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Introducing Sustainability into the Civil Engineering Curriculum
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Sisiopiku, Virginia P. Peters, Robert William Ramadan, Ossama E. |
| Copyright Year | 2015 |
| Abstract | While the importance of sustainability is well recognized by professionals and academics alike, Civil Engineering curricula do not typically offer courses covering sustainability design principles and assessment methodologies. To bridge this gap, this paper discusses the development and pilot testing of a new course on Sustainability Design and Rating Systems for upper level undergraduate and master level Civil Engineering graduate students. The course development was the result of close and productive collaboration between one transportation and one environmental engineering faculty member who team-taught the course pilot in the fall semester 2014. This approach can set an example of the benefits of multidisciplinary course instruction that can foster interaction among traditional Civil Engineering disciplines for the benefit of the students. The pilot course focused on sustainable transportation and livable streets, transportation planning and site design for sustainable transportation, sustainability rating systems for neighborhoods and infrastructure, brownfield/greyfield redevelopment options, and sustainability and ethics. The objective was to educate the future engineering workforce about the basic principles for sustainable design and evaluation methods, in an effort to raise awareness and develop expertise on sustainable design options and associated benefits. Introduction In October of 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) adopted the following definition of sustainability: “A set of environmental, economic and social conditions in which all of society has the capacity and opportunity to maintain and improve its quality of life indefinitely without degrading the quantity, quality or availability of natural, economic and social resources”. This description is consistent with the 1987 UN World Commission on Environment and Development report that defined sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. These definitions and many others offered in the literature, center around three pillars of sustainability namely, economy, environment, and society and suggest a need to consider a global approach when referring to sustainability that considers economic impacts, the ecological view, and a socio-cultural concept for the coexistence of development and the environment. In doing so, ASCE has made sustainability one of three strategic priorities for the Society, helping professionals to incorporate sustainability principles into their daily practice. ASCE further recommends that civil engineers, as the stewards of society's infrastructure, must take the lead in applying sustainability to planning, design, and construction. In the recent years, sustainability and livability have emerged as key priority areas at the national level and new policies have been drafted and introduced to advance sustainability practices and investments. As sustainability is growing in importance to Civil Engineering and related disciplines, educating the engineering workforce on issues related to sustainable planning, design, and evaluation is becoming a priority. P ge 26029.2 In 2003, Robinson and Sutterer published a paper at the 2003 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition that described their department’s experience in integrating sustainability in a Civil Engineering curriculum. The paper concluded that “the initiative to incorporate sustainability into Civil Engineering courses and curricula may begin in each department with a single faculty or a small group of faculty, but it must begin.” Over the past decade, several Civil Engineering programs made sincere efforts to expose their students to sustainability concepts and practices. A review of Civil Engineering curricula indicates that several undergraduate Civil Engineering programs have introduced modules related to sustainability within existing courses and others incorporated new courses covering sustainability design principles and assessment methodologies. In 2009, Allen et al. conducted a survey to identify accredited engineering programs at U.S. institutions that incorporate sustainability concepts into engineering curricula. Allen’s research team contacted the administrative heads of 1,368 engineering departments at 364 U.S. universities and colleges and asked them to complete a questionnaire about the extent to which sustainable engineering was being integrated into their departments’ engineering curricula. Their findings indicated that 59 Civil, Architectural, and/or Environmental departments surveyed incorporated sustainability into their curricula. Bielefeldt (2011) documented the experience of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Colorado on incorporating a sustainability module into first-year courses for Civil and Environmental Engineering students. She reported survey results on how the students perceived and interacted with introducing sustainability courses. Her results concluded that a simple course modification can raise the awareness of engineering students about the importance of sustainability. In 2011, Aurandt and Butler described two approaches to incorporating sustainability into the undergraduate engineering curricula and provided a variety of existing course resources that can easily be adopted or adapted by science and engineering faculty. They concluded that core courses required for engineering majors can be redesigned to introduce concepts of sustainability without compromising the original course objectives. The literature review offers ample evidence of the value of integrating sustainability into Civil Engineering curricula and provides several case studies demonstrating successful interventions. Building on these efforts, our institution recognized the need to expose Civil Engineering students to sustainability principles and methods through the introduction of new courses into the existing curricula. This paper discusses the development and pilot testing of a new course on Sustainability Design and Rating Systems for combined upper level undergraduate and master level Civil Engineering graduate students. Literature Review A number of related research studies have been performed addressing sustainable transportation and rating systems. Samberg et al. identify that there is no internationally recognized standard for determining and evaluating sustainable transportation. Mapes and Wolch note that until 2008, there was no comprehensive system in place to measure the sustainability of new community developments. Many projects tend to focus of features that increase community P ge 26029.3 attractiveness to potential buyers, but fail to address attributes to enhance environmental and socio-economic sustainability. In their study, Litman and Burwell describe issues related to the sustainable transport definition, evaluation and implementation of sustainable transportation. Specific issues addressed included the range of sustainability definitions, the range of issues under these definitions, the range of perspectives, criticisms of sustainability analysis, evaluation of sustainability, transportation impacts on sustainability, sustainable transportation decision making, equity, land use, automobile dependency, community livability, human health, and ecological integrity. Oswald and McNeil developed a methodology for transportation rating systems and applied the system to transportation investments, specifically urban corridors. Their study sought to develop a methodology for development of green rating systems. Indicators were used in existing LEED and Green Globes rating systems. LEED-New Construction, LEED-Neighborhood Development, and Green Globes were evaluated for their potential relevance to a corridor rating system by: identifying the existing credits/objectives that relate to transportation (for their application specifically to corridors); evaluating the existing rating system to determine already established credits/objectives that could be adjusted or refined to relate specifically to transportation corridors, and categorizing credits based on politics/governmental regulations; land use site selection/location of the corridor, usage-utilization of the corridor by drivers; pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, etc.; infrastructure/corridor physical components (including lanes, sidewalks, signals, etc.); and construction/actual redevelopment or new development process of a corridor. Soderlund et al. described a transportation sustainability rating system, Green Roads, to quantify sustainability practices associated with the design and construction of roads. This rating system rewards credits for approved sustainable choices/practices that can be used to certify roadways projects based on the number of total credits earned. Green Roads consists of 54 possible credits in six categories that can be used to achieve certification. The six categories involve sustainable design (10 credits possible), materials and resources (11 credits), stormwater management (8 credits), energy and environmental control (12 credits), construction activities (9 credits), and innovation (4 credits). In 2010, Kevern presented a framework for incorporating sustainable design/thinking as a new Civil Engineering course along with experiences from the pilot offering of the course. Green building rating systems (focusing primarily on LEED) were used to introduce sustainability concepts in buildings and infrastructure. Engineering students should become aware of these and other methods that can be used to assess progress toward meeting sustainability goals and objectives. Course Scope The scope of the course revolves around sustainability issues related to transportation and infrastructure. Such issues are of great importance as global concerns about climate change, energy use, environmental impacts, and limits to fi |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.18260/p.24366 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://peer.asee.org/24366.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.18260/p.24366 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
