In this first episode of the New Year, we are telling a story about renewal. A project in 1950s New Zealand called the Kaituna Cut re-diverted a river, draining wetlands to create pasture.  But working against nature can have negative consequences. The process caused the Maketū estuary to silt, and biodiversity to crash.  Now, following...

The post #144 Enhancing an Estuary, Restoring a River first appeared on Engineering Matters.

This week we bring you a guest episode from the Planet Beyond podcast. An adventurous spirit in people has made many successful organisations what they are today. To be truly great, we often find these people are guided by a moral compass, possessing core values that provide that relentless pointer to the right way, even...

The post #143 Learning From Adventure first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Humans can feel that we have built a world to live in that is above and apart from nature. We concrete the ground, we regulate the temperature of our spaces, and we shield ourselves from storms.  But increasingly wild and frequent weather events are making us doubt the endurance of our fortress of glass, steel,...

The post #142 Blue Carbon: The Forgotten Store first appeared on Engineering Matters.

By the end of 2021, 8 billion doses of COVID19 vaccine had been administered around the world. This achievement has only been possible thanks to world leading scientific research creating vaccines in record breaking time. However not many people realise that this is only part of the story. To get these vaccines into the arms...

The post #141 Setting up a Vaccine Factory first appeared on Engineering Matters.

High Speed 2 is the UK’s latest transport megaproject. Billed as the largest ever investment in the country’s rail, its first phase will link London in the south via 230km of high-speed rail with Birmingham in the West Midlands. With a focus on innovation and new technologies available, the project is determined to avoid the...

The post #140 HS2 and the Golden Thread of Station Design first appeared on Engineering Matters.

At 4.1GW Berwick Bank is planning to become the largest offshore windfarm in the world. This is enough generating capacity to power Scotland’s homes twice over and it would play a critical role in meeting the UK’s wind energy targets. But in order to move ahead it must overcome a range of challenges from obtaining...

The post #139 Offshore Wind: Scotland’s World Leader first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Ever since the beginning of the space age, scientists and engineers have considered the role extra-terrestrial resources could have to supporting missions of exploration and science. However, early missions to space and the moon were too brief to benefit from in-situ supplies. Now with a new drive to return to the Moon, this time to...

The post #138 Space Resources: The Next Leap first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Two years ago the world was preparing for COP25 in Madrid, and we released this episode (#36) about a calculator that was helping countries around the world to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and create more sustainable energy systems. Just as relevant now as it was then, and for the benefit of newer listeners, we...

The post #137 The Calculator that Could Still Save the World first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In the 20 years before Covid-19 the proportion of 17- to 20-year-olds with a driving licence fell from nearly half to less than a third. Even before lockdowns and remote working, the way people moved was changing. As we organise for the future, we need to understand that the decisions on what to build and...

The post #136 The Future of Mobility first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Decarbonisation of transportation and shipping will require us to leverage improvements to green technologies and adapt to new ways of thinking and organising. It will require us to make different choices, on an individual and collective level. This is the final episode in our series of specials in the run up to COP26. We will...

The post #135 COP26: Decarbonising Transport first appeared on Engineering Matters.