IPWEA Blogs

UK’s New NISTA Authority Wants More Intervention

By Bhavani Koganti posted 3 days ago
The first major report from the UK’s new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, (NISTA), has rated the majority of projects at either ‘green’ or ‘amber,’ showing that delivery is either likely or feasible. NISTA, which marked its first year of operation in April, analysed the Government Major Project Projects Portfolio (GMPP) between April 2025 and the end of March 2026. The authority was created to eliminate delays and bottlenecks in the delivery of infrastructure in the UK through merging the National Infrastructure Commission and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. NISTA’s mission is to unite strategic planning and ...
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Chicago Upgrades Cooling at City Parks

By Bhavani Koganti posted 3 days ago
The City of Chicago is investing US$1 million to upgrade cooling infrastructure at 42 neighbourhood parks, targeting communities identified as the most vulnerable to extreme heat through a data-driven mapping tool. Announced by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Park District, the first phase of the program will deliver air conditioning improvements and other cooling enhancements at park facilities across the city. “For too long, communities that have faced the greatest impacts of extreme heat have also faced underinvestment in the resources needed to keep residents safe,” Johnson said. “By strengthening our neighbourhood parks, we are ensuring that ...
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Investing in the People Behind Our Infrastructure

By Bhavani Koganti posted 3 days ago
By Steve Mooney In my work with infrastructure asset management professionals across New Zealand, I see every day how much communities depend on the assets around them. Roads, water networks, public buildings, parks, and community facilities are easy to take for granted until something fails or service levels drop. That is why long term infrastructure planning matters. It is not just about new projects; it is about looking after what we already have, making good decisions, and keeping communities moving. The recent broad cross-party support for the 30-year National Infrastructure Plan approach to infrastructure is welcome because it reflects the way ...
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Connectivity for All: How Smart Poles Can Help Bridge Australia's Coverage Gap

By Bhavani Koganti posted 3 days ago
By Keith Henry, General Manager CU Phosco Australia and Head of Telecoms Mobile connectivity is an essential service, not a luxury. Whether supporting remote working, connecting businesses or helping people stay in touch with family and friends, connectivity plays a fundamental role in everyday life. Yet despite significant investment in telecommunications infrastructure, coverage gaps remain a challenge across many parts of Australia, where geography continues to influence who can access reliable connectivity and who cannot. Rural Australia is not "nothing out there". It is communities, businesses, farms, tourist destinations and critical infrastructure. ...
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Building Infrastructure Legacies Beyond the Final Whistle

By Bhavani Koganti posted 3 days ago
When a city wins the right to host a major sporting event, the headlines often focus on economic boosts, global exposure and world-class competition. However, history shows that the real measure of success often comes long after the medals have been awarded. Today, a significant challenge is whether the infrastructure built for these events will continue to provide value to the community in the future. As Australia prepares for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and reflects on lessons from recent global sporting events, there is growing recognition that infrastructure legacy must be at the centre of planning from day one. The cautionary tales ...
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The Seal-Shaped Gap in Your Asset Management Plan

By Bhavani Koganti posted 3 days ago
Every asset rests on an elegant triangle: performance, cost and risk. Get the triangle right and communities barely notice their infrastructure, the highest compliment infrastructure can receive. Get it wrong and the consequences arrive as potholes, water main bursts, and angry deputations to council. To manage that triangle, we build risk registers, and they are models of diligence. Flooding? Covered. Bushfire? Naturally. Tree root intrusion, vehicle impact, coastal erosion? All present and accounted for, neatly scored by likelihood and consequence. But nowhere, not in any register I have encountered, will you find a risk rating for the humble traffic cone ...
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France’s National Experiment with Dimming and Shutting Off Lighting

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
French municipalities have become a real-life laboratory for dimming and switching off street lighting at night, with lessons that are highly relevant to Australian cities and regions. From energy crisis to normal practice Facilitated by smart street lighting controls, off-peak dimming and switch‑off lighting late at night accelerated in France between 2014 and 2024. As the satellite-generated images above show, there has been a marked change in overall lighting levels in the off-peak hours across France over this period. Indeed, a major step change occurred during the 2022–23 energy crisis. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had sent energy prices soaring ...
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Rising Tides, Receding Shores, and the Infrastructure Challenge

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
Local councils across Australia and New Zealand are increasingly facing the problem of coastal erosion and land instability from rising sea levels. What was once a rare event, has evolved into a persistent trend that will likely continue to accelerate in coming decades. The scale of this challenge and the impact on local infrastructure can be seen in coastal areas across Australia and New Zealand. Between 2020 and 2025, the New South Wales coastal town of Byron Bay experienced a number of significant storm events and cyclones, many of which brought higher than normal tides, large swells, and strong winds. The resulting damage included the loss of significant ...
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Bridging the Green–Grey Divide: How Emerging Technologies Are Transforming Infrastructure Management

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
Nature-based green infrastructure is transforming asset management, offering sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to traditional grey assets. With traditional infrastructure responsible for nearly 79% of global emissions and half of all resource use and waste, the shift toward green solutions is vital. Beyond environmental benefits, Green Infrastructure (GI) can deliver lasting social and economic value that often appreciates over time. It’s a common misconception that GI simply refers to parks and gardens. IPWEA’s Director of Sustainability Dr Jacqueline Balston has defined GI as: “An interconnected network of nature-based assets that are intentionally ...
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Building Climate Resilience for Generations to Come

