Urbanization is the biggest macro trend out there

Several key issues engineering needs to address in this decade.  The first is the global trend of urbanization and the need for greater cross-disciplinary thinking and action.  The transportation people need to be talking to the water people which need to be talking to the design people which need to be talking to the policy people which need to be talking to the governance people which need to be talking to the planning people.  Rarely is this done at any level.  Engineering schools typically don't get training leaders in a cross-disciplinary fashion nor are they thinking about how to train future engineers and leaders in the common language of urbanization.

The second point is the thinnest of the talent pool, especially in the private sector, to deal with managing the huge scale of complex urbanization.  Scale and speed with be key variables associated with urbanization.  You will have this complex mix of interdisciplinary teams, many utilizing new public-private project delivery mechanisms, needing engineers skilled in big project management.  We don't appear to be meeting the grade in this area.

As urbanization becomes the biggest macro trend in our time - government, education, and business needs a closer working relationship.