Expert for mitigating systemic environmental disasters
The profession appears before 2020
Engineer who deals with time-delayed disasters, which people become aware of gradually, e.g. pollution around large industrial centres, the Pacific plastic dump, the thawing permafrost, radioactive dumps, etc. The engineer is tasked with designing and implementing plans to mitigate such disasters and prevent them from happening again. Aside from the usual environmental problems, such as global warming and deforestation, new threats are emerging, which humankind became concerned with only recently. For example, a large garbage patch was discovered in the Pacific Ocean in 1997. Because of oceanic currents, an area, which, according to various estimates, takes up between 0.7 and 15 million square kilometres, is littered with over 100 million tons of garbage. Most of the garbage consists of fine pieces of plastic that may be toxic and are eaten by fish or jellyfish. To handle such types of threats, we need highly qualified specialists able to make decisions under uncertainty.
Professional skills and abilities
Systems thinking (ability to define and work with complex systems, including system engineering).
Cross-industry communication skills (understanding of technologies, processes, and market conditions in different related and unrelated sectors).
Ability to manage projects and processes.
Programming IT solutions / Managing complex automated systems / Dealing with artificial intelligence.
Ability to work with teams, groups and individuals.
Ability to work under high uncertainty and quickly changing conditions (quick decision-making, prompt reaction to changing work conditions, ability to allocate resources and manage personal time spending).
Environmentally conscious thinking