Sustainable development practices in civil engineering projects - Essay Example

Therefore, civil engineers should play a very big role in sustainability since they are responsible for designing and building structures that support the society’s daily lives. [2] Sustainable Development In any professional career, there are a set of code of ethics that guide the practices in that field and thus must always be followed. Almost all countries in the world have these set of ethics and relevant bodies that ensure they are followed. For instance, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Code of Ethics in the USA defines how Civil Engineers should be practice professionally.

Sustainable development is the pillar of any engineering practice since if it is followed strictly, then other ethical practices will immediately fall in to place. [1] Sustainability can be defined as a way of using a resource in way that it is not depleted permanently. In construction, it can also be referred to as green construction since it is concerned with socio-economic and environmental impact of creating structures that can be reused. Therefore to ensure sustainability, contractors and engineers are required to design and build structures that will not cause long-term damage to the environment.

Sustainable structures are supposed to energy efficient, ensure health safety of people living in around it and also reduced pollution and waste release. [1] Sustainable Development Practices Civil Engineers play a very important role in sustainable development. A civil engineering project will require the incorporation of a various professionals from various disciplines i.e. geologists, biologists, surrounding community and agencies concerned with the enforcement of the code of ethics. All these groups have interest in the project and are supposed to ensure that the project meets all the sustainability practices and also ensure their interests are not put at risk.

It is the responsibility of a civil engineer to combine all the interested disciplines and parties in order to produce a design and build a structure that meets the goals of the client. [5] For instance, if a new building structure is to be built in an area that was initially used for crop farming, the surrounding area must be able to continue support crop farming even after the completion of the project. Also, if the area is surrounded by a major water body and is used for recreation, these water body need not to be polluted and recreation has to continue after completion of the project.

This therefore requires aspect of sustainability practice. A civil engineer will have the responsibility of determining if the characteristics of the soil, layout of the facility, the drainage of the site and the past usage of the land will support the characteristics of the new facility. The engineer will also determine if the available modes of transport system to the facility are adequate, come up with a design that will take into consideration both the aquatic habitat, flora and fauna and design the structure in a way that it has minimal environmental impact to the people living in the surrounding.

The design of this facility should also meet the set code of ethics standard. Therefore for such a successful evaluation, an engineer must have an understanding and knowledge of these multiple disciplines and this is brought out by the concept of sustainable devel