Under Construction: Delivering Better Infrastructure
How do we keep the UK running in the context of an increasingly insecure environment? The answer lies where human endeavour meets the environment: in developing sustainable infrastructure.
The March 2026 issue of environmental SCIENTIST, ‘Under Construction: Delivering Better Infrastructure’, digs into the infrastructure we need to meet targets for housing, green energy provision, and sustainable transport. This edition gets to the heart of the key constraints facing UK infrastructure in a time of policy upheaval and climate change, and explores new opportunities for innovation, development, and progress.
Contributors detail case studies of successful, nature-inclusive housing, look at the latest innovations in sustainable building materials, ask how our energy needs could be met by a new approach to nuclear, and examine how we can improve policies on waste infrastructure. Without shying away from the numerous challenges that UK infrastructure faces – including ageing and insufficient water systems, complex housing stocks, and fragmented public transport policies – articles in this issue propose how we can take advantage of opportunities to build better, more resilient, and more future-friendly infrastructure.
- Introduction – Infrastructure under pressure: challenges and opportunities – Lindsay Beevers
- Estate regeneration: a sustainable solution to London's housing crisis? – Timothy J. Dixon
- Sustainable transport infrastructure: which path to take? – Ralph Smyth
- Building nature back in: the prospect of nature-centric housing – Matthew Pritchard & Tom Oliver
- The Swiss Army knife of energy: powering the UK’s reindustrialisation – Kirsty Gogan & Eric Ingersoll
- Microorganism‑based composites and the future of regenerative construction – Juliana Calabria-Holley & Kevin Paine
- Building resilience and sustainability into UK housing markets and infrastructure – Samer Bagaeen
- Are water and sanitation systems resilient to climate change? – Guy Howard
- Net zero high-density buildings and infrastructure – Sean Smith
- Waste infrastructure for a resource resilient and circular UK economy – Dan Cooke
Volume: 36.1
If you are an education provider, our learning resources provide information for informal, seminar-style discussions of the topics explored in each issue of the journal. Download the learning resource for this issue.
