Implications of complexity and sustainability in civil engineering

There is an awareness in the western world that the synergetic effects of the economic and technological growth have caused important environmental, ecological and social problems, at a local, regional and global scale. This perception is raising the emergency of new perspectives – such as sustainability and resilience – which are expressed in new dynamics of social and political transformation. In these latter domains, social and academic movements have been proclaiming the need of a New Economy, of a New Urbanism and of a New Mobility. Simultaneously, deep epistemological changes are occurring which require new ways of thinking and new values which claim holistic and ecosystem approaches. The above mentioned realities will imply profound changes in the development of Civil Engineering, namely in the scientific areas of Land Use Planning, of Water Management and of Mobility Management, which demand “predict and prevent” approaches to reduce the search of natural resources. In processual terms, the Civil Engineer must adapt to the present process of change, needing to conjugate his activity to the activity of other professionals and to other communities, in terms of participated planning and adaptive management.