Last week, ASCE held the first meeting of a new group, the Industry Leaders Council. This group consists of invited leaders in the civil engineering industry, representing public and private entities. Their purpose is to bring ASCE the best insights into what is happening in the profession.

Our goal is to make certain that we always keep the big picture on ASCE’s agenda. The elected leaders of ASCE do an amazing job of establishing strategies and policies that benefit our members and the society as a whole. The ILC allows us to add the perspectives of some of the most insightful employers and leaders to our priorities.

As we deal with the important issues of advocacy, infrastructure, education, sustainability, energy, etc., we will benefit from those who form as well as interpret public policy. The list of members is a Who’s Who of civil engineers. The ILC will give us more opportunities to serve as the stewards of infrastructure.

[Learn more about the Industry Leaders Council and the monthly series of podcast interviews it conducts with civil engineering leaders, Insights.]

Did you see the recent press release from the EPA? Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that the EPA is beginning the process of declaring carbon dioxide to be a pollutant. Do not miss the significance of this process. Making carbon dioxide a regulated substance will have a huge impact on civil engineers.  [Here's a story on the proposed action from the San Francisco Chronicle.]

Over time, everything that we design, construct, and operate will be placed under yet another set of rules and regulations. Everything that uses energy will be subject to new standards. None of us can predict how rapidly regulations would promulgate or how significant they would initially be to our daily practices. What we do know is that we have a large supply of attorneys, scientists, and politicians who have agendas that do not include engineering as a criterion.

ASCE and civil engineers have a large stake in making certain that the reality of engineering is injected in the hearings process. Please get as many engineering organizations, both public and private, involved in these important considerations.

We are in the height of hurricane season in the U.S. All you landlubbers that do not live on the coasts should keep reading. The U.S. coastline from Baltimore to Brownsville is at risk of a major hurricane strike every year. (I know they sometimes strike farther north, but that messes up my literary style.)

The strategy for dealing with these natural disasters is to pour billions of dollars in federal money into the area after the fact. Those billions of dollars come from everyone, not just coastal residents. Perhaps it is time to discuss whether there is a better way. People in south Louisiana are trying to recreate the great Mississippi delta marshlands as an additional layer of protection. Texas is now considering the Ike Dike as a possible means to protect the nation’s largest petrochemical complex and several million people. The cost to harden our infrastructure and provide protection will be astronomical. The cost of continuing along our current path of disaster recovery is already astronomical. Which one is correct? The answer will likely vary based on the local situation.

What does not vary is the need for civil engineers to participate in the discussion. Congress is considering additional funding for permanent protection of New Orleans. What frequency should we build? State legislatures are working to create disaster mitigation plans. What standards will they use? Coastal communities are often overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the problem. Civil engineers have a major role to play in all of these discussions.

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I extend my hearty congratulations to Kathy Caldwell as the winner of the election for President-elect and to all of the winners of the other contests. Your service is sincerely appreciated. For a complete listing of election results, see the official 2010 election page.

When we published our 2009 Infrastructure Report Card, we received a high number of accolades. We also received the tired old criticism that we were being self-serving. Critics can be so predictable. Now, we have received independent confirmation of our warnings about poor, inadequate infrastructure.

A national transportation coalition has published a report that states that more than 50% of highway fatalities are caused by poor road conditions. That finding is an indictment for every DOT and elected body in this country. It is also an indictment to civil engineers who have sat silently while the deterioration accelerated. We have allowed our roadways to deteriorate to the point where people are at risk to travel on them. The challenge as always remains funding. We built these roads decades ago and adopted new spending priorities. Now that we need to rebuild, we cannot seem to get any money back from those new priorities. In the meantime, people are getting killed. Congress is now debating a transportation bill with no identified way to pay for it. The Administration wants to defer the discussion for at least six months. State legislatures are just as bad. In Texas, our legislature just voted down a means to get private funds to build toll roads. This decision comes in spite of evidence that 100% of current funding will go for maintenance by 2012.

Our elected officials have become more adept at telling us what they cannot support instead of finding methods that they can support. I think we should promote the new study as visibly as possible. Let the elected people explain why 50% casualties that could be avoided is good public policy. Read the study by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Download and send a copy to your elected officials. Tell them that enough is enough.

Personal privilege. Happy birthday to my son David. He is 28 today.

I recently had the privilege of accompanying U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on a fact-finding visit to the Netherlands. We followed that visit by participating in the Triennial Conference among ASCE, Britain’s ICE, and Canada’s CSCE, which was held in Newfoundland. One of the most striking things to me from these events is the significant differences in perceptions of climate change found in the European countries and Canada versus the way we see it in the United States.

ASCE has recently updated its policies to reflect the need for civil engineers to lead the efforts at adapting our infrastructure to rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, and other predicted impacts of the changing climate. No national consensus has been reached on the best way to prepare for this long-term phenomenon. The Dutch and British are already working under national guidance and changing their design codes to accommodate expected increases in sea level with its multiple impacts. The Canadians are working to develop specific guidelines for use in guarding the longest coastline of any nation in the world.

As civil engineers, we do not claim to be climate scientists. We do claim to be the stewards of the nation’s infrastructure. My conversations with our counterparts in these three countries make me pause. Are the civil engineers in the U.S. taking strong leadership in developing a strategy to deal with the impacts of climate change? Has ASCE done enough to raise the awareness of its members and to provide appropriate guidance for civil engineers to participate in local conversations about adapting our infrastructure design criteria?

Our climate is changing. Civil engineers will have to change with it. All of us need to pick up the pace.

[At the Triennial Conference, ASCE, ICE and CSCE agreed to a protocol on climate change action. Read the official document (PDF).]

Update: Thursday, June 11, 11:30 a.m. ET

Thank you for all of the comments to my post this week. Please read the many comments that have been offered. To continue the discussion, I offer a response to a number of those who posted comments. Read the statements that I made carefully. Nowhere do I state the cause of climate change. I agree that the climate is always changing, sometimes more rapidly than others. I also agree that we can do a better job of controlling our air emissions, and civil engineers are in a perfect position to lead that effort. My main point is that civil engineers do not have the luxury of watching the political debate on this issue. We are bound by ethics and professionalism to inject technical truth into the public conversation. We are equally bound to provide infrastructure that is sustainable and resilient. The climate is changing no matter the cause. We need to lead in the effort to adapt our infrastructure for the natural conditions that we will experience in the future.

Update: Tuesday, June 23, 10 a.m. ET

Thank you to everyone who has expressed an opinion on this topic. This topic is one that generates a lot of heat (not related to global warming). My challenge to ASCE remains. We may differ on whether or not we believe that greenhouse gases cause climate change. We may differ on whether or not we believe the climate is changing at all. What we cannot do is avoid the consequences of those outside of our profession who regulate us. Look at the current debate on health care. My guess is that the health insurance companies do not believe they are the cause of the perceived health care problems in the U.S. They could take a hard-line position that they did not cause the problem, so they will not participate in the debate. Their livelihood would be permanently changed if they chose that course. Watching the conversations in Washington, the insurance companies are deeply engaged in the conversation. You can make the same case for drug companies, hospital companies, and doctors.

Civil engineers are taking the same risk. We can take a hard-line position that climate change is a political conversation that is beneath our attention. We will watch as various energy and environmental bills are passed that have dramatic impacts on how we design and construct civil works. We must be engaged in the conversation. We owe the decision-makers our expertise on the impact of their policies on the economy and the quality of infrastructure that we have in the U.S. We owe the public a sustainable built environment.

Which words would you use to describe ASCE? More specifically, what qualities or values would you associate with ASCE? These are not flip questions. For our Society to move into the future and remain relevant, it’s vital that we reflect the qualities and values sought by our members so we’re able to provide what our members want and need.

We began exploring this a few months ago with extensive surveying of members and others who would be interested. The results boiled down to these six attributes: Enduring, Trusted, Responsible, Expert, Professional, and Leader. Each has two sets of definitions formed by the results, one based on how those attributes apply to ASCE today, another on “aspirational” ways to build on them.

A task committee at ASCE and the Board are working on ways of best following through on these attributes. Some of these approaches involve better ways of organizing the Society’s array of programs, products, and services, and of communicating that to our members. These include everything up to implementing a new way of navigation for our new Web site. You’ll slowly see the fruits of this labor begin to appear later this summer. When plans are firmed up a little more, I’ll be able to share more about what those are. In the meantime, I welcome your take on the six attributes, and how we ought to put them to work for you.

We have millions of engineers in the USA, not all of them civil engineers. In discussions with societies representing other disciplines, we find that we are facing similar challenges. We disagree on very little. This year, ASCE is reaching out to the leaders of the other societies to see where we can collaborate. We are getting a great reception. Some of the people we meet are so engaging that I wonder why they are not civil engineers!

We are also finding that the major problems facing society require multi-disciplined approaches. Energy, transportation, water, health care, and many other technical challenges will be improved as a many-faceted team takes on the challenge. We are engaging with the other societies to put together coalitions that will bring the technical voice of reason to national policy discussions.

