Sustainability and Resilience

I wrote a book titled The Great Civil Engineering Overhaul, published in July of this year by ASCE.  It was several years in the making, a result of frustration after years of effort trying to convince our industry that climate change is a real, human-caused, urgent issue that represents the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity civil engineers will see in their careers.  Climate-related engineering design codes and standards are no longer reliable. Infrastructure projects you design and build may not be able to withstand increasingly severe climate and weather events the codes and standards did not accommodate.  Yes, changes are being made, but progress is appallingly slow, made so not only by the riggers of the standards development process, but by members of industry who seem to be ignorant of the situation or waiting for someone to tell them what to do.  Meanwhile, the cost to US taxpayers of climate and weather-related damages is increasing, costs largely for repair and replacement of failed infrastructure assets.  I expand this thesis in my Viewpoint article (attached) just published by Engineering News-Record.  So, what are you folks doing?  Do you understand the issues, challenges and opportunities?  Do you talk to your clients about climate? Are you waiting to be told what to do?

I have just ordered your book and look forward to reading it. Thanks for writing a much-needed guide.

My work deals with two aspects of water resources – issues of flooding and drought under changing rainfall (for which guidance is lacking), and sea level change (for which good guidance is available).

We began noticing changing rainfall statistics in the 1980s. Now the climate-change-induced changes (more intense rainfalls and more serious dry periods) have become obvious. Unfortunately, our best guidance, NOAA NWS Precipitation Frequency data (Atlas 14), has been chronically underfunded and relied on decades-old data. A 2022 bill provided funding for updating it and accounting for climate change. That guidance (Atlas 15) will roll out on a state-by-state basis beginning in 2025. Meanwhile, hydrologic engineers are in limbo, wondering how to factor in climate change effects responsibly without offending clients.

We have good guidance for sea level change, thanks to a combined NOAA -Corps of Engineers Sea Level Change calculator (https://cwbi-app.sec.usace.army.mil/rccslc/slcc_calc.html). It provides low, medium and high estimates of future sea level at dozens of NOAA's tide gage locations. Pushback sometimes comes from clients who don't want to hear bad news about their projects and politicians who deny climate change.

Bill Mc

I wrote a book titled The Great Civil Engineering Overhaul, published in July of this year by ASCE.  It was several years in the making, a result of frustration after years of effort trying to convince our industry that climate change is a real, human-caused, urgent issue that represents the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity civil engineers will see in their careers.  Climate-related engineering design codes and standards are no longer reliable. Infrastructure projects you design and build may not be able to withstand increasingly severe climate and weather events the codes and standards did not accommodate.  Yes, changes are being made, but progress is appallingly slow, made so not only by the riggers of the standards development process, but by members of industry who seem to be ignorant of the situation or waiting for someone to tell them what to do.  Meanwhile, the cost to US taxpayers of climate and weather-related damages is increasing, costs largely for repair and replacement of failed infrastructure assets.  I expand this thesis in my Viewpoint article (attached) just published by Engineering News-Record.  So, what are you folks doing?  Do you understand the issues, challenges and opportunities?  Do you talk to your clients about climate? Are you waiting to be told what to do?

Thank you, Bill! I wrote the book for a wide range of audiences, hopefully to educate some of the folks who don't understand how sustainability, climate change and infrastructure resilience all fit together.  In addition, I've been in contact with people in the E&O insurance industry who are increasingly concerned that their insured could be exposed to claims and liability for NOT considering the impacts of a changing climate in their projects.

I have just ordered your book and look forward to reading it. Thanks for writing a much-needed guide.

My work deals with two aspects of water resources – issues of flooding and drought under changing rainfall (for which guidance is lacking), and sea level change (for which good guidance is available).

We began noticing changing rainfall statistics in the 1980s. Now the climate-change-induced changes (more intense rainfalls and more serious dry periods) have become obvious. Unfortunately, our best guidance, NOAA NWS Precipitation Frequency data (Atlas 14), has been chronically underfunded and relied on decades-old data. A 2022 bill provided funding for updating it and accounting for climate change. That guidance (Atlas 15) will roll out on a state-by-state basis beginning in 2025. Meanwhile, hydrologic engineers are in limbo, wondering how to factor in climate change effects responsibly without offending clients.

We have good guidance for sea level change, thanks to a combined NOAA -Corps of Engineers Sea Level Change calculator (https://cwbi-app.sec.usace.army.mil/rccslc/slcc_calc.html). It provides low, medium and high estimates of future sea level at dozens of NOAA's tide gage locations. Pushback sometimes comes from clients who don't want to hear bad news about their projects and politicians who deny climate change.

Bill Mc

I wrote a book titled The Great Civil Engineering Overhaul, published in July of this year by ASCE.  It was several years in the making, a result of frustration after years of effort trying to convince our industry that climate change is a real, human-caused, urgent issue that represents the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity civil engineers will see in their careers.  Climate-related engineering design codes and standards are no longer reliable. Infrastructure projects you design and build may not be able to withstand increasingly severe climate and weather events the codes and standards did not accommodate.  Yes, changes are being made, but progress is appallingly slow, made so not only by the riggers of the standards development process, but by members of industry who seem to be ignorant of the situation or waiting for someone to tell them what to do.  Meanwhile, the cost to US taxpayers of climate and weather-related damages is increasing, costs largely for repair and replacement of failed infrastructure assets.  I expand this thesis in my Viewpoint article (attached) just published by Engineering News-Record.  So, what are you folks doing?  Do you understand the issues, challenges and opportunities?  Do you talk to your clients about climate? Are you waiting to be told what to do?