In
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
, macro-engineering (alternatively known as macroengineering or macro engineering and as mega engineering) is the implementation of extremely large-scale design projects. It can be seen as a branch of
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
or
structural engineering
Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and ca ...
but just on a very large land area. In particular, macro-engineering is the process of marshaling and managing of resources, technology and public opinion on a large scale to carry out complex tasks that last over a long period.
In contrast to conventional engineering projects, macro-engineering projects (called macro-projects or mega-projects) are multidisciplinary, involving collaboration from all fields of study; they involve not only engineers, but scientists, lawyers, industrialists, soldiers and politicians as well. Macro-projects are usually international; they override political boundaries because most countries lack the social, financial or physical ability to undertake them alone. As a consequence, macro-projects have the power to fundamentally transform their areas of focus.
Macro-engineering is an evolving field that is only recently receiving attention. Because we routinely deal with challenges that are multinational in scope, such as
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in a broader sense also includes ...
and
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
, macro-engineering is emerging as a transcendent solution to worldwide problems. Macro-engineering, or mega-engineering, is distinct from
megascale engineering which deals with projects on a planetary or stellar scale. Where macro-engineering is currently practical, mega-scale engineering is still within the domain of speculative fiction.
In reality
Past macro-projects include the construction of the
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a Channel ( ...
and
Suez Canal, the
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone ( Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles (Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dove ...
and the planned
Gibraltar Tunnel
The Strait of Gibraltar crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the Strait of Gibraltar (about 14 km or 9 miles at its narrowest point) that would connect Europe and Africa. The governments of Spain and Morocco appointed a joi ...
, the construction of cross-country
oil pipeline
Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...
s, and most recently, a multinational effort to standardize
satellite communication.
Two intellectual centers focused on macro-engineering theory and practice are the
Candida Oancea Institute in
Bucharest, Romania
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
, and The Center for Macro Projects and Diplomacy at
Roger Williams University
Roger Williams University (RWU) is a private university in Bristol, Rhode Island. Founded in 1956, it was named for theologian and Rhode Island cofounder Roger Williams. The school enrolls over 5,000 students and employs over 480 academic sta ...
in
Bristol, Rhode Island
Bristol is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, US as well as the historic county seat. The town is built on the traditional territories of the Pokanoket Wampanoag. It is a deep water seaport named after Bristol, England.
The population of ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
.
See also
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Afforestation
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees ( forestation) in an area where there was no previous tree cover. Many government and non-governmental organizations directly engage in afforestation programs to create forests ...
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Agroforestry
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Atlantropa (Gibraltar Dam)
*
Analog forestry
*
Bering Strait bridge
A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel that would span the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait between the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. The crossing would prov ...
*
Buffer strip
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Biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms biom ...
*
Biomass (ecology)
The biomass is the mass of living biological organisms in a given area or ecosystem at a given time. Biomass can refer to ''species biomass'', which is the mass of one or more species, or to ''community biomass'', which is the mass of all sp ...
*
Climate engineering
Climate engineering (also called geoengineering) is a term used for both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM), also called solar geoengineering, when applied at a planetary scale.IPCC (2022Chapter 1: Introduction and ...
(Geoengineering)
*
Collaborative innovation network Collaborative innovation is a process in which multiple players contribute towards creating new products with customers and suppliers.
Collaboration can occur in all aspects of the business cycle, depending on the context:
* Procurement and suppl ...
*
Deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...
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Deforestation during the Roman period
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Ecological engineering
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Ecological engineering methods
Ecological engineering uses ecology and engineering to predict, design, construct or restore, and manage ecosystems that integrate " human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both".W.J. Mitsch & S.E. Jorgensen (1989), "In ...
*
Ecotechnology
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Energy-efficient landscaping
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Forest gardening
Forest gardening is a low-maintenance, sustainable, plant-based food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables which have yields directly ...
*
Forest farming
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Great Plains Shelterbelt
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Green Wall of China
The Great Green Wall, officially known as the Three-North Shelter Forest Program (), also known as the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, is a series of human-planted windbreaking forest strips (shelterbelts) in China, designed to hold back the des ...
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IBTS Greenhouse
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Home gardens
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Human ecology
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Permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...
*
Permaforestry
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Sahara Forest Project
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Qattara Depression Project
The Qattara Depression Project, or Qattara Project for short, is a macro-engineering project concept in Egypt. Rivalling the Aswan High Dam in scope, the intention is to develop the hydroelectric potential of the Qattara Depression by creating an ...
*
Red Sea dam
The Red Sea dam is a speculative macro-engineering proposal put forward in 2007 by a group of scientists and engineers. Although the authors' intentions are to explore "the ethical and environmental dilemmas and some of the political implications ...
*
Sand fence
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Seawater Greenhouse
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Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem ser ...
*
Terraforming
Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to mak ...
*
Windbreak
A windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edg ...
*
Wildcrafting
References
* Frank P. Davidson and Kathleen Lusk Brooke, BUILDING THE WORLD: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE GREAT ENGINEERING PROJECTS IN HISTORY, two volumes (Greenwood Publishing Group, Oxford UK, 2006)
* V. Badescu, R.B. Cathcart and R.D. Schuiling, MACRO-ENGINEERING: A CHALLENGE FOR THE FUTURE (Springer, The Netherlands, 2006)
* R.B. Cathcart, V. Badescu with Ramesh Radhakrishnan, (2006):
Macro-Engineers' Dreams' PDF, 175pp. Accessed 24 May 2013
* Alexander Bolonkin and Richard B. Cathcart, Macro-Projects (NOVA Publishing, 2009)
* Viorel Badescu and R.B. Cathcart, Macro-engineering Seawater (Springer, 2010), 880 pages.
* R.B. Cathcart, MACRO-IMAGINEERING OUR DOSMOZOICUM. (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2018) 154 pages.
External links
Engineering and the Future of TechnologyMegaengineering at Popular Mechanics
{{Levels of technological manipulation of matter