Impact of Megatrends on Stormwater Management

The world is changing faster than ever which presents a challenge for designers to foresee the big issues that infrastructure will face in the future. Stormwater infrastructure especially is facing enormous changes. How do we foresee the issues that stormwater infrastructure will face? Megatrends are a powerful tool that designers can use today to prepare for the big issues that infrastructure will face in the future.

Broadly defined, megatrends are patterns or changes which occur over a long period of time that have a major impact on businesses and society as a whole. Some megatrends which irrefutably impact on the stormwater industry include, technology, increasing consumer power and urbanization. Each megatrend can have multiple impacts. There is considerable uncertainty around impacts, especially the magnitude of the impact, the time frames around impacts and the balance of conflicting impacts. This paper discusses how megatrends can be used to guide infrastructure design to cope with future issues.