Peter Guthrie

University of Cambridge | Cam · Department of Engineering

Sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects are necessary for Africa if the continent is to be successful in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and agenda 2063 of the African Union (AU). The paradigm shift towards a low-carbon society cannot be achieved without sustainable and efficient infrastructure that can withstand the ef...

Climate change is a global problem, but climate solutions primarily need to be deployed at a local level. Local stakeholders play a vital role in taking decisive action to meet national and international climate targets. Effective local, regional and national policy and governance frameworks are needed. During the 2021-2022 academic year, the Cambr...

Shelter has been described as one of the most ‘intractable problems’ in humanitarian aid and yet there is little clarity on the over‐arching definition of shelter. The terminology for shelter and housing is often conflated, and further to this, the most prominently used definition does not fully reflect the recent progress the shelter and settlemen...

China is the largest driver of growth in the global building sector. The longstanding construction boom across China has generated a massive flow of materials with significant associated embodied energy consumption and carbon emissions. Despite the serious implications for global emissions, there exist a very limited number of macro-level studies o...

Building stock turnover is one of the key determinants in building energy modelling and policy analysis. Building lifetime is integral to the dynamics of stock turnover. However in China, despite anecdotal claims that urban residential buildings are generally short-lived, there are no official statistics on building lifetime, and empirical data is...

The COVID-19 pandemic has already wreaked an immense toll on lives, livelihoods, and on the global economy. The UK can emerge stronger and more resilient, but to do so we must also face head-on the triple challenge of responding to the threats posed by growing social inequality, the destruction of nature, and climate change. How we choose to priori...

Knowing the size of building stock is perhaps the most basic determinant in assessing energy use in buildings. However, official statistics on urban residential stock for many countries are piecemeal at best. Previous studies estimating stock size and energy use make various debateable methodological assumptions and only produce deterministic resul...

Promoting the decarbonisation of buildings requires effective policy measures. An integral part of policy design is ex-ante evaluation of possible policy options and effects. System Dynamics, one of a range of potential modelling paradigms, emphasises the dynamic complexity arising from stock-and-flow structures, feedbacks, non-linearities and time...

The Energy Cost Metric (ECM) is anticipated to provide a novel and meaningful approach to designers to achieve very-low energy designs at early stages of the design project, without undue cost. It also serves as a common method and language between beneficiaries, project managers, architects, engineers, contractors and quantity surveys, where matte...

Round tables discussing the resilience of critical infrastructure systems held in the UK, the USA and New Zealand have provided insight into how organisations are changing the basis of planning and investment decisions to enhance resilience. The events convened stakeholders to explore how resilience is embraced in their sectors and to identify how...

During the course of 2018, 70.8 million people globally were forcibly displaced due to natural disasters and conflicts—a staggering increase of 2.9 million people compared to the previous year’s figure. Displaced people cluster in refugee camps which have very often the scale of a medium-sized city. Post-disaster and post-conflict (PDPC) sheltering...

Building lifetime and stock turnover are both key determinants in modelling building energy and carbon. However in China, aside from anecdotal claims that urban residential buildings are generally short-lived, there are no recent official statistics, and empirical data are extremely limited. We present a system dynamics model where survival analysi...

As cities work to reduce their total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the transportation sector is lagging, accounting for a growing percentage of total emissions in many cities. The provision of public transit, and specifically urban rail transit, is widely seen as a useful tool for reducing urban transportation GHG emissions. More research, howeve...

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Purpose The social housing sector is under increasing pressure to do more with less and provide value for money as part of the UK Government’s public debt reduction strategy. This study aims to explore the current practices towards unlocking social value in the housing sector through the adoption of the Social Value Act 2012. The Social Value Act s...

