This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Abbreviation | ASCE |
---|---|
Founded | November 5, 1852 |
Type | Engineering society |
Focus | Purpose of the group is the advancement of the science and profession of Civil engineering and the enhancement of human welfare through the activities of society members. [1] |
Location |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
Method | Industry standards, conferences, publications |
Members | 143,189 (2021 ASCE Official Register) |
Official language | English |
President | Maria C. Lehman, P.E. (2023) |
Past President | Dennis D. Truax, Ph.D., P.E. (2022) |
President-elect | Marsia Geldert-Murphey, P.E. (2024) |
Secretary and Executive Director | Thomas W. Smith III |
Revenue | US $49.4 million (2022) [2] |
Endowment | US $29.2 million (2022) [2] |
Employees | 250 |
Website | asce |
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. [3] Its constitution was based on the older Boston Society of Civil Engineers from 1848. [4]
ASCE is dedicated to the advancement of the science and profession of civil engineering and the enhancement of human welfare through the activities of society members. [1] It has more than 143,000 members in 177 countries. Its mission is to provide essential value to members, their careers, partners, and the public; facilitate the advancement of technology; encourage and provide the tools for lifelong learning; promote professionalism and the profession; develop and support civil engineers. [1]
The first serious and documented attempts to organize civil engineers as a professional society in the newly created United States were in the early 19th century. [5] [6] In 1828, John Kilbourn of Ohio managed a short-lived "Civil Engineering Journal," editorializing about the recent incorporation of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great Britain that same year, Kilbourn suggested that the American corps of engineers could constitute an American society of civil engineers. [6] [5] Later, in 1834, an American trade periodical, the "American Railroad Journal," advocated for a similar national organization of civil engineers. [6]
On December 17, 1838, a petition started circulating asking civil engineers to meet in 1839 in Baltimore, Maryland, to organize a permanent society of civil engineers. [6] Prior to that, thirteen notable civil engineers largely identifiable as being from New York, Pennsylvania, or Maryland met in Philadelphia. This group presented the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia with a formal proposal that an Institution of American Civil Engineers be established as an adjunct of the Franklin..." [6] Some of them were: [6]
Forty engineers actually appeared at the February 1839 meeting in Baltimore, including J. Edgar Thomson (Future Chief Engineer and later President of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Wright, Roberts, Edward Miller, and the Maryland engineers Isaac Trimble and Benjamin Henry Latrobe II and attendees from as far as Massachusetts, Illinois, and Louisiana. [6] Subsequently, a group met again in Philadelphia, led by its Secretary, Edward Miller to take steps to formalize the society, participants now included such other notable engineers as: [6]
Miller drafted a proposed constitution that defined society's purpose as "the collection and diffusion of professional knowledge, the advancement of mechanical philosophy, and the elevation of the character and standing of the Civil Engineers of the United States." [6] Membership in the new society restricted membership to engineers, and "architects and eminent machinists were to be admitted only as Associates." [8] The proposed constitution failed, and no further attempts were made to form another society. [6] Miller later ascribed the failure to the difficulties of assembling members due to available means for traveling in the country at the time. [6] One of the other difficulties members would have to contend with was the requirement to produce each year one previously unpublished paper or "...present a scientific book, map, plan or model, not already in the possession of the Society, under the penalty of $10." [8] In that same period, the editor of the American Railroad Journal commented that effort had failed in part due to certain jealousies that arose due to the proposed affiliation with the Franklin Institute. [6] That journal continued discussion on forming an engineers' organization from 1839 thru 1843 serving its own self-interests in advocating its journal as a replacement for a professional society but to no avail.
