IT in CE: Applicative CE/IT Integration Efforts at AUB

Information Technology in Civil Engineering

Applicative CE/IT Integration Efforts at the American University of Beirut

Posted on December 28, 2002

Abstract

This paper explores a diversity of Information Technology (IT) applications that can serve Civil Engineering (CE) and help this sector restore its past glory among peer disciplines. Instead of decreeing in an abstract exposition, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the efforts poured and steps taken therein towards a more pronounced orientation towards and use of Information Technology, will be used as a case study. Through exemplary CE/IT projects presented by civil engineering undergraduates and fruitful policies enforced by faculty to incorporate IT into their conventional civil engineering courses, this paper will outline a strategic departmental shift towards better CE/IT coupling culminating into: the addition of new IT-related courses to the Civil Engineering curriculum, possibly a graduate specialization in Information Technology track, and the acceptance of all its applicants to the graduate Information Technology track at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

From the standpoint of a civil engineer keenly interested in IT, I will use my experience at AUB and ongoing education at MIT (as a Masters of Engineering in Information Technology student at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department) to voice/justify my opinion on the extent of success such ‘integration’ efforts have attained and recommendations on how that can be better realized and directed towards civil engineering. Finally, a distinctive line will be drawn between the two specialty areas to help steer the civil engineer’s IT pursuits in a way that serves the civil profession without him/her mistakenly wandering out of it.

Contents

Abstract. 2

Contents.. 3

Prelude.. 4

Key Application Areas

Intelligent Infrastructures and Geographic Information Systems 5

Innovative Sensing Technologies for Monitoring and Inspection 7

IT-Related Endeavors at AUB

Water and Wastewater Works Study/Design for Qalamoun (the GIS component therein). 11

AutoFooT – Foundation Design and Modeling Tool 14

ActiveSEEP – CAD Port for 2D Seepage Finite Element Modeling in LISA 16

EasyHighway – Tool for the Design and Modeling of Highways in AutoCAD 20

AutoLabs – CEE Laboratories Database Management System.. 22

Towards Better CE/IT Coupling

Controversy on Nature and Extent of Integration. 24

Necessary Curricular Changes. 27

A Caution Flag.. 30

Acknowledgements.. 31

References.. 32

Prelude

While some assume that computer engineering and information technology are the future and that civil engineering is obsolete, there are many who can touch beyond this and see that such technological advancements, if properly directed, can add a lot to civil engineering, which in turn would proportionally reflect on our quality of life. A guest speaker (Nassif, 2002), in a seminar presentation given at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department (AUB), put it bluntly by raising this caution flag (addressing faculty members and students): “It’s up to you guys to revolutionize this sector and instill novel technology into it; it’s by this and this only that you can put it back on the pedestal off which other engineering disciplines have recently had it displaced.” He also commended the transportation sector people for being the civil engineering pioneers to realize and start implementing this.

It is up to the new breed of civil engineers to attend to this and assess the means to and consequent benefits from such a full-fledged utilization of computerization and information technology in conventional areas/methods of civil engineering. While their fellow colleagues develop those high-tech tools, civil engineers’ efforts should lie in knowing how to successfully exploit such tools in every implicative manner. It is only then that a civil engineer achieves both: the satisfaction from subduing IT and computer technology skills, and the obligation towards his profession through applying them to serve numerous civil needs. The following section is an exemplary, yet by now means comprehensive, overview of two areas in which such utilization is underway, awaiting the energy and enthusiasm of civil engineers to come.

Key Application Areas

Intelligent Infrastructures and Geographic Information Systems

‘Intelligent infrastructure’ development involves the integration of infrastructure building/modeling and information management using modern computer techniques and graphics technology with advanced database management systems (for maintenance and/or customer billing, for instance). Working with spatially networked facilities and land records systems would highly benefit from a tool like a Geographic Information System (GIS).

Water distribution and wastewater collection networks are the central component of any infrastructure, and GIS have become a popular item on the wish list of many municipalities and water agencies (of course, there is a diversity of GIS applications in other civil sectors too; the most pronounced would be those in transportation & traffic engineering.) The GIS would help the planning group perform estimates of future water demands, evaluate the transmission system utilizing these estimates, and specify subsequent system improvements. Then the engineering group can use the GIS in mapping such expansions, since it provides the spatial analysis tools necessary to efficiently assess the important factors (demographic, geographic, and economic) influencing the siting decisions for a wastewater treatment plant, for example. At a later stage, the O&M group can use it to manage work groups at geographically distributed facilities by using the geodatabase to provide work order management, work scheduling, and work history logging on a daily basis. Its use in this domain can even stretch to setting up hydraulic network models whose ‘input data’ is directly derived from the geographic and demographic aspects of the area under study; this is known as ‘coupled modeling’.

Hydraulic models and modeling software have been used throughout the past two decades for simulating the performance and deficiencies of skeletonized versions of existing networks and for predicting those of expanded or future networks under different water demands, land use conditions, and/or network design alternatives. The greater amount of time and effort has been often spent on setting up those models by preparing and importing the appropriate input data rather than on analysis and design optimization.

With the ‘input data’ (required by a hydraulic model) being directly derived from the geographic and demographic aspects of the area under study, the use of a GIS in minimizing the time spent on preparing and inputting such data is indispensable and should not be underestimated. Inherently, a GIS has the capability of manipulating huge amounts of spatial and nonspatial data along with the luxury of readily displaying, querying, sorting, and filtering this data in tabular and/or graphical format. Although using a GIS for preparing data ‘input layers’ has been adopted and proven highly time-efficient, such attempts focused on the import/export of data from the GIS into the model and vice versa in the form of shared database files:

Fig. 1

Seldom has the same objective been realized through building a complete stand-alone hydraulic modeling/GIS package, where the model and the GIS would share memory and not files:

Fig. 2

Not only would this merger minimize time consumed in the early input data compatibility stages, but it would also permit that data input, model running, results viewing/analysis, and modifications to the model be all carried out in a seamless environment with a single interface. This would also facilitate the regular upgrade and synchronization of the network loading conditions with the constant update of the regional geodatabase (assuming a region-wide GIS is implemented.)

Innovative Sensing Technologies for Monitoring and Inspection

A variety of advanced monitoring and inspection methods are being employed nowadays for maintaining countrywide infrastructures. In pipe rehabilitation, for example, mobile robotic systems (CCTV, ultrasonic sensors, stationary & zoom cameras…) are being used for remote inspection, and many ‘trenchless’ renovation techniques are being employed in refurbishing defective pipes. Advantages of ‘trenchless’ over ‘open-cut’ pipe renovation methods:

§ Minimizing excavation requirements

§ Less working time

§ More economical when depth exceeds 3m

§ Less disruption to surrounding structures and utilities

§ Lower site restoration costs

§ Minimize noise pollution

Real-time monitoring and predictive modeling (to provide reasonable projections of the remaining useful life of a structure before actual failure occurs) of existing infrastructures would help municipalities undergo preventive maintenance and repair/replacement, therefore, minimizing the need for emergency repairs.

Fig. 4