Thomas J. Grizzard Jr., professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and director of its Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory for 40 years, has died at 70.
His expertise in the urban water cycle and four decades of work at the laboratory made Grizzard, Ph.D., M.ASCE, so influential, he would be known as “the protector of the Occoquan.” He also served Virginia Tech...
Now more than ever, our power infrastructure is at risk. Significant power outages have risen from 76 in 2007 to 307 in 2011 largely due to aging and underfunded infrastructure equipment and systems.
ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure in 2013 gave the United States a D+ in energy due to the nation’s reliance on an aging electrical grid and pipeline distribution system, some of...
The ASCE Board of Direction has endorsed updated strategies to improve the state of America’s infrastructure, transform the profession so that civil infrastructure is more sustainable, and reduce the life-cycle cost of infrastructure by 50 percent by 2025 and foster the optimization of infrastructure investments for society.
At its July 8-9 meeting in San Diego, the Board held strategic discussions on the Society’s Sustainable Infrastructure...
Issues with the Flint, MI, water crisis and Washington, DC’s metro service show us that now, more than ever, innovation is required to reinvent our approach to sustainable infrastructure.
Introducing innovation inherently presents several obstacles for organizations and businesses to overcome. Whether the source of the obstacle is funding, technology, manpower, or operations, DC Water’s CEO and General Manager George Hawkins, Esq. believes innovation is...
As an engineer, you are always tackling new challenges. It is important for you to stay informed on issues affecting your profession, so you can be prepared with better solutions for tomorrow. Watch these videos from the Interchange series as ASCE’s senior managing director Casey Dinges interviews industry leaders on the hot topics dominating the civil engineering profession:
1. Creating sustainable communities that address the...
Orville T. Magoon, Dist.D.CE, Dist.M.ASCE, coastal engineering expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the namesake of ASCE’s Orville T. Magoon Sustainable Coasts Award, has died at 87.
Magoon was an early champion of sustainability, specifically pertaining to coastal engineering research, design, construction, and management. He worked for the Corps from 1952 to 1983 before retiring as chief of the Coastal Engineering Branch...
Donald V.N. Roberts, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, who helped integrate sustainable development principles and techniques into engineering education and practice, has died at 87.
Sustainable infrastructure now stands as one of ASCE’s key strategic initiatives, and Roberts was at the forefront of the movement to stress adoption of sustainability by civil engineers. He served as a member of ASCE’s Task Committee on Sustainable Development, which was instrumental...
What was once considered an issue of the far distant future, climate change, has been clearly stated by the Third National Climate Assessment as now meeting us in the present.
People from corn producers in Iowa, to coastal planners in Florida, to city dwellers in New York City, to Native Peoples on tribal lands are experiencing extreme changes to the climate around them. Summers are longer...
