Systems engineering and infrastructure – opportunities and challenges
Dr Ana Mijic
Ana is a Senior Lecturer in Water Systems Integration and a Co-Director of the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation. She is leading the development of novel systems tools focused on quantifying the interaction between the water cycle and sustainable development. The work has aim to inform regulatory bodies and water industry if and how we can support economic growth whilst ensuring sustainable water use and flood and water quality management under future uncertainties.
Through NERC Innovation Fellowship funding she worked with the UK Environment Agency to apply systems thinking and systemic approaches to understanding the catchment water system complexity of the Cumbria Catchment Pioneer. She has led the UK NERC CHANSE project on systems water management and irrigation water use in India. Currently, Ana is a Systems Analysis Lead for the UK NERC CAMELLIA impact programme, where her work is focused on the development of systems water management models that can represent the integrated water infrastructure planning system, and how grey and green infrastructure solutions and housing design can be integrated to contribute to the overall quality of life in cities.
Ana is a member of the EWRE Hydrology group that was awarded the 2019 Imperial President’s Award for Excellence in Research for Outstanding Research Team.
CSEI seminar series background
On 27 June 2019 the UK became the first major economy to pass a net zero emissions law requiring that all greenhouse gas emissions are brought to net zero by 2050. The new law poses major economic, scientific and engineering challenges, and a complete transformation of the way we think of and deliver infrastructure, including Net Zero cities, as well as several hundred billion pounds of investment.
A large body of evidence, from both research and industry, sets out what needs to be done, and by whom, in order to reduce both infrastructure and industry’s carbon footprints. It is in this context that the Seminar Series will explore how a systems approach to infrastructure and seeing infrastructure as a system of systems are key to achieving climate change mitigation and a reduction in carbon and other forms of pollution. The seminars will also highlight the broad challenges we face to achieve our carbon reduction and sustainability ambitions, and the significant opportunities these ambitions yield, as well as new sustainable approaches to infrastructure design, planning, operation and delivery. The series aims to offer different perspectives – from academia, industry and policy – and to be very interactive.