Policy Development—An Emerging Role for Civil Engineers

Policy development is an integral and essential part of civil engineering. Throughout history, the civil engineer, or more accurately, anyone who advised the government on public works facilities, was an influential part of the system. But in intuitive processes of the past, assumptions as to what constitutes the public good, and combining policy development with policy implementation can no longer be embraced by one who proposes to be striving for the present and continuing improvement of mankind. The credibility of a civil engineer's view will be greatly enhanced with objective analyses, protection of the right to make technical judgments, and clear representation of his political views as distant from his technical wisdom.