New ICE report sets out six ways for civil engineers to act now on climate change

The Institution of Civil Engineers’ latest ‘state of the nation’ report focuses on six ways in which civil engineers can start tackling climate change, both in the UK and globally. Engineering knowledge director Mark Hansford says it is a transformational opportunity for the profession.

How the UK government plans to transform infrastructure performance this decade

Delivering transformational outcomes for Britain through infrastructure investment needs a revolution, says Nicholas Yandle of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. A new roadmap describes what civil engineers should be aiming for and the action required to get there.

How civil engineers can survive and thrive in the twenty-first century

This is an abridged transcript of the inaugural address of Ed McCann, who became the 157th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 2 November 2020. His online address consisted of a series of video presentations and interviews, and is available on the ICE website.

The Contributions of Competitions to Cities and Urban Design

Competitions are a significant means of focusing on specific spaces in cities and forming public opinion. Competitions result in many professionals such as architectures, urban planners, urban designers, landscape architects, civil engineers, etc. proposing lots of designs for the same space, and thereby submitting various solution offers for it. Therefore, competitions are important not only for their results, but also for increasing knowledge about the occupational groups of design and the shaping of urban open spaces and built environments, in other words, cities. This study analyzes competitions’ contributions to urban design based on the experience of Merzifon Municipality’s Business and Life Center Architectural Project Competition. The discipline of urban design, which plays an important role in forming the urban open spaces and built environments, is enriched by competitions. The approaches developed in the projects that compete for the urban spaces focused on the competitions play an important role in shaping cities.

The Use of Augmented Reality in Collaboration Within the Construction Industry

Site visitation is a crucial aspect of civil engineers’ job scope as it provides them with first-hand construction data. However, due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, construction site visitations are restricted, making the tasks of a civil engineer impossible to achieve. The main objective of this research is to find out and suggest a remedy to the problems commonly faced by civil engineers through the help of Augmented Reality (AR). Hence, the study’s objective is to analyse AR’s functionalities and suggest its best application to communicate spacious awareness via visual feedback for civil engineers. For maximum usability, an integrated software suite is proposed that provides access to AR worksites, measured data, and allows peer communication. This addressed the whole spectrum of problems faced by civil engineers with the switch to remote working. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the limitation of this project is that testing could not be executed to determine the efficacy of the said solution. Furthermore, the proposed solution has limitations, such as requiring pre-constructed infrastructure in applicable construction sites. Therefore, regular quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are required to ensure proper functionality. In the future, AR LiDAR sensors could be a possibility as it provides increased accuracy of AR measurements which is critical in engineering.

The role of education for Civil Engineers in the implementation of the SDGs: Proceedings of the 1st Joint Conference of EUCEET and AECEF

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – “a plan for people, planet and prosperity”, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that service as a roadmap for the national and international policies that should be implemented to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. Society, Economy and Environment are recognized as the three pillars for sustainable development. After several attempts to identify and agree upon a global policy for a sustainable future, it is time for implementation. It is time now for global Engineers to get involved in order to bring results in the direction of the implementation of the SDGs. The two European Civil Engineering associations, the European Civil Engineering Education and Training Association (EUCEET) and the Association of European Civil Engineering Faculties (AECEF), joined their forces to investigate the very important issue of “The role of education for Civil Engineers in the implementation of the SDGs”. The topics of the conference are related, but not limited, to the following SDGs: SDG4 - Quality education SDG6 - Clean water and sanitation SDG7 - Affordable and clean energy SDG8 – Decent work and economic growth SDG9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure SDG11 – Sustainable cities and communities SDG13 – Climate action SDG14 – Life below water SDG15 – Life on land