Evolution of the ASCE civil engineering body of knowledge

ABSTRACT

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has developed three editions of a Body of Knowledge (BOK) to define the professional practice of civil engineering. The process has taken close to two decades so far and has established a pattern of continuous change and improvement. The development has been accelerated by two events, The Summit on the Future of Civil Engineering – 2025 in 2006 the ASCE Civil Engineering Education Summit, Mapping the Future of Civil Engineering Education in 2019. This paper reviews this development and its implications for the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Body of knowledge
• accreditation
• education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Norbert Delatte is the M R Lohmann Endowed Professor of Engineering and the Head of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Oklahoma State University. Dr Delatte has served as an ABET Program Evaluator since 2010 and a Commissioner for the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) since 2016. He is the author of “Beyond Failure: Forensic Case Studies for Civil Engineers” (ASCE Press, 2009) and “Concrete Pavement Design, Construction, and Performance, 2nd Edition” (Taylor and Francis, 2014). In addition, he is the Editor of ASCE's Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities.