Page 15 - civ_env_sust_eng

(2014/02/09) Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering
______________________________________________________________________________________

climate change have put sustainability at the forefront of issues requiring global attention.

Shifting demographics and population growth continue to strain the overburdened infrastructure. The shift of

people from rural areas to cities and exurban areas has accelerated, resulting in increased population density
around the world. In the developed world, infrastructure is aging, and maintenance or replacement has not

kept pace with its deterioration. In the developing world, the need for new infrastructure outstrips society’s

ability to put it in place. Influenced by civil engineering leadership, people now better understand the crucial

link between infrastructure and quality of life, which has caused a major public policy shift in favor of im-

proved infrastructure maintenance and accelerated infrastructure construction.

Demands for sustainable energy, fresh water, clean air, and safe waste disposal drive infrastructure develop-

ment on a global scale. Constrained resources and growing energy demands have led to the need to prioritize

energy resources and use alternative fuels.

Innovative approaches have resulted in infrastructure addition, removal, repair, or replacement based on the

changed societal requirements. Engineers are recognized as leaders, teachers, and learners in a wide range of

environmental and infrastructure topics. Infrastructure financing routinely involves life-cycle costing analy-
sis with public debate as to tradeoffs for different issues.

2.2.2.3. Research and Development

Facing daunting issues following multiple global natural and manmade disasters in the first decade of the

21st century,... . As a result, civil engineers have led the shift from a remedial to preventive approach.

Civil engineering quickly moved to the forefront to define the research agenda for nanoscience, nanotechno-
logy, and biotechnology applications in the 2025 infrastructure environment. Engineers recognized that na-

noscience and nanotech products are the vehicles for major technological innovation across a spectrum of

products affecting virtually every industry sector. Civil engineers from across industry, academia, and go-

vernment worked on the development of instrumentation, metrology, and standards to realize a robust nano-

manufacturing capability. This permitted the physical dimensions, properties, and functionality of the mate-
rials, processes, tools, systems, and products that constituted nanomanufacturing to be measured and

characterized. This, in turn, enabled production to be controlled, predicted, and scaled to meet market needs.

In 2025, the civil engineering enterprise is focused on fast-track development and deployment of technolo-
gies. Steps taken by the profession during the past two decades in the areas of information technology and

data management have significantly improved how facilities are designed, engineered, built, and maintained.

Civil engineers and the profession are now focused on using application to drive technology. In addition, re-
search now shows that technological improvements today may enable applications not yet identified. Civil

engineers have reversed the image of being risk averse to new technology, instead relying on and leveraging

real-time access to living databases, sensors, diagnostic tools, and other advanced technologies to ensure in-

formed decisions are made.

Highly-integrated planning and construction tools, supported by four-dimensional databases, have been ena-

bled by significant research investment in expanded computing capability. Data flows freely and is available

at all times, representing current conditions. Latent defects are addressed early in the design, and flowed
back into the parent database.

Intelligent infrastructure (such as, embedded sensors and real-time onboard diagnostics) have led to this

______________________________________________________________________________________

15 / 76