The opening session of the ASCE Annual Conference began with a wake-up call to all in attendance.   Wayne Klotz declared, “modern society cannot exist without infrastructure,” in his final presentation to the society as President.  The mega-cities in which we live are fueled by a constant intake of water, food and energy.  These resources must travel fantastic distances and undergo many purifying processes.  Civil engineers are the stewards of this  high speed conduit. We should be self-aware and proud of the vital importance of our profession.  Wayne urged the incoming leadership and all in attendance to embrace the ABCs of ASCE: advocate for, believe in and commit to advancing the profession and protecting the nation’s infrastructure.

The importance of advocacy was driven home by Jim Suttle, professional engineer and mayor Omaha.  He reminded us that the qualities of successful engineers are necessary to face the problems of the day.  There is a need in policy development for analytical evaluation of facts.  Engineers also serve as a model for politicians when applying an ethical reverence for the public health and safety.  Finally, we were reminded that engineers who engage in the political process succeed by tailoring their practices to the political realities of government decision making.  In short, we all lose when engineers shy away from advocacy and the public debate.

Later, Eric Peterson, representing a Washinton, D.C. think tank for strategic international studies, gave a litany of reasons why engineers must recommit themselves to solving societal problems.  Or in Wayne’s words, “building our way out of the problem.”  Eric’s main points did not specifically call out engineers, but we can read between the lines to find areas requiring engineered solutions.  He isolated seven drivers of massive social change by 2025: 1) population trends, 2) resource allocation, 3) technology, 4) knowledge distribution, 5) global economic integration, 6) conflict and 7) governance.

The first three points speak directly to infrastructure upgrades and maintenance.  How do you support 6.8 billion people, and rising at a rate of 152 people per minute, disproportionately concentrated in large urban centers?  What infrastructure changes will be required when the aged population exceeds the youth?  Will it be possible to transport more resources farther and by sustainable means?  What opportunities are opened when micro computing provides a chip capable of running a thousand thousand trillion processes per second (that’s not a typo)?

Looking deeper down the list, we’re confronted with questions like the one posed by Thomas Friedman, “is it better to be a B student in Bethesda or a genius in Banglore?”  In the flat world, historic geographical, political and socio-economic barriers matter less.  How will America compete with the rapidly growing economies of Brasil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC nations)?  Are they more committed to growing and modernizing their infrastructure than the US?

Eric didn’t offer many solutions to these questions.  He admittedly took the easy way out and declared that the world of the future would be one of great potential and great peril.  Which ever side of the coin we fall on might well depend on how much we believe in the ABCs of the profession.

During the run up to the 2008 presidential election, people were surprised to learn that bloggers were routinely granted access to the candidates.  At the Democratic National Convention, about 120 bloggers received press passes.  In 2009, ASCE has followed suit.  I was the first blogger to be granted press credentials to the annual conference.

Really, this just allowed me to roam around the conference without getting hassled for registration documents.  I was also entitled to the free coffee, tea and eavesdropping in the press room.

I met writers for ASCE News and Engineering News Record. Additionally, I was among the first to know that Andrew Herrmann, who worked on the the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, was going to appear on Good Morning America to discuss the damage cause by a failed reinforcing collar on the San Francisco Bay Bridge.  However judging by the immediate buzz in the room, the story of the day was the disappearance of several small bean bags used for a game at the Geico Insurance booth.

It may not have been the CNN Situation Room, nevertheless I’ve enjoyed an interesting behind the scenes look at the messages being formed at the Annual Conference, not too bad for my first assignment in the field.

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Since July, I’ve been living in the South of France, exploring the local culture, geography and historic marvels.  In the next few blogs, I’ll try to share some of the interesting engineering-related stories that I’ve uncovered.  You can read about more of my ongoing adventures at http://mistralwriter.blogspot.com

Les Salins de Camargue
It’s said that the Roman engineer Peccius was the first to organize the salt production efforts in the Camargue, an area of southern France near the mouth of the Rhone River. The natural salt marshes and higher-than-normal natural salt content make the region an obvious place to harvest sea salt. Around the city of Aigues-Mortes, meaning “dead water,” 500,000 tons of salt are collected annually. While some of the process occurs naturally, capturing the quantities of salt demanded by human appetites requires an engineered process.

First, the salt is collected in vast evaporation pools. More than 45 million cubic meters of seawater must be pumped during the month of March. Throughout the spring, the evaporation process increases the concentration of salt 9-fold, to about 260 grams per liter. By mid-summer a thick cake begins to form on the surface of the water. The concentrated brine can grow to 20 cm thick, 9 cm of which is harvested as sea salt. The top of the cake takes on a bright red hue due to the presence of a special kind of algae that turns brighter as the salt concentration increases. Some of the algae and waste sediment can be collected and used as fertilizer. Lower quality salt is sold for road de-icing.

In September, the salt is harvested. Quality control measures ensure that the table salt is 99.5% pure sodium-chloride. Some salt is shipped on flat bottom barges along the shallow canals to the port, while another portion is loaded onto rail cars and sent in land. Several special bridges and conveyor systems are placed in service specifically for the once-a-year collection.

Having harvested salt from these marshes for over a thousand years, the Camargue salt farmers have struck a symbiotic balance with nature. While many industrial processes pose a threat to the local ecosystem, salt farming in the Aigue-Mortes salt marsh has actually led to greater preservation of the indigenous wetlands. Of course, the salt companies probably exaggerate the extent of this success. Nevertheless, this is a model for living sustainably with nature.