Public works engineers need to be “responsible but gutsy” if they want to future-proof their communities, says John Mauro, Auckland Council’s Chief Sustainability Officer.

Mauro, who will deliver a keynote address at IPWEA’s Sustainability in Public Works Conference in May, says public works engineers are front-and-centre in the push for innovation and change in our cities and towns.

“Everything we build and manage can either help or hinder our approach to climate protection and broader social, environmental and economic outcomes,” he explains.

 “By being responsible but gutsy, public works projects can incorporate new ideas and approaches – think conducting pilots in the face of resistance or fear. Engineering can use procurement tools to require outcomes and attributes from contractors and suppliers, upskilling and influencing the supply chain along the way. And, engineering can use every project to deliver smarter climate-proof infrastructure to generate benefits like environmental restoration and local skills and job creation; think outside the box.”

This out-of-the-box thinking is taking on a new urgency as cities grow and become increasingly unliveable.

“Because our infrastructure decisions have a long shelf-life, the decisions we make and the projects we build today should be anticipating a changing future,” Mauro says.

“This dynamic and somewhat unpredictable future means more urbanisation, population growth and demographic change in many of our cities and increasingly obvious climate impacts.”

Despite the relatively robust evidence and information available on what to expect from a changing climate – such as greater storm intensity and flooding frequency, hotter temperatures and more frequent droughts – Mauro says we’re not always embedding this new information in our infrastructure decisions.

He says planning for the future means taking on some “pretty big issues”.

“Issues like where to focus our transport dollars – hint: not at more roading, but at transport choices like public transport, walking and cycling – as well as how to shape our cities; sprawl is so 1980s, and it’s going to bankrupt us if we keep doing it,” Mauro says.

“Let’s do away with things like ‘extra capacity’ roading projects and ‘bigger pipe’ stormwater solutions and think like the most innovative cities that are providing real choices for their citizens, making urban environments truly liveable, vibrant and affordable places for everyone.”

A shining example of green infrastructure

It’s initiatives like the Te Auaunga Awa/Oakley Creek project ­that perfectly capture these principles, Mauro says. The 1.3 km site is prone to significant flooding, but Auckland Council’s Healthy Water team isn’t just using a bigger pipe, or ‘grey infrastructure’, to fix the problem.

“Te Auaunga is a great example of a green infrastructure solution,” Mauro says.  

When completed in 2019, the project will not only reduce flooding and enable growth in an area slated for greater intensification, but also become home to an accessible river park, restored native ecologies, and increasing opportunities for play, gathering and learning through walking and cycleways.

Mauro says the project illustrates his eight green infrastructure principles for decision-makers:

1. The Te Auaunga/Oakley Creek project anticipates climate change and population growth, enabling greater urban intensification in an existing flood plain and building a future-focused resilience to climate change impacts. 
2. The project connects by providing transport choice and active recreation features, and therefore includes construction of three new pedestrian bridges across the stream, new park upgrades, and new paths and cycleways. Each of these allows people to connect to, within and with the Oakley Creek area – visitors accessing the amenities from another neighbourhood, residents traveling to the local school, or people enjoying the benefits of natural features in their own backyards.
3. The project engages, with extensive community consultation, development of an outdoor classroom and multi-cultural Fale, inclusion of an adventure playground and Māori play elements, and other community-generated ideas that add greater social, environmental and cultural value. Massive reused, community-carved swamp kauri stumps showcase a commitment to hand local communities control in place-making and designing their own creative elements of cultural identity while saving council and ratepayers the disposal costs from another project 
4. The project integrates. Meeting community desires to keep the path streamside instead of crossing the road meant overcoming dimensional limitations on one of the bridges. A creative and inexpensive solution allows the path to be intermittently submerged by flooding, demonstrating the courage to deliver flexible and innovative solutions.
5. Speaking of innovation, the Te Auaunga/Oakley Creek project innovates, with new partnerships delivering wider impacts far beyond the immediate area. One such example is a native plant nursery on the Wesley Intermediate School grounds that provides a supply of native plants as well as training and employment opportunities, the result of a partnership between the school, Te Whāngai Trust and Auckland Council. Another example is the relationship with contractors. The council’s approach to delivering a green infrastructure solution with new techniques and approaches has provided an opportunity for contractors to upskill their workforce – adding a knock-on effect of benefits to projects delivered across New Zealand.
6. Of course, all of this would not have been possible without interrogating for a data-driven understanding of existing green infrastructure and where it may be required…
7. … as well as recognising the value of myriad ecosystem services, broader social and cultural outcomes and cost avoidance benefits provided by this project.
8. While a traditional – and far narrower – approach might favour a hard-infrastructure solution, new ways of thinking, strong leadership at all levels and a commitment to roll out similar approaches on a wider scale as a new ‘business-as-usual’ should have us all eager for what’s next. 

Don’t miss Auckland Council’s Chief Sustainability Officer John Mauro’s presentations, ‘Good night Seattle, good morning Auckland – an international perspective’ and ‘The journey toward future-proofing Auckland’ at IPWEA's Sustainability in Public Works Conference in Sydney, 14–15 May.