3 Questions: Why infrastructure is entering a defining era

MIT civil and environmental engineering head Ali Jadbabaie says climate change, resource constraints, geopolitical instability and rising demand in the developing world are converging faster than before, and that meeting demand with the 20th-century resource-intensive model is not feasible. He points to AI and digital transformation as potentially transformative for design and operation, while warning that greater interconnection raises systemic risk. He describes the World Infrastructure Forum, co-founded by MIT CEE with the World Bank Group, UPM and UT Austin, as an effort to bring the whole infrastructure value chain into an ongoing dialogue.