Public infrastructure is an interdependent system of actors, organisations, assets, services, the society it serves…and the context of each and their whole. This complexity presents research challenges for those focused at the system level; not least, that there is limited research in whole-of-system working for public infrastructure administration...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used as an early-stage design-decision tool to support choices of structural system. However LCA modellers must first make numerous methodological decisions, and the resultant wide variations in approach are often inadequately described by the modellers. This paper identifies, and quantifies, the three ma...

Current trends of urbanization, population growth, and economic development have made cities a focal point for mitigating global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The substantial contribution of food consumption to climate change necessitates urban action to reduce the carbon intensity of the food system. While food system GHG mitigation strategies o...

Infrastructure forms an enduring and evolving system of services, assets, projects, and networks. This paper presents an overview of research into the misalignment between the strategic intent and the management of those systems. The research draws from experiences across infrastructure sectors and countries to frame the problem, then uses central...

The importance of this special issue on Education for Sustainable Development in the Built Environment is timely following the adoption of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the 193 UN member states in 2015; the 17 universal goals measured by 169 targets should be achieved by 2030 (UN, 2015). SDG 4 is aimed at “ensuring inclusive and equit...

This paper will present findings from a longitudinal case study of the reconstruction of horizontal infrastructure networks in Christchurch, New Zealand, following the major earthquakes of 2010-2011. This involved exploring the role of governance in recovery and in particular, how funding mechanisms shape decisions for managing disaster risk. Natio...

Reductions in energy demand by universities in the UK are increasingly called for due to both national carbon reduction policies and a specific target set out by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The University of Cambridge has set its own targets to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption, but behavioural, organisati...

The aim of this paper is to build on the existing knowledge of the benefits of energy appliances for the off-grid energy market. Rural electrification schemes often focus on generating power for electric lighting and, more recently, phone charging. The purpose of this study, however, is to identify the benefits of an array of energy appliances (oth...

The aim of this paper is to build on the existing knowledge of the benefits of energy appliances for the off-grid energy market. Rural electrification schemes often focus on generating power for electric lighting and, more recently, phone charging. The purpose of this study, however, is to identify the benefits of an array of energy appliances (oth...

As cities work to reduce their total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the transportation sector is lagging, accounting for a growing percentage of total emissions in many cities. The provision of public transit, and specifically urban rail transit, is widely seen as a useful tool for reducing urban transportation GHG emissions. There is, however, li...

This paper examines organisational arrangements in a case study of post-earthquake reconstruction in Christchurch, New Zealand. It explores, through qualitative research, the impact of organisational scope on shaping infrastructure reconstruction decisions and how this relates to project management. The study demonstrates how inter-organisational r...

As cities work to reduce their total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the transportation sector is lagging, accounting for a growing percentage of total emissions in many cities. The provision of public transit, and specifically urban rail transit, is widely seen as a useful tool for reducing urban transportation GHG emissions. There is, however, li...

This research responds to issues identified with the forecasting of operational expenditure by providing an in-depth analysis of a multi-modal transportation programme from New Zealand. This study shows some general issues likely to be of relevance to a wider infrastructure practice. It also indicates that management tools and processes can inadver...

This research responds to issues identified with the forecasting of operational expenditure by providing an in-depth analysis of a multi-modal transportation programme from New Zealand. It shows material issues that are likely to be of relevance to wider infrastructure practice. It also indicates that management tools and processes can inadvertentl...

Over the past decade, sustainable remediation has grown from an emerging concept into a widely accepted new institutional norm. Scholar literature increased exponentially from nearly none in late 1990s to over 400 publications per year in 2014. The present study used a questionnaire survey conducted in 2012 and 2014 to assess the global trend in th...

Benefits are intrinsic to infrastructure and the public sector, yet these remain a problem for many infrastructure sectors (including transportation), organisations, and countries. Much of the focus upon benefit management targets project delivery; by contrast, this study considers system-level benefit management using a transportation case study f...

This research paper describes the use of a ‘User-Perceived Value Game’ to explore the value of development initiatives as perceived by villagers in 119 interview settings in seven Ugandan villages. Based on the findings from the game, a ‘User-Perceived Value Framework’ is developed, consisting of 64 value categories. This is depicted graphically as...

