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INSTRUCTORS: 
Gerald Dalziel
Brooke Poppe, P.E.
Melissa Prelewicz

Purpose and Background

This presentation was scheduled for the 2024 ASCE Convention and has now been rescheduled as a live webinar on ZoomforGov.

In 2021 Engineers Without Borders – USA (EWB-USA) began a major undertaking to further enhance the climate resiliency evaluation for our 420 projects in 31 countries. While researching quantitative data we realized that to truly improve our evaluation of climate change, we needed to hear from our partners as to what climate change really looks like in their individual communities.

Throughout 2022, Engineers Without Borders - USA headquarters personnel and staff from our country offices traveled to six countries, the US territory of Puerto Rico, and the City of New Orleans, where we have projects with partner communities. The initiative collected climate and project impact from 55 projects in 39 different communities. During these meetings, staff talked to community members, nonprofit organizations, and primary stakeholders about the changes they are seeing in their climate. The data collected in this initiative served to focus our efforts around the impacts of hotter, dryer weather and more intense storm events.

During 2023 EWB - USA has been revising its climate change impact methodology with the twin goals of:

• Creating an inexpensive and simple methodology that can be applied by volunteers with a limited knowledge of climate change.
• Providing guidance as to the appropriate adaptation techniques that can be deployed on projects to build resilience into the infrastructure.
• The session will wrap up with a discussion of our future climate change adaptation work and then questions and answers.

Community Engineering Corps (CECorps) strives to build a future where everyone has access to the engineering resources required to live a life of opportunity. Today, more than 11.6% (37.9 million)* of the US population lives below the poverty line. These poverty-stricken communities are dispersed across the country and face daily challenges associated with the lack of financial and technical resources to address their failing infrastructure needs.

CECorps is a partnership between the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works Association, and Engineers Without Borders USA that utilizes a co-creation model where communities leverage the expertise and empathy found within our alliance partner organizations to gain access to improved infrastructure. This session will feature an informational presentation about the CECorps program, followed by a case study highlighting the work of our volunteers. Attendees will leave with an understanding of ways they can actively get involved in creating a more equitable infrastructure landscape in the United States.

The presentation will also explore the collaborative approach taken by CECorps, involving partnerships with local communities, government agencies, and industry professionals. It will emphasize the significance of community engagement in engineering projects, ensuring that diverse voices contribute to decision-making processes, leading to a more sustainable and equitable future.

*Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1960 to 2022 Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC).

Learning Outcomes and Session Benefits

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain the methodology used by Engineers Without Borders - USA (EWB-USA) to evaluate climate change impacts.
• Describe the role of community input in shaping EWB-USA’s climate resiliency evaluations and adaptation techniques.
• Discuss the objectives and collaborative approach of the Community Engineering Corps (CECorps) in providing engineering resources to underserved communities for equitable infrastructure improvements.
• Identify opportunities for civil engineers to engage with Engineers Without Borders - USA and the Community Engineering Corps to support climate adaptation and infrastructure projects in underserved communities.

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes are assessed and achieved through passing a 10 multiple choice question post-test with at least a 70%

Who Should Attend?

• Sustainability professionals
• Environmental engineers
• Consulting engineers
• Public Agency Engineers

How to Earn Your PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

This course is worth 1 PDH. To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to attend the live session and/or watch the recording(s) and complete the post-session survey. If the course is taken On-Demand, there will also be a 10 multiple choice question post-test.

View Important Policies and System Requirements for this course