Dr. ISHII Yumio is member of the International Advisory Council of ENGINEERING 2010 – ARGENTINA and a specialist in Disaster Risk Management. He also chairs the recently created Standing Committee on Disaster Risk Management of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO). In this interview, he gives his opinion about this issue and the role of infrastructure in climate change.

What is the concept of the role of infrastructure in climate change?

Since human beings appeared on the Earth, “Infrastructure” has been supporting their society, by supplying safety, convenience and environment. “Infrastructure” should consist of “Structural measures” and “Non-structural measures” as well, though hard structure is most commonly recognized. At the same time, disasters jeopardizing social safety are apt to be considered natural but we should recognize that these disasters are social. Therefore, not only direct damages to hard structures but also indirect and intangible damages to social systems should be taken into account.

Which measures should be taken?

Counter measures, both structural and non-structural, covering short- and very long-term phenomena, should be implemented, such as mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG) emission and adaptation to climate change based on the-state-of-the-art technologies. I think it is very important to highlight the roles and responsibilities of infrastructure and civil engineers in challenges posed by potential disasters caused by climate change.   

In your opinion, which are the responsibilities and contribution of civil engineers as regards disaster prevention?

Civil engineers are expected to assess their projects in the past and to perform their important role of supplying safety to people and society by implementing all the hard and soft measures concerning mitigation and adaptation. Because climate change is neither domestic nor short term but global and long term, civil engineers must contribute to this issue in cooperation with foreign engineers and international organizations. Society requires three broad actions from civil engineers: 1) a more comprehensive research about global warming with more accurate prediction; 2) proposals for GHG mitigation; and 3) proposals for adaptation measures to global warming.
The role of civil engineers to fulfil these demands is not so simple as the construction of structures but their scope of works must expand to cover every phase of the development of society over the years to come. Civil engineers will positively act to fulfill their responsibility as human beings expect.

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