decades to come, meanwhile decarbonisation, digitalisation and decentralisation promise to transform infrastructure systems, with potential to solve the problems of existing systems and create new ones.

This unit draws on the School of Engineering’s interdisciplinary expertise to highlight national and global challenges that need the input of civil engineers. We hope to inspire students by introducing the key challenges that face critical infrastructures, and possibilities to increase sustainability and resilience of waste, energy, transport and water systems.

The unit aims to enable students to develop knowledge and skills they will use throughout their career to improve the sustainability and resilience of Engineering projects. Specifically, students will learn about:
      - what the concepts of sustainability and resilience mean, and the main implications for infrastructure systems
      - key challenges and ways to manage these in critical infrastructure sectors (waste, energy, transport and water)
      - to critically and creatively reflect on how to best manage long-lasting infrastructure projects in the face of evolving and intersecting environmental challenges. 

• Introduction to sustainability and resilience in context of infrastructure (including vulnerability, risk and climate change adaptation). 

• Sustainable and Resilient Waste Systems: Circular economy principals and infrastructural challenges associated with waste management.

• Sustainable and Resilient Water Systems: Introduction to water systems, climate-related risks (drought, water scarcity and flooding), and water resource management.

• Sustainable and Resilient Energy Systems: Existing/new technologies, Socio-political factors, Interactions between sectors and integrated solutions. Multidimensional aspects of large, infrastructure systems.

• Sustainable and Resilient Transport Systems: Road, shipping, rail, aviation.

• Future of sustainable and resilient infrastructures: Introducing socio-technical developments (digitalisation, decarbonisation, and decentralisation), exploring the implication for the future of infrastructure systems, and understanding how decisions are made in conditions of uncertainty.

Via Blackboard