Future of Engineering within the Ecosystem

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Photo-01, The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (image credit from boredomtheraphy)

“This article is an excerpt topic from the "Renewable Energy Technologies" approved AIUs Ph.D. Subject Curriculum Course of a research thesis submitted to the Atlantic International University School of Science and Engineering (AIU SCE USA) with a grade of 4.00 ("A+") earned. This doctoral course subject accounted for 2016-2018 Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Building and Construction Engineering.”
“Again, this article paper is another one of the "Most Read" in the ResearchGate and Academia platforms that have been provided a course background based on observation and researches in the ecosystem with respect to our future engineering.”
Abstract
This paper content has been published as the author's article contributions for ViewPoint Journal June 2019 edition in aligning with the “Future of Engineering” theme. The document has been prepared to provide a course background with the requirement of our future of engineering in spite of climate change happening around the globe within the building built infrastructure scales applications in the building built environment. However, this article paper tackled the implications of water bottled plastic, and electronic toxicities in our context, and the preservation of seeds for the future of generation in the agricultural sector. And thus, it provides a learning process and experiences that will involve within the course of my study and research over time for the future of engineering.
Insight
The principles of the future of engineering ought to be derived through the Environmental Possibilism evolution, in order that future generations benefit from it. It has been said that scientific and technological innovations provided by the scientists and engineers have been resulting in economic prosperity and that's verily so. However, due to the economic growth that has been enjoyed by the society, the environment has been setback as discussed in the author’s articles in CEAI’s ViewPoints, (”Environment and Climate Change,” March 2018; “Built Environment-Energy Conservation for Utilities,” September 2018; and the “Engineering Consultancy for Nation Building,” December 2018). The consequences have been climate changes across the globe.
Moreover, the future of engineering is interlinked to the conceptual needs within the competitive landscape and one of these examples is the innovative designed urban planning implemented in Dubai evolving high technology applied in most of the building skyscrapers that have been constructed within their building-built environment.
Because of developing technology which as known today and the future generation with the increasing usage of the Internet of Things (IoT), through innovative machine learning and augmented reality, it could transform how organizations capture and use the project data. Those are just some of the features in the competitive landscape being introduced today.
However, within the built environment, the future of engineering would focus on the importance of energy conservation with the use of the Treated Sewage Treatment System, Renewable Energy, Chilled Water Plant District Cooling, District Heating, and using the Building Information Modelling within the Energy Conservation and Sustainability platform. Energy conservation would play a significant role in reducing the effect on global climate change. Replacement of non-renewable resources with renewable ones can impact the environmental possibilism in the competitive landscape, which are now being practiced as part of the future engineering scenario within the ecosystem.
In the author’s articles in the CEAI ViewPoint, March 2019 on “Remote Sensing and Remote Monitoring” it is brought out that it would become an indispensable part of the future through the Building Management and Control Systems to enable all building operations to be monitored for precise building controls and services in time of emergency constraints and solving building maintenance issues even without the presence of any human.
With all the above mentioned as part of the future, the essential thing to innovate and understand would be the implications of manufactured, bottled water, the electronics and the creation of seed vault for the preservation within the ecosystem as part of the competitive landscape. These are discussed in the following sections.
Bottled Water
In today’s generation, production, and usage of plastics are ubiquitous with their advantages and disadvantages being debated. Most of the plastic is becoming an environmental hazard since 80% of it is discarded haphazardly and is not recycled - it is just dumped and/or burnt. In the future, stricter regulations would be in place for the processes for plastics that would be designed for the dump - emphasizing the process of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. It would create jobs, help families and contribute to economic progress for the community while safeguarding the Earth.
It is being gradually realized that the use of plastics must be limited to only where it is necessary and essential. On the other hand, Nestle advertises that “bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world.” Organizations such as Nestle must realize and acknowledge that in reality, they are trashing the environment for their profit. They say that they are “environmentally responsible” does not gel, they need to take care of the products they produce so that they are biodegradable. Rivers, water bodies and seas are full of plastic in macro and microform. The scientists, engineers, and technologists must address this pollution issue post-haste before it gets out of hand. Plastic producers must eventually develop effective collection and recycling processes.
Based on the statistic, 80% of the plastic production has been disposed of through landfills and the fact is, the water bottled plastic is non-biodegradable and therefore, the water bottled plastic will live in the dumps, and that will lead to the toxicity of the environment. Alternatively, if incineration has resorted to it will also cause an environmental problem as it releases toxic fumes and that will cause sickness due to the unhealthy air.
Thus “recycling” could be a viable model. Besides, it conveys a positive impact.
Electronics – Use by Individuals, Family, and Community at large
Another concern in today’s generation is electronics which is everywhere and gives everyone an advantage as well as allied disadvantages to individuals, family and even the community. It is an advantage in the sense that one can do and apply what one needs since it has simplified everything and made life easier. On the other hand, electronic materials contribute to the use of unsustainable materials in the world’s economy. The implications of the increasing use of electronics in everyday life because of technological innovation happening around the world and upgrading of devices results in the older version adding to the toxic electronic dumps. Dump design is proffered as a solution – it emphasizes the process of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of electronic items.
However, with all the innovations, today’s electronics are hard to upgrade but are easy to break and impractical to repair because of the competition in the market place. The consumers are thus forced to buy new ones, which eats into the people's wallets the amounts they earmarked for sustaining their basic needs. Overall, the innovations are creating a global toxic emergency, and as mentioned, many of them are made from over 1000 different materials that cause environmental issues because of the toxic chemicals used in their production - like PVC, mercury, solvents and flame retardants that have been poisoning the community and the world. They all could be causing health problems.
While technological innovation is part of the future of engineering it must take care of the environment and sustain it for future generations.
Arctic Seed Vault
Agriculture is a very important sector and to provide the means for growing the plants in the future also, scientists have created “The Arctic Seed Vault.” Some journalists, refer to it as the “Noah’s Ark of Plant Diversity.” It is a global seed vault, located at the Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, (Photo 01) whereas copies of seeds from gene banks from all over the world of about 4million different seeds crops have been stored. The vault can hold a maximum of 2.5 billion seeds. The vault was created as a backup system for the world’s gene banks to protect humanity against catastrophes that could potentially wipe out the world’s agricultural diversity. The vault is the world’s most extensive collection of genetic diversity of crops and currently covers 13,000+ years of agricultural history. The genes existed in the natural flora in the Middle East 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. The farmers have started to use those seeds from the vault and have improved the crops.
There are 70,000 different varieties of barley at the seed vault, 150,000 samples of rice, and 140,000 samples of wheat. Moreover, the work at the gene banks is done every day to conserve the seeds and provide the genes for future food supplies. It is good to conserve for future food supplies in the “The Arctic Seed Vault” since it may be needed in the future. At present most of the seeds are from Russia, Ukraine, and North Korea.