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
New Zealand’s infrastructure is facing mounting pressure from a changing climate. More frequent floods, longer droughts, and rising seas. Building resilience isn’t just about recovering after disasters; it’s about anticipating and adapting to change so we can protect our communities, economy, and way of life for generations to come. At the recent Building Nations Conference in Wellington, Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy, Chair of the Climate Change Commission, spoke about how New Zealand can move from strategy to action in climate adaptation, highlighting the governance, investment, and leadership needed to safeguard our communities and infrastructure. The International ...
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Floating wetlands provide a nature-based solution

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
Creating new wastewater infrastructure is often time consuming and expensive, but when an area is increasing in population, is it often essential. One approach to increasing the performance of wastewater treatment assets, and avoiding many of the costs of increasing wastewater infrastructure footprints, is using nature-based solutions such as floating wetlands. Queensland based consultancy, Covey Associates, has been a leader in developing floating wetland projects in Australia and internationally over the last 15 years. They have recently implemented some highly successful projects with utility TasWater, who wanted to explore whether non-traditional solutions ...
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To stay or go? The dilemma of coastal erosion

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
By Steve Mooney Coastal erosion is a growing issue in New Zealand, and is presenting challenging questions for residents, as well as for local and national governments. Years of erosion have seen the coastland recede in some areas of the country, threatening many homes which may have also sustained damage from the storms of 2022. According to a report released last year, some sections of the New Zealand coast are eroding at a rate of a football field each generation, with the impacts exacerbated by climate change. One of the lessons from those extreme weather events of 2022 was the declaration that in rebuilding, some settled areas should be abandoned and ...
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Building back differently in California

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
Few communities worldwide have worked harder or invested more in their firefighting capacity than California in recent years. Yet, the world was shocked by the scale of devastation caused by the Los Angeles fires in January. Now that the unproductive blame game and the recriminations have quietened down, along with the fires, it is time for some rigorous analysis so that we can understand how and why the fires occurred and what can be done in future to limit the destruction and help resilient communities rebuild. These lessons from Los Angeles can be applied in other regions at the greatest risk from the climate emergency, and they are relevant to Australia ...
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When saving, a building can save on emissions

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
By David Jenkins Decarbonisation is one of the great challenges facing the construction industry, and to meet that challenge, infrastructure planners are increasingly focusing on the issue of embodied carbon.  According to a recent KPMG report, 22% of buildings’ carbon emissions come from embodied carbon, with operational emissions accounting for 78%. There are several definitions of embodied carbon, but perhaps the clearest way to understand it is to measure the emissions from building materials, their construction, and potential demolition and disposal. Typically, the focus has been on operational emissions, which is why, in so many cases, older buildings ...
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Green infrastructure. The next frontier in asset management

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
By David Jenkins A significant development in asset management practice has been the use of natural assets, which can replace traditional hard assets, or be used in parallel. These natural solutions can come with lower capital and operating costs, can mitigate the impacts of climate change, and deliver benefits such as enhanced recreational opportunities. The interaction of urban green infrastructure components can also help conserve biodiversity and restore ecological processes. One of the challenges with the natural asset approach has been its valuation, and this is important because accurate valuation will be a significant factor in driving its use. ...
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Liverpool recognised for climate action in film and music

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
The British city of Liverpool has been named the world’s first climate action Accelerator City. The recognition was given by the United Nations’ Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action (ECCA) program, and was specifically for Liverpool’s commitment to innovation and smart regulation to decarbonise the live music and TV and film production sectors. The city, famous as the home of the Beatles, has been a leader in decarbonising the two sectors, which both make a significant contribution to the Liverpool economy. The decarbonisation efforts have been led over several years by Act 1.5, an artist-led research and action group, and climate scientists from ...
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Coastal infrastructure in a time of rising seas

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
By David Jenkins Sea levels are rising across the Pacific, and the trend will likely accelerate in the coming decades. This presents a major infrastructure challenge to the coastal areas of New Zealand and Australia. In NZ, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has said that sea levels will rise 5-10% more than the global average forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). At NZ SeaRise, Tim Naish – a professor at Wellington’s Victoria University – believes NZ sea levels could rise by close to one metre because the land is also sinking as the sea rises. In Australia, geospatial consultancy NGIS believes ...
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Towards local government sustainability

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
By David Jenkins The local government sector manages one-third of Australia’s public infrastructure assets, and it does a fantastic job with its available resources. IPWEA’s recent submission to the Federal Government’s Inquiry into Local Government Sustainability quantified the magnitude of the task: According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, local government in Australia has an infrastructure asset portfolio valued at $424 billion in the financial year end 2023 that it needs to manage and maintain for its communities. It must do that on a collective revenue of $60 billion. A look at the aggregated data shows that, as a group, Australian councils ...
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Sustainability lessons from Canada

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
By David Jenkins Canada often serves as an interesting point of comparison for Australia. Both countries have comparatively small populations over huge areas and are part of the so called cultural Anglosphere. Canadians and Australians often find they have a lot in common when it comes to approaches to key issues, so it is a worthwhile exercise to use Canada as something of a benchmark for Australia in terms of efforts to promote ‘green infrastructure’ projects.  At the government level, Infrastructure Canada spent C$735 million over the last decade through its Green Infrastructure Fund, which supports environmental infrastructure projects to promote ...
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Greening of our cities provides multiple benefits

By Bhavani Koganti posted 8 days ago
By David Jenkins Urban trees, parks and gardens have long been known as the “lungs’ of a city, and it is a metaphor which continues to resonate even more in the era of climate change. Municipal authorities and planners are placing greater importance on green space as they create new precincts and renovate old ones, and there are many examples of innovative programs in Australia and around the world. In Europe, Italian architect Stefano Boeri has received the European Lung Foundation Award for improving air quality in recognition for a number of projects, beginning with a vertical forest in Milan a decade ago. His latest project is in the Dutch city of ...
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