AAWRE gets many inquiries and questions on how to obtain PDHs for annual recertifications for our Diplomates. A great primary way to obtain the continuing education is to attend an ASCE seminar or participate in a live ASCE Webinar. Here are some of the great activities that ASCE has lined up for water resources and environmental engineers:

Streambank Stabilization for Restoration and Flood Control     (Seminar – November 2-4 – San Jose, CA)
This course provides design guidance for streambank stabilization measures for both restoration and flood control projects. You will learn the applicability and limitations of the various techniques, and recognize the importance of adequate toe protection. For more information.

Introduction to HEC-GeoRAS Capabilities    (Webinar – November 8 at 12 noon p.m. ET)

Gain an in-depth explanation of the geometry pre-processor used in the HEC-RAS software package. Participants will be able to understand the importance of proper geometry processing and gain insight on interpreting how the model geometry influences hydraulic computations.Co-sponsored by ASCE’s Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) and ASCE Continuing Education. Learn More.

Ethics: The Road All Engineers Must Follow   (Webinar – November 14 at 12 noon p.m. ET)

What is ethics? Learn its origin and evolution. Ethical dilemmas are discussed and you are guided to various sources to aid in decision making. The ASCE Code of Ethics as well as other formal and informal Codes are presented and discussed. You will have an opportunity to review and discuss facts/outcomes of cases investigated by ASCE’s Committee on Professional Conduct. Learn More.

For complete listing

Yesterday, we just launched our second AAWRE Public Elections by voting Diplomates for the AAWRE Board of Trustees seats for 2011-2014.  All AAWRE Diplomates have the right and obligation to participate in the voting and so far, we are very pleased with the enthusiastic responses by our Diplomates.  In less than 24 hours, we have had almost 35% of our Diplomates submitting their votes online.  If you have not voted yet, we urge you to submit your votes by end of this month.  The voting will be closed on September 1 and the elected winners will be announced on September 2.

AAWRE staff and the current Board of Trustees thanks all out-going members: Past-President P. Kay Whitlock, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE; Trustees Kyle Schilling, P.E., BCEE, D.WRE, Dist.M.ASCE and Robert Traver, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE.

AAWRE received a total of 19 nominations- all amazing professional engineers with outstanding qualifications, contributions to the profession and public service- for final 6 spots for voting by AAWRE Diplomates.  The AAWRE Nominations Committee, which was led by Chair, Kay Whitlock, AAWRE Past-President-Dan Boyd, P.E., D.WRE and Dudley Hanson, P.E., D.WRE, did an amazing job to tackle the challenging task to narrow the list of excellent candidates down to the final six.  Thank you sincerely again, Kay, Dan, and Dudley. 

The final six candidates are President-Elect nominees: Erika Moonin from SNWA and Robert Traver from Villanova University; At-Large Trustee nominees: Michael Markus from OCWD  and Brett Gracely from Colorado Springs Utilities; At-Large Trustee nominees: Pascale Champagne from Queen’s University, Ontario and Avi Ostfeld from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. View the list of candidates here.

Thank you for your participation!

All Diplomates may gain additional Professional Development Hours by participating in the upcoming Stormwater Best Managment Practices webinar and a new groundbreaking course on Fundamentals of Sustainable Engineering.

Plan to participate in ASCE’s webinar Stormwater BMPs: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What About Maintenance on Monday, Aug. 29, from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET.  This webinar provides an overview of a wide range of BMPs from wet detention basins, first-flush capture, filtration and infiltration methods, to stormwater wetlands. You’ll learn about commercially available systems, critical information on the long-term effectiveness and maintenance requirements of various BMPs, and how to apply international BMP database features. Also covered are pollutant removal efficiencies of various BMPs, how to select BMPs for specific pollutant removal, and long-term maintenance requirements for various BMPs.  Find out more about this highly informative webinar here.

