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The roles of civil engineers are very broad, from planning and design to building and providing
infrastructure and why not say managing as well. All this in a constant world of changes in a direct interaction
with people and the environment. Therefore, the responsibility is greater, considering all the direct and
indirect impacts and costs engineers can bring to society. It can be the way a city develops itself according to
the infrastructure provided or the effects that planning can have on pollution or the women empowerment
due to sanitation. In the following paragraphs are examples from three different sources on how the
infrastructure, or the lack of it, can influence and sometimes determine on how people behave and set some
standards on quality of life. It is an attempt to gather some real situations that exemplify on how society
responds to civil engineering. Those might seem to be distinguished from one another, but are all in a certain
way related, because theres no such thing as a punctual action when considering infrastructure, because
the impacts are way wider and sometimes are hard to link and quantify.
The documentary We Built This City: Paris shows that once Paris started to develop as a city under
the rule of the King of the Franks, King Philip Augustus the need for protection was inevitable due to wars
during the Middle Ages period. A fortress of stone was then built encircling the city and had about 67 towers.
Many people felt attracted to the sense of security the city could provide, so, with a growing population the
demand for water increased so much that The Seine was not enough to cater for everyone anymore. The
problem of lack of water was initially settled by monks engineers who created aqueducts networks that
supplied water to the fountains, from where people could collected the water they would use. However this
system was limited and did not prevent the river which supplied the city to run dry. The outcome was the
construction of pumping stations that would divert the course of other rivers, thus ensuring that flow of the
Seine River would be kept on. Then with the water problem solved Paris continued to grow and became the
capital, causing its narrow streets to become another big problem to be solved. A large scale bridge was
then built up, linking the two banks of the river, the Pont Neuf, which would facilitate the mobility of people.
It was made with limestone taken from quarries dug throughout the city, including from underneath the river
itself. These quarries became one solution to the health issues. With crowded cemeteries, dead bodies
began to be stacked, exposed into the open. To prevent the rain water that passed through there to bring
disease to the population, it was ordered that the bodies were removed and buried in the deactivated
quarries. Later on, in the mid-19th century, under the orders of Napoleon III, the project of the actual Greater
Paris was conceived by Haussmann. With its large boulevards, which didnt only brought up the aesthetics
work, but gave more efficiency to mobility and prepared it to welcome the flow of transportation. At the same
time the complex sewer systems that cuts across the city was built as well and a final touch was given to
Paris by the construction of the Eiffel Tower, made entirely of iron, which became a symbol to the city.
The paper by Larsen and El-Geneidy has Montral as a case of study and uses modeling to analyze
travel behavior associated with cycling facilities. It is well know that non-motorized transport are one of the
solutions for mitigating air pollution and it is important to know what encourages people to cycle and which
factors influence in their decision of route choices and using or not the facilities. It showed that overall, if a
cyclist chose to use a facility segregated from vehicle traffic, the diversion will add a greater distance do the
destiny and also the longer the facility length greater is the diversion cyclist would have to make. Maybe this
links to the other analyses that shows that regular users are less likely to use the facilities than occasional
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ones. Another factor of major importance that would influence the usage of a facility was the existence of
one within 400 m of home and destination, which would increase the odds of usage by 129%. The authors
send and advert to transport professionals when making a decision to take into account beyond the
economic matter and consider a more efficient option with longer and continuous facilities - that would
attract more users to use this modal. That would be also a solution for maximizing the benefits of creating or
expanding the infrastructure, since it would be used a lot more other than just for recreational cycling.