2016 The AuthorsThis research paper describes the use of a ‘User-Perceived Value Game’ to explore the value of development initiatives as perceived by villagers in 119 interview settings in seven Ugandan villages. Based on the findings from the game, a ‘User-Perceived Value Framework’ is developed, consisting of 64 value categories. This is depicte...

Purpose This paper examines the role of government in New Zealand in facilitating the development of resilience in the built environment, with reference to the post-earthquake recovery of Christchurch. A cross-case comparison of the institutional structures and arrangements for disaster risk management (DRM) between Sri Lanka and New Zealand provi...

Over the past decade, sustainable remediation has grown from an emerging concept into a widely accepted new institutional norm. Scholar literature increased exponentially from nearly none in late 1990s to over 400 publications per year in 2014. The present study used a questionnaire survey conducted in 2012 and 2014 to assess the global trend in th...

Transport is a complex system, integral to national and international structure and without which society cannot function. At the same time, transport is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. In the UK a step change is required in the transport sector to achieve the legally binding reduction targets of the Climate Change Act...

This research explores how the coast of Chile has been occupied and used by industrial coastal facilities. It seeks to identify the present challenges facing the coastal facilities in Chile, given the past development, and how future facilities can be developed to deliver a more sustainable approach. The Chilean coast presents challenges for the pr...

Recent research confirms the growing limitation of infrastructure projects and programmes to deliver long-term benefits to society. A more holistic, system-level approach to infrastructure delivery and management is needed, say Carron Blom and Peter Guthrie from the University of Cambridge. Notwithstanding calls to make better use of existing infra...

This research sets out to discuss the contentions that inadequate consideration is given to the costs and adverse effects of extended periods of project preparation (pre-construction) for large infrastructure projects such as hydropower projects and that the failure to deliver projects in a timely and efficient manner is wasteful of scarce resource...

Significant savings in CO2 can be won from fabric upgrades, and improved forms of heating. An increase in the number of building retrofits and installations of energy efficient plant such as biomass boilers or combined cooling, heating and power plants must be the aim if the UK is serious in meeting its commitment to CO2 reduction at both the domes...

Infrastructure is presenting some significant global challenges. One issue is that, while it is often seen as performing well, it tends to do so against only against limited terms of reference and short-term objectives. The available literature suggests that, to date, performance has largely been approached from the point of view of a project, or t...

Project interventions are important vehicles for development globally. However, while there is often allocation of resources for new and innovative (pilot) projects—with varying levels of success—there is seemingly less focus on consolidating and/or scaling the positive impacts of successful larger interventions. Assuming an overarching development...

There is a growing awareness that we live in times of uncertainty and change; this is fuelling increased consciousness of city and community vulnerability to natural and man-made hazards. In recent years the concept of resilience—the ability to both withstand and recover from a “shock”—has become a core term in international, national and local pol...

In the aftermath of the Infrastructure Carbon Review (GCB, 2013), this paper looks at the UK present transport carbon emissions and their future projections in the wider context of the transport status quo and the plans for growth. Transport is a complex system that is integral to the national structure, without which society cannot function. At th...

Some years ago, a colleague related a story: She had been to interview communities affected by a proposed dam in Nepal and spoke of one female head of household who was looking forward to the new house she would move to with her family and the compensation that she would use to pay for schooling for her young son, a little boy of about four who sat...

This paper continues an exploration of the relationship between strategic performance setting and operational measures in infrastructure management. The overarching study considers the use of road smoothness within the New Zealand context and its relationship to the strategic objective of improving customer comfort. The paper highlights the complex...

Transportation related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions account for an increasing proportion of total emissions in the United Kingdom (UK) and globally. The provision of rail transit is popularly proposed to reduce transport GHG emissions; however, the provision of new infrastructure is itself GHG intensive. Understanding of the GHG emissions impact...

