Contribution by A. Ibikunle
Having practised civil and environmental engineering in the USA for over 25 years, I read the article by Jenkinson (2010) with much interest as this is a topic that I have had to manage since the inception of the Internet and search engines – how to balance available information with correct engineering analysis. In the USA, the role of professional journals cannot be underestimated. A recent project on which I worked is the reason for writing this contribution. While confidentiality does not allow detailing the project, the work concluded that the use of professional journals coupled with industry norms (e.g. standard operating procedures, local, state and federal regulations) must be balanced against new research to establish best practice for a particular site-specific project encountered by a municipal engineer.
Additionally, emerging technologies are being introduced to assist with the innovative deployment of online tools that municipal engineers can use in making professional judgements. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has an extensive online library, similar to the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) virtual library. These professional societies provide an array of services that engineers can use with confidence to perform the necessary due diligence before designing a solution to meet a site-specific condition. Other new emerging online tools include Knovel, a digital library with titles from leading publishers.
I am interested in exploring this topic further through a joint research project designed to answer the question in the conclusion of Jenkinson's paper; that is, how to use current knowledge and tools for the development of resources that can support engineers and provide easy reliable information. The new global economy requires that we build on existing knowledge so that new projects can be designed and resolved with a review of past projects without getting lost in the vast amount of general information available on the Internet.
Author's reply
The contributor raises an important question: how does a designer select the correct engineering analysis for a specific project from the information available? This issue is probably the most common problem that confronts any engineer.
For the majority of work undertaken, insufficient information is rarely the problem – all too often there is information overload. The problem that is usually encountered is to identify which approaches are appropriate without falling into the bad practice of adopting outdated and redundant procedures. Best practice implies both sound procedures and continual improvement.
Web-based information is now ubiquitous, but teasing out the learning to enable knowledge transfer throughout the profession is something that is, so far, less developed. The author is correct to point out that ASCE and others have online libraries similar to that of the ICE virtual library; knowledge is available in many places. The key issue is to ensure that practitioners are signposted towards, have access to and use information from a reliable source. Quality-assured knowledge is the gold standard we are aiming to deliver and that is a role that professional journals are well equipped to fulfil. But to raise the profile of such work above the mass of information available is not a well-signed route. We need a paradigm shift, not only in the way that engineers access and use information, but in the way that knowledge is made available by professional institutions.
