Opening address

It gives me great pleasure, on behalf of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to welcome so many distinguished members of the American Society of Civil Engineers to the first joint conference to be held in the UK.

For the first three conferences, themes have been chosen which demonstrate the vital role of civil engineering in the life of the community. Although the high degree of knowledge and experience of leading engineers in many specialist fields has been brought to bear, purely technical discussion has been avoided. Rather, delegates have sought to examine the ways in which, by the development and application of engineering science, and their knowledge and experience of it, they can best direct 'the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man'. In Bermuda the discussion was about the engineer in the community, and in Orlando it was about public works and society. On the present occasion, we are going to examine the great sources of power in nature themselves: the resources of human skills, of energy and of natural and manmade materials. It is intended to pool knowledge and opinions to consider the extent to which this generation can afford to deplete resources which are irreplaceable without jeopardizing the living standards of future generations, and the prospects of the further development and use of those which, at any rate on the human time scale, appear to be limitless.