Engineers Forum

It is good news,at last someone have realized in Pakistan to have a research on global warming with following criteria, may be helpful for policy makers and funding organizations.

The research utilize meta analysis of existing literature on global warming and public health, the central question of what global warming is all about and how does the latter impact Pakistan’s health in accordance to literature discussion, assessment and analysis. Research objective adheres to the following salient points: impact of environmental change on health, Pakistan context, several causes which bring the changes, how can authorities or general public tackle health related problems caused by global warming. There can be scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity will change Earth’s climate. The recent warming by 0·5°C is partly attributable to such anthropogenic emissions. Climate change will affect human health in many ways mostly adversely. The need to summarize epidemiological evidence of how climate variations and trends affect various health outcomes.

Assess evidence there is that global warming affected Pakistan health, reviewing published estimates of impeding health effects of climate change at present times. Researches have focus on thermal stress, extreme weather events, and infectious diseases, with some attention to estimates of regional food yields and hunger prevalence. An emerging broader approach address wide spectrum of health risks due to social, demographic and economic disruptions of climate change. Evidence and anticipation of adverse health effects will strengthen Pakistan based case for pre-emptive policies, will guide priorities for planned adaptive strategies. Indeed, environmental change and pollutants stress individuals and populations, and may be reflected in the global resurgence of infectious disease as these stresses cascade through the community assemblages of species.

Research will suggest framework for integrating surveillance of Pakistan health outcomes with climatic monitoring. Thus, initial concern about the possible effects of global warming have declined with realization that the spread of tropical diseases is likely to be limited and controllable. However, direct effects of heat causes substantial numbers of deaths among vulnerable people such as during summer. Action to prevent deaths from rising is obvious medical challenge presented by global rise in temperature. For example, air conditioning has reduced them in the United States and technologies such as fans, shade and buildings designed to keep cool on hot days have generally done so in Europe as the energy requirements of air conditioning accelerate global warming, combination of the older methods, backed up by use of air conditioning when necessary, can provide the ideal solution.

Despite availability of technologies, occasional record high temperatures still cause sharp rises in heat related deaths as the climate warms such action at home can be effective than transporting the patient to hospital, even in tropical regions. The aggregate human impact on the environment now exceeds the limits of absorption or regeneration of biophysical systems. The resultant global environmental changes include altered atmospheric composition, widespread land degradation, depletion of fisheries, freshwater shortages and biodiversity losses. The drive for further social and economic development, plus an unavoidable substantial increase in population size will tend to augment these large-scale environmental problems. Overall, large scale environmental changes are likely to increase the range and seasonality of various infectious diseases, food inscurity, water stress, population displacement with adverse health consequences (2000).

Most directly, it can generate more, stronger and hotter heat waves, which will become especially treacherous if the evenings fail to bring cooling relief, lack of nighttime cooling seems to be in the cards; the atmosphere is heating unevenly and is showing the biggest rises at night, in winter and at latitudes higher than about 50 degrees. Prolonged heat can enhance production of smog and the dispersal of allergens and linked to respiratory symptoms. Human infections are intricately linked to the global environment by altering this environment, global warming has significant potential to intensify selected infectious diseases ( 2000). Thus, climatic effects are predicted to include crowding, famine, water contamination, human migration, and alterations in vector ecology, all of which increase infectious diseases. Global warming will cause economic strain that may divert public health resources from existing infections. Through planning and research, there can mitigate health effects of global warming by means of policy, politics, and global cooperation, Pakistan may reduce the environmental problems that cause global warming.

Global warming has serious implications for human life, effect of global warming depends on the complex interaction between the human host population and the causative infectious agent, changes in the environment may trigger human migration, causing disease patterns to shift ( 2005 ). Disease transmission may be enhanced through the scarcity and contamination of potable water sources. Importantly, significant economic and political stresses may damage the existing public health infrastructure, leaving mankind poorly prepared for unexpected epidemics.

Global warming will certainly affect the abundance and distribution of disease vectors, altitudes that are cool to sustain vectors will become more conducive to them for instance, Malaria, dengue, plague, and viruses causing encephalitic syndromes are likely to be affected. Some models suggest that vector-borne diseases will become more common as the earth warms, although caution is needed in interpreting these predictions (2005). Clearly, global warming will cause changes in the epidemiology of infectious diseases as the ability of mankind to react or adapt is dependent upon the magnitude and speed of the change. Research will depend on ability to recognize epidemics early, to contain them effectively, to provide appropriate treatment, to commit resources to prevention and further investigation.

http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/08/global-warming-and-its-impact-on-public-health.html

Research from the Civil Engineers Contractors Association (CECA) UK, has shown the recession to be deepening, with tender prices falling off a cliff, opening the door to a ‘double-dip’ recession.

