Perspectives in Civil Engineering: Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the American Society of Civil Engineers

This volume contains 27 papers by the leading practitioners, educators, and researchers of civil engineering. The peer-reviewed papers, jointly published in ASCE journals have been gathered in this volume to serve as a testament to the state-of-the-art of civil engineering at the outset of the 21st century, as well as to commemorate the Society's Sesquicentennial. Each paper explores a particular aspect of civil engineering knowledge and practice. The authors, experts who have mastered their fields and helped shape the profession, present the cutting-edge research of the leading experts and notable people in their respective field. While each paper is unique, collectively they provide a snapshot of the profession while offering, studied well-thought predictions and likely developments in the years to come. The papers celebrate the history, heritage, and accomplishments of the profession in all facets of practice, including construction facilities, special structures, engineering mechanics, surveying and mapping, irrigation and water quality, forensics, computing, materials, geotechnical engineering, hydraulic engineering, and transportation engineering. Each paper explores the development of a particular civil engineering specialty, including milestones and future barriers, constraints, and opportunities. Together the papers address the mounting complexity facing civil engineering stemming from rapid growth in scientific knowledge, technological development, and human populations, especially in the last 50 years. An overarching theme is the need for systems-level approaches and consideration from undergraduate education through advanced engineering materials, processes, technologies, and design methods and tools. These papers speak to the need for civil engineers of all specialties to recognize and embrace the growing interconnectedness of the global infrastructure, economy, society, and the need to work for more sustainable, life-cycle-oriented solutions. While embracing the past and the present, the papers collected here clearly have an eye on the future needs of ASCE and the civil engineering profession.