The Centre for Resilience of Critical Infrastructure

Professor and Chair of Civil Engineering University of Victoria

Christopher Kennedy is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Victoria. His work involves applying principles of Industrial Ecology to the design of urban infrastructure, including buildings, water systems, and urban transportation. Amongst his publications are studies of urban metabolism, greenhouse gas emissions from global cities and processes for developing sustainable urban transportation systems. His wider work includes contributions to probability theory, regional economics and engineering education. His book The Evolution of Great World Cities: Urban Wealth and Economic Growth was published by University of Toronto Press in 2011.

Chris has worked and studied in Europe and North America. He holds qualifications in Civil Engineering (Imperial & Waterloo), Economics (Warwick) and Business (Toronto). In 2004/05, Chris was a visiting professor at Oxford University and ETH Zürich. In 2011/12, he was seconded to the OECD in Paris, to work on Cities, Green Growth and Policies for Encouraging Investment in Low Carbon Infrastructure. He has conducted professional work for the Ontario Ministry of Finance, Infrastructure Canada, Clinton Climate Initiative, California Energy Commission, US National Science Foundation, UN-HABITAT and the World Bank. Chris is past President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology.

Research

• Economic and environmental aspects of sustainable urban infrastructure including transportation, buildings and water systems
• Design of sustainable streets and neighbourhoods;
• Urban metabolism