Social infrastructures play a crucial role in improving our quality of life. While social infrastructures were rather limited in their functionality in the past, today social infrastructures take additional significance as assets and symbols of society. To achieve that goal, the construction of social infrastructures has restlessly absorbed new and advanced technologies through technology fusion, not only with other branches of engineering but also with diversified domains like economy, politics, and human sciences.
Since most of our industrialised societies have reached a sufficient level of development, time is now to enhance and maintain our living environment by means of nature-friendly and human-oriented technologies. Therefore, the next generation of social infrastructures will undoubtedly emphasise the need for technology fusion together with ubiquity. The renewal of our urban environment as well as the creation of new urban areas that takes place in Korea and the rest of the world, will offer benchmarks for discussions. This will help us derive the roles of structural engineers in the evaluation and prevention of social risks caused by the side effects of modern technology.
Seoul, as the host city of the 2012 IABSE Congress and Annual Meetings, is the economic and cultural center of Korea where 1986 Asian Games, 1988 Olympic Games and 2010 G20 Summit were held. Seoul is remarkably accessible through Incheon International Airport with almost 4,000 flights per week, to 163 cities in 49 countries. In addition, 1.5 billion people live within a 3 hours flight of Incheon.
