Harry Dimitriou | 2022 Jammal International Fellow

Thursday, February 10, 2022
12 noon (EST)

Drawing from his 2019 article “Mega infrastructure projects as agents of change: new perspectives on ‘the global infrastructure gap'", co-authored with Prof. Brian Field, Dimitriou contends that contagious narratives about ‘the global infrastructure-gap’, and related estimates of more geographically-specific ‘infrastructure deficits’ are in danger of effectuating inapt outcomes if set against the critical challenges of the 21st century and failing efforts to meet global and local goals of sustainable development.

As new knowledge and evidence emerges about the advances made and damage incurred by past mega infrastructure investments, and as prospects offered by new technological horizons evolve, systematic scrutiny of previous practice is needed to ascertain what has been done well and what has not, and decide what should be done differently to deliver more sustainable outcomes. Research and development of this kind can significantly benefit from new scientific findings and technological innovations fast being brought into the public domain, informing more resilient investment approaches.

Harry Dimitriou is Bartlett Professor of Planning Studies at University College London (UCL) and sometime Head of the Bartlett School of Planning. He is Director of the OMEGA Centre at UCL – an international centre of excellence for the study of mega infrastructure and development funded by the Volvo Research and Education Foundations (VREF) undertaking international research into decision-making in the planning, appraisal, delivery of mega urban transport projects in Europe, USA and the Asia Pacific.

Professor Dimitriou holds a Diploma in Town and Regional Planning from the Leeds School of Town Planning (1969), a MSc. in Urban Science from the University of Birmingham (1970) and a Ph.D. in Transport and Urban Development from the University of Wales (1990). Apart from his teaching at the Bartlett School of Planning in UCL, he has previously taught and undertaken research at Aalborg University, the University of Hong Kong, Sheffield University and the Development Planning Unit (DPU) at UCL.

He is author/editor of seven books on planning and transport, Managing Editor of the Journal for Mega Infrastructure & Sustainable Development and author of numerous articles, the most recent of which is “Mega infrastructure projects as agents of change: new perspectives on ‘the global infrastructure gap’” co-authored with Prof. Brian Field from which the ensuing presentation is drawn.

He is member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and has been Director of: Training and Development Consultants (TDC) S.A, Switzerland; Renaissance London Ltd., UK; and the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC), USA. He was a member of the Transport Working Group for the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Foresight Built Environment and Transport Panel of the Office of Science and Technology (OST) of the UK Government. He is member of several committees of the US Transportation Research Board (TRB) of US National Research Council (NRC) and is currently advisor to UN-Habitat.

Professor Dimitriou has held numerous advisory and consultancy positions, including for the World Bank, the World Bank Institute, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Centre of Human Settlements, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Harvard Institute for International Development, the Hong Kong Government, the Government of Indonesia, and the South East England Regional Development Agency and the London Development Agency, UK.