Macro-Engineering and the Earth: World Projects for Year 2000 and Beyond

281 Pages·19.604 MB·English

by  Uwe W Kitzinger, Ernest G Frankel

Macro-engineering and the Earth:
World Projects for the Year 2000 and Beyond
A festchrift in honour of Frank Davidson
It is a massy wheel
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls,
Each small annexement, petty consequence,
Attends the boist'rous ruin.
Shakespeare: Hamlet II, iii
First published in 1998 by
HORWOOD PUBLISHING LIMITED
International Publishers
Coll House, Westergate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO20 6QL
England
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the permission of
Horwood Publishing, International Publishers, Coll House, Westergate, Chichester,
West Sussex, England
© U. Kitzinger & E.G. Frankel
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 1-898563-59-4
Printed in Great Britain by Martins Printing Group, Bodmin, Cornwall
Macro-engineering and the Earth:
World Projects for the Year 2000 and Beyond
A festchrift in honour of Frank Davidson
Uwe Kitzinger, CBE
President
International Association of Macro-Engineering Societies
and
First President of Templeton College
Oxford
and
Ernst G. Frankel
Professor of Ocean Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Mass
USA
Horwood Publishing
Chichester
Editorial Note
As is so often the case, the names on the cover are those of two men. As is
just as frequent, behind the two male names there hide the names of two other
essential contributors to the joint task.
Ernst Frankel's office assistant, Sheila McNary, has been most helpful to
us both and generous with her time well beyond the call of her MIT duties.
Cherie Potts of WordWorks has, over the past seven years, become in
effect Editor Extraordinary to the field of Macro-Engineering. Without her
unfailing patience and good humour, let alone her eagle eye for accuracy, this
volume could not have been produced in so short a time.
The editors also wish to thank for their diverse help and support the
Board members of the International Association of Macro-Engineering
Societies and of The American Society for Macro-Engineering.
Needless to say the views expressed in the different chapters are the
personal views of their authors only, and commit neither the editors nor the
bodies with which the authors are associated.
Table of Contents
PROLEGOMENA
Tribute to Frank Davidson v
Cordell Hull
Tribute to Frank Davidson vii
Wallace O. Sellers
Preface - 1 ix-xi
Uwe Kitzinger, CBE., First President of Templeton College, Oxford
Preface - 2 xii-xiii
Ernst G. Frankel, Professor of Ocean Engineering, M.I.T.
INTRODUCTION
The Twentieth Century Revisited xvi-xxi
Ernst G. Frankel
SECTION 1 ENERGY
1. Turbines with a Twist 1
Alexander M. Gorlov, Professor of Engineering, Northeastern University
2. Power from Space 37
Peter E. Glaser, President, Power From Space Consulting Company, Inc.
3. Regional Electricity Development 44
Stephen R. Connors, Director, Electric Utility Program,
Energy Laboratory, M.I.T.
SECTION 2 ENVIRONMENT
4. Saving the Earth - The Whole Earth 58
John W. Landis, Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation,
Boston, Massachusetts
5. Large Climate-Changing Projects 60
Philip John Pocock, President, Humanitech, Inc.
6. Building Faster to Conserve More: A Sustainable Global City 83
William H. Small, The Bechtel Corporation
7. A New Urban Model 91
Donna Goodman, Architect, New York City
8. World Water Supply Issues 101
Ernst G. Frankel
9. A Rhone-Algeria Aqueduct 104
Ernst G. Frankel
10. Ocean Farming 121
Michael Markels, Jr., President and Chairman, Ocean Farming, Inc.
SECTION 3 COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
11. Toward World-Scale Seamless Transportation 130
Ernst G. Frankel
12. An Asia-Europe Railway and a Middle East Island 139
Hideo Matsuoka, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology,
University of Tokyo
13. Swiss Trans-Alpine Tunnel Projects 147
Herbert H. Einstein, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
M.I.T., Peter Testoni, Vice Director, Swiss Federal Office of Transport
14. Satellites in World Communications 163
William T. Brandon, Principal Engineer, The Mitre Corporation
15. Global Military and Civilian Telemedicine 175
John A. Evans, MDPR Program Manager and Technical Director
MILSATCOM, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts
SECTION 4 MANAGEMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCES
16. Starting a Macro-Project on the Right Foot 189
John W. Landis
17. Leadership: Authoritarian or Collaborative? 193
Martin Barnes, Executive Director, Major Projects Association
18. High-Performance Partnering Practices 199
Kathleen Lusk Brooke and George H. Litwin, The Purrington Foundation
19. A Civilian-Military Conservation Corps 219
Janet Caristo-Verrill, President, Macro-Projects International
SECTION 5 FINANCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES
20. Prime Contracting: Is It Profit with Peril? 226
David W. Stupples, Project Management Practice, PA Consulting
Group, London
21. Managing Price through Knowledge Networking 238
Sean Gadman, Vice President, Marketing & Innovation,
Pricetrak (USA) Inc., Wally Johnson, Chairman and
Chief Executive, Pricetrak (UK) Limited
22. Concepts of Eminent Domain 243
Jon N. Santemma, Co-Chairman, Condemnation and
Tax Certiorari Committee, New York State Bar Association
SECTION 6 OUTLOOK
23. Macro-Projects in China 250
Ernst G. Frankel
24. Challenges for the Twenty-First Century 258
Ernst G. Frankel
Tribute to Frank Davidson
Rarely does an individual become identified, to the exclusion of others, as the
source of an activity or area of study. Even more rarely is that exclusion
reasonable or justified. However, that has happened with what we call
macro-engineering, defined by Davidson and Salkeld as "nothing by the study,
by the best minds in all relevant disciplines, of the largest engineering
enterprises which society can accomplish at any given period of time. It
has become literally the personal property of Frank P. Davidson.
Starting with the first three macro-engineering symposia in 1978, 1979,
and 1980 co-sponsored by AAAS and AIAA, there has been a significant
amount of interest and discussion about the issues raised by students in this
field. We have had a number of conferences, many books, particularly
Frank's Macro? innumerable papers and the formation of The American
Society of Macro-Engineering (TASME) and the International Association of
Macro-Engineering Societies (IAMES), both co-founded by Frank.
Generally, those involved in the field believe that at times very large-scale
projects are not only appropriate but frequently represent the optimal solution
