Climate change and civil engineering challenges

The greatest challenge facing civil engineers today is how mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, as discussed in this paper, there are still considerable uncertainities about the trends of some critical aspects of climate change and thus doubts about the mechanisms controlling them. In developing future strategies, a major contribution of civil engineers will be through providing practical and financial evidence about projects and systems which work and do not work. Engineers also know about risk, which is intimately related to system design. The paper concludes that the UK engineering profession needs to be more closely involved in developing effective integrated policies, working with scientists, business and government agencies.