International exchange of information, innovations, skills and experience is critical in today's global world. To achieve this, the IFME 20th World Congress on Municipal Engineering brought together our global partners and was held in association with the Institution of Civil Engineers at the Interchange conference in Birmingham on 16-19 April 2023, with the IFME curated programme being held on Tuesday 18 April 2023.
The theme of this year's congress is “Managing Infrastructure Challenges”. The day-long congress programme will include presentations and debates on key issues related to:
- Asset Management
- Underground Management
- Climate change issues
- Decarbonisation of transport (all types)
- Seamless multimodal journeys
- Interrelationships between the built environment, energy and transport
With guest speakers from across the globe, IFME warmly welcomed delegates to share their stories and challenges with us.
Programme (timings):
09:00 Registration – 60 mins
10:00 Welcome to Interchange – Introduction from Rachel Skinner and Stephen Norris - 30 mins
Morning Session – Asset management
Synopsis: Engineers will be squeezed between plummeting client budgets and rising input costs, requiring innovation and clever thinking to keep projects viable. This session will address how we can best manage existing assets.
Session 1
11:00 Chair’s introduction – 10 mins
11:10 Speaker 1. Scott Grayson, APWEA, United States of America
Keynote introduction – Managing $1tn.US infrastructure in conjunction with the White House. 5 mins
11:15 Speaker 2. David Jenkins, IPWEA, Australia
Infrastructure boom! – People are the priority and root to success – it’s all about capacity and capability to deliver 20 mins
11:35 Speaker 3. Chris Champion, Past President, Engineers Australia
Changing the rhetoric – how asset managers can help elected officials with infrastructure decision-making – 20 mins
11.55 Speaker 4 & 5. Nicole Metje & Robert Huxford, United Kingdom
Managing and detecting underground utility assets and why National Underground Design Codes are needed – 20 mins
12:15 Speaker 6. Tony McGlynn. IPWEA. New Zealand
Managing underground space in practice - NZ Utility Management Act – 20 mins
12.40 Panel debate – what do we need to do to better manage infrastructure assets? (all session speakers)
13:00 Lunch
Session 2 – Our future cities
Synopsis: Climate resilience must be at the forefront of engineers thinking in reshaping infrastructure for sustainable future cities. This session will address why professionals must seek opportunities to prepare for the effects of baked-in weather change, and how we can future-proof the design, build and management of our urban environments.
14.00 – Speaker 7. Pryani de Silva-Currie. IPWEA. New Zealand
What’s Your Why – The Carbon Equation – 20 mins
14.20 – Speaker 8. Lars Johansson. Viable Cities. Sweden
How can we strengthen our capacity to develop climate-neutral and smart cities?- 20 mins
14.40 – Speaker 9. Gunnar Persson. Framtiden Byggutveckling AB. Sweden
Inter-relationships between the built environment, energy and transport – 20 mins
15:00 – Speaker 10. Eric Båve. Former urban/regional planner in Swedish municipalities. Sweden
Case study - Avesta district heating with hot water storage in rock caverns - 20 mins
15.20 – Break
15:40 – Speaker 11. Aaron Koskela. Forum Virium, Helsinki. Finland
Digital Twins for Mobility – 20 mins
16:00 – Marjut Kauppinen and Mia Rantanen
Street Lighting – A case study from the City of Helsinki – 20 mins
16.20 – Jeroen Schenkels. Urban Planning, City of Utrecht. Netherlands
Case study - Utrecht: growing fast but still remaining green – 20 mins
16:40 – Panel debate How do we increase the urgency to protect infrastructure assets from climate change? (All session speakers)
Congress close
17.00 – Closing summary and Presidential handover
17.10 – Close