This paper argues for an approach to flood alleviation design that considers the need not only for technical knowledge, but also a social perspective. It is predicted that more intense rainfall and rising sea levels will result in a greater number of people vulnerable to flood events. Flood alleviation design in the UK is often focused upon technic...

Recent research into the concept of resilience has shown that it helps key players in urban development to assess and set priorities for resistance and recovery for disaster risk management. However, a competing issue within post-disaster recovery is managing the trade-offs between quickly restoring infrastructure services versus taking time to con...

Performance is a key tenet of infrastructure management. This paper looks at a measure of service level in infrastructure, namely, road smoothness. Conventionally, studies of this type have focused on the technical measures themselves. This paper presents the results of the first stage of a New Zealand-based case study that, by contrast, explored t...

Resilience is a key term in disaster risk management (DRM). However, resilience is interpreted in a variety of ways that can seem inconsistent and there is significant academic debate over definition of the term. This paper summarises the problems of resilience definitions, highlighting the key aspects where there are differences in interpretation....

Facility quality is dependent on the performance of utility infrastructure and local weather conditions in addition to social context. Theoretically, improvements in facility quality such as energy performance should reduce marginal costs of consumption for occupiers so as to increase asset values. This research explores the relationship between ex...

The argument presented in this paper calls for an approach to flood infrastructure that considers not only the need for a technical perspective in design and construction but also a social perspective. As a result of climate change and changing weather patterns, it is predicted that more intense rainfall will be experienced, as well as rising sea l...

Stakeholder engagement has recently been increasingly identified as key to research projects success. Stakeholder engagement is often seen as communication of the completed research project findings; however engagement with stakeholders that focuses on communicating with and involving them in the knowledge production process is increasingly accepte...

The sustainable remediation concept, aimed at maximizing the net environmental, social, and economic benefits in contaminated site remediation, is being increasingly recognized by industry, governments, and academia. However, there is limited understanding of actual sustainable behaviour being adopted and the determinants of such sustainable behavi...

Cities may be responsible for up to 70% of global carbon emissions and 75% of global energy consumption and by 2050 it is estimated that 70% of the world's population could live in cities. The critical challenge for contemporary urbanism, therefore, is to understand how to develop the knowledge, capacity and capability for public agencies, the priv...

The link between a sustainability agenda and post-disaster reconstruction is gaining increasing attention. However it is not clear how sustainability thinking affects outcomes of reconstruction programmes. This paper identifies key factors that influence how sustainability principles are integrated into decisions for reconstruction. This is based o...

This paper explores sustainability as it relates to the services, operations and management of engineering and design (E&D) consulting firms, revealing how sustainability has been adopted by the engineering consulting industry as a key influence on its business. The motivations behind sustainability as a business priority for E&D consulting do not...

Energy performance labelling and certification have been introduced widely to address market failures affecting the uptake of energy efficient technologies, by providing a signal to support decision making during contracting processes. The UK has recently introduced the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) as a signal of building energy performance...

Infrastructure project sustainability assessment typically entails the use of specialised assessment tools to measure and rate project performance against a set of criteria. This paper looks beyond the prevailing approaches to sustainability assessments and explores sustainability principles in terms of project risks and opportunities. Taking a ris...

This paper investigates ‘future-proofing’ as an unexplored yet all-important aspect in the design of low-energy dwellings. It refers particularly to adopting lifecycle thinking and accommodating risks and uncertainties in the selection of fabric energy efficiency measures and low or zero-carbon technologies. Based on a conceptual framework for futu...

This study investigates the key drivers affecting emission increases in terms of population growth, economic growth, industrial transformation, and energy use in six Chinese megacities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. The six cities represent the most‐developed regions in China and they have similar per capita carbo...

This paper presents a review undertaken to understand the concept of ‘future-proofing’ the energy performance of buildings. The long lifecycles of the building stock, the impacts of climate change and the requirements for low carbon development underline the need for long-term thinking from the early design stages. ‘Future-proofing’ is an emerging...