During the 1840s, professional organizations continued to develop and organize in the United States. The organizers' motives were largely to "improve common standards, foster research, and disseminate knowledge through meetings and publications." [9] Unlike earlier associations such as the American Philosophical Society, these newer associations were not seeking to limit membership as much as pursue "more specialized interests." [9] Examples of this surge in new professional organizations in America were the American Statistical Association (1839), American Ethnological Society (1842), American Medical Association (1847), American Association for the Advancement of Science, (1848) and National Education Association (1852). [9]
During this same period of association incorporations in the 1840s, attempts were again made at organizing an American engineer association. They succeeded at first with the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, organized in 1848, and then in October 1852, with an effort to organize a Society of Civil Engineers and Architects in New York. [6] [8] Led by Alfred W. Craven, Chief Engineer of the Croton Aqueduct and future ASCE president, the meeting resolved to incorporate the society under the name "American Society of Civil Engineers And Architects". [8] Membership eligibility was restricted to "civil, geological, mining and mechanical Engineers, architects, and other persons who, by profession, are interested in the advancement of science." [8] James Laurie was elected the society's first president. At an early meeting of the Board of Direction in 1852, instructions were given for the incorporation of the "American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects" but this was the proper steps were never taken, and therefore this name never legally belonged to the association. [8] The ASCE held its first meetings at the Croton Aqueduct Department building in City Hall Park, Manhattan. [10] : 2 The meetings only went through 1855 and with the advent of the American Civil War, the society suspended its activities. [8]
The next meeting was more than twelve years later in 1867. [8] A number of the original founders, such as James Laurie, J.W. Adams, C. W. Copeland, and W. H. Talcott, were at this meeting and were dedicated to the objective of resuscitating the society. They also planned to put the society on a more permanent footing and elect fifty-four new members. [8] With success in that effort, the young engineering society passed a resolution noting that its preservation was mainly due to the persevering efforts of its first president, James Laurie. [8] The address of President James Pugh Kirkwood delivered at that meeting in 1867 was the first publication of the society, appearing in Volume 1 of "Transactions", bearing date of 1872. [8]
On March 4, 1868, by a vote of 17 to 4, the name was changed to "American Society of Civil Engineers", but it was not until April 17, 1877, that the lack of incorporation was discovered and the proper steps taken to remedy the defect. [8] The society was then chartered and incorporated in New York state. [11]
The reconvened ASCE met at the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York until 1875 when the society moved to 4 East 23rd Street. The ASCE moved again in 1877 to 104 East 20th Street and in 1881 to 127 East 23rd Street. [10] : 2–3 [8] The ASCE commissioned a new headquarters at 220 West 57th Street in 1895. [10] : 3 The building was completed in 1897 and served as the society's headquarters until 1917 when the ASCE moved to the Engineering Societies' Building. [10] : 6
Nora Stanton Barney was among the first women in the United States to earn a civil engineering degree, graduating from Cornell University in 1905. In the same year, she was accepted as a junior member of the organization and began work for the New York City Board of Water Supply. [12] [13] She was the first female member of ASCE, where she was allowed to be a junior member, but was denied advancement to associate member in 1916 because of her gender. In 2015, she was posthumously advanced to ASCE Fellow status. [14]
In 1999, the ASCE elected the top-ten "civil engineering achievements that had the greatest positive impact on life in the 20th century" in "broad categories". Monuments of the Millennium were a "combination of technical engineering achievement, courage and inspiration, and a dramatic influence on the development of [their] communities". [15] The achievements and monuments that best exemplified them included:
ASCE's mission is to deliver essential value to "its members, their careers, our partners, and the public" as well as enable "the advancement of technology, encourage and provide the tools for lifelong learning, promote professionalism and the profession." [16] [17] The society also seeks to "develop and support civil engineer leaders, and advocate infrastructure and environmental stewardship." [16] The society as an exempt organization in the United States (Section 501(c)(3)) was required to reported its program service accomplishments and related expenses and revenues. [16]
ASCE stated that dissemination of technical and professional information to the civil engineering profession was a major goal of the society. [16] This is accomplished through a variety of publications and information products, including 35 technical and professional journals amongst them:
They also publish an online bibliographic database, conference proceedings, standards, manuals of practice, and technical reports. [16]
The ASCE Library contains 470+ E-books and standards, some with chapter-level access and no restrictive DRM, and 600+ online proceedings.
