WBEF Week Futures fringe: How technology will shape tomorrow

Steven Matz, WBEF Content Specialist

WBEF Week 2023’s Futures fringe featured a series of forward-looking discussions about developing and future technologies. Here is a flavour of some of the topics discussed.

Climate Tech: New perspectives and new skills

Climate Tech encompasses a variety of technologies aimed at addressing climate change, including digital and physical solutions, such as material science incorporating graphene into concrete. It is attracting significant attention from start-ups and small companies that bring new perspectives and valuable skills, such as data, to environmental problems.

While attention in the built environment has been understandably focussed on assets and the whole life cycle, it’s important to start with land and its intended use, says Andrew Knight, Global Data and Tech Lead at RICS. Visual data sets are an example of climate tech in use. Land use impacts from different forms of development or agriculture presented as visual data can be used to understand potential impacts on flood risk, pollution levels and biodiversity. Satellite data can be used to examine land choices, such as urban heat island effects and how they disproportionately affect and divide areas. Another example of climate tech in use involves using data to help understand how design decisions affect embodied and operational carbon, as well as the impacts on heating and liveability. The RICS Tech Partner Programme is host to various tech companies working to develop these applications.

Wider adoption of climate tech will require a behavioural change from owners of assets and land, but we are already starting to see this. The sector is waking up to the fact there is a huge risk, not just from climate risk to assets, but also to rental and capital values, and ultimately, stranded assets. The challenge for climate tech innovators and disruptors is to reach out and show how they can bring value.

Innovative infrastructure delivery

The Transport Infrastructure Efficiency Strategy (TIES) Living Lab was a UK government-supported initiative exploring how modern technologies and methods can enhance productivity, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability in the transport infrastructure sector. Its findings are of particular significance in a sector where huge amounts of money are spent. The TIES Living Labs programme comprised 25 partners from large transport organisations, SMEs, and academia. The programme focused on a range of topics, including offsite manufacturing, data, benchmarking, AI, social value, and carbon impact.

One of the projects involved creating a digital twin for better cable route management planning and optimization. The results showed that using this technology could significantly shorten the decision-making process for routing cables during upgrades. TIES Living Lab projects also highlighted that using data would speed-up infrastructure works, offering an immediate environmental benefit and a lower carbon footprint.  Reduced carbon emissions were also an advantage of off-site construction.

The TIES Living Lab initiative placed great emphasis on social value. A tool was developed to assess the social impact of transport infrastructure projects (such as job creation and connectivity benefits) and help determine which investments will generate the biggest social return.

Neil Robertson is Chief Executive of the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR), which project managed the TIES Living Lab programme. He believes that true environmental benefits will come from embracing fully digital solutions rather than using digital as an aid for better greener, faster analogue solutions.

Industry 5.0: A human-centric approach to technology

Industry 4.0 is centred on implementing advances in technology such as AI and machine learning. Industry 5.0 takes a human-centric approach and looks at the value provided by industry, including sustainability and quality of life improvements.

Industry 5.0 is also concerned with how humans and technology can work together more effectively. It will enhance the role of the human in the loop and allow systems to be monitored more accurately. Industry 5.0 places a focus on value, and organisations and sectors in the built environment should be focusing on outcomes, believes Liz Varga, Professor of Complex Systems at UCL. For far too long, she says, organisations have been concentrating on inputs and outputs rather than outcomes. For example, people focus on the output of more technology, rather than the outcome in terms of performance and the more proactive maintenance of assets.

Although technology is great for facilitating workflow, we still need that human talent, says Tannis Liviniuk, President of Trillium Advisory Group. For Industry 5.0., organisations need to focus on how to leverage that human talent in combination with technology to maximise the value achieved. Tannis points out that organisations relying on very automated process flows can run into supply chain issues.

The human and sustainability elements of Industry 5.0 could also further enhance efforts to the reduce considerable quantity of waste produced on construction sites that goes straight to landfill.  

Sustainability in space and a lunar habitat

Over 250 missions to the moon are planned in the next decade and the lunar economy is predicted to be worth US$100 billion (according to Northern Sky Research).

The challenges faced in space exploration are described by Melchiorre Conti, Space Resources Engineer, European Space Agency. Protecting the crew from dust, radiation, extreme temperature variations, the vacuum that surrounds the moon, and micrometeorite bombardments are among the most pressing of these. For long-term exploration, the means to provide energy generation and storage are essential, says Advenit Makaya, Advanced Manufacturing Engineer, European Space Agency.

In-situ resource utilisation is the use of materials found in space rather than resources from earth. It is essential for long-term sustainable space exploration, explains Advenit Makaya. The recycling and reuse of materials originally shipped from Earth is vital to the in-situ manufacturing capability in a lunar habitat. Materials re-use and recycling allows a sizable decrease in the volume and mass that needs to be transported from Earth and help build a sustainable lunar habitat and base.

The European Space Agency is involved in several lunar initiatives, including Moonlight, which will bring communication and navigation services to the moon. Moonlight will support a permanent lunar space station that will orbit the moon and provide a gateway to further exploration.

Christian Walter, Space Applications Engineer at the European Space Agency. He advises that a lunar base has to be established first, initially by machines and followed by humans. Following that, applications to enable a lunar economy include prospecting, extraction, storage and distribution of resources such as water, soil, metals, will follow. One key enabler is energy. Energy, he says, needs to be generated and distributed. This could be via solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity stored in fixed or mobile batteries, distributed by power grids, energy supply vehicles and fuel stations. Moonlight can interconnect all these elements in a smart internet-of-things like Lunar network. Communication services can allow remote monitoring and control of such energy infrastructure. Navigation and positioning services can allow for asset tracking and also support the energy management, he explains. With resources and energy available, our presence on the moon could be further advanced.

About WBEF Week 2023

World Built Environment Forum (WBEF) Week celebrated the latest and best thinking from across the built and natural environment. The weeklong schedule showcased the latest innovations, practices, and case studies for delivering sustainable and equitable places and spaces. It brought together a global network of senior professionals, industry thought leaders and policy makers.

Delivered over 5 days and 4 time zones, WBEF Week included a combination of live and interactive sessions. It was live streamed, and the schedule tailored to different regional audiences around the world. The event was host to over 2,000 registered attendees, over 130 speakers and 9 partners.

The main programme was recorded and made available on demand, so you can still watch the sessions if you registered to attend.

Go to my event here.