In the recent news update, “UK seed vault preserves endangered plant species,” June 7, 2019 edition; another underground concrete vault has been established and designed in the West Sussex, UK as part of the Millennium Seed Bank which aims:

  1. To preserve endangered 40,000 plant species from 190 countries that contain 2.3 billion seeds gathered from 35 biodiversity around the world, which are at risk due to climate change happening around the globe.

  1. To preserve the Earth's loss of genetic diversity caused by the crops which are less resilient to disease, invasive species, pests, habitat loss, and climate change.

  1. To care what is relevant to the communities like Botswana Morama bean that have turned into milk and butter as one of the nutritional plants used in everyday lives.

With all happening around the globe is due to environmental possibilism and humankind’s relentless economic growth that suffers our environment. Moreover, engineers and scientists have essential roles that are on collaboration in terms of vault design in the preservation of seeds with the following function in aligning with our future of engineering.
  1. The Civil/Structural Engineer designed the vault that lasts up to 500 years. 
  2. The Mechanical Engineer designed the refrigeration process within the vault environment at -20oC for the preservation of valuable seeds from around the world. 
  3. The Fire Protection Engineer designed the vault for the protection of radiation, bombs, floods, and also installed alarms to guard against thieves. 
  4. The Electrical Engineer designed the power and illumination for the vault. 
  5. The Agricultural and Environmental Engineers/ Scientist is responsible for all the seeds being cleaned, x-rayed to check for insect larvae, dried and sealed into airtight glass containers as well as the importance of research and development.
Conclusion
With all the innovations happening around the globe which impacts climate change, the future of engineering would need to meet the requirements demanded by a competitive society. Engineers and scientists must focus more on energy conservation and reduce carbon footprint using renewable energy within the infrastructure and building a built environment for innovative engineering resulting in a green environment.
Reducing the production of plastic bottled water and preventing toxicity from electronics production is another very important agenda for the future. Thirdly, the preservation of plant and crop seeds will help the inhabitants of the globe in innovative agro-farming for future generations.
Write-Up References can be Read from this Links;
Gomeseria, R. V.; (June 2019); "Future of Engineering within the Ecosystem;" VIEWPOINT JOURNAL, June 2019 Edition, Official Quarterly Magazine of the CEAI Publication, Consulting Engineers Association of India
Gomeseria, R. V. (2019, July 5). Future of Engineering within the Ecosystem; CEAI ViewPoint Journal; June 2019 Edition; Consulting Engineers Association of India. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YGS32
Gomeseria, RV; (June 2019); “Future of Engineering within the Ecosystem;” Retrieved from; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334251668_Future_of_Engineering_within_the_Ecosystem_CEAI_ViewPoint_Journal_June_2019_Edition_Consulting_Engineers_Association_of_India
Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv), Professional Engineer (PE, PEng, PME - India/Qatar/UK/Phils), Chartered Building Engineer (CBuildE), Chartered Engineer (CEng - India/UK), ASEAN Engineer, ACPE, and IntPE (APEC). Working on great Engineering Designs, Project Management, Construction Project Management / Supervisions in an industrial building built environment sectors for 20 years with exposure to Executive and Middle Management Positions. Highly Motivated, Career Achiever and Working with Passion, Team Leader, Technical Excellent in Solving Complexes Issues and intensive hands-on Civil/Sanitary, Utilities, and Infrastructure/Building Services Environmental Engineering Designs Management, Constructions Project Management, and Project Supervisions in 15-years onwards in the Middle East Region and 7- years in the Philippines of Varying Iconic Project Scales. One of the author's Rank 1 and Top 1% in Academia / Research Gate Writer. Article Writer & Contributor of CEAI ViewPoint Journal / Durreesamin Journal / EPH Journal / LinkedIn Publishing Platform. Artist-Painter/Sculptor; Musical Composition, Blogger. University of the Philippines (UPOU) Alumnus / Graduate Student.

Comments

  1. Ronald Valledor Gomeseria, PhDJanuary 28, 2020 at 12:02 PM

    To cite this blog / article paper; Gomeseria, R. V. (2019, July 5). Future of Engineering within the Ecosystem; CEAI ViewPoint Journal; June 2019 Edition; Consulting Engineers Association of India. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YGS32

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