New Frontiers for Project Management: Earth Science,
Monitoring the Planet & Climate Control

By David L. Pells

Professional project management (PM) continues to grow rapidly in usage and demand worldwide, in most organizations and across all industries.  This is especially true in high technology organizations, but in many other industries as well.  The world is also rapidly changing, due to the global economy, climate change and other factors.  What do these changes mean to project-based organizations and PM professionals?  Many of these changes will offer new challenges and opportunities for individuals and organizations involved with project management.

I believe there will be some significant new industries, and major changes in existing industries, that will offer “new frontiers” for projects and PM around the world in the next 10-20 years.  Some of these new areas of PM application have been emerging slowly over the last decade, but are now expanding rapidly due to other forces and converging influences.  Other new frontiers are in traditional industries and sectors, but based on new global information, perspectives and awareness that are leading to new and massive investments in infrastructure.  And some frontiers are growing apparent based on changing demographics and more inter-connected, urban and global human populations and civil society.

In my March 2008 PM World Today editorial, I described Nanotechnology as a New Frontier for Project Management, describing the many fields of science and industry that Nanotechnology is already affecting.  In my May editorial, I discussed Future Energy sources and projects as another New Frontier for project management, a trend that is now accelerating as oil & gas prices continue to increase as supplies are stretched and demand continues to grow.  As populations and economies grow, the demand for new sources of energy will result in many new projects and an increasing demand for professional project management.

Another “new frontier” for projects and PM is also being affected by recent planetary changes and trends.  Over the last decade, climate change, global warming, severe weather and natural disasters have focused global attention on the need to better understand the Earth, mankind’s impact on the planet, and future options for improving both forecasting technologies as well as outcomes.  Many scientific projects and programs have been launched in the last few years to study climate change, changes in the polar ice caps, changes in the ocean and ocean currents, weather patters, the ozone, and other topics.  At the same time, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, fires and other several weather causing huge natural disasters have focused attention on climatology, meteorology, oceanography, seismology and other “earth sciences”.

This month, I want to suggest another new frontier for PM, a broad topic that might be grouped together as earth sciences, monitoring of the planet, and climate/weather management.  Climate control is the stuff of science fiction, or is it?  I think it is still many decades away.  But over the next few decades, mankind must invest in a better understanding of the planet, and better tools and methods for predicting and preparing for extreme weather.  Let us examine a few areas where this is already occurring, and some implications for the project management profession.

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