New ground-breaking ASCE course, Fundamentals of Sustainable Engineering uses real-world projects and case studies.  This interactive course teaches you about the critical issues of the Triple Bottom Line (calling for the support of economic growth, social progress and environmental stewardship in project development) to help you design and deliver sustainable infrastructure projects. This course will give you a framework for strategic design and implementation of sustainability. It will cover critical issues associated with the Triple Bottom Line approach to sustainable infrastructure development, which calls for the support of economic growth, social progress and environmental stewardship on all projects. Through photographs, diagrams, videos and discussions you will gain the body of knowledge required to design and deliver sustainable infrastructure projects. The course will also cover problems and issues associated with sustainable development, as well as the misperceptions. You will learn techniques for life cycle cost and benefit assessments, probabilistic and sensitivity analyses, benefit-to-cost ratios and comparing incommensurate benefits and costs. Case studies and examples are used throughout the course to highlight the concepts and incorporation of the Triple Bottom Line in real-world projects.  Find out more information on this course.

March 20-26 celebrated World Water Week and March 22 marked the annual World Water Day.  As part of the World Water Week observation, the UNICEF Tap Project was observed for the 5th straight year. 

In 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project was born in New York City based on a simple concept: restaurants would ask their patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, and all funds raised would support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.

Since its inception in 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project has raised almost $2.5 million in the U.S. and has helped provide clean water for millions of children globally. Now in its fifth year, the award-winning UNICEF Tap Project, a nationwide campaign sponsored by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, returned during World Water Week, March 20–26. The first program of its kind, the UNICEF Tap Project has become a dynamic movement that affords everyone the opportunity to help provide the world’s children with safe, clean water.

Through numerous fundraising and volunteer activities, the UNICEF Tap Project celebrates the clean water we enjoy on a daily basis by encouraging celebrity, restaurant, volunteer, corporate, and government supporters to give this vital resource to children in developing countries. The concept is basic and compelling: “When You Take Water, Give Water.”

We want to hear stories about our AAWRE engineers for participation and any thougths on this initiative. Please post your comments here. 

February 20-26 is the 60th Anniversary of National Engineers Week in the U.S., where as in past years, this week is to give engineers from all disciplines an opportunity to showcase their love of engineering and highlight the vast contributions made in engineering. American Society of Civil Engineers and other engineering societies and organizations have really made a push in recent years to educate the public, particularly kids and students about engineering and to show the importance and fun of civil engineering. 

To help participate and celebrate this anniversary, we wanted to put together a page of “in their own words” statements from our AAWRE Diplomate engineers on what influenced them to study engineering, their path to becoming a civil engineer, what they love about engineering, advice to future generations and the challenges they see in civil engineering.

We think that this certainly shows that water resources engineers are caring, fun, intelligent, forward-thinking, sometimes (hilarious!) and just real human beings.

We hope you enjoy.

The AAWRE Diplomate Interview features have been  the most visited webpages on the AAWRE website since launching first Diplomate feature with Molly O’Toole, P.E., CFM, D.WRE in March 2009.  Since this first feature, we have featured 17 exceptional Diplomate engineers who have shared their career paths, knowledge, insights, passions, and what motivates them.  AAWRE thanks each of these inspiring Diplomates for sharing their thoughts and for their willingness to be open. 

Please stay tuned as we have additional exciting and informative Diplomate Interview features lined up!

From surveys done with AAWRE Diplomates, the highest requested workshops and sessions  have been on engineering ethics and expert witness sessions.  To accommodate this highly continued interest, AAWRE will be sponsoring additional special engineering sessions the week of May 16-20, at the 2010 EWRI World Water and Environmental Resources Congress in Providence, RI.  There will be three separate engineering ethics sessions (1.5 hours each) and an additional two ‘Expert Witness’ sessions, of which one is presented as a 4-hour short course (registration and fee required). 