Each year, more than 55,000 engineers earn continuing education units (CEUs) and/or professional development hours (PDHs) by participating in ASCE's continuing education programs. ASCE hosts more than 15 annual and specialty conferences, over 200 continuing education seminars and more than 300 live web seminars. [16] Meetings include "...committees, task forces, focus groups, workshops and seminars designed to bring together civil engineering experts either from specific fields or those with a broad range of experience and skills. These meetings deal with specific topics and issues facing civil engineers such as America's failing infrastructure, sustainability, earthquakes, and bridge collapses." [16]
The engineering programs division directly advances the science of engineering by delivering technical content for ASCE's publications, conferences and continuing education programs. It consists of eight discipline-specific institutes, four technical divisions, and six technical councils. The work is accomplished by over 600 technical committees with editorial responsibility for 28 of ASCE's 33 journals. On an annual basis, the division conducts more than twelve congresses and specialty conferences. [16] As a founding society of ANSI and accredited standards development organization, ASCE committees use an established and audited process to produce consensus standards under a program supervised by the society's Codes and Standards Committee. [18]
Civil Engineering Certification Inc. (CEC), affiliated with ASCE, has been established to support specialty certification academies for civil engineering specialties and is accredited by the Council of Engineering and Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB). CEC also handles safety certification for state, municipal, and federal buildings, formerly the province of the now-defunct Building Security Council. The Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI) provides vision and guidance on ASCE activities related to critical infrastructure resilience, including planning, design, construction, O&M, and event mitigation, response and recovery.
Certification is the recognition of attaining advanced knowledge and skills in a specialty area of civil engineering. ASCE offers certifications for engineers who demonstrate advanced knowledge and skills in their area of engineering.
ASCE also has nine full-service institutes created to serve working professionals working within specialized fields of civil engineering: [19]
To advance its policy mission, ASCE "...identifies legislation to improve the nation's infrastructure, and advance the profession of engineering specifically, ASCE lobbied on legislation at the Federal, State and local levels. [16] In 2015, ASCE's Lobbying at the Federal level was focused primarily upon: [16]
Lobbying at the state and local level focused primarily upon licensure of civil engineers, procurement of engineering services, continuing education, and the financing of infrastructure improvements as well as lobbying at the state level to raise the minimum requirements for licensure as a professional engineer as part of ASCE's Raise the Bar (RTB) and Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (CEBoK) initiatives. [16]
For 2018, ASCE identified Federal advocacy priorities as follows: [21]
The State advocacy priorities in 2018 are as follows: [21]
To promote the society's objectives and address key issues facing the civil engineering profession, ASCE developed three strategic initiatives: Sustainable Infrastructure, the ASCE Grand Challenge, and Raise the Bar. [22]
ASCE honors civil engineers through many Society Awards including the Norman medal (1874), Wellington prize (1921), Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, the Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) awards in the categories of construction, design, education, government and management, [23] the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) for projects, the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research and the Charles Pankow Award for innovation, 12 scholarships and fellowships for student members. Created in 1968 by ASCE's Sanitary Engineering Division, the Wesley W. Horner award is named after former ASCE President Wesley W. Horner, and given to a recently peer reviewed published paper in the fields of hydrology, urban drainage, or sewerage. Special consideration is given to private practice engineering work that is recognized as a valuable contribution to the field of environmental engineering. [24] The Lifetime Achievement Award has been presented annually since 1999 and recognizes five different individual leaders. One award is present in each category of design, construction, government, education, and management. [25]
In July 1946, the Board of Direction authorized annual awards on recommendation by the society's Committee on Research to stimulate research in civil engineering. In October 1964, Mrs. Alberta Reed Huber endowed these prizes in honor of her husband, Walter L. Huber, past president, ASCE. [26] The Huber Prize is considered the highest level mid-career research prize in civil engineering and is awarded for outstanding achievements and contributions in research with respect to all disciplines of civil engineering.
