Population: one planet, too many people?

Energy, food, water, urbanisation and finance are areas significantly affected by the effects of population growth. How can the engineering profession respond to key challenges in order to ensure the provision of food, water, shelter and energy in the context of an increasing population?<br /> <br />The report, looks at population projections through to the end of the 21st century, and outlines what engineers need to do respond to the pressures on resources.&nbsp; It calls on the UK Government to take a lead on promoting fiive Engineering Development Goals, in the international community, as the next step beyond the Millennium Development Goals.<br /><br />The report highlights the following pressure on resources, predicting the following:<br /> food: an increase in the number of mouths to feed and changes in dietary habits, including the increased consumption of meat, will double demand for agricultural production by 2050 water: Extra pressure will come from increased requirements for food production, which uses 70% of water consumed globally, and also from a growth in demand for drinking water and industrial. Worldwide demand for water is projected to rise 30% by 2030, in a world of shifting rainfall patterns due to global climate changes that are difficult to predict urbanisation: With cities in the developing world expanding at an unprecedented rate, adding another three billion urban inhabitants by 2050, solutions are needed to relieve the pressures of overcrowding, sanitation, waste handling and energy: Increased food production, water processing and urbanisation, combined with economic growth and expanding affluence will more than double the demand on the sourcing and distribution of energy by 2050, at a time when the sector is already under increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions<br />The following five Engineering Development Goals are proposed in the report:<br /> energy: use existing sustainable energy technologies &ndash; focus effort on correcting market failures to drive the deployment of existing clean technologies, and reduce energy waste through a combination of energy management technologies, and behaviour change. Developing countries need to engineer approaches from the start, to avoid the failings of the wasteful energy solutions embedded in the infrastructure of mature, industrialised nations water: replenish groundwater sources, improve storage of excess water and increase energy efficiencies of desalination.&nbsp; Governments must improve groundwater management and accelerate the adoption of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) techniques.&nbsp; Too little effort is placed on capturing and storing excess rain water supply for use as a source in drier times. Work must be done to reduce the costs of desalination processes, as it still remains one of the most expensive water supply options food: reduce food waste and resolve the politics of hunger.&nbsp;For the nations of the North, substantial efficiency increases are possible, largely through behavioural change from the consumer that recognises the value of food. In the South the challenge is that of implementing existing engineering solutions and techniques, many of which are relatively low-tech, to improve food handling, correct poor storage facilities and rectify inadequate management practice. Although having the scientific and engineering capacity to produce enough food to feed the world&rsquo;s growing population does not necessarily mean there will be no hunger without social and political change urbanisation: meet the challenge of slums and defend against sea-level rises. Society must recognise slums are a home and workplace to the people who live there. Interventions need to<br />recognise the established informal economy and neighbourhood values of the inhabitants. Many cities of the world are located in low-lying coastal areas and inhabitants must be protected against the threat of extensive flooding from future sea-level rise related to global warming. Assessment of the projected rises and potential solutions needs urgent attention in all coastal settlements around the world<br /> finance: empower communities and enable implementation. Local application of mature, understood clean engineering technologies will need to be incentivised, using innovative soft loans and micro-financing, &lsquo;zero-cost&rsquo; transition packages and new models of personal and community ownership.&nbsp; Innovative programmes must channel infrastructure financing and housing loans direct to poor communities, to plan and carry out improvements, thus handing the communities a central role<br /><br />