In years past, we’ve offered ethics sessions but only had one expert witness session (last year in K.C.).  The current sessions will provide AAWRE Diplomates and other attendees a convenient opportunity to fulfill annual Professional Development Hour (PDH) in ethics requirements.  The sessions will be presented by teams of at least 2 instructors and presented as interactive short courses, with opportunities for small group discussions.  Here’s more detailed information on the sessions at EWRI Congress: http://www.aawre.org/aawre-engineering-ethics-expert-witness-sessions.cfm and you can still register for the EWRI Congress here: http://content.asce.org/conferences/ewri2010/registration.html

Please let us know which session(s) interest you most and if there are other professional issues or topics you would like to see at future conferences.  Post your feedback here or you can email us: certification [at] aawre [dot] org

All sessions, with exception to the 4-hour short course Expert Witness session are open to all attendees- no pre-registration required. 

We will also host our 6th annual Diplomate Induction Ceremony on May 17 at the EWRI Congress in Providence, RI, to recognize all new Diplomates from this past fall to this spring, and to honor new Honorary Diplomates, John J. Cassidy, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, Hon.D.WRE and Mukuteswara Gopalakrishnan, Hon.D.WRE.  AAWRE will also give special tribute to the late Honorary Diplomate, Dr. Warren Viessman. 

You can read more about Dr. Viessman and personal tributes to Bud here and for more on last year’s AAWRE ceremony in Kansas City.  We hope to see you at this year’s ceremony on May 17!

The American Academy of Environmental Engineers is developing a specialty certification in Sustainability. 

If AAWRE were to create a similar type of program for D.WREs, would you consider it for a second AAWRE certification?

The Civil Engineering Certification, Inc. is working on specialty certification summit to address how to elevate the importance of certification beyond the P.E. when hiring engineers both as employees and sellers of engineering services.  How do you feel about this and what should CEC/AAWRE be doing to promote this activity?

There are many organizations and agencies that individuals can donate and give funds to for the disaster relief efforts in Haiti.  Here are just few examples of how organizations are helping:

ACDI/VOCA – the largest-operating international NGO in Jacmel and the Southeast Department of Haiti, will facilitate food distribution and use the funds for such things as providing short-term emergency assistance to affected families, addressing health needs, rebuilding farmer assets and assisting orphans and vulnerable families. There are about 50,000 people in Jacmel, 150,000 people in the larger Commune of Jacmel, and about 500,000 people in the Southeast Department. Jacmel town, where the population is most concentrated, was most affected by the earthquake. Funds will also contribute to the reconstruction of Jacmel using a “build it back better” approach. The emphasis will be to assist local businesses and producers, especially those who can provide food commodities to urban areas. For more info on ACDI/VOCA and to donate: http://www.acdivoca.org/852571DC00681414/ID/joinus_haitirecovery

Convoy of Hope – a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization which feeds the hungry and provides pure drinking water to people in need across the U.S. and around the world, is distributing meals with water to the people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake. Convoy of Hope has already distributed nearly 1.6 million meals to those affected in Haiti. You can help Convoy of Hope provide more food and water in Haiti: http://www.convoyofhope.org/go/headlines/entry/getting_food_to_victims_in_haiti

ASCE – Nearly 1,000 ASCE members have already signed up to volunteer in Haiti via the Society’s Disaster Assistance Volunteer Directory. The directory will be shared with qualified groups and agencies that are part of on-the-ground volunteer efforts.

We wanted to know how many of our water resources engineers have or will be lending your expertise to help the situation in Haiti?

Please share with us your stories on how the devastation in Haiti has affected you and if you have or are participating in the disaster relief and recovery efforts in Haiti.

With the United Nations Climate Change Conference going on presently in Copenhagen, Denmark, the issue of Global Warming has taken stage front and center internationally. There have been many books, articles, and documentaries made in support that Global Warming has been in ‘effect’ undoubtedly. However, there are many folks out in the world that have opposed this notion that Global Warming is actually occurring.

So we wanted to know what our water resources engineering community thought of Global Warming. Is it a Reality or just simply a Myth?