Stakeholders in North American infrastructure must take decisive actions to reform the policies and practices that helped to create its decline over the past quarter century.
The infrastructure boom that followed World War II helped to ignite the economy for over a quarter of a century, but efforts to maintain and enhance these structures and systems have weakened. Public infrastructure investments have not kept pace with major advances in architecture, scientific engineering, communications, and urbanization.
Infrastructure Management: Current Practices and Future Trends is a call to action that delivers insights from industry leaders on the current environment, while offering guidance on how to influence and restore this central pillar of economic growth.
Many infrastructure leaders embrace these challenges and are helping policy makers to recognize the path to restore, innovate, and deliver 21st century infrastructure across North America, but need more support from industry professionals. For this reason, RICS looks to support these efforts by advancing innovative ideas, best practices, and standards that strengthen the industry and help society advance.
Leadership is required to alter this trajectory towards renewal, resiliency, sustainability, and innovation. Innovators in asset management and operations must promote practices that maintain the asset lifecycle more efficiently and avoid the immense backlog of deferred maintenance that has accumulated among public owned assets.
More work is necessary to coordinate outreach with educational institutions to promote and develop the training and skills that are urgently needed to backfill retirees while taking the opportunity to introduce new skills that will help to advance innovative technology throughout the industry. Many are already acting, but to achieve these objectives the industry must engage in a coordinated strategy together.
