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SUSTAINABILITY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY IN TURKEY

SUSTAINABILITY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY IN TURKEY. Mert Tolon University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Civil Engineering, Texas, USA mert.tolon@utrgv.edu. Adlen Altunbaş

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SUSTAINABILITY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY IN TURKEY

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  1. SUSTAINABILITY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY IN TURKEY MertTolon University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Civil Engineering, Texas, USA mert.tolon@utrgv.edu AdlenAltunbaş Beykent University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Civil Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey adlenaltunbas@beykent.edu.tr 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  2. Outline • Literature • Sustainability • Engineering Industry • Sustainability ~ Civil Engineering Relationship • Research Gap • Research Questions • Contribution to Practitioners • Contribution to Researchers • Research Methodology • Results • Future Research 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  3. Sustainability “We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls.” Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) defines sustainability in 1996 “as a set of economic, environmental and social conditions in which all of society has the capacity and opportunity to maintain and improve its quality of life, without degrading the quantity, quality or the availability of natural, economic and social resources (ASCE, 1996)”. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  4. Engineering Industry Engineering industry critical role in sustainable development, They control, modify and dominate nature and natural resources for serving human needs. Due to this fact, a recent trend to integrate sustainability into different disciplines * such as mining engineering (Costa and Scoble, 2006), * design (Vezzoli, 2003), * ecological engineering (Mitsch, 1996), * environmental engineering (Gunn, 1996; Barger and Hall, 1998) etc. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  5. Sustainability ~ Civil Engineering Relationship • The integration of sustainability into civil engineering is also desirable after 2000s (Kibert, 2005). • Therefore, sustainability has been become a part of civil engineering education system too. • Studies such as the one conducted by United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) complements a term education for sustainability or sustainable education in 1992 that a number of fields such as • environmental education, • multicultural education, • conservation education, • global change education, • ecological literacy education, • as well as sustainable engineering in broad terms (UNCED, 1992). 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  6. Sustainability ~ Civil Engineering Relationship • In short, education for sustainability is a process that • develops student awareness, competence, attitudes and values, • enabling them to be effectively involved in sustainable development at local, national and international levels, • helping them to work towards a more equitable and sustainable future. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  7. Universities and Sustainability • In 2010, the European Civil Engineering Education and Training (EUCEET) Association contributes to implementing, improving and extending the curriculum by supporting activities such as new partnerships between universities and stakeholders, • joint degrees at various levels, • new learning techniques and • multi-disciplinary programs of education. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  8. Universities and Sustainability • A special issue on “Sustainability in Civil and Environmental Engineering Education” was published in April 2011 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, in order to compile many of these initiatives into a single issue (Terti et al., 2011) • Higher Education Sector is reflected in the many declarations of commitment to sustainability signed by hundreds of universities worldwide: the Talloires Declaration (1990), the Halifax Declaration (1991); the Swansea Declaration (1993), the Kyoto Declaration (1993), the CRE Copernicus Charter (1993), the Earth Charter (1994), the Student Declaration for a Sustainable Future (1995), the Beirut Declaration (1998), and the Lüneburg Declaration (2001) ( More recently, the Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership (GHESP) was launched at the UNESCO conference in Johannesburg in 2002 (Edwards et al.,2005 and Ratnayake N., 2015). 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  9. Research Gap • Only a few universities in Turkey have changed their curriculums with adding new course or focusing on sustainability in civil engineering programs. • Reports and studies in the literature show that lots of challenges of embedding sustainability in Civil Engineering education are seen for Turkey. • It is seen that a general lack of guidance and training on the best implementation technique forms a gap between the general positive attitude and practical implementation of sustainability into civil engineering higher education in Turkey. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  10. Research Questions • Knowledge of Civil Engineering students about sustainability, • Interest of Civil Engineering students about sustainability and • Relations of Civil engineering course and sustainability from the perspective of students. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  11. Contribution to Practitioners This research is relevant to practitioners because the findings may help both the civil engineering department stakeholders and the Turkish Higher Education Council to see the current situation of awareness level of Bachelor student of civil engineering about sustainability. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  12. Contribution to Researchers This research is relevant to researchers because the findings may find them to develop more efficient curriculums, developing the necessary education model and modules and paying more attention to cooperate with the education authorities. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  13. Research Methodology • A questionnaire is prepared in order to investigate students’ awareness and concern about sustainability and student perceptions about teaching and learning related to sustainability in civil engineering education. • The questionnaire was conducted on March in Civil Engineering Department of Nisantasi University. • The using methodology is a self-administered questionnaire in a survey. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  14. Research Methodology • The questionnaire consists of three main sections. • The first sections are about demographic information about participants such as age, gender and academic year of students. • The second section, which consist of five question, investigated students’ knowledge about and awareness of sustainability. • The third section includes four items, in order to examine students’ opinion about sustainability in civil engineering education. