oneEngineers and Globalization

What is Globalization?

Globalization is a term that is used to describe the increasing trend towards internationally integrated markets and global interconnectedness, making national boundaries less important in terms of political, cultural, technological, financial, environmental, and national security issues. It can have a positive effect on society, providing tremendous opportunities and benefits - increased access to world markets, greater competition and the freer flow of goods, services, capital and knowledge. However, globalization may also lead to serious negative impacts on society, especially in developing nations where increased poverty and the lack of access to clean drinking water, education, good health and other basic services of life have increased with globalization. The impacts of globalization have been felt all over the world and “in all aspects of social life from the food we eat and the TV we watch, to the sustainability of our environment”.

Globalization of the Civil Engineering Profession

The effect of globalization on the civil engineering profession and the increasing expansion of engineering services into international markets present both incredible opportunity and significant challenges for the future of civil engineering. As the world becomes more globalized and as world population increases, civil engineers will play a critical role in addressing the concerns of the global community such as decaying infrastructure and deterioration of the environment. However, due to increased access to international markets, engineering will change considerably as issues that control the international trade of professional services - international licensing requirements, international codes and standards, and international treaties and trade agreements affecting engineers are created and finalized. In addition, civil engineers must consider how international policies regarding intellectual property rights, emerging markets for engineering products and services, and other factors affect the practice of engineering and the education of future engineers.

The purpose of this report is to provide a brief discussion of the effects of globalization on the civil engineering profession in terms of future market growth, international trade agreements affecting engineers and the education and training of future civil engineers. Although globalization will lead to greater opportunities and access to world markets, there are several challenges facing the globalization of the engineering profession. These challenges include developing international licensing procedures and international engineering standards, defining global engineering ethics and the engineer’s responsibility to society, and breaking language and cultural barriers. With increased globalization, the role of the professional civil engineer will change significantly. It is important for the civil engineering community to recognize its role in developing and negotiating international trade agreements involving engineering services as well as preparing the future generation of civil engineers to meet the challenges of a globalized world.

Challenges of engineers in globalization.

In the area of engineering for economic sustainability, the challenges are to design technologies and systems that can facilitate global commerce, foster technological innovations and entrepreneurship, and help generate jobs, while minimizing environmental impacts and using resources efficiently. An emerging challenge to engineering is also to develop technological approaches that can help prevent or mitigate hostile acts, reduce the impact of natural disasters, and motivate humans to reduce their draw on the resources of the planet.

The uneven distribution of water across continents and regions and its limited availability make enormous demands on engineering skills, from devising more effective systems for water and wastewater treatment and for recycling, to desalination, reducing evaporation losses in reservoirs, stanching the large amount of leakage from old distribution systems and building new recirculation systems.

in energy, engineering is challenged to continue to improve technologies for the collection, in all its manifestations, of the inexhaustible but widely dispersed solar energy, for the extraction of oil, for tapping thermal energy from the interior of the Earth, and for providing environmentally sustainable power and light to large segments of the world’s population. Integration into power grids of large amounts of intermittent solar and wind power is a major challenge, and so is the devising of economical storage mechanisms – large and small – that would have widespread utility, including also the reduction of power plant capacities required to supply power at peak hours. Improvement in efficiency of energy utilization to reduce the large percentage (about 50 per cent) of global energy supply wasted is a global engineering challenge of the first magnitude, and so is the decarbonization of emissions from fossil fuel power plants, e.g. through underground gasification and deep coal deposits. The need to replace liquid hydrocarbons, which power much of the world’s transportation systems, is particularly urgent, and the prospect of doing so by biomolecule engineering of plant microbes or by hydrogen fuel cells is emerging as a more desirable possibility than making biofuels from agricultural biomass.