The most appropriate responses to the energy management of buildings from now until 2050 are investigated through a process of scenario planning. A qualitative, explorative approach was undertaken to develop four 2050 scenario end-states resulting from an axis of two critical uncertainties not closely correlated: the attitudes of society towards su...

This paper describes the resettlement process of a community devastated by annual floods, to newly constructed housing in Pune, India. The relocation from Kamgar Putala slum to a housing society at Hadapsar was organized by a community-led NGO partnership in 2004. The housing development was coordinated by the local NGO Shelter Associates with sign...

Tailored sustainability assessment represents one approach to addressing sustainability issues on large-scale urban projects with varying geographical, social and political constraints and diverse incentives among stakeholders. This paper examines the value and limitations of this approach. Three case studies of tailored systems developed by the au...

This paper discusses the sustainability of two different approaches to upgrade water and sanitation infrastructure in Kenya's largest informal settlement, Kibera. A background to the urbanisation of poverty is outlined along with approaches to urban slums. Two case studies of completed interventions of infrastructure upgrading have been investigate...

Concerns over climate change mean engineers need to understand the greenhouse gas emissions associated with infrastructure projects. Standard coefficients are increasingly used to calculate the embodied emissions of construction materials, but these are not generally appropriate to inherently variable earthworks. This paper describes a new tool tha...

The importance of community participation in projects in the developing and developed world is widely recognised, despite considerable debate regarding what participation means in practice. In the developing world context, there is a distinct debate on how participation can achieve its stated goals of creating 'ownership' among targeted beneficiari...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report unambiguously demonstrated the critical and serious nature of climate change. It specifically outlined the urgent need for new practices and technologies within the built environment, and this in turn needs effective and quick knowledge development and transfer. While, historically, construction...

The following discussion is from an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) prestige lecture based on the original paper and delivered by the authors at the ICE in London on 24 September 2008.1 The event was chaired by Engineering Sustainability editorial panel chair, Professor Chris Rogers from Birmingham University. It was attended by an audience of...

Terms such as Integrated Assessment and Sustainability Assessment are used to label ‘new’ approaches to impact assessment that are designed to direct planning and decision-making towards sustainable development (SD). Established assessment techniques, such as EIA and SEA, are also widely promoted as SD ‘tools’. This paper presents the findings of a...

Disasters and emergency situations can disrupt the provision of clean water and hygienic sanitation, which are crucial for maintaining public health. Excreta disposal in emergencies has often been a low priority and this has led to the provision of unsuitable on-site sanitation systems in urban areas. A decision algorithm for the selection of adequ...

Work done in the area of vulnerability reduction by academics and professionals has been a key component in reducing adverse impacts of potential disasters. A primary type of vulnerability in which engineers have an important role to play is that related to the built environment. In particular, the disintegration and collapse of buildings are respo...

The established approach to impact assessment is baseline-led, whereby the conditions that are likely to prevail in the absence of a proposed initiative are used as the "benchmarks" for determining the significance of impacts. Proponents of sustainable development (SD) criticise this approach for being directionless since it is based on extrapolati...

The failure of modern structures in earthquakes where traditional buildings have faired significantly better suggests that technology is not necessarily a panacea for the vulnerability of the built environment. The existence of 'seismic cultures' around the world, whereby local populations learn to adapt to local hazards, may explain the differenti...

At a time when the world is rapidly urbanising, civil and environmental engineers, urban planners and policy makers around the globe are faced with the complex issues of how to design and construct urban regions to be sustainable. During this time of unprecedented growth, environmental engineers and scientists are faced with the additional complexi...

Purpose The paper seeks to examine the latest stage in a process of change aimed at introducing concepts of sustainable development into the activities of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, UK. Design/methodology/approach The rationale behind defining the skills which future engineers require is discussed and vehicles for chang...