Question

Explain, with examples, how the values held by a society could influence the establishment of goals and objectives for the design of a new civil engineering system or the operations of an existing system being planned in that society.

Answer 1

Any project needs to have a clear and planned objectives to accomplish the task its been taken up for. Civil engineering projects in particular, which takes a huge investment, in terms of cost,time, labor and indirect costs such as people relocation, environmental degeneration, etc need to have a broad and clear vision to accomplish the goal. Civil engineering projects always have a design life, which in some cases exceeds a century, ie: 100 year time frame. The impact of such a project will be large, and the factors to consider at the design stage need to be more.

The factors considered for such design goes hand in hand with the values held by the society. Since such projects could in a big way alter the lifestyle of the people, in the years to come, it is of foremost importance, here, to make the design goals and objective in line with the societal values.

There is a significant technological advancement in the technology, used in the design and construction of a civil engineering project. For ex: the planning and design stages uses extensively the software applications, and computer technology, and it keeps changing towards the future. The societal values too in a similar way, is continuously evolving, from the primitive stages, and moves towards a more modern outlook, as more information gets available to process. The inculcation of societal values into the civil engineering project designs is an essential aspect in order to develop more sustaining projects. And this trend in the project design is a healthy trend, that needs to be fostered in the years to come.

One example of including such societal values into the civil engineering projects is evident in building dams, and structures used for power generation. Such projects generally involves the destruction of forests and wild life, as the need for power was at its peak a few decades ago. The society needed power, and such structures were developed. But in the present scenario, the locations have established rules for sustainable development, and there is a restriction on deforestation. More sustainable ways of construction and power generation are explored in such projects.

Hence, to summarize, the involvement of societal values in the civil engineering projects' goal and objectives establishment is a healthy trend, as it helps in developing a more inclusive project development. The field needs to get stronger in the years to come.