Climate Adaptation Engineering Bulletin No. 4
Incorporating Climate Change in Undergraduate Civil Engineering Education
Civil engineering undergraduate programs are in the third year of complying with ABET requirements to document how resilience is included in the curriculum. This is challenging in civil engineering because creativity is required to add topics into already packed curricula, and climate resilience topics involve both climate science and engineering applications, and are relevant across many aspects of the curricula.
A Climate Adaptation Engineering Bulletin issued by ASCE’s Committee on Adaptation to Climate Change examines this resilience update to ABET civil engineering program criteria. Prior to the 2024-25 academic year, sustainability was listed as a curriculum requirement, while risk and resilience were not. Programs evaluated typically every six years now need to provide documentation of how risk and resilience are incorporated into the curriculum.
The bulletin, edited by Dan Walker, Ph.D., and Craig Musselman, P.E., with input provided by William Capehart, Ph.D. and Shirley Clark, Ph.D., makes a case for incorporating risk, resilience, and sustainability in targeted locations across the curriculum, not as stand-alone courses but as integral parts of the broad civil engineering education.
ASCE played a significant role in shaping the resiliency requirement, as the bulletin details.
Read and comment on Climate Adaptation Engineering Bulletin No. 4, Incorporating Climate Change in Undergraduate Civil Engineering Education, and take part in the Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate online community at ASCE Collaborate.
