Civil engineer for urban livability, sustainability and resilience

Abstract

Urban infrastructures, to fully take advantage of future investments, must first be recognized as interconnected complex systems of systems. This forum paper describes research and education needs that, if properly addressed, could prepare the civil engineering profession to meet the new challenges of urban infrastructure renovation. Among the needs, the objective documentation of the life-cycle performance of constructed systems could leverage novel sensing systems and advances in computer science, tools often untapped by civil engineering programs. Other needs and opportunities involve the design process, perhaps the most important milestone in the development of civil engineers. The topics and needs discussed in this paper could becomecore curriculum areas in newly developed postgraduate and eventually in undergraduate programs. The authors hypothesize that, if the integration of such topics is successful, civil engineers could become true protagonists of the rejuvenation of the US urban infrastructures and future stewards of cities and megacities.