President's Blog

A Transportation Research Board committee chaired by ASCE Past President Henry "Gerry" Schwartz has produced a report, Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation, which I learned more about recently.

Although engineers have believed that climate change would be a gradual long term process, unfortunately Schwartz's report "suggest[s] that the impacts are going to be more serious and more of a surprise than transportation officials realize." Many of these are exacerbated on days of hot weather and during extended above-normal heat periods. Other problems relate to the potential impact of Arctic temperatures, sea level rise, intense precipitation and possible increases in hurricane intensity. Coastal flooding is another major possibility that could have a significant effect on U.S. transportation infrastructure.

TRB's report presents 14 recommendations. They begin with creating an inventory of critical infrastructure that might be affected by climate change projections. Schwartz presses the need for public and private infrastructure owners to incorporate this analysis in capital and renewal planning. The decision should be based on the current probability of an event, rather than on historic data. The "hundred-year" storm of yesterday may only be today a 50- or 20-year event.

Some examples of rising sea levels combined with storm surges can produce inundated roads, rail lines and runways with significant erosion of road base and bridge supports. The effects of extreme temperature events could include thermal expansion of bridges and paved services and concerns regarding pavement integrity. The report goes on to cite many other examples. You can read TRB's summary of their report here (PDF document.)

Past president Schwartz believes that we may not be 100 percent accurate about the potential threat, but if we wait until we are sure, we may be too late. "Do we want to wait 50 years to find out those guys 50 years ago were dead right?  It is better to do something over 50 years and perhaps they weren’t quite right?" he asked.

What is your state agency doing to prepare for potential impacts from global climatic changes?

I would like to credit the National Society of Professional Engineers' PE Magazine as the source of some of the material for this blog.

I never thought of water as a crop until I read an article by Justin Lawson, P.E., in the June issue of PE, the Magazine for Professional Engineers. On average, an American uses 175 gallons of clean water per day, but for cooking or drinking uses barely a gallon. Therefore, more than 99 percent of the water goes down the drain.  There are estimates that 50 percent could be reused as gray water by harvesting it to irrigate plant life and other such uses.

Even with detention basins and vegetated swales, most of the rainwater travels along an open or closed system until it releases the discharge into a stream or river. Why not harvest this rainwater?  In a roof collection system, this water could easily be used with proper treatment. Creating larger storage impoundments for stormwater upstream is another harvesting technique, one that has not been utilized extensively in this country.

We engineers need to learn these techniques and advocate for more sustainable water environments. This advocacy begins with elected officials and regulators in our local communities. At the federal level, there has been a bill to establish a program within EPA's Office of Research and Development to promote water use efficiency and conservation. The second bill would promote R&D and create a demonstration program for the reuse of water produced during oil and gas extraction.

Has your local community begun promoting water harvesting and reuse? This is a step to building a culture of sustainability that is needed in this country as our limited resources continue to be exhausted.

Last June, the National Science Foundation (NSF) conducted a workshop on the direction for research in civil and environmental engineering. Some very active ASCE members participated including Ralph Peterson, CEO of CH2MHill; Jeff Russell, professor and chair at the University of Wisconsin Madison; Priscilla Nelson, provost at New Jersey Institute of Technology; Kathy Banks, department head at Purdue University and Carolyn Merry, chair of Ohio State University, to name just a few. 

In order to address the needs for the 21^st Century, innovation and leadership must come from the engineering community. Clearly, civil and environmental engineering play a major role in addressing infrastructure, health and other developmental issues facing our society. The workshop participants expressed support for expanded research in renewal; management and protection of complex systems; sustainability; global impacts and energy. The participants felt strongly that civil and environmental research need to be integrated and fused with other areas, particularly, the social and natural sciences. 

Nano materials offer hope for significant advancement in the sensing of the built and natural environments as well as the development of models for analyzing infrastructure systems. Decision, support systems, geographic information systems and health information needs to be integrated to address global health concerns. A concern was expressed that there needs to be a sense of urgency to initiate research programs and innovation to protect U.S. competitiveness. One of the significant challenges is to have NSF be engaged in a greater way in the support of these research program areas. What can ASCE do to advance this research agenda?

At a recent multi-region leadership conference, the question was asked: "What is ASCE doing regarding Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), specifically, are we engaged in LEED activities?" We answered by saying that we have a very strong effort in sustainability and a number of different programs focused on increasing awareness of sustainability. We are developing tools and techniques to help sustainability, particularly in the water resources area. ASCE has also conducted Webinars on sustainability. I recently wrote a column in ASCE News on sustainability that describes much of our ongoing activity. ASCE does not, however, have a direct link to the Green Building Council or other environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Save our Rivers, etc.

I noticed in a recent news article that a new organization called the Social Economic Environmental Design Network (SEED) held its first meeting in Dallas. Its members are design practitioners, activists and theorists whose mission is to advance the cause of economically and environmentally healthy communities. They hope to affect change by creating design principles for residential and commercial structures that would be beneficial to all, whether developer, tenant, resident or neighbor. They also believe it is every citizen's right to live in a sustainable environment.   

Should ASCE form direct linkages to such organizations as SEED, the U.S. Building Green Council and others?