Transforming the future of infrastructure through smarter information
According to Institution of Civil Engineers president Tim Broyd, civil engineers ‘will not be able to meet society’s changing expectations without using modern technology’. This 782-page proceedings of last year’s International Conference on Smart Infrastructure and Construction 2016 is a good place to start.
The 127 papers are in three sections. The first explains how recent innovations in sensor systems and development of new data-analysis methods can improve understanding of performance – including infrastructure health monitoring – through a project life cycle.
The second shows how smart sensing can provide data to make effective asset management decisions to ensure long-term value and sustainability of infrastructure, while the third covers new technology and business models to improve resilience and adaptability in the urban environment.
This is truly a remarkable conference proceedings, providing relevant information for contractors, designers, clients, infrastructure operators, asset managers and others within the built environment. It will help them to make efficiencies throughout the life cycles of new and existing projects using smart data and sensing.
Whole-life value-based decision-making in asset management
Increasingly, civil engineers need to make infrastructure asset decisions based on whole-life value assessments, not just cost. This book provides a concise and structured summary of how to support value-based asset management decisions.
Readers familiar with ISO 55000 asset management standards will find the book particularly useful. Although aimed at infrastructure owners, it is also relevant to those who have responsibilities for operation and maintenance of assets, including designers.
After describing the concept of value-based asset management, the book takes the reader through each stage of the process, starting with establishing the context and developing the value map to the final stages of assessment and optimisation of value. It then shows how the processes can be applied to a railway tunnel project and a scheme to replace roadside safety barriers.
The writing style is simple, with many flow charts and diagrams helping to illustrate the processes described. With whole-life value becoming an increasingly important issue for the construction industry, this book will be an invaluable resource for those involved in the operation and maintenance of infrastructure assets.
NEC3: the role of the project manager
The performance of the role of project manager is key to the successful functioning of the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC), which seeks to promote and stimulate good practice in the management of projects.
This book provides guidance to NEC project managers on the obligations, activities and culture which are necessary to carry out the role effectively, requiring a blend of hard and soft skills. The book explains the role of the NEC project manager through the chronology of an ECC contract, making use of helpful lists and flow charts within the text. A series of checklists and draft agendas for contractual meetings are included as appendices.
The book provides valuable guidance to those new in the role of NEC project manager or who are seeking to improve their knowledge of the ECC. It will also be a useful reference work for more experienced NEC project managers.
Construction planning (2nd ed.)
The importance of planning construction projects is often discounted. This book aims to give students and those at the early stages of their career a concise explanation of the processes and techniques required for effective planning and control of construction works.
The book starts by describing the importance of planning and early decisions. It then reviews the various techniques, procedures and methods which can be used in construction planning, including an overview of programme types, how resources can be considered and, critically, monitoring and controlling throughout the project.
The authors conclude with a description of how the planning techniques can be put into practice with case studies provided for context. There are many diagrams and flow charts that allow the reader to understand quickly and easily the techniques and principles described.
This book will be an extremely useful resource for those at the early stages of their construction career and would also be a useful reference for those looking to refresh their construction planning knowledge.
Crossrail project: infrastructure design and construction (Volume 3)
This book – the third in one of Crossrail’s ‘learning legacy’ series – contains 34 design and construction papers submitted by consultants, contractors, suppliers and third-party stakeholders on Europe’s biggest rail project.
Over half of the contributions relate to innovations while others cover outputs from desktop studies, feasibility, design and post-construction monitoring and forensics. The client involvement in all contributions makes it an authoritative compendium.
In addition, the simplicity with which information is presented makes the book a worthy companion for civil engineers and other construction professionals. Academics will also find it useful for final-year undergraduate and postgraduate case studies.
Conceptual structural design: bridging the gap between architects and engineers (2nd ed.)
This book is refreshingly non-technical, with author Olga Larsen conveying structural concepts and fundamentals in a clear manner without a single equation.
The first chapter excellently defines the sometimes-difficult relationship between structural engineers and architects. It goes on to describe the link between nature and how structural elements work. Larsen showcases associations between today’s modern buildings and the primitive structures of the past, and the importance of designing from precedent.
Chapter six features examples of innovative structural form-finding – the discovery of optimised designs by understanding structural behaviour – through physical modelling techniques used by famous designers.
This second edition has a new chapter highlighting the benefits of building information modelling, computational form-finding and how virtual reality in the future will allow us to visit an entire building before a shovel has entered the ground. The final third of the book consists of five interesting case studies of successful high-end architectural projects.
While this book provides structural engineers with a stimulating and contrasting approach to their customary textbooks, it is also palatable to non-engineers who have a general interest in science, buildings and construction.
Operational safety of dams and reservoirs
Many of the world’s dams and reservoirs have failed, often with catastrophic consequences. This book summarises the causes of historic failures and explains how future design and operation can adopt a more systems-based approach.
It focuses on incidents that occurred because of a systems failure, ranging from mechanical and electrical faults to human factors. Based on the examples, the authors then show how a systems approach can be applied to dam safety risk models.
The book will be an important resource for civil engineers and other construction professionals involved in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of dams and reservoirs.
Contaminated land guidance (3rd ed.)
This book provides guidance on the challenges associated with contamination on brownfield developments in the UK. The updated third edition includes the latest regulations and good practice.