The LTPP International Data Analysis Contest is an annual data analysis contest held by the ASCE in collaboration with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The participants are supposed to use the LTPP data. [27]
The ASCE Foundation is a charitable foundation established in 1994 to support and promote civil engineering programs that "... enhance quality of life, promote the profession, advance technical practices, and prepare civil engineers for tomorrow." It is incorporated separately from the ASCE, although it has a close relationship to it and all the foundation's personnel are employees of ASCE. [16] The foundation board of directors has seven persons and its bylaws require that four of the seven directors must be ASCE officers as well and the ASCE executive director and chief financial officer must also be ASCE employees. [16] The foundation's support is most often to ASCE's charitable, educational and scientific programs. [16] The foundation's largest program is supporting three strategic areas; lifelong learning and leadership, advocacy for infrastructure investment and the role of civil engineers in sustainable practices. [16] In 2014, this foundation's support in these areas was almost US$4 million. [16]
ASCE provides peer reviews at the request of public agencies and projects as a "means to improve the management and quality of [public agency] services and thus better protect the public health and safety with which they are entrusted". [28] [29] After the 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans, the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Lt Gen Carl Strock P.E., M.ASCE) requested that ASCE create an expert review panel to peer review the corps-sponsored Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, the body commissioned by the corps to assess the performance of the hurricane protection system in metro New Orleans. Lawrence Roth, deputy executive director of the ASCE led the ERP development, served as the panel's chief of staff and facilitated its interaction with IPET. [30] The expert panel's role was to provide an independent technical review of the IPET's activities and findings, as stated at a National Research Council meeting in New Orleans: "an independent review panel ensure[s] that the outcome is a robust, credible and defensible performance evaluation". [31] On February 12, 2007, Lt. Gen Strock gave all expert review panel members an Outstanding Civilian Service Medals. [30]
On June 1, 2007, the ASCE issued its expert review panel report, [32] and an accompanying press release. [33] The press release was considered controversial because it contained information not present in the report, conflicting with the report, and minimized the Army Corps' involvement in the catastrophe: "Even without breaching, Hurricane Katrina's rainfall and surge overtopping would have caused extensive and severe flooding—and the worst loss of life and property loss ever experienced in New Orleans." The report stated that had levees and pump stations not failed, "far less property loss would have occurred and nearly two-thirds of deaths could have been avoided." [32] : 39 The ASCE administration was criticized by the Times-Picayune for an attempt to minimize and understate the role of the Army Corps in the flooding. [34]
In October 2007, Raymond Seed, a University of California-Berkeley civil engineering professor and ASCE member, submitted a 42-page ethics complaint to the ASCE alleging that the corps of engineers with ASCE's help sought to minimize the corps' mistakes in the flooding, intimidate anyone who tried to intervene, and delay the final results until the public's attention had turned elsewhere. [35] The corps acknowledged receiving a copy of the letter and refused to comment until the ASCE's Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC) had commented on the complaint. [36] It took over a year for the ASCE to announce the results of the CPC. [37] The ASCE self-study panel did not file charges of ethical misconduct and blamed errors on "staff" and not review panel members having created the June press release." [38]
On November 14, 2007, ASCE announced that U.S. Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, R‑N.Y. (ret), would lead an independent task force of outside experts to review how ASCE participated in engineering studies of national significance. [39] ASCE President David Mongan said the review was to address criticism of ASCE´s role in assisting the Army Corps of Engineers-sponsored investigation of Katrina failures. Mongan assured citizens of metro New Orleans in a letter to the Times Picayune , that ASCE took "this matter very seriously and that appropriate actions are being taken". [40]
The panel recommended in results released on September 12, 2008, that ASCE should immediately take steps to remove the potential for conflict of interest in its participation in post-disaster engineering studies. [41] The most important recommendations were that peer review funds over $1 million should come from a separate source, like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), that ASCE should facilitate but not control the assessment teams, and that information to the public and press should be disseminated not under the extremely tight controls that Ray Seed and his team experienced. It concluded that ASCE should draw up an ethics policy to eliminate questions of possible conflicts of interest. [41]
On April 6, 2009, an internal probe with the ASCE issued a report that ordered a retraction of the ASCE's June 1, 2007, press release. [38] The panel determined that the press release had "inadvertently conveyed a misleading impression regarding the role of engineering failures in the devastation of New Orleans", that it incorrectly said that surge levels along Mississippi's coastline were higher than water levels caused by a tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004, and that it had incorrectly repeated estimates of deaths and property damage in New Orleans that might have occurred if levees and floodwalls had not been breached.