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  15. Research Methodology • Questions are close ended and responses are provided using five - point Likert scale from don't know to yes except for question 10. • Question 10 is three point scaled from don't know to yes. • Question 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 asked respondents to identify from a list of several terms. • After the survey was prepared, a pilot test of questionnaire was done for check clarity of questions. • Alteration of some questions and responds were made based on the pilot survey. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  16. Research Methodology • The target population of his survey is undergraduate civil engineering students. Data were collected from a total number of 100 students. • Regarding the characteristics of the sample, 81 percent were male and 19 percent is female. • The greater part of respondents ( 68 percent) were between 18 and 21 years of age while 26 percent 22 and 25 years old and 6 percent older than 25. • The majority (42 percent) of the participants were first year, followed by third year (35 percent) and second year (23 percent) undergraduate students. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  17. Results Student's knowledge and awareness about sustainability • These results show that participants perceive importance of sustainability although the greater part of participants has a little knowledge about sustainability. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  18. Results A majority of the students consider that responsibility for sustainability on mainly the government. The government followed by everyone (3,65 mean), then university (3,64), and local administration (3,51) and private sector (3,49). 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  19. Results Respondents were asked to indicate the degree of importance they placed on each sustainability issues. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  20. Results Do you think sustainability important for civil engineering education? 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  21. Results How should be the concept of sustainability in civil engineering education? 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  22. Results Students perception of the most effective methods for learning sustainability concept 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  23. Results • According to these questions, a large proportion of the respondents (74 %) believe that sustainability is important for the civil engineering practice. • Beside this phenomenon, over half of the respondents (55%) stated that sustainability should be embedded in civil engineering curriculum. • The results also indicates that the relation of civil engineering courses and sustainability are differs from a range of 50% to 74%. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  24. Future Research • Surveys • Private and Government universities at Turkey • Private and Government universities from Europe • Private and Government universities from States • Comparison of Country Higher Education Systems on the behalf of Sustainability in Civil Eng. Education • Comparison of Private Higher Education Universities on the behalf of Sustainability in Civil Eng. Education • Comparison of Government Higher Education Universities on the behalf of Sustainability in Civil Eng. Education • Developing a Report on improving civil engineering education for sustainable futures 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  25. References American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), (1996), ‘Sustainability’, ASCE Code of Ethics, Policy Statement 418. Barger, M., and Hall, M. W. (1998), ’Sustainability in environmental engineering education’, 1998 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Engineering Education, ASEE, Washington, D.C. Bhamidimarri, R., and Butler, K. (1998), ‘Environmental engineering education at the millennium: An integrated approach.’, Water Science Technology, Vol.38, No.11, p.311–314. Brundtland, G. H. (1987), ‘Our Common Future’, Oxford University Press, UK. Chau K.W. (2007), ‘Incorporation of Sustainability Concepts into a Civil Engineering Curriculum’, Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Vol. 133, No. 3, pp.188-191, DOI: 10.1061/ASCE1052-3928(2007133:3)188. Costa, S., and Scoble, M. (2006), ‘An interdisciplinary approach to integrating sustainability into mining engineering education and research’, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol.1, No:3–4, pp.366–373. Darwish M.M., Agnello M.F. and Burgess R. (2010), ‘Incorporating Sustainable Development and Environmental Ethics into Construction Engineering Education’, Proceedings of Eighth LACCEI Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology (LACCEI’2010), WE1, pp.1-10, June 1-4, 2010, Arequipa, Peru. Edwards M., Álvarez-Sánchez D. and Sánchez-Ruiz L.M. (2007), ‘Engineering Education and Competences for Sustainability Education in Spain’, Proceedings of International Conference on Engineering Education – ICEE 2007, September 3 – 7, 2007, Coimbra, Portugal. Gunn, I. W. (1996), ‘Education for sustainability through engineering’, Environmental engineering education and training, T. V. Duggan and C. A. Brebbia, eds., Computational Mechanics Publications, Southampton, Boston. Kibert, C. J. (2005), ‘Sustainable construction: Green building design and delivery’, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J. Mihelcic, J.R., J. C. Crittenden, M. J. Small, D. R. Shonnard, D. R. Hokanson, Q. Zhang, H. Chen, S. A. Sorby, V. U. James, J. W. Sutherland, and J. L. Schnoor (2003). ‘Sustainability Science and Engineering: Emergence of a New Metadiscipline’, Environmental Science & Technology, Vol.37, No:23, pp.5314-5324. Mitsch, W. J. (1996), ‘Ecological engineering: a new paradigm for engineers and ecologist’, Engineering with ecological constraints, P. C. Schulze, ed., National Academy Press, pp.111–128, Washington, D.C. Ratnayake N. (2015), ‘Sustainable Civil Engineering: Construction without Destruction’, Memorial Lecture Notes, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Terti G., Savoia M., Azevedo J., Bloodworth A., De Roeck G. , Esteban-Chapapria V., Lobo A., Lombaert G., Magenes G., Prinos P.1 and Viggiani G. (2011), ‘SASICE: Safety and sustainability in civil engineering’, Proceedings of 1st EUCEET Association Conference, Greece, 24 - 25 Nov 2011, pp. 88-97. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (1992), ‘Agenda 21: Program of action for sustainable sevelopment’, New York: United Nations. Vemury C, Heidrich O, Thorpe N., (2015), ‘Sustainable Design Education to Meet the Ever-Changing Worlds of Civil Engineering and Urban Infrastructure Systems’, Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol.8, No.28, pp.1-6. Vezzoli, C. (2003), ‘A new generation of designers: Perspectives for education and training in the field of sustainable design - Experiences and projects at the Politecnico di Milano University’, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol.11, No:1, pp.1–9. 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

  26. SUSTAINABILITY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY IN TURKEY 1 st Annual UTRGV Sustainable Infrastructure Management and Planning Conference Weslaco, Texas / November 16-17, 2017

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