🔬 Covid-19: declaration of the European Construction sector
Europe's Stakeholders of the Construction Sector have issued a Joint Statement on the Covid 19 - crisis. The undersigning European associations, represent the construction sector, an industry worth 9% of the EU GDP and employing more than 16 million Europeans. In light of these difficult times, we wish to reiterate our commitment to supporting public authorities as well as our dedication to our most fundamental asset, our workers’ wellbeing.
💧 World Water Development Report 2020
On World Water Day, 22 March, the 2020 World Water Development report was launched with the theme, “Water and Climate Change”. The report warns that Climate change will affect the availability, quality and quantity of water needed for basic human needs, thus undermining enjoyment of the basic rights to safe drinking water and sanitation for billions of people.
The publication at helping the water community to tackle the challenges of climate change and informing the climate change community about the opportunities that improved water management offers in terms of adaptation and mitigation.
The 2020 United Nations World Water Development Report focuses on the challenges, opportunities and potential responses to climate change, in terms of adaptation, mitigation and improved resilience that can be addressed through improving water management.
Combining climate change adaptation and mitigation, through water, is a win-win proposal, improving the provision of water supply and sanitation services and combating both the causes and impacts of climate change, including disaster risk reduction.
📍 WCCE President attends Spanish Congreso Nacional de Ingeniería Civil
In recognition of the contribution of the College to their initiatives, the presidents of both organizations have actively participated in the work of the Congress, being part of the Congress Honor Committee and attending it.
Carlos Mineiro, president of the World Council of Civil Engineers, participated in the inaugural session of the same, although he could not participate due to agenda problems in the internationalization session as initially proposed.
In addition to this, European Council of Civil Engineers' president, Aris Chatzidakis, participated in panel IV on conservation of the built heritage in which he shared his view on the challenges of those professionals whose mission is to conserve such heritage and who are facing an incomplete and inappropriate regulatory framework.
Colegio has thanked both organizations for participating with such high representation.
📆 World Engineering Day - March 4th, 2020
The 40th General Conference of UNESCO has adopted the resolution to proclaim 4th March of every year a World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development in November 2019.
The World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) proposed 4th March as World Engineering Day, the founding day of the Federation, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Federation in 2018. This is an opportunity to celebrate the important contributions of engineers and engineering to sustainable development and modern life.
💡 How many of us, civil engineers, are enough? - A column by Jorge Abramian, WCCE President Elect
Suppose a country is expecting a steady growth for several years due, for instance, to an increase in the prices of its exports. What can limit that growth? Certainly, when the economic cycle is favorable, a country could increase its GDP to a limit given by several boundary conditions: aptitude and abilities of the labor force, availability of energy supply, industrial capacity utilization, logistics and transportation infrastructure, and financial strength, to name a few. As a growing country requires more infrastructures, the number of civil engineers available to design and build the necessary works also becomes one of the key factors to guarantee development. Then, how many civil engineers are required to keep up with the growth? Or, in other terms, how many civil engineers should be added to the market each year? Difficult to measure, these questions remain unanswered, but this paper, through the collection of data from 38 countries, provides a perspective to the problem.
🏆 World Civil Engineering Olympiad - A WCCE initiative
The World Civil Engineering Olympiad - WCEO aims to bring civil engineering into secondary schools and colleges, drawing their interest to become civil engineers. Similarly to other disciplines’ International Olympiad schemes (Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Economics), WCEO Organizing Committee has designed a set of events regarding several areas of expertise within the scope of the practice of civil engineering. Such initiative was presented during WCCE’s 14th General Assembly held in Lisbon in September 