In a Forbes publication (2013), Denise Restauri interviews John Kludge, not an engineer, but
someone who has been trying to get the worlds attention by showing Why Toilets, Not Cell Phones, Are
Key To Education Around The World as the headline says. It is discussed the access to sanitation and how
it has a major impact on education, especially for girls after reaching puberty. In developing countries,
menstruation is the number one cause of school absenteeism, ahead of malaria and other diseases it can
cause girls to miss up 20% of school days, and is a major barrier to empowering women and girls says
John. According to George (2007), due to many inconvenient no friendly sanitation facility and nowhere to
dispose their pads after a while, girls get tired of this situation and are encouraged to stay home and get
married. Educated girls grow up to be economic active, which impact on their surroundings. Also, early
marriages, childbirths and domestic violence decrease while education and health improve. So, the idea of
bringing innovators to come up with a solution to monitor girls attendance to show the benefits of
implementing gender-friendly sanitation, brought together all sorts of people trying to help. One good reason
for monitoring attendance is that it can play an important role on governments decision due to positive
results. In a certain way, John and his collaborator Michael Lindenmayer campaign for the demystification of
the taboo concerning sanitation. They also try to add a humor to the subject to facilitate talking about it and
to bring peoples attention to it, considering that toilets and regular hand-washing is not exactly the most
compelling pitch Michael explains. As well, he insists onto the importance of technology, behavior and
design always working together. The numbers revealed on the amount of people that lack sanitation or that
dont have a proper facility around the globe are of a major concern, 40% of the population, meaning around
2.5 billion human beings.
As we can see, each selection had a focus on one matter; however it may be easier now to realize
how the responses to infrastructure dont have a single result. It can become so complex that many variables
can be left out consideration and sometimes the consequences cant be foreseen, causing the need for a
more careful look into the evaluation of the real benefit for society.
Throughout the documentary produced by Discovery Channel, it was possible to observe the
practice of civil engineering in different areas as well as the development and importance of new
technologies against each challenge, whether they were used to build new things or in the maintenance of
the existing ones. This, coupled with the transformation power provided by planning, that lead what was
doomed to chaos to its full operation. It shows how peoples decisions were impacted by engineering
solutions, and how they improved their well-being having access to water and later on to appropriate
transport design.
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The study lead by Larsen and El-Geneidy is of a great source of relevance especially for Urban
Planners, since it helps understand the relationship between the availability and the use of cycling facilities.
Likewise, it can be a fundamental evidence to show local, regional or national government other points to be
considered other than just the economics. It can help create true benefits for future cycling facilities.
Ravilious (2013) said that encouraging cycling isnt a simple solution and can cause more pollution if the
bikes slow down the traffic. That shows that the infrastructure can be another issue to health degradation to
be considered, since pollution is a global problem. However, the improvement on health, due to lower carbon
emission and therefore a better air quality as well as an increase in quality of life quality due to exercise for
example and also the physical security involved in this matter, all of these are a part to the equation and
should be taken into account as a benefit for society in general.
The Forbes interview shows just a small part of the benefits that proper sanitation can have on
peoples life. Unfortunately, sometimes, this importance cant be conceived by some, especially by
government and decision makers. Therefore, civil engineers play a major role on that matter, as identifying
and the developing the appropriate facilities can improve the life of people on a major scale, especially in
developing countries and it accomplishes more than the obvious as combating diseases and keeping water
supply clean and safe. The settings to plan, getting locals involved as part of the managing are one of the
key tools for a proper sanitation system to work, since it consists not only of infrastructure, but also
education, that will mold peoples behavior and help improve their quality of life.
All the engineering examples show that engineers are far more responsible than just building and
maintaining the infrastructure, since its impact on society can play on both sides, therefore, sensibility as well
as an integrated vision must grow along with the engineering experience.

References
Forbes, 2013. Why Toilets, Not Cell Phones, Are Key To Education Around The World. [online]. Available
from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/deniserestauri/2013/01/03/why-toilets-not-cell-phones-are-the-key-to-
education-around-the-world/ [Accessed 16 Oct 2013].
GEORGE, Rose, 2007. The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters.
US: Metropolitan Books.
LARSEN, J., & EL-GENEIDY, A., 2011. A travel behavior analysis of urban cycling facilities in Montral
Canada. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 16 (2), 172-177
RAVILIOUS, Kate, 2013. Car versus bike: road design to cut pollution. [online]. Available from:
http://evironmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/53389 [Accessed 20 Oct 2013].
We Built This City: Paris, 2004. [documentary]. Directed by Jeremy LLEWELLYN-JONES. Originally
produced as a documentary for The Discovery Channel.