The next decade is predicted to be difficult for many economies around the world. The financial consequences of the banking crisis and subsequent recession will result in very limited funds being available for investment in municipal infrastructure and that will pose problems for engineers and managers charged with providing these services. While there have been proposals for funding infrastructure and service maintenance through a variety of new mechanisms (Hayes, 2009; Kershaw and Hutchison, 2009), a convincing business case will still have to be made to persuade the funding and commissioning authorities. This issue contains a number of papers that give useful pointers for such an approach.
The first briefing, ‘Stakeholder perspectives of buried utility mapping’, (Royal et al., 2010) details the findings of a workshop where a range of stakeholders prioritised the project to map all UK underground utilities. The ‘Mapping the Underworld’ initiative was established in 2004 to help develop tools to locate, position and record every buried utility without the need for excavation. This paper describes the outcome of the interactive workshops and subsequent discussions with industry partners that has the aim of providing a collective stakeholders' view of the challenges of implementing new surveying and mapping technologies and the associated research needs.
This is a long-awaited solution to the problem of locating plant and provides the framework for non-intrusive underground mapping (Evans et al., 2006). Taken together they not only assist anyone digging a hole but facilitate the business case by reducing uncertainty about what is under the ground.
The next briefing, ‘Newlands – brownfield regeneration, UK’ (Jones, 2010) is a description of how derelict land in northwest England has been regenerated by widespread tree planting. This has a range of benefits, from land remediation through ownership by the local community to business pride. One of the tragedies of industrial development is that it is only in recent years that a whole life-cycle approach to land use has been considered. Given that a large backlog of derelict land remains to be treated, this is a timely case study. The paper describes how 900 ha of brownfield land is being treated over a 20-year period to improve landscapes, encourage investment and is effectively becoming a catalyst for change in the communities where it is deployed.
This approach is increasingly being used in our older industrial areas but has yet to become widely adopted across the whole UK. This is a best-practice approach that seeks to deliver high levels of community engagement, understanding and local ownership to enable longer-term economic, social and environmental benefits to be achieved; all of the elements that funders and commissioning authorities expect to see in the business case documentation.
The paper on ‘Highway maintenance on England's principal roads – best value?’ (Taylor, 2010) is an investigation as to whether the best value performance indicator (BVPI) for principal roads in England is assisting in the provision of ‘best value’ to all stakeholders. This is vitally important because local authorities are under pressure to deliver cost-effective, sustainable highway maintenance, which meets the needs of all road users. If the BVPI gives misleading information, or is misinterpreted, then it is difficult to justify the appropriate maintenance treatment. In this respect it is worth revisiting a seminal paper on highway maintenance (Kendrick and Taggart, 2006). Taken together, these two papers provide much of the business case for investment in highway maintenance.
The main recommendations from the investigation are that local authorities should carry out network condition surveys in accordance with current guidelines, to obtain the best possible information regarding the condition of their road network. Also, authorities should consider applying thinner treatments to their road networks to spread maintenance budgets ‘as far as possible’.
The paper ‘Renewal of Buenos Aires city waterfront’ (Faggi, 2010) describes two different processes through which the waterfront on Buenos Aires has been regenerated. The renovation of the docks area followed a top-down process carried out by a public/private partnership. It was successful and a lucrative real estate transformation; a business case study in its own right. The ecological restructuring of the river front was different in that it was the outcome of a bottom-up process that involved many actors with conflicting interests. In particular, the paper describes the ideologies and policies that have shaped this effort and how excluded social groups were involved to achieve a successful outcome over two decades. The paper sets these transformations within the difficult economic and political circumstances that Argentina has experienced in recent decades. There is a wider discussion of these issues in the December issue of Municipal Engineer ‘Urban Green Spaces in Buenos Aires and Christchurch’ (Faggi and Ignatieva, 2009).
The paper on ‘Sustainable spatial management: an integrated approach’ (Olazabal et al., 2010) is about an integrated methodology that has been designed to assist sustainable decision-making in the planning process. It is suggested that it will validate and complement a strategic environmental assessment. The paper describes a toolbox using ‘state-of-the-art’ planning and geographic information systems complemented by five modules which may be integrated in stakeholder participation tools throughout the implementation process.
It is suggested that this approach facilitates coherent responses to questions such as what is the best method to integrate sustainability criteria at early stages of planning and how can sustainability yardsticks successfully integrate environmental, social and economical aspects? A case-study from the Basque region of Spain is used to validate the system. The techniques outlined in the paper will be useful for those developing a business case.
The paper ‘Value management for sustainable decision making’ (Hayles et al., 2010) describes how value management requires key stakeholders to consider all the issues surrounding a project and to identify all of the engineering options. By considering their social, economic, environmental and political impact, a decision-making framework can be created for a project's life cycle. It is suggested that this approach enables stakeholders, collectively, to balance competing interests.
Four case studies, comprising physical infrastructure and community capacity building projects, are used to demonstrate how value management has been successfully applied as a catalyst for embedding a culture of sustainable decision making. The authors conclude that the value-management framework has the potential to be the standard methodology for sustainable decision making. An essential requirement in any business case.
This issue concludes with two book reviews. The first, ‘The ethics of mobilities: rethinking place, exclusion, freedom and environment’ (Parkin, 2010), is about transport provision. It places some of the value judgements that decision makers are required to take upon the provision of infrastructure into a philosophical framework rarely discussed in engineering circles, but it is valuable nevertheless. The second review, ‘Adapting cities to climate change: understanding and addressing the development challenges’ (Faulkner 2010), is a detailed background explanation to climate change and the environmental challenges facing us all.
Both book reviews provide valuable context to the decisions required by municipal practitioners in the difficult period that is opening before us. If we wish to make a convincing and authoritative business case for infrastructure investment, then we need to have a clear philosophy to use as a framework for our thinking. Books, such as these, help us develop our thoughts.
