IAC News

Pandemic Year 2020： The Role of Infrastructure and Civil Engineering

Hitoshi Ieda
108th JSCE President

What role will 2020 take? For us, who have taken all possible measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, it is extremely difficult to draw any conclusions at this point in time. Nonetheless, 2020 will no doubt be remembered vividly in our minds.
With more than 12 million people infected and 550,000 fatalities across the globe at this point in time, COVID-19 has left a tremendous number of human casualties and enormous economic damage in its wake as well as having divided the global economy. In Japan, we must not allow a second and third wave of the pandemic. The travelling of people to and from overseas remains suspended. There are still many unknown factors, leaving behind various issues in terms of how to tackle them.

On the other hand, compared to the era of the Spanish influenza pandemic about 100 years ago, we now not only have medical knowledge and medical systems, but developed countries have notably put into place various social infrastructures such as reliable advanced water and sewerage systems as well as power, communication, and transportation systems. It is also an obvious fact that their presence has, to a certain extent, kept the spread of the infection at bay and maintained the necessary standard of living and urban functions, albeit somewhat inconvenient. The thought of no reliable water supply or sewerage system or a large-scale power outage due to a natural disaster sends shivers down my spine. If a distribution system supported by a solid transportation system had not been established, the “stay home” movement would not have lasted. The benefits of various infrastructures, including intangible aspects, are enormous.

I would now like to emphasize once again the significance of “prevention” in the field of civil engineering. From the latter half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, Baron Shinpei Goto, who demonstrated great leadership in regards to the government’s overall infrastructure policy, originally set the Ministry of Home Affairs as the starting point for administrative and political activities. Furthermore, Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, who long devoted to medical activities in the war-torn land of Peshawar near the border of Afghanistan and unfortunately fell victim to a terrorist attack in 2019, advocated that “one irrigation canal will do more good than 100 clinics” in order to eliminate malnutrition and poor hygiene, which are potential causes of disease. Acting on his own initiative, Dr. Nakamura made a large irrigation canal in Peshawar a reality. “Prevention” has been one of the core themes of safety in the infrastructure field since ancient times along with “disaster mitigation” and “accident prevention.” We are well aware that our urgent and important role in this present situation is to protect the citizens of the world, including people of developing countries, from infectious diseases and any disasters that occur as a result of such diseases.

As people refrained from going outside, we Japanese had the opportunity to reflect on the implicit ideas and social systems of Japanese society and the various infrastructures that we are unconsciously surrounded by. First and foremost, the significance of the traffic of people and communication, and the importance of increasing “solidarity” among people and avoiding social division were strongly observed. I think that we have by and large shared how lifestyles, work styles, and the social systems that support them should be transformed in the future.

On the other hand, although Japan has been called a “manufacturing powerhouse” up to now, it has become apparent that there is considerable room for improvement in the production capacity of necessary goods and its supply chains. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has made us aware that the digitization of our social systems, including information and communication infrastructures at the administrative and household levels, is extremely immature, and as typified by the confusion caused by fake news, there is a potential vulnerability within our information society, as well as risks that lurk in our global economy that brings great benefits in normal circumstances. However, in such circumstances, in major metropolitan areas, thoroughly pushing ahead with initiatives such as working remotely, I got a sense of the potential this has to significantly reduce the excessive congestion of urban railways and roads, which has been a major problem until now. Furthermore, at the policy level of the Japanese government, the COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the problems brought about by the concentration of the population and functions in major metropolitan areas, especially Tokyo, and the need for regional development.

Now that the world has experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, shouldn’t we actively pursue a paradigm shift of both tangible and intangible elements toward the restructuring of our philosophies and systems in a post-pandemic society, rather than simply aiming for a return to as things were before?

Unfortunately, 2020 is also the year of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, which had to be postponed for a year. To make this festival of sport a success, we had prepared various Travel Demand Management measures to disperse traffic during the event. However, next year's Games will require the implementation of far more thorough hygiene measures than the previous Games and the thorough enhancement of managing the flow of both people and traffic.

The last Tokyo Games, which was held in 1964, was the start of modern infrastructure development in Japan, including the likes of highways and Shinkansen trains. Since then, various infrastructures that lagged behind have been constructed with great speed. Over half a century has passed since the 1964 Tokyo Games, and during that time, the social environment, international environment, technological environment, and Japan's position in many ways has changed dramatically. From that perspective, I think that the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the second time the event will be held in Tokyo, will be another time for infrastructure to make a new start to meet the new needs of our society.

It is feared that the COVID-19 pandemic will bring with it enormous social and economic repercussions equivalent to those of the 1929 Great Depression. Thus, each country is in a situation in which it requires strong economic measures. As part of this, public works will no doubt also have a role to play. When the time comes, there are many businesses that need to be urgently maintained, such as by strengthening measures against severe disasters that have occurred frequently in recent years. Furthermore, in order for the overall infrastructure to continue to function in a sound manner and continue to support the well-being and prosperity of society, it is essential to reliably maintain and renew aging infrastructure based on the thinking of “preventive maintenance” and “improved maintenance.” However, surely more important than this is going beyond horizontal deployment of conventional infrastructures to advance “vertical deployment” by overcoming existing institutional restrictions and making full use of new technologies to promote the evolution and transformation of infrastructure in the post-pandemic era both in terms of tangible and intangible elements.