Every few years the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) releases a public report1 that measures the nation’s infrastructural health. A reflection of the decisions of civil engineers and policy makers, the report guides the countries strategic vision. However, despite the comprehensive and detailed nature of the report, recommendations are only a step zero to rigorously speculating the future.
Hidden grade
One of the important reasons the ASCE report card exists is because the public and even engineers do not know the overall performance of infrastructure. There is definitely an intuition from engineers having to work on infrastructure as a career but the definitive metric is needed to determine the future. However, the report card itself raises important questions on the visibility and public education of the assets our civilization depends on. Decades of submerging infrastructure beyond public sight has resulted in the urgent need for engineers to tell the public why their work is necessary and deserves additional funding. Speculating a future should account for how infrastructure can play a more public and visible role in our lives.
Resilience in the face of climate whiplash
Autodesk analysts have called attention to that the climate whiplash that has made our infrastructure more vulnerable23. Rather than sustainability, engineers and policy makers must prepare with resilience to withstand the short term impacts of floods and droughts. However, the role of the report card is not to help engineers study or do their homework which is why speculative design is needed more than ever. Hence, a cultural of speculative design is necessary to enable the production of new solutions to address our current context.
Moving beyond engineering
With enough iteration, designing within a set standard of parameters will generally lead to converging solutions. To break this pattern, engineers should outside their culture for inspiration. Hence, traveling and exploring other countries methods for managing with climate change may provide answers. Moreover, drawing upon ancient methods of development could also inspire new new notions of community.
https://infrastructurereportcard.org/
https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/water/2025/03/27/an-analysis-of-the-asce-2025-report-card-for-americas-infrastructure-how-did-water-do/
https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/water/2024/02/05/what-is-the-impact-of-climate-change-on-stormwater-modeling-and-how-can-water-professionals-prepare/