On November 5, 2007, New Orleans–based grassroots group Levees.org led by Sandy Rosenthal criticized the ASCE's close relationship with the United States Army Corps of Engineers in a spoof online public service announcement. [42] On November 12, 2007, the ASCE asked Levees.org to remove the video from the internet, threatening the organization with legal action if it did not comply. [43] On November 13, the Times-Picayune posted the video on its website. [44] Flanked by lawyers with Adams and Reese in the presence of extensive media coverage, the group ignored the threat and posted the video to YouTube citing Louisiana's Anti-SLAPP statute, a "strategic lawsuit against public participation", which allows courts to weed out lawsuits designed to chill public participation on matters of public significance. [45] In a response for comment, ASCE President Mongan replied, "Since the video has already been widely reposted by other organizations, moving forward, we feel our time and expertise are best utilized working to help protect the residents of New Orleans from future storms and flooding." [45]
In March 2008, Levees.org announced that records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that as early October 2005, the Army Corps of Engineers had directed and later paid the ASCE more than $1.1 million for its peer review (Grant Number: W912HZ-06-1-0001). The grant also paid for a series of misleading ASCE presentations attempting to shift blame away from the corps and onto local levee officials. [46] Members of the ASCE are forbidden from making false or exaggerated statements and also from making statements for an interested party unless this is disclosed. Levees.org claimed the records showed how the external peer review would be done in four phases: Phase 1 was research and analysis on the performance of the levees, floodwalls and other important structures. Phase 2 was provision of information on the current system to prevent future flooding. Phase 3 was provision of information to evaluate alternative approaches to flood protection. Phase 4 was transfer information and knowledge gained to a broader audience within Corps and its consultancy community to communicate lessons learned. The group claimed that these records [47] were proof that ASCE's routine powerpoint presentation from 2007 and 2008 were a public relations campaign to repair the corps' reputation. [48] ASCE officials responded that ASCE paid for the powerpoint presentations itself and had not used USACE grant money for that purpose.
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings, and railways.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil works. USACE has 37,000 civilian and military personnel, making it one of the world's largest public engineering, design, and construction management agencies. The USACE workforce is approximately 97% civilian, 3% active duty military. The civilian workforce is primarily located in the United States, Europe and in select Middle East office locations. Civilians do not function as active duty military and are not required to be in active war and combat zones; however, volunteer opportunities do exist for civilians to do so.
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructure that may have been neglected.
The Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet Canal is a 76 mi (122 km) channel constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers at the direction of Congress in the mid-20th century that provided a shorter route between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans' inner harbor Industrial Canal via the Intracoastal Waterway.
As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navigational canal levees and flood walls. As mandated in the Flood Control Act of 1965, responsibility for the design and construction of the city’s levees belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and responsibility for their maintenance belongs to the Orleans Levee District. The failures of levees and flood walls during Katrina are considered by experts to be the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States. By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.6 m) of water. The famous French Quarter and Garden District escaped flooding because those areas are above sea level. The major breaches included the 17th Street Canal levee, the Industrial Canal levee, and the London Avenue Canal flood wall. These breaches caused the majority of the flooding, according to a June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The flood disaster halted oil production and refining which increased oil prices worldwide.
Hurricane preparedness in New Orleans has been an issue since the city's early settlement because of its location.
From 1890 through 2006, the Orleans Levee Board (OLB) was the body of commissioners that oversaw the Orleans Levee District (OLD) which supervised the levee and floodwall system in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. The role of the OLB changed over time. Prior to Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the OLB developed land and sold it to raise money to build and improve flood protection levees. After Betsy, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1965 which directed the Army Corps of Engineers to design and build the hurricane flood protection system enveloping New Orleans. Owing to the 1965 legislation, the OLB's duties were limited to collecting the 30% cost share for project design and construction, and to maintaining and operating completed flood protection structures.
