President's Monthly Message
May 2008

One Vision, One Global Community

At this writing, I am on my way to Beijing to address the First International Symposium on Transportation and Development Innovative Best Practices. This is another opportunity for ASCE to assume a high profile in an international arena where issues will be discussed that -- let’s face it -- truly have global ramifications. Transportation is a vital part of every nation’s economy, and it has no small effect on the quality of life. Securing resources for building and maintaining transportation infrastructure is a challenge every country around the world faces today and will face in the future.

From Beijing I will travel to the World Environmental & Water Resources Congress, which is being held in Hawaii under the auspices of our Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI). That conference will focus on sustainability and water resources and will give special attention this year to problems in countries bordering the Pacific. The issues that will be considered at the conference have important implications for public health, economic vibrancy and the quality of life.

ASCE enjoys productive relationships with many groups around the world. The Society recognizes that regardless of where we civil engineers practice our profession or where we live, we are all part of a global community.

Our international relations and alliances activities are designed to improve what is increasingly a global profession, and it is of the utmost importance that we take the lead in connecting U.S. civil engineers with their colleagues around the world. In fulfilling this responsibility, ASCE forms partnerships and joins various consortia. We also work to ensure that our members are properly apprised of global issues affecting civil engineering. About 11 percent of our members live outside the United States, and just as U.S. members do, they work in the private sector, at all levels of government and in academia.

ASCE is active in the international arena because we view engineers as "global leaders building a better quality of life." As part of its quest to “raise the bar” on the standards for practice at the professional level, ASCE has worked to develop the engineering Body of Knowledge and to share it with students and practitioners worldwide. We also do our best to inform engineers of the opportunities and challenges that global developments are creating in engineering. ASCE has agreements of cooperation with 70 engineering organizations in 59 countries. We also have 12 international Sections and 19 international Groups, and we participate in a variety of international engineering organizations, among them the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and the Union Panamericana de Asociaciones de Ingenieros (UPADI), or Pan American Federation of Engineering Societies. Our technical institutes work closely with their international counterparts in sharing information, hosting conferences and bringing members of our profession closer together. A number of ASCE programs have international aspects. Roughly half the contributions to ASCE journals come from overseas authors, and about half of our journal sales are to engineers, universities and libraries outside the United States.

Recent international activities have included participation in the project Millennium Villages in collaboration with the EWRI. Millennium Villages gives members who participate an opportunity to provide advice, guidance and direction that can help make better use of water resources in Africa. ASCE also partners with Engineers Without Borders-USA, a non-profit humanitarian organization that works with communities in poorer countries that not only raise the standard of living but also advance the goals of sustainable development. ASCE’s partnership with this group affords our members an opportunity to grow personally and professionally as they make the best possible use of their technical expertise.

ASCE’s Council on Disaster Risk Management brought together specialists from a variety of locations to coordinate disaster strategy last August. We worked with the Peruvian ambassador to the United States to dispatch a team of earthquake engineers to Peru to evaluate damage in Ica and Pisco from a major earthquake.

Peru also figured in another international endeavor. Through the efforts of our History and Heritage Committee and with the support of the Smithsonian Institution, we formally recognized the Peruvian sites of Machu Picchu and Tipon as civil engineering landmarks.

Another effort in the international arena saw our Task Committee on Global Principles for Professional Conduct hosting discussions with members of a WFEO task group set up to combat corruption. An ASCE delegation has been invited to join the American Bar Association’s related initiative, the World Justice Project, at a key meeting in Vienna, Austria, that will consider ways of promoting good governance and the rule of law.

In partnership with the U.S.-based Society of Afghan Engineers, we have worked to help both the engineering profession and engineering firms in Afghanistan. The program is funded by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and many of the sessions are hosted by Kabul University. U.S. firms carrying out reconstruction work in the country are encouraged to mentor Afghan engineers and Afghan engineering firms. The World Bank also is lending its support to this program.

In cooperation with the Society of American Military Engineers, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State, ASCE is also assisting in a program that places Iraqi engineers with engineering firms outside Iraq so that they can learn about recent advances and trends. ASCE helped to finalize an agreement from the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to support this program through funds earmarked for technical capacity building in postconflict countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our international activities are part of an overall quest to ensure that the future of our profession is in keeping with The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (visit http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html.) The vision described in that report encompasses not just U.S. civil engineers but civil engineers around the world. ASCE hopes that all civil engineers will join us in realizing this vision for our profession and will share our preference for “choice over chance.” As we see it, there are only two futures for civil engineering around the globe: one the future the profession creates for itself, the other the future that others create for us. We have chosen to create our own future.

What is our vision for the challenges of 2025? We want to see civil engineers serving as master planners, designers, constructors and operators; as environmental stewards; as innovators and integrators; as managers of risk and uncertainty; and as leaders in shaping public policy. The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 will thus be our guidebook. The vision is a call to action addressed to both individuals and organizations. ASCE is leading the effort to restructure civil engineering licensure in the United States and to raise educational standards for our profession through the Body of Knowledge initiative.

ASCE’s vision for the global profession also calls for a more clearly defined organizational structure for engineering teams. It wants to see more civil engineers involved in public policy forums so that they will not only raise the stature of our profession but also gain public trust. The vision also calls for more civil engineers to be elected to public office so that they can apply their expertise to such issues as the conservation of natural resources and the construction and maintenance of infrastructure. Furthermore, it calls for a greater level of collaboration between civil engineers and those who are not engineers, in efforts to meet society’s needs while advancing the goals of sustainable development. A greater emphasis on research and development, another part of the vision, will help to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. Civil engineers will indeed have much to do in devising and implementing solutions. Higher educational standards will be supplemented and enriched by a firm commitment to ethics in engineering practice, yet another facet of our vision.

My hope is that civil engineers around the world will work together to realize this vision as they undertake the formidable tasks of meeting society’s increasingly complex needs in this century.

                                                                                                                                             -- David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE