Built + Beyond

In recent years, the United States has experienced frequent and severe natural disasters, driven in part by climate change, from devastating wildfires to powerful hurricanes, communities across the country are grappling with profound impacts of these events.

The consequences extend beyond immediate destruction, encompassing economic loss, displacement of populations and long-term environmental damage.

As these disasters become more p...

The water quality of our waterways is an issue of global concern. The quality of the water in rivers, lakes and coastal environments is affected by a number of challenges including sewage pollution, agriculture and livestock.  

Join our experts as they discuss how to improve water quality monitoring to gain a better understanding of pressures on water quality; how to engage with public and key stakeholders (e.g., campaign groups) to...

The Army corps of engineers recently estimated that, historically, roughly 30 percent of dredge volume in the US has been beneficially reused.

Reuse encompasses a wide range of applications including construction materials, beach nourishment, enhancing flood protection, and creating habitats; but it isn’t a common practice.

In this episode we’ll talk about the barriers to reuse – technical, economic, institutional...

Today’s episode is all about biosolids, including gaining insight into global trends and discussing some of the key challenges and opportunities faced by the sector and recognizing that there’s a paradigm shift happening.

Biosolids production continues to grow due to many factors—population growth, increased connectivity to our sewers, increased environmental production level and improved standards of living. It’s a critical part of...

Why water asset management? Good question. Join us as we talk about the challenges facing water utilities—climate change, financial and commercial pressures, depleting availability of the workforce—and how asset management can help.

Utilities are facing continuing pressure to do more with less. To achieve that, they need greater control and visibility of their assets—how they're performing and how they're deteriorating.

Ass...

Know your risk.There is something you can do to make a difference in your community’s dam risk resilience.

This second-in-a-series of podcast episodes highlighting dam safety focuses on risk associated with dams. We’re talking about the National Inventory of Dams (NID), an essential component in a community’s understanding of risk and a great pre-planning tool.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is in the proc...

This is the second roundtable episode and we’re talking about climate change. Specifically helping communities understand its impacts and the engineering tools to evaluate and respond to it. We’re also discussing equitable water resiliency efforts and more. Tune in right here.

Joining the conversation today:

• Jeff Wright, Atkins Water Practice Director
• Steve Bourne, Atkins Project Director with experience in water resourc...

This is the first episode on climate change and water resilience. We’re talking about the science behind climate change and the water impacts we’re seeing. We’re also discussing the development of policy regulation and how our communities can plan for the future. Tune in right here.
 
Joining the conversation today:

• Jeff Wright, Atkins Water Practice Director
• Shayne Paynter, Atkins Water Resources Senior Technical Directo...

Buildings are one of the largest contributors to emissions.

If you own, operate or manage existing buildings this episode is for you.

We’re chatting about decarbonization plus economics – we call it Decarbonomics. It’s just one component of our Engineering Net Zero strategy to build quantifiable solutions for a Net Zero carbon future.

We get it that while you’re building these kinds of strategies into you...

As more of the population migrates to coastal areas, the need to improve aging infrastructure and make communities more resilient grows with it. Join us as we talk about the challenges that coastal communities are facing from climate change. From tidal flooding to pounding waves and rapid beach erosion, the risk to communities is growing and the impacts must be understood from both a physical and economic perspective. We’ll discuss...

Let’s talk about dams.

Join us as we dig into dam safety awareness. We’ll talk about a pivotal incident in history that to this day is an impetus to being proactive about dam safety and is the reason why there’s a National Dam Safety Program.

There are inherent risks regarding dams and many times it’s “out of sight out of mind;” you think it can’t happen to your community. It can. It’s important that we have an aw...

On this episode, find out how transit agencies in the US and around the globe are upgrading their signaling systems. Atkins’ Kurt Goddard, transit sector manager, along with Gavin Martin, director of rail and transit and Paul Smith, senior consultant, will talk about the go-to technology in the industry: Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC). They’ll also talk cyber security, new technologies, covid-19 impacts and more. Join us...

Our final episode deals with the last two stages of the data lifecycle:

• Distribution - Taking the data that was analyzed and getting it to the right people. 
• Removal - Knowing the timeframe you need to keep data, per state and government requirements is key; be aware of those rules because that information drives when to purge. 

This stage also addresses what can be archived vs. what needs to be purged; what systems can be re...

In 2018, a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico changed rapidly into a Category 5 hurricane that devastated Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida. A few months later, a catastrophic flood in the Missouri River basin completely inundated Offut Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska. In 2019, Hurricane Florence similarly devastated Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina (requiring repair and ...

Acronyms are pervasive in the consulting and engineering world. And PMO is no exception. 

PMOs can be referred to as Project, Program and sometimes Portfolio Management Offices. Over the course of this series, we’ll be talking mostly about “Project” Management Offices, but the theories and techniques we discuss can certainly be applied across Programs and Portfolios.

In this episode, you’ll find out exactly what it means and why you ...

Data warehousing is playing a bigger role in the assimilation of enterprise data. If you’re intimidated by the thought of implementing a data warehouse, don’t be! John, Soraya and Allen break it down. We’ll talk about how to take data from one location and into a data warehouse. Why is this important? You’ll find out in this episode as we discuss Pillars 3 and 4 of the data lifecycle, Assimilate and Use.  

We’ll also chat about busi...

We’re back with part two of Data: Your most valuable asset. An important piece to implementing a data governance program is preparing for change through organizational change management – informing staff of why changes are needed and what’s in it for them. It’s important to build the buy-in at the front end so you can be successful on the back end. 

We’ll also talk about the elements of data lifecycle management – plan, create, main...