Our leaders cannot be expected to make good decisions if we do not provide them with dependable information. The problems that we face today will not be solved by using the methods and techniques of the past. The future is exciting because I believe that engineers can build us a better civilization. I am looking forward to working with mechanical, electrical, chemical, and other types of engineers to make it happen.

Many of us have found the newfound awareness of infrastructure by the public and the government to be refreshing. However, that awareness has evolved to a point that is a little bit disconcerting.

It began last fall, as the press trumpeted that infrastructure would be a key part of the proposed stimulus plan. Some people even projected infrastructure investments to exceed $500 billion. January brought us the release of our 2009 Infrastucture Report Card grades and the debate on the actual stimulus package. While infrastructure remained the public driver for the bill, the actual authorization came in at around 10 percent of the total bill. The concept of “shovel ready” entered our vocabulary, and the public got their lawn chairs out, ready to watch the dirt fly.

Nothing happened. First, the 10 percent began to sink in to our minds. ASCE took a public position that we were glad for any money as a down payment against our needs. Second, “shovel ready” did not mean instant construction. The public, and the press, began to ask questions. Those questions soon turned to what type of projects would actually be constructed. Some were disappointed to learn that we would not see a repeat of the iconic structures built during the 1930s.

Time and overselling have now pushed infrastructure out of first place in the conversation. Energy has taken its place. Where does this leave us? It leaves us $100 billion ahead of where we started the year! It leaves us knowing that we had 15 minutes of fame, and we have to go back to work. Much remains to be done to convince Congress to fund our aviation, water, and transportation needs at adequate levels this year.

The new buzz in engineering circles is now on energy. With President Obama and Congress committed to carbon management and renewables, all disciplines of engineers are being asked to join the effort to solve these two significant challenges. Recently in Washington, the National Academy of Engineers conducted an energy symposium and carried it over to a briefing in the Sam Rayburn House Office Building.

While civil engineers are best known for our roles in traditional infrastructure, we will play a major part in moving the country forward. Civil engineers have long been an integral part of our electric and petroleum industries. As we move towards renewable energy sources, the demand for civil engineers will expand rapidly. New sources of energy will be located in new places. Civil engineers will execute the siting, access, drainage, and other requirements. We will be called on to handle the major transmission lines that will take the power from the new source to the end users. Many of the new sources will be located in challenging environments like off shore. In short, we will be big players in the electricity business. Energy is key in our future transportation facilities, too. New vehicles will place new demands on our transportation systems.

As civil engineers, we must assist in the development of new sources of funding and on developing new ways to look at transportation of both people and products. While we have always been energetic, civil engineers will soon be viewed as the nation’s energy engineers as well.

This week is a big one for ASCE.  We are holding our Fly-In, where members from all over the country descend on Capitol Hill to promote infrastructure and other ASCE priorities.  We will release the full 2009 Infrastructure Report Card with all of the supporting data.  Finally, our Policy Committees will meet to make certain that ASCE holds positions that are both current and relevant related to a myriad of technical, professional, and legislative issues.  Talk about “A” for Advocacy! 

Let’s look at the significance of each of these events.  Our annual Fly-In is a great opportunity for our members to engage their elected officials.  The event includes sessions where we train attendees in how to make an effective visit to Congress.  They are provided with information that supports our positions to assist in the effort to influence the discussion leading up to votes on specific legislation.  Never underestimate the value of constituents showing up to discuss what is on their minds.  Voters still get heard in the halls of Congress. 

The second event is the release of the full 2009 Infrastructure Report Card.  Our early release of grades in January succeeded beyond all expectations.  ASCE made infrastructure the key topic in the stimulus bill that passed.  We did not stop there.  We did dozens of interviews with radio, TV, and print media to communicate the importance of improving our infrastructure.  Our message resonated with the public.  The complete Report Card will provide a lot of the details of how we developed our grades, and will do more exploration of how to solve the problem of inadequate investment.  Candidly, we get another bite at the apple of public opinion.  I expect that ASCE will once again demonstrate why we are the leaders on infrastructure in the United States.

The third emphasis of the week is our Policy Committee meetings.  ASCE is the recognized leader on a plethora of topics related to civil engineering.  We recognize the responsibility that comes with that distinction.  Our policy committees are comprised of some of the best experts in their fields.  They develop policies after proper research and discussion so that our policy statements represent the best interests of ASCE members.  We have approximately 120 policies that must be kept up to date, and we are exploring emerging issues to see if new policies are needed.  You can find our policies under the Government Relations section of the ASCE Web site. 

The work of all of the people involved this week yields huge benefits to all members of ASCE, the civil engineering profession, and the general public.  Why don’t you join us in 2010?