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Over the past few decades, vast changes in developed and developing nations have spurred new trends within the field in civil engineering. According to Norwich University (2017), these are the following:
Building Energy Conservation
The concept focuses on designs that limit energy usage and reduce environmental impact, as well as conserving resources and revenues. Many building energy conservation projects make use of solar energy for heating and electricity to eliminate the need for fossil fuels and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Biofuels, such as landfill gas, is also a common approach to many of these efforts.
Green Architecture
The green building trend incorporates the building energy conservation approach along with prioritizing sustainability and eco-friendly initiatives. These include conservation of the raw materials used in the building process and strategic approaches to building locations that minimize the project’s impact on local ecosystems. Conceptual design of these projects accounts for positioning of the building to maximize the utilization of sunlight for lighting and heating purposes, as well as seasonally and regionally appropriate energy sources such as wind, water, and biofuel. Green building projects may also feature raw materials, such as bamboo for floors or drywall from recycled materials, which are chosen based on their eco-friendly nature and reusability. Green building also promotes the reduction of building waste by designing and implementing a process for recycling leftover raw materials when construction (or destruction) is complete.
Water Resource Engineering
The process entails new and innovative approaches to the design and construction of water resources and water facilities geared toward effectively maintaining a sustainable supply of clean, safe drinking water. Projects often include improving designs to water treatment facilities, wells and other water resources to both minimize water loss and ensure water safety in addition to watershed development and maintenance, wastewater management, and recycling.
Geotechnical Engineering
Another trend in civil engineering is in the geotechnical sphere and involves the process of evaluating soil and rock properties to determine the suitability of conditions for building structural foundations. Potential projects that rely on geotechnical expertise include bridges, reservoirs, skyscrapers, roads, and tunnels. Another key facet of the evaluation of building sites is determining risk factors involved with geographical hazards like sinkholes, earthquakes, and other potential natural disasters. This process typically consists of the assessment of structural and chemical properties of soil and rock.
Municipal Engineering
Municipal engineering encompasses the construction of infrastructure specifically for urban centers. Populations worldwide have increased over the years, and the vast majority of people around the world continue to flock toward these urban centers. New design innovations and effective maintenance of existing infrastructure are critical in these growing urban hubs. Municipal engineering is the overall coordination of all urban infrastructure, from the construction of sidewalks and roads to the effective disposal of waste.
Reference:
Norwich University. (2017, April 3). 5 Civil Engineering Trends. Retrieved December 23, 2020, from
https://online.norwich.edu/academic-programs/resources/5-civil-engineering-trends
Trends are also interconnected to the innovation of civil engineering as trends encompass some sort of innovation. Align with that, here are the major innovations according to Norwich University (2017):
Plastic Roads
Plastic Roads
Although the concept of using waste plastic in roads is still in its early stages, with very few plastic roads currently existing in the Western world, civil engineering researchers in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States are working to design new technologies to support the safe implementation of waste plastic in road construction. One such development involves converting waste plastics into small balls that, when combined with asphalt or other common road components, create a strong, permeable surface that features hollow spaces that allow stormwater to seep through the road and more effectively recharge groundwater.
Transitioning to the use of plastic roads will lead to more manageable plastic waste and potentially, safer roads, but there are still some concerns regarding hazards that accompany plastic roads as they age. As these roads gradually deteriorate due to heat and light, they may dissolve into micro-plastics that give off harmful pollutants, affecting the functionality and biodiversity of soil and water resources. Creative civil engineers play a significant role in ensuring that the science behind using waste plastic for roads is accurate, and that future iterations of this concept are carried out with consideration for environmental health and safety.
Green Roof Systems
Green Roof Systems
Green roof systems have become popular all over the world, not only for their beauty, but also for the benefits they provide toward environmental sustainability. Germany is currently leading the world in green roof technologies, and they have implemented green roofing systems on approximately 10% of German homes since the technology emerged in the early 1970s. Civil engineers are responsible for ensuring that the green roof’s supportive infrastructure—for instance, a comprehensive watering system—is engineered to consistently deliver an appropriate amount of resources, and the roof itself must be designed to effectively provide working improvements to environmental sustainability.
Eco Floating Homes
Eco Floating Homes
Affordable housing and overcrowding in cities are putting pressure on urban populations to make changes. To combat these issues, civil engineers are designing floating homes—practical living spaces that sit upon the water. The homes are designed to resist floods by floating on top of water using a foundation of concrete and Styrofoam, which makes them virtually unsinkable. This approach means that homes can be built in spaces that were previously off-limits, like rivers, lakes and other bodies of water. Civil engineers predict that modern floating home technology will lower the costs of flood damage in urban cities, while also providing compact inner-city populations with more diverse housing options.
Vertical Farming
Vertical Farming
Using multistory high-rises to grow food is known as “vertical farming,” and The Association for Vertical Farming has found that, when compared with traditional agricultural methods, growing food indoors uses 98 percent less water and 70 percent less fertilizer on average. To generate the amount of light and water necessary to keep plants healthy, while remaining as cost-effective as possible, vertical farmers use a combination of energy efficient LED lights and hydroponic technology (plumbing, irrigation, filtration). By implementing modern automation techniques to regulate these systems, civil engineers can also limit the cost of labor required to maintain these farms. The costs associated with vertical farming are still quite high, but as science in this field advances, civil engineers will be able to provide the populations of un-farmable regions with opportunities to grow their own natural produce.
Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater Harvesting
Harvesting rainwater is a climate adaptation strategy that has been used in many ancient and modern societies. The antiquated rainwater harvesting techniques of the past were attempts to cope with severe climate conditions by storing the water as it fell, allowing populations to drink the water or prevent oversaturation of the land during extreme precipitation. Modern rainwater harvesting is fundamentally the same in theory, but advancements in science and engineering have introduced sophisticated filtration and rain-capturing technologies that boost the efficiency of the process.
Reference:
Norwich University. (2017, September 1). 5 Innovations in Civil Engineering Aimed at Improving Sustainability. Retrieved December 29, 2020, from
https://online.norwich.edu/academic-programs/resources/5-innovations-in-civil-engineering-aimed-at-improving-sustainability
These innovations brought huge help to civil engineers in constructing different infrastructures. In connection with that, here is a copy of my reaction paper regarding dams:
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: BIG, BIGGER, AND BIGGEST: DAM
Engineering is the utilization of science and math to tackle and solve issues. Engineers make sense of how things work and find practical utilizations for logical revelations. However, in order to be a successful engineer, one must understand different concepts on how structures are to be made. This includes the process of knowing how dams are built since dams are pivotal for the generation of electricity.
Now to be specific, the video is all about dams. Concrete dams are water powered structures built utilizing workmanship stones or cement. These dams are intended to store water by utilizing just their material load to oppose flat or horizontal water pressure. These dams are intended to guarantee that every segment isn't just steady yet additionally autonomous or independent of some other component. Taking about dams, the piece is all about the innovation of different dams that are built that reveals the technological leaps forward that have allowed the world’s largest hydroelectric dam to be built which is the Three Gorges Dam in China. This film investigates how six milestone Dams – incorporating the Krasnoyarsk Dam in Russia - each element a significant mechanical development that permitted designers to make greater dams producing perpetually hydroelectric force. Using different computer generated imagery that makes up 50% of the film, this also reveals the incredible point of views behind these projects and the inventions that have allowed them to increase and evolve in scale. Six ingenious leaps forward that empowered dams to advance and innovate from big to bigger into the World's BIGGEST DAM.
An aerial view of the Hoover Dam
@Photo Courtesy - Andrew Zarivny
Now to be specific, the video is all about dams. Concrete dams are water powered structures built utilizing workmanship stones or cement. These dams are intended to store water by utilizing just their material load to oppose flat or horizontal water pressure. These dams are intended to guarantee that every segment isn't just steady yet additionally autonomous or independent of some other component. Taking about dams, the piece is all about the innovation of different dams that are built that reveals the technological leaps forward that have allowed the world’s largest hydroelectric dam to be built which is the Three Gorges Dam in China. This film investigates how six milestone Dams – incorporating the Krasnoyarsk Dam in Russia - each element a significant mechanical development that permitted designers to make greater dams producing perpetually hydroelectric force. Using different computer generated imagery that makes up 50% of the film, this also reveals the incredible point of views behind these projects and the inventions that have allowed them to increase and evolve in scale. Six ingenious leaps forward that empowered dams to advance and innovate from big to bigger into the World's BIGGEST DAM.
To further examine the content, I firmly believe that the piece is quite convincing considering that it is well taught out and executed and also because it is well researched. It was resonated when the video itself is composed of different claims arranged in a chronological order, from the facts that are given, and also the way that the ideas are easily conveyed. I don’t think the film leaves out anything important as it is very on point and detailed. The reasons are detailed as well as the narration. This is the reason why there is no point for this video to be lacking in given information.
On the other hand, the film overemphasizes in some parts because of how they use redundant words in explaining. But, I do believe that overemphasizing isn’t a negative term. For us, 1st year civil engineering students of Bicol State College of Applied Sciences and Technology, we are just in our early stage of learning about what we ought to be in the future. Learning this overemphasized but detailed context may help us to fully understand about the scope of our course. Even though the video may be overemphasized, still the piece presents a balanced view. It is because there are equal statements given from both the positive and the negative sides of the view. The negative that I am pertaining to is all those problems that are stated which are the six ingenious leaps that hinders the stability or durability of the dam. On the other hand, the positive point of view here is the concrete and realistic plans that those engineers did in order for the dams to be fully innovated and has a lot of foundations.
After watching the film, I think the piece still holds my interest even though I am not fond of watching this kind of film and being able to supervise the making of these dams as I only wanted myself to work in an office, to work in an indoor environment. I think it will take some time for me to appreciate this kind of stuff and I will do my best to be an enthusiast of these. The piece bothers me at some point because of those technical terms that I did hear plus the speed of the statement being enunciated. Although I am familiar with the terms being uttered, there are some meanings of the terms here that I get to be so puzzled whenever I try to understand but then because of my patience and willingness to learn, I am able to learn the concept of the context itself.
With that, I realize the struggles that the engineers are facing. To be an engineer, a person must understand even the specificity of the concepts. A person like me must be able to integrate the learning that I will be going to acquire in this entire college life for me to become an engineer not just with a healthy mind, but also an engineer with value.
REFERENCES
https://www.voicetube.com/videos/12850
https://libraryofessays.com/coursework/finite-element-anaysis-assignment-2053350
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3J196bLP5E
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/dams/
Reflection on Learning
Reflection on Learning
Dams are very useful to us as dams take a pivotal role not just in making renewable energy but as well as in economic development due to their effect on the livelihood of the constituents. But let us not forget that these dams takes a lot of work to do as every leap that was tackled here was beneficial for us to get enough knowledge on how dams work and are beneficial also as it was one of the common structures built by civil engineers today.
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