International Year Of Planet Earth (IYPE): An Engineer’s Perspective

(2008-03-10 13:05:00.0)

The IYPR was promoted by earth scientists to ensure greater and more effective use by society of the knowledge accumulated by scientists. However, engineers also have a major role in achieving this global objective, and a delegation of engineers will go to the next United Nations Committee on Sustainable Development in May 2008 (CSD-16). The Year's main goal is to build safer, healthier and wealthier communities around the globe. The UN sees the Year as a contribution to their call for sustainable development as it promotes wise use of the earth's materials and encourages better planning and management to reduce risk for the world's inhabitants. 70 countries have established national committees. Australian National Committee for Earth Sciences is acting as the national committee for the International Year of Planet Earth. Key areas for world engineers within the themes proposed by the UN are: Reducing risks for society caused by natural and human induced disasters, Discovering new natural resources and making them available in a sustainable manner, Building safer structures and expanding urban areas by utilizing natural subsurface conditions, Determining the human and non-human factors in climate change, Detecting deep and poorly accessible groundwater resources, Enhancing the understanding of the occurrence of natural resources so as to contribute efforts to reduce political tension. http://www.yearofplanetearth.org