ICE Strategy Session: The value of community engagement on infrastructure projects
Tuesday 10 November 2020 - 10/11/20
Online
People and the community: The heart of Infrastructure Projects.
Civil engineers make an essential contribution to society by designing and shaping the natural and built environment.
It is often said that people and the community are at the heart of their projects.
However, is this always the case?
To what extent are the public truly engaged in the process?
Are cost and client expectations preventing our efforts to work with the community to build and maintain infrastructure assets which could truly benefit and improves their lives.
Community engagement is important and can lead to better outcomes on infrastructure projects. It increases acceptance of decisions and community commitment to outcomes as local knowledge from diverse groups shapes and creates inclusive, effective solutions.
Engineers have historically been criticised for designing infrastructure without successfully engaging the community. Whereas the follow–on effect of active participation is increased trust in organisations and governance to make better public decisions.
This event aims to demonstrate good practice principles for community engagement, identifying specific good practice where infrastructure professionals have worked with the public on infrastructure projects to achieve the optimum solution for the community.
Programme
09:00 – Chair’s introduction – Mark Hansford
09:10 – The changing needs of the communityAnusha Shah
09:20 – The fishlake floods and the value of working with the community Peter Trimingham
09:30 – Sustainable infrastructure development – why is engagement important? Monika Szczyrba
09:40 – Good practice principles for community engagement on infrastructure projects. Professor Sarah Bell
09:50 – Panel Q&A facilitated by Mark Hansford
10:15 – Chairs summary
10:25 – Close