The 17th Street Canal is the largest and most important drainage canal in the city of New Orleans. Operating with Pump Station 6, it moves water into Lake Pontchartrain. The canal, along with the Orleans Canal and the London Avenue Canal, form the New Orleans Outfall Canals. The 17th Street Canal forms a significant portion of the boundary between the city of New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana. The canal has also been known as the Metairie Outlet Canal and the Upperline Canal.
The London Avenue Canal is a drainage canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, used for pumping rain water into Lake Pontchartrain. The canal runs through the 7th Ward of New Orleans from the Gentilly area to the Lakefront. It is one of the three main drainage canals responsible for draining rainwater from the main basin of New Orleans. The London Avenue Canal's flood walls built atop earthen levees breached on both sides during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
On Monday, August 29, 2005, there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, Louisiana, and its suburbs following passage of Hurricane Katrina. The failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and all of St. Bernard Parish. In New Orleans alone, 134,000 housing units—70% of all occupied units—suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding.
The Bonnet Carré Spillway is a flood control operation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Located in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, about 12 miles (19 km) west of New Orleans, it allows floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thence into the Gulf of Mexico. The spillway was constructed between 1929 and 1931, following the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, and has been designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Engineering ethics is the field of system of moral principles that apply to the practice of engineering. The field examines and sets the obligations by engineers to society, to their clients, and to the profession. As a scholarly discipline, it is closely related to subjects such as the philosophy of science, the philosophy of engineering, and the ethics of technology.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is involved with a wide spectrum of public works projects: environmental protection, water supply, recreation, flood damage and reduction, beach nourishment, homeland security, military construction, and support to other Governmental agencies. Through 19 Flood Control Acts since 1917, Congress has authorized the Corps of Engineers to be involved with flood protection and damage reduction in almost every state of the union.
The American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) is a society of professional engineers and scientists who have demonstrated special expertise in environmental engineering or science beyond that normally required for professional practice. The principal purpose of the Academy is serving the public by improving the practice, elevating the standards, and advancing public recognition of environmental engineering and science through a program of specialty certification, similar to that used in healthcare and other professions.
The Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge is a body of knowledge, set forth in a proposal by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) entitled Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st century. This proposal seeks to identify and implement improvements to the education and licensure process for civil engineers in the United States of America. The proposal is intended to increase occupational closure by increasing the requirements to become a licensed engineer. Some have identified this joint effort with the Raising the Bar as not necessary.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is involved with a wide spectrum of public works projects: environmental protection, water supply, recreation, flood damage and reduction, beach nourishment, homeland security, military construction, and support to other Governmental agencies. In nineteen (19) different Flood Control Acts since 1917, the United States Congress has authorized the corps to design and build flood protection projects and one risk reduction system in the Greater New Orleans area and throughout the nation.
Thomas Denis O’Rourke is an American educator, engineer and serves as the Thomas R. Biggs Professor of civil & environmental engineering at the Cornell University College of Engineering. O’Rourke took his Bachelor of Science in civil engineering at Cornell's engineering college in 1970 and his doctorate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1975.
The greater New Orleans Hurricane & Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS) is an infrastructure system in southern Louisiana which seeks to provide the greater New Orleans area a 100-year level of risk reduction, meaning reduced risk from a storm surge that has a 1% chance of occurring or being exceeded in any given year. In 2019, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that due to an increased rate of sea level rise and continued sinking of soil the levee system would no longer offer original planned levels of protection as early as the year 2023.
Donald Van Norman Roberts was a civil, geotechnical and environmental engineer from the United States, and advocate for sustainability developments in engineering.
Kumares C. Sinha is an Indian-American engineer, researcher and educator known for contributions to transportation systems analysis, transportation infrastructure economics and management, transportation safety, and the use of emerging technologies in transportation. He has served as Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue University. since 1998.