to many problems and should not be avoided just because they may be
particularly difficult and challenging. Further, large projects deserve special
study since they represent an order of difficulty vastly different from smaller
projects. The emphasis has been on a multi-disciplinary approach with special
concern for their social and environmental impacts.
One might wonder how a Harvard Law School graduate became the
"father" of a new field of study in engineering. It is really not so surprising to
those of us who know Frank. The requirements for this role are both unique
and numerous, and by background, training, and personality he is an ideal
macro-engineer.
The first requirement is that one must be an optimist about the ability of
man to solve problems and control his destiny, without falling into the sin of
hubris. Not always an easy trick. I believe that Frank is convinced that if the
proper group of experts is brought together and they truly listen to one
another, great things can be accomplished. The important thing is to get on
with it and quit muddling about looking for excuses for inaction. The key is
to be sure that all of the requisite skills, engineers, lawyers, investment and
commercial bankers, public and government relations experts,
2 Salkeld, R., Davidson, F.P., and Meador, C.L. (eds.), Macro-Engineering:
The Rich Potential. New York: American Institute for Aeronautics and
Astronautics, 1980.
Davidson, F.P. Macro. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1983.
viii
environmentalists, sociologists as well as skilled managers, are utilized in the
planning process. While there are many problems in the implementation of a
macro-project, engineering and technological problems are rarely the cause of
failure. Public opposition, governmental regulations, financial shortfalls, and
environmental problems are the more likely culprits.
Second, there must be an awareness of the complexity of large-scale
systems. The degree of difficulty in implementing a very large-scale project
versus the problems involved in small projects is disproportionally greater
with the risks of failure far more likely. Frank was for many years Chairman
of the System Dynamics Group at M.I.T., a group concentrating on the
behavior of very complex systems. He may also have been the only person to
teach a course in failure at the college level.
Successful communication is another key element in implementing a
large-scale project. Communication not only between promoters of a project
and the public, but also communication among the various disciplines
involved in implementation. It may very well be the most critical area for
success. Frank has recognized this and made a point of emphasizing its
importance in his books and papers. This could very well be because no one
could be a better communicator than Frank. Not only does he seem to know
just about everyone who has any interest in large projects, but he has shown
the ability to persuade them to pool their knowledge and resources with others
in TASME and IAMES.
Frank has been a seductive Pied Piper for students and younger
practitioners of this field. He has encouraged many of this group to
participate actively in various conferences and in TASME and IAMES.
Considering how many meals he has provided, not only for the young but also
for the older crowd, it is not surprising that everyone responds promptly to his
calls for participation in macro-engineering activities.
In Frank Davidson, macro-engineering has found the ideal advocate. His
qualifications as strategist, publicist, and promoter could not be better. This
volume is designed to spur him to even greater efforts and most definitely
prohibit him from resting on his laurels simply because he is now a mature
octogenarian.
Wallace O. Sellers
April, 1998
Tribute to Frank Davidson
Frank Davidson is one of those remarkable individuals whom we meet only
rarely in the course of a lifetime.
Yesterday evening here in Paris, my wife and I were guests of Frank
Davidson and his lovely and engaging French wife, Izaline. Other of Frank's
friends at the dinner included a prominent French sculptor and his
author/artist wife, a former French government official who had graduated at
the top of his class from the famed Ecole Polytechnique, a retired professor
and his poetess wife, and a renowned international banker.
In the course of the evening, the conversation covered an immense scope
of subjects, all touching in some way on Frank's wide-ranging global,
professional, and personal interests. The multifaceted discussions touched on
such diverse areas as sculpturing, poetry, art, international financing of major
projects, a proposed bicycle route from Paris to Moscow, and the early days
of the Channel Tunnel project as originally conceptualized by Frank. Almost
without a pause, we then considered current global environmental,
transportation, telecommunica-tions and energy issues and the formation of an
international institute to study these, turning next to modern designs for
electric bicycles and finally to books recently written by various of the dinner
guests.
This was but a typical dinner for which Frank is so renowned, each in its
own way exemplifying the far-ranging interests and societal contributions of
this beloved friend to so many in such diverse professions and occupations
around the world.
I have had the enormous privilege and pleasure of knowing Frank now for
almost thirty years. He is, simply put, one of a kind. Not only has he helped
conceptualize a multitude of macro-engineering projects, such as the Channel
Tunnel, vast energy systems and major high-speed transportation projects, but
he has lent his continuous, dynamic support to a multitude of scientists,
engineers, and entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of evolving macro-concepts.
As a leading writer and sponsor of meetings throughout the world, Frank
has, over the course of a long career, provided intense, on-going personal
leadership and inspiration in conceptualizing imaginative programs for
proposed macro-projects. He, as well, has been a combat soldier, an
international attorney, a reflective academic, an avid horseman, a
mountaineer, a businessman and promoter developing the early work on the
Channel Tunnel and other important projects, as well as a prolific author.
For some years Frank was associated with the renowned Dr. Jay
Forrester's program at MIT involving System Dynamics. One day during one
of the important functions hosted by Frank at MIT, I overheard Dr. Forrester
remark, "Frank really adds something very special around here." That
succinct remark captured in a nutshell Frank's unique attributes.