ASCE Annual Civil Engineering Conference

This year, the conference will be held in Memphis and the topic is:

“Sustainable Infrastructure – Civil Engineering Solutions”

As a brief background, I have given speeches at past ASCE annual Conventions. I have been a member of ASCE for a very long time and I was elected as a Fellow several years ago. You do not have to be a civil engineer to think that the trade organization has gotten “inside the beltway” mentality.

I thought you might want to know some of the titles of the special sessions:

“Climate Change Impacts on Critical Transportation Infrastructure”

“Communities Create a Sustainable Civil Engineering Profession”
MY NOTE: this session should be re-titled – The Civil Engineering Profession creates Sustainable Communities”

“The New Trend in Engineering: Sustainable Social Media”

“Planning Transit Connections: Defining the Pathways to Sustainability”

“Ethical Engineering Situations in Sustainability”

“Sustainable Restoration in Urban Environments”

“Achieve Sustainability Goals by Understanding and Implementing a Charette Platform”
MY NOTE: This session should be cancelled. This promotes the general public influence on how land is developed. If you live in a community which has a charette component in the rezoning process, move away!

It is interesting to watch “inside the beltway” government and quasi-government entities feed off each other. ASCE is the primary trade organization for the civil engineering profession. Combined with academia, the civil engineering organization embraces a movement (sustainability) without considering its validity in developing residential and non-residential projects.

The word “sustainability” is now overused.