Engineering Inc - May/June 2017 - 56

Arcadis' Vision:

One of Arcadis' resiliency projects, Rotterdam's new rail station,
will handle three times more passengers than the old facility.

Create a Big Picture View
of Sustainability
When Arcadis executives designed the Sustainable Cities
Index, they knew their rankings would join a slew of others
from numerous studies. But they saw an opportunity to offer
a new perspective.
"We wanted to present a broader view of urban sustainability," says John Batten, global director of water and cities
at the engineering company. "So we looked at three dimensions of sustainability: people, planet and profit. We need to
analyze all of these dimensions to fully understand urban
sustainability."
The target audience for the index includes public-sector
policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, academics and anyone else with an interest in making cities more
sustainable and livable. But the results are particularly
meaningful for engineers.
"Whether it's updating or replacing aging infrastructure,
expanding transportation resources or making cities more
resilient to climate change, sustainability projects translate
into opportunities for the engineering sector," Batten says.

"We're seeing that everywhere you add a new rail line, for
example, you create a redevelopment corridor that renews the
housing stock and expands transportation networks along that
route," Batten says. "This creates a great uplift for the engineering and architectural businesses that serve those areas."
For its part, Arcadis is involved in a number of resiliency projects. One is a new rail station in the centuries-old Dutch city of
Rotterdam. When complete, the station will handle three times
more passengers than the old facility. The project is part of an
ambitious modernization effort that is using engineering expertise
to redevelop city waterfronts and revitalize an abandoned port area.
"The waterfront opportunities are clearly a place where
engineers can practice their art by designing dikes, berms and
bridges that make the areas more resilient to severe weather and
accessible to citizens," Batten says.
Engineering companies are active participants in sustainability
projects such as these, providing input during the early development, as well as the designs that bring these complex initiatives
to life.

Research shows
that with highquality designs
that promote
ridership, cities
can reduce traffic
fatalities by as
much as 30
percent

"Having more engineers
thinking about the bigger
picture and understanding the
goals of cities directly impacts
the overall success of sustainability efforts," Dalkmann
says. "For example, we have
worked on the bus rapid transit systems in many countries,
and our research shows that
with high-quality designs that
promote ridership, cities can
reduce traffic fatalities by as
much as 30 percent."
Considering the declining
reserves of nonrenewable energy resources and the growing competition among cities to attract people and businesses, engineers
will become even more pivotal for progressive cities.
"Sustainable development is quickly becoming the only
option," Assaf says. "The question is, what cities will be willing
to make this transition to sustainability on their own terms, and
which ones will wait until they're forced to make an even more
rapid transition when they no longer have a choice?" ■
Alan Joch is a business and technology writer based in Francestown,
New Hampshire.

"What cities will be willing to make this transition to
sustainability on their own terms, and which ones will
wait until they're forced to make an even more rapid
transition when they no longer have a choice?"
CAROLINE ASSAF | SUSTAINABLE CITIES INTERNATIONAL

ENGINEERING INC.

MAY / JUNE 2017

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