Transforming the Engineering of Cities to Deliver Societal and Planetary Wellbeing

有无可辩驳的证据表明气候正在变化。还有强有力的证据表明，这在很大程度上是人类活动的结果，由我们对资源的无休止消耗、人口增长、不可持续的移民模式和城市的快速过度开发所驱动，这些活动导致了严重的生态系统服务损失。人类对这些问题的解决方案并不总是有效，因为许多依赖于根本不存在或无法支持我们所面临的变化速度的大量资源，与我们目前的消费模式和生活质量期望不一致的行为改变，以及强调长期可持续收益但潜在的短期经济损失的政府政策。我们需要彻底解决这个问题，不仅要扭转当前的趋势，而且要为现在和未来地球的可持续性和福祉做出积极贡献。这个提议是一种激进的新愿景，采用“整个政府”的方式来关注社会生活、工作、娱乐和消费方式所需的变化，平衡社会愿望与必要的变化，并使用二氧化碳排放量作为对地球和我们使用的资源（特别是能源）所造成的危害的代理测量。通过发展城市分析方法；生活质量和福祉的工程设计标准；低碳途径的工程设计标准；激进的工程方法、战略和愿景——所有这些都是在多学科背景下产生的——我们的目标是提供一系列有效的工程解决方案，以负担得起的和社会可接受的方式维持文明生活。我们的愿景是在低碳生活和资源安全的背景下，改变城市工程，为社会和地球带来福祉。我们试图证明，以一种社会可接受的方式，大幅度减少二氧化碳排放的替代未来是可以实现的，并开发现实和激进的工程解决方案来实现它。为实现低碳社会而采取的某些技术措施（例如，在家中安装低能耗电器）已经有一段时间了，但并不总是被认为是成功的，部分原因是它们没有被社会所接受。目前对物质消费的渴望是由社会因素驱动的，并受到社会规范的加强，但最近的研究表明，满足这些愿望往往不会提高幸福感。因此，研究界面临的挑战是与人们的愿望共同发展技术修复，在金融、政策/法规和技术背景下结合激进的工程战略，重新定义可替代的未来。我们需要一个路线图来绘制从这里到那里的路径，识别潜在的临界点，并确定如何将激进的工程策略整合到规范中。然而，这一路线图只有在确定了可替代的未来，并进行了“回溯”练习，以探索改变的主要障碍在哪里以及需要干预的地方，才能被考虑。我们的目标是创造一种全面的、综合的、真正多学科的城市分析方法，将工程解决方案和生活质量指标独特地结合起来，考虑到社会愿望，建立在城市激进干预试验的证据基础上，并提供实现我们愿景所必需的激进工程解决方案。为了实现这一目标，我们采用了各种创新和传统的方法和方法来承担五项研究挑战，这些挑战在五个技术附件中有详细的概述。

There is irrefutable evidence that the climate is changing. There also is strong evidence that this is largely a result of human activity, driven by our insatiable consumption of resources, growing populations, unsustainable migration patterns and rapid overdevelopment in cities that are resulting in heavy ecosystem services losses. Humankind's solutions to these problems do not always work, as many rely upon quantities of resources that simply do not exist or that could not support the rate of change that we are facing, behaviour changes that sit uneasily with our current consumption patterns and quality of life aspirations, and government policies that emphasise long-term sustainable gain but potential short-term economic loss for businesses and local people.A radical revisioning of the problem is needed, not only to reverse current trends, but also to contribute positively to the sustainability and wellbeing of the planet, now and in the future. This proposal is that radical new vision, adopting a 'whole of government' focus to the changes needed in the ways that societies live, work, play and consume, balancing social aspirations against the necessary changes, and using CO2 emissions as a proxy measurement for the harm being done to the planet and the resources (particularly energy) that we use. Through the development of a city analysis methodology; engineering design criteria for quality of life and wellbeing; engineering design criteria for low carbon pathways and; radical engineering approaches, strategies and visioning-all generated in a multidisciplinary context-we aim to deliver a range of engineering solutions that are effective in sustaining civilised life, in an affordable and socially acceptable style.Our vision is to transform the engineering of cities to deliver societal and planetary wellbeing within the context of low carbon living and resource security. We seek to prove that an alternative future with drastically reduced CO2 emissions is achievable in a socially acceptable manner, and to develop realistic and radical engineering solutions to achieve it. Certain techno-fixes for a low-carbon society have been known for some time (e.g., installing low energy appliances in homes), but are not always deemed successful, in part because they have not been deemed socially acceptable. Current aspirations for material consumption are driven by social factors and reinforced by social norms, yet recent research shows that meeting these aspirations often does not enhance wellbeing. Thus, the challenge the research community faces is to co-evolve the techno-fixes with people's aspirations, incorporating radical engineering strategies within the financial, policy/regulation and technical contexts, to re-define an alternative future. A roadmap is required to chart the path from here to there, identify potential tipping points and determine how to integrate radical engineering strategies into norms. However, this roadmap can only be considered once that alternative future has been established, and a 'back-casting' exercise carried out, to explore where the major barriers to change lie and where interventions are needed.Our ambition is to create an holistic, integrated, truly multidisciplinary city analysis methodology that uniquely combines engineered solutions and quality-of-life indicators, accounts for social aspirations, is founded on an evidence base of trials of radical interventions in cities, and delivers the radical engineering solutions necessary to achieve our vision. We seek to achieve this ambition by using a variety of innovative and traditional approaches and methods to undertake five research challenges, which are outlined in detail in five technical annexes.