The book takes readers through the basics of the subject, including definitions and regulations, through to the design and implementation of proposed remediation methods. It explains the concept of a risk-based approach to handling contaminated sites within the legislative framework that underpins the process.
A step-by-step guide is provided on handling the desk study, ground investigation, risk assessment, objective-based remediation, design options approach and design implementation. Fifteen case studies of practical, cost-effective solutions help to keep all the learning points very relevant.
Younger civil engineers will find this book a useful reference to gain better understanding of land contamination and remediation. More experienced practitioners will find it a useful continuous professional development companion.
Geometry and mechanics of historic structures – collected studies
This delightful book presents 25 articles and papers written between 1993 and 2016 by Jaques Heyman, emeritus professor in the department of engineering at Cambridge University.
Most concern the masonry and timber structures found in gothic cathedrals and other ancient and historic buildings. Others deal with aspects of the history of the theory of structures, mathematics in structural engineering and the related disciplines of the architect and the engineer. A paper describing the development of plastic steel design in the UK is also included.
Heyman is a master of his subject, with the true gift of being able to explain complex and powerful engineering concepts in terms that can be readily understood by non-expert engineers and others.
NEW BOOKS
The ICE Members’ Resource Hub maintains one of the most comprehensive collections of civil engineering books in the world, including all titles from ICE Publishing (shown in bold below). New books received in the past 3 months include the following.
| Advanced fibrous composite materials for ballistic protection | X Chen | £195·00 |
| Advanced structural mechanics | A Carpinteri | £99·00 |
| Applied wind engineering for tall building structures | D Boggs and L Griffis | £82·00 |
| Biomimetic principles and design of advanced engineering materials | Z Xia | £80·50 |
| Breakthrough: Crossrail’s tunnelling story | Crossrail | £9·99 |
| Contaminated land guidance: the route to sustainable economic solutions (3rd ed.) | J Strange, N Langdon and A Large | £40·00 |
| Culture and project management: managing diversity in multicultural projects | O Zein | £70·00 |
| Decarbonising the world’s economy: assessing the feasibility of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions | T Barker and D Crawford-Brown | £83·00 |
| Design of electrical transmission lines: structures and foundations | S Kalaga and P Yenumula | £95·00 |
| Earthquake disaster simulation of civil infrastructures: from tall buildings to urban areas | X Lu and H Guan | £149·00 |
| Elementary structural analysis and design of buildings: a guide for practicing engineers and students | D R Pilla | £89·00 |
| Engineering: an illustrated history from ancient craft to modern technology | T Jackson | £16·99 |
| Geotechnical risk and reliability: an introduction | R Chowdhury | £63·99 |
| Getting started with: ISO 9001: 2015 quality management system | Trada | £19·99 |
| Global undergrounds: exploring cities within | vvvvvvasdasdasdas sdqqwe | £18·00 |
| Gunwharf Quays: the history, architecture, conservation and development of a remarkable military site | M Underwood | £9·99 |
| Health and safety in a changing world | R Dingwall and S Frost | £34·99 |
| ICE Specification for piling and embedded retaining walls (3rd ed.) | ICE | £60·00 |
| Lightweight ballistic composites: military and law-enforcement applications | A Bhatnagar | £170·00 |
| Paths, tracks and trails: designing for pedestrians and cyclists | P Ceccon and L Zampieri | £35·00 |
| Project finance for construction | A Higham, C Bridge and P Farrell | £110·00 |
| Risk assessments questions and answers: a practical approach (2nd ed.) | P Perry | £35·00 |
| Rock mechanics and engineering: laboratory and field testing | X T Feng | £155·00 |
| Slope earthquake stability | L Jing et al. | £86·00 |
| Slope safety preparedness for impact of climate change | K Ho et al. | £121·00 |
| Soil mechanics: calculations, principles, and methods | V Kaliakin | £42·99 |
| Solar energy desalination technology | H Zheng | £125·00 |
| Stability assessment for underground excavations and key construction techniques | H Zhu et al. | £86·00 |
| Steel fiber reinforced concrete: behavior, modelling and design | H Singh | £86·00 |
| Sustainable construction materials | R K Dhir et el. | £108·00 |
| Sustainable materials – without the hot air | J M Allwood and J M Cullen | £24·99 |
| Sustainable use of traditional geomaterials in construction practice | R Perikryl and A Torok | £120·00 |
| Talking climate: from research to practice in public engagement | A Corner and J Clarke | £37·99 |
| Tall wood buildings: design, construction and performance | M Green and J Taggart | £55·00 |
| The art of building a garden city: designing new communities for the 21st century | H Ellis et al. | £40·00 |
| The railway metropolis: how planners, politicians and developers shaped modern London | M Schabas | £45·00 |
| The railways: nation, network and people | S Bradley | £4·99 |
| The shark’s paintbrush: biomimicry and how nature is inspiring innovation | J Harman | £14·99 |
| Time-dependency in rock mechanics and rock engineering | O Aydan | £108·00 |
| Transport properties of concrete: measurement and applications | P A Claisse | £140·00 |
| Underground aqueducts handbook | E Chiotis et al. | £127·00 |
All books can be borrowed from the ICE Members’ Resource Hub on the second floor of 1 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AA from 9.15 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday. ICE Publishing titles can also be purchased from the ICE Members’ Resource Hub or ordered by calling +44 1892 832299, emailing orders@icepublishing.com or by visiting www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/books.
