As the incoming president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA-AITES) Arnold Dix’s message is clear: the tunnelling community must change the way it communicates with politicians and other decision makers to explain how underground space can improve liveability, sustainability and human equality in the face of climate change.

As President of the ITA-AITES, Professor Dix’s mission is to make the ITA relevant, “This means engaging meaningfully with the narratives of the 21st century which include the global issues of sustainability, equality and the dignity of human beings,” he says.

Dix, who spent part of his youth in the Snowy Mountains of Australia where he fell in love with the tunnels of the Hydroelectric Scheme, is a barrister and scientist specialising in underground space, fire and life safety. He was elected as ITA President on 7 September 2022 at the ITA’s general assembly, which was held at the World Tunnelling Congress in Copenhagen. As well as serving on the ITA’s executive council and working groups, he is a member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in the US, and PIARC, the world road association. Dix succeeds Jinxiu (Jenny) Yan, the association’s first ever female president.

Key to Dix’s argument is that the global tunnelling industry needs to articulate the benefits of underground space and infrastructure through the language of climate change and UN policies in ways that can be clearly understood by non-engineers.

“The fact is, we live on a planet where most people still don’t have access to clean water and a toilet and we, the ITA and all our affiliates, have the knowledge and expertise to solve this,” he says.

Dix has started the job running. He has already undertaken an audit of the association and started to refocus the ITA’s strategic plan. “I’m urging my colleagues to pay attention to the declared UN climate emergency and that we need urgent policy changes to suit.”

In particular, Dix wants the industry to talk about how underground space can contribute to the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, launched in 2015. The goals encompass wide-ranging issues including an end to poverty and hunger, good health and wellbeing, affordable and clean energy, and reduced inequalities – as well as sustainable cities and communities, and life on land and below water. Dix, who was uncontested in the election for president, is calling on the tunnelling associations of ITA member nations around the world to take action now.

The ATS has a role to play in all this of course and Dix says his vision for the Society is for it to become the informed advocate for the combined professions of the underground in Australia.

“In a world of climate change and where intergenerational equity is increasingly important, I hope my ATS colleagues continue to get better at explaining to decision makers and the public why Australia needs the underground for many vital things including power, transportation, sewerage, water and perhaps even agriculture.”

ATS President Harry Asche is fully on board with Dix’s agenda and says his appointment as ITA President is a tribute to his many years spent advocating for and working to improve the safety of tunnelling all over the world.

“It is fantastic to see Arnold take the helm of the ITA and I’m really looking forward to seeing where he’ll take the organisation. I expect he will bring much greater relevance to the ITA and we look forward to the impact he is going to have,” says Asche.

You can read more about Dix’s agenda on climate change in an article he wrote for the April issue of Tunnelling Journal here.