President's Blog

The civil and environmental engineering profession plays an increasingly important role in our global economy. The growth of underdeveloped and developing countries and their desire for infrastructure places a great deal of emphasis on our profession. Even in the United States, construction still accounts for more than 5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. This unprecedented demand for infrastructure, in particular sustainable infrastructure, requires advances in new techniques, products and materials. To accomplish this, appropriate research must be done to find these new innovations.

A year ago, a workshop was conducted by the National Science Foundation focusing on future research directions in civil and environmental engineering. The workshop covered four areas -- renewal; management and protection of complex systems; sustainability; global impacts; and energy. White papers were presented focusing on these areas. In future blogs, I will delve into more depth on some of these white papers. The issues surrounding these areas are very real and the needs of society are immense. The group felt strongly that research efforts must have significant impact, be interdisciplinary and socially relevant. The attendees also believed that civil and environmental research must be fused with other disciplines, particularly social and natural sciences. Much of the discussion focused on market approaches to integrate technology with the management of:

· Environmental systems;
· Nanomaterials;
· Advances;
· Integration models for infrastructure systems;
· GIS systems, health information and decision systems to address  global infectious diseases.

From this effort, three broad topics for future discussion emerged. They are:

· Energy, carbon cycle management and climate change;
· Multi-scale systems based hydrologic cycle management;
· Mega-cities and livability.

This workshop produced a wealth of information. However, it will go for naught unless there are sufficient financial resources dedicated to beginning and advancing this research agenda. ASCE is deeply involved in supporting research at the federal level. ASCE routinely testifies before and works with Congress on various research funding bills. We are also part of the American Association of Engineering Societies' effort to garner more funding for research activities. I would like to thank Joseph B. Hughes, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Civil Engineering at Georgia Tech, for his excellent final report on this workshop.