This special report – produced in co-operation with the National Engineering Week Ontario Steering Committee - celebrates engineering and the many ways that engineering contributes positively to the lives of all Canadians.
ON THE LEADING EDGE
The extent to which climate change diminishes our quality of life depends on our ability to adapt. That adaptation is the work of Ontario engineers, who are meeting these challenges with innovation, ingenuity and research.
Michael Monette, P.Eng., president and chair of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE), says, “The aim of today’s engineer is to use the Earth’s resources for maximum benefits for mankind, and the Earth is ever-changing. Putting aside the reasons for climate change, the role of engineering is to deal with the reality we face as human beings.”
For example, he says, civil and mechanical engineers deal with infrastructure: buildings, bridges and highways on which the changing weather patterns will have an impact. Electrical engineers deal with power generation. “When we think of the ice storm of some years ago, we get a sense of the way that climate can impact power transmission. Chemical engineers are looking at the impact of climate change on our crops. It’s quite far-reaching. In fact, engineers contribute to every facet of our lives.”
Nadine Miller, P.Eng., chair of OSPE’s Climate Change Task Force, is a geotechnical engineer at MEC (the service sector leader on the Dow Jones World and European Sustainability indices). An engineering and project management company, AMEC has been instrumental in developing standards and sharing environmental best practices for the thermal power, smelting, mining and upstream oil and gas sectors for Export Development Canada, and has engineered wind farm, biofuel facilities and tidal power projects on both Canadian coasts.
In one climate changerelated project in the mining sector, says Ms. Miller, “We placed instrumentation below ground, in a test area, to measure temperatures at variable depths over an extended period of time. We can then predict how that particular piece of infrastructure will react to increases in temperature over time. The structure, existing or future, can then be modified to sustain those changes.
“We’ve known about climate change since the 1980s, and there isn’t a solution in the short term. But we can apply our knowledge toward improving mitigation and adaptation measures for the future,” says Ms. Miller. With that aim, the OSPE task force will host an international conference in Toronto, in the fall of 2008, inviting world leaders in the field of climate change adaptation and mitigation to share their expertise.
At York University, associate professor Spiros Pagiatakis, P.Eng., is helping to equip a new generation of engineers with the knowledge and tools to respond to climate change.
“In geomatics engineering,” says Dr. Pagiatakis, “we are approaching complicated phenomena from a practical and applications perspective. For example, during the ice age the Earth’s crust was depressed, due to the tremendous weight of the ice, by as much as several hundreds of metres in the Hudson Bay area. After the ice receded, the crust started rebounding. The sea level started rising and continues to rise due to the melting of the ice. We’re monitoring all of these changes using modern satellite technology and trying to create a complete picture based on our observations.”
The objective, he says, is to create practical and measurable results that will be beneficial to society now and in the future. “My research team, and our collaborators from other universities, are working to quantitatively determine the variations of the sea level, which may rise by about 20 centimetres or even more within the next century or so. Combined with other physical phenomena, this may significantly affect coastal communities. Our aim is to use data from satellites to very accurately determine, among other things, the rate by which the sea level rises – and plan for the future.”
To effectively respond to climate change, says Mr. Monette, it is essential that engineers are involved in the process of creating policy. “In addition to their involvement in the development of new technology and grappling with some of the tough issues around adaptation, it is also time to involve engineers in social design and planning.”
---
Also appearing in this report:
As troubleshooters and problem solvers, Ontario Association of Certified Technicians and Technologists (OACETT) members develop, enhance and implement new products, systems and methods in all disciplines.
In Ontario, Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) licenses professional engineers, and sets standards for and regulatesengineering practice to protect and
serve the public interest.
Held annually, the Canadian National Robot Games (CNRG) hosts approximately 100 participants, with teams coming from Canada, the United States and around the world.
---
TO READ THE FULL REPORT AS IT APPEARED IN THE GLOBE AND MAIL, PLEASE CLICK THE ATTACHED PDF ABOVE>