1.5: Chapter 1 Excercises
(6 pts)
The ASCE produces a periodic report card on the nation’s infrastructure system (See the ASCE readings) Pick 2 of the following infrastructure systems: Bridges, Dams, Drinking Water, Energy (Electricity), Hazardous Waste, Public Parks & Recreation, Roads, Solid Waste, Transit, and Wastewater.
(a) Provide a grade for the local systems at in Pittsburgh using just three categories for grading: condition, capacity, and adequacy of funding. (Note that the ASCE methodology includes seven categories).
(b) Document a justification for your grade (in a fashion similar to that in the ASCE report card site listed above). If you have no data for a particular category, just say so.
(c) Contrast your local grade with the national ASCE grade in the reading.
(10 pts)
Provide a critique and summary of one paper published in a refereed ASCE (or other professional society) Journal in the past ten years pertinent to infrastructure management. Your critique and summary should be no more than three pages long. ASCE journals are listed at:
ascelibrary.org/action/showPu...ubType=journal
Feel free to pick a journal that reflects your own interests. Good starting points are the Journal of Infrastructure Systems or the Journal of Architectural Engineering. This assignment is intended to introduce you to the professional literature as a resource for infrastructure management.
Your summary should include:
- the full reference for the paper (authors, title, journal, volume, number, pages, publication date),
- a summary of the content of the paper,
- the implications and usefulness of the results for infrastructure managers,
- any problems you see with the paper (such as needed further work), and
-
the contribution of the paper with regard to other published work, including the
references cited and any citations to the chosen paper.
and report the results. In many cases, your chosen paper may be too recent (or too obscure) to have had citations.