While the April survey showed workloads deteriorating, but at a slower pace, the figures for July showed a renewed plunge.

This is the fifth successive quarter of contraction, and could indicate a double-dip recession, where the cycle of recession to recovery is hit by further weakness in the economy.

Forward order books have been in decline for more than a year, and 70% of the sample recorded lower order books than a year ago.

Tender prices began to decline in January this year for both new and repair and maintenance work. This trend has since become established and the July survey shows accelerating downward pressure on tender prices for both types of work.

CECA National Director Rosemary Beales said: “Contractors are maintaining a positive outlook despite the extremely gloomy news that there is significantly less work of any kind available at the moment.

“This reduction in work is forcing tender prices down – a factor that will have long term ramifications for both the health of the civil engineering contracting market and for clients.

“This survey confirms the widespread feeling that economic recovery is still a long way off. It is imperative that contractors and clients maintain a serious dialogue about sustaining the long term health of the industry, which is as much in the interests of those who want value for their investment in the nation’s infrastructure as it is in the interests of the contractors who construct and maintain it,”.

Civils workloads have also declined. The railways sector – the only sector to show a positive balance since 2008 has now moved into negative territory for the first time.

Preliminary works, which is a bellweather for much of the industry and where decline appeared to be slowing in April, is once again returning sharply negative figures for available work.

Source: http://www.nce.co.uk/5206801.article

With the industrial and commercial sectors suffering severe falls in new build so far this year and serious concerns regarding publicly funded construction work (with government stating that capital expenditure will fall by 17 per cent per year up to 2013/14), a key issue for the industry is which sectors will be growing in the next few years. By Noble Francis

A somewhat surprising answer may turn out to be the housing market.

After the collapse in housebuilding following the financial crisis, which led to a collapse in effective demand and, consequently, a rapid fall in house prices (in UK) between October 2007 and March 2009, housebuilders were left with a large excess supply.

But the end of 2008 and early 2009 saw intense destocking on both the home building and housing-related product manufacturing front, leading to new housebuilding falling to unprecedented lows.

This destocking could not continue forever and the last few months have seen a little optimism creeping into the housing market with recent rises in prices and new home starts.

The National Housebuilding Council reported that housing starts in Great Britain have risen throughout this year, albeit from the extremely low base. House prices have been quite erratic over the course of the year, due to the low number of transactions, but both Halifax and Nationwide reported that house prices increased in July, by 1.1 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

RICS revised their forecasts recently and they now anticipate that house prices will not fall by 10 to 15 per cent in 2009 as they initially forecast but that the average house price at the end of this year will be slightly higher than at the end of 2008.

These price rises suggest that even with a relatively low level of demand, there is still a lack of supply, as people are generally only selling if they need to due to low prices available.

Furthermore, in the grand scheme of things, there is a long term demand for housing in this country that will need to be met.

After taking account of the falls and long term revised population estimates, it is likely that we are going to need around 290,000 homes per year to meet the housing needs. However, in 2009, we are only expected to produce around 100,000 homes for Great Britain. This implies that there is a pent-up demand in the long term.

There are, however, two key risks to the recovery in housing demand. Firstly, with unemployment continuing its rise towards three million in 2010, this could result in a fall in demand for house purchases and an increase in supply from those forced to sell, leading to further falls in house prices.

Secondly, recovery in the housing market is heavily dependent upon credit availability rising further and while it has risen over the course of this year, this has been from unprecedented lows and it will need to continue rising to make the pent-up demand for housing in this country effective.

On the supply side, there are concerns that even if demand does pick up then will the industry have the capacity to deliver. This is potentially an opportunity at a challenging time for the industry when sectors with bright futures are few and far between.

Source: http://www.cnplus.co.uk/5206781.article, written by Noble Francis who is economic director of the Construction Products Association

Although there is recession in construction industry at this moment all over the world but hopes are there that it will further improve in first quarter of next year than current year. The trends in improvement of business, research and education will further improve in following sectors.

• Structural Engineering
• Design and Detailing Services
• Detailing Services
• Architectural Engineering
• Computer Aided Design
• Buildintg Information Modeling
• Intern Development Program
• Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
• Design of Shell and Spatial Structures
• Infrastructure Engineering Future, Trends

Structural Engineering

• Design And Detailing Services
• Detailing Services

Architectural Engineering
• Computer Aided Design
• Building Information Modeling
• Intern Development Program
• Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
• Design Of Shell And Spatial Structures