Abstract:

The social and ethical responsibility and the role of civil engineers in design, construction, and management of infrastructure for safety, economy and efficiency are reviewed. The consequences of failure effects of design decisions, that principally holds the safety, health, and welfare of the public, must be highly considered to ensure that future infrastructures are sustainable. In North America, because of lack of timely repair and rehabilitation, and unsustainable practice the infrastructure has deteriorated considerably, leading to a large infrastructure deficit of well over several billion of dollars. In addition, the degradation of the environment, the impact of sustainable development on the environment and engineering practice is reviewed, along with the role of engineers and civil engineering education. This paper provides general recommendations to improve the integration of sustainability into the civil engineering curriculum. In addition, it presents possible techniques to reorient civil engineering education to ameliorate the present unacceptable situation are proposed and to incorporated the topic of sustainability in meaningful manor, which would lead to engineering degrees that meet the needs the industry and society at large. Also, this paper discusses the newly developed Engineering Criteria requirements by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board, CEAB, with respect to engineering standards and suggests some ways that sustainability can be included in both the technical and nontechnical portions of undergraduate curricula.