In this month’s edition of Modus, we shine a light into some of the industry’s darker corners, and find out how our professionals are playing a crucial role in trying to make things better.

There’s no point in skirting around it: money does make the world go round. What’s important is how. Explore the big issues from emerging technologies to declining fortunes.

The ways our public spaces are used, managed and planned have a massive influence on creating cities that are clean, green and successful. Modus takes a look at the spaces around our buildings.

Robots in logistics; AI at the supermarket; buildings that make you healthy... Modus takes an in-depth look at some imminent future shocks – and how to make the most of them.

How does surveying need to change for the future? Do we need new ways of thinking about technology? And how we can be both international and local in our outlook?

Modus focuses on agility as an expression of the surveying profession: from the practical uses of drones as surveying tools, to the adaptability of people and the spaces we all use.

Modus looks at how the Internet of Things is taking hold in proptech and the built environment; how we may not have noticed it happening; and how we can capitalise on it.

Back in June 1868, a small group of Victorian gentlemen gathered in London with a very important mission: to preserve and propagate the very best professional practice and ethical behaviour among surveyors.

One of the inevitable consequences of the world’s spiralling rate of urbanisation is that people are arriving in cities faster than homes can be built for them. What happens next should be obvious to anyone with even the most basic grasp of the laws of supply and demand.

As cities become nodes of a global network, it’s been the largest, most outward-facing metropolises that have really benefited, leaving nearby smaller cities playing catch-up. So, could a cohesive mega-regional policy – particularly joined-up transport policies – help to distribute growth more fairly?

The dramatic fall in the price of offshore wind power underlines how the world is undergoing an energy revolution. Meanwhile, energy grids are becoming smart and responsive, nuclear power is changing fast, and households can store more energy than ever before, placing them in more control.

In this, the first edition of Modus in RICS’ 150th celebratory year, we case our eye to the future and ask: where will self-driving cars take us?

Rare-earth metals are found in everything from mobile phones to ground-breaking cancer treatments. The rise in demand is taking us to the seabed, where some of the greatest concentrations of rare-earth metals are to be found. But the stakes are high: deposits are hard to access, procedures are largely unproven at this scale and the capital required is huge – not to mention the environmental risks.

Anyone nearing retirement today is likely to have seen some serious changes in the workplace. Computers (remember the days when ‘the’ office PC had to be booked in advance?) have made us responsible for our own admin. Partition walls have come crashing down as we move to open-plan workspaces. And email has turned the overflowing in-tray into the overflowing in-box.

Meet the new, most important person in city hall: the Chief Risk Officer. Working across departments, these 'resilience tsars' bang heads together to learn about the particular threats that their city faces, and lead the development of a suitable resilience strategy.

More than ever in this shrinking world, a country’s economic growth is dependent on strong airport infrastructure, so if they are to thrive, it’s vital that they plan and deliver airports that are fit for the future. But how can we build that infrastructure in time?

With new technologies emerging and transforming working practices, it’s inevitable that the skills and aptitudes required by the industry will change. But the questions are… how, and when?

The school where you and your children were educated has been at the heart of your community for 30 years. And now it’s been given two weeks to vacate the premises – because someone else is claiming that they own the land it stands on.

Despite efforts to promote a less adversarial culture in construction, disputes are becoming more protracted. Last year’s Arcadis survey of global construction disputes shows they are taking longer to resolve – lasting an average of 13 months, compared to nine in 2010.

Our world is driven by data. From Google using your search history to return better results, to the complex financial transactions that are protected via blockchain, it shapes, governs and influences every corner of our lives.

In our everyday lives, most of us find it relatively easy to judge and conform to appropriate ethical standards, but put any of us into an organisation or company, and everything changes. This is particularly true in business, where leaders, managers and employees face conflicting incentives, messages and pressures from multiple stakeholders.