Municipal or urban engineering
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Municipal or urban engineering applies the tools of science, art and engineering in an urban environment.
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[edit] Summary
Municipal engineering is concerned with municipal infrastructure. This involves specifying, designing, constructing, and maintaining streets, sidewalks, water supply networks, sewers, street lighting, municipal solid waste management and disposal, storage depots for various bulk materials used for maintenance and public works (salt, sand, etc), public parks and bicycle paths. In the case of underground utility networks, it may also include the civil portion (conduits and access chambers) of the local distribution networks of electrical and telecommunications services. It can also include the optimizing of garbage collection and bus service networks. Some of these disciplines overlap with other civil engineering specialties, however municipal engineering focuses on the coordination of these infrastructure networks and services, as they are often built simultaneously, and managed by the same municipal authority.
[edit] History
Contemporary municipal engineering finds its origins in a number of quarters. The threat to urban populations and national economies from epidemic disease such as cholera and typhoid and other waterborne diseases was the principal impetus to the development of the public health movement and a profession devoted to "sanitary science" that became recognised as municipal engineering. Key figures included individuals such as Edwin Chadwick and the report "The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population".
The housing movement of the later 19th century also figures.
Legislation included:
- Burgh Police Act 1833 - powers of paving, lighting, cleansing, watching, supplying with water and improving their communities.
- Municipal Corporations Act 1835
- Public Health Act 1866 – formation of drainage boards
- Public Health Act 1875 known at the time as the Great Public Health Act
The legislation is of great significance as it provided local authorities with powers to undertake municipal engineering functions, as well as appointing borough surveyors, or municipal engineers.
The Association of Municipal Engineers, (subsequently named Institution of Municipal Engineers), was established in 1874 under the encouragement of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to address the issue of the application of sanitary science. By the early 20th century Municipal Engineering had become a broad discipline embracing the doing tasks undertaken by local authorities, including highways, drainage and flood defence, coastal engineering, public health, waste management, collection and disposal, street cleansing, water supply, sewerage and waste water treatment, crematoria, baths, slum clearance, town planning, public housing, energy supply, parks, leisure facilities and the construction of libraries, town halls and other municipal buildings. Training was by articles, with the individuals spending time working in most of these areas prior to qualification.
The development of different strands of knowledge necessary for the management of settlements led to a progressive erosion of a holistic municipal engineering approach, and separate specialist institutions developed including:
- drainage: Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, 1895
- town planning: Town Planning Institute 1914 … subsequently becoming the Royal Town Planning Institute
- lighting: Association of Public Lighting Engineers, 1934…subsequently becoming the Institution of Lighting Engineers
- highway engineering: Institution of Highways and Transportation, 1930
- public housing: Institute of Housing, 1931
In the post war period municipal engineers focussed increasingly on what became residual functions of highways and road safety, as functions of energy supply were brought under national institutional control.
The rise of neo-liberal economic philosophy in the 1970s began a 40 year trend of privatisation and outsourcing of municipal engineering services throughout the world.
In 1984 the Institution of Municipal Engineers merged with the Institution of Civil Engineers.
In the UK in the 1990s a change in management philosophy brought the demise of the classic organisational structure of borough's with the standard model of the three departments of town clerk, borough treasurer, and borough engineer, being replaced with a heads of service structure.
Urban engineering began to figure as a concept in the late 1990s and early 21st century prompted by a disquiet over the fractured and increasingly dysfunctional public service provision designed along narrow silo lines. Examples of criticisms included organisations such as the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment that the approach to management of the public realm focussed on movement of vehicles and not place. The concept of urban engineering is a reaction to the silo focus offering in theory, the prospect of joined up government, and joined up service provision.
[edit] Professional practice
There is no longer any formal professional qualification in municipal engineering although there are degree courses available in urban engineering.
A professional certificate in Urban Engineering is available from through the Institution of Incorporated Engineers via the Public Realm Information and Advice Network.
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) caters for practitioners employed in the public sector, private consultancy and academia through its Proceedings Journal Municipal Engineer. The journal, first published in 1873, has a global scope and covers the whole life cycle of municipal services addressing technical, political and community issues [1]. In addition an Expert Panel responds on behalf of ICE to Government consultations and is represented on the International Federation of Municipal Engineering.
[edit] International Organisation
The International Federation of Municipal Engineering (IFME) is an organisation comprising professional municipal engineers from all round the world. IFME`s mission is to connect municipal engineers, public works professionals, public agencies, institutions and businesses around the world in order that they can share a global pool of knowledge and experience. The aim is to foster continued improvement in the quality of public works and wider community services.
The inaugural meeting was held in 1960 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Membership has grown steadily and in 2009 [2] comprised representatives from national associations in: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway Southern Africa, Sweden and the UK. Belgium and San Marino are presently Corresponding Members.
[edit] Related engineering disciplines
Municipal or urban engineering combines elements of environmental engineering, water resources engineering and transport engineering.
[edit] Relationship to urban design or urban planning
Today, municipal engineering may be confused with urban design or urban planning. Whereas the urbanist or urban planner may design the general layout of streets and public places, the municipal engineer is concerned with the detailed design. For example, in the case of the design of a new street, the urbanist may specifiy the general layout of the street, including landscaping, surface finishings and urban accessories, but the municipal engineer will prepare the detailed plans and specifications for the roads, sidewalks, municipal services and street lighting. However Municipal Engineering as practiced a century ago fully embraced the function of urban design and urban planning, even though the terms had yet to be coined.
[edit] Sources
Index to the Proceedings of the Institution of Municipal Engineers, from 1874
The municipal and sanitary engineer's handbook (1883)
[edit] References
- ^ Jenkinson, Ian. “Municipal Engineer – the silver anniversary”. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Municipal Engineer, Vol 162, ME2, June 2009, pp65-68
- ^ Buchan, Neil. “Briefing Note - International Federation of Municipal Engineering”. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Municipal Engineer, Vol 163, ME3, Sept 2009
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