The ACOPNE Coastal Engineering Body of Knowledge (CEBOK) is to be used by ACOPNE evaluation panels to determine if candidates for the board-certified designation qualify for certification.
The intent of the CEBOK is not to establish a checklist of requirements, but to provide a template by which the Academy can more uniformly evaluate a candidate’s education and experience, reducing but not eliminating subjectivity.
The American Society of Civil Engineers Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge: Preparing the Future Civil Engineer, third edition lists the outcomes necessary for professional licensing in 21 categories. Coastal Engineering Certification requires the same levels as the ASCE BOK plus mastery of at least one advanced technical outcome in coastal engineering under ASCE BOK Outcomes 5 through 21.
The CEBOK outlines 21 foundational, technical, and professional practice learning outcomes for individuals entering into responsible charge in the practice of civil engineering.
We define “Mastery” of an outcome to mean that the engineer has reached the level of expertise such that more challenging, complex, and difficult problems may be solved than can be addressed by an ordinarily competent licensed engineer.
Mastery of a topic can be demonstrated by planning, designing, constructing, operating, managing, regulating, or researching coastal projects of geographic or type diversity at the expert level with increasing levels of responsibility and difficulty, teaching advanced courses on these topics, authoring or co-authoring papers and contributing to books, and contributing to the profession, such as through society committees, on these topics. Mastery may be manifested as exceptional expertise in a single area or as recognized expertise in multiple topic areas.
The CEBOK consists of:
- Fulfillment, at the level required for licensure, of all 21 outcomes in the ASCE BOK.
- Fulfillment, at the expert level of at least one outcome from the ASCE BOK Outcomes 5 Through 21 as related to one or more Coastal Engineering categories from the listing below to demonstrate mastery of the discipline.
Technical outcomes below will be used by the ACOPNE Board of Trustees or a Board-designated examination panel to evaluate applicants for certification.
Coastal Engineering
General Knowledge
- Life cycle planning and management
- Codes, manuals, guidelines, and standards, risk assessment
- Engineering economics; cost-benefit analysis
- Field investigations and data acquisition for waves, currents, tidal levels, sediment transport, seabed sampling, analysis, and interpretation
- Coastal Engineering fundamentals (e.g., water wave physics and theories, tide generation and water level fluctuations, storm surges, cyclone generation and propagations, seabed formation, types of sediment transport, shoreline, and beach profile changes) to define environmental forcing, design conditions, siting, and permitting requirements for coastal construction, monitoring, and management
- Safety & security of environment, public use, private/public property
- Adverse and beneficial environmental impacts analysis
- Sustainability planning, design, and analysis
- Environmental law and policy with respect to coastal engineering projects
Hydrodynamics and Environmental Forcing
- Large- and small-scale hydrodynamics of tides and wind-generated, swell, infra-gravity, and tsunami waves
- Tide and wave prediction and measurement
- Wave transformation; influence of current flows, winds, energy decay, and roughness and wave-structure interactions
- Time series analysis of environmental data; water level and wave data analysis
- Cyclones, hurricanes, floods and storms (high- to low-frequency events) prediction, generation, and propagation
- Tsunami generation, propagation, and impacts (wave run up) and mitigation measures
- Extreme water levels, storm surge and wave setup/set down; frequency analysis to derive design water levels for various return periods
- Bathymetry, shoreline topography and hydrographic surveys
- Flows in estuaries; stratification/density effects
- Modeling of coastal hydrodynamics (numerical and physical)
- Transport of constituents or contaminants (heat, salt, pollutants)
- Water exchanges of enclosed bay/marinas and measures to improve the water flushing
- Hydraulic forces/pressure exerted on the coastal structures (e.g., coastal bridge, piers, piles, deco-on-piles, pipelines, submerged structures, etc.)
Beach and Shoreline stability, Protection and Coastal Structures
- Sediment characteristics and types of sediment transport (seabed forms, bedload, suspended loads, littoral drift, and cross-shore sediment transport)
- Equilibrium beach profile and stabilized shoreline analysis and interpretation
- Effectiveness and impacts of seawalls, groins, jetties, revetments, breakwaters, beach nourishment and sand motor
- Shoreline and beach management
- Nature-based and soft solutions for shoreline protection including living shoreline and sand dunes with vegetation
- Structural design and analysis (hard structures; beach nourishment)
- Modeling impacts and stability of coastal structures (via numerical and physical models)
- Construction materials for coastal structures including the characteristics of superior quality rocks, and concrete units
- Structural foundations; scour analysis; geotechnical investigations
- Securing sand source for beach nourishment from offshore area including dredging works, type of dredgers and environmental related considerations
Construction, Maintenance and Monitoring
- Contracting – plans, specifications and inspecting
- Permitting requirements
- Hydrographic surveying, sediments analysis and monitoring
- Contractor possession of the site and preliminary works
- Setting out of the works and sequence for construction
- Review of shop drawings, method statement, materials delivered on site, and test results reports
- Environmental impacts, considerations, and laws
- Construction management
- Performance analysis and assessment
- Project sustainability and lifetime
- Inspection of the works and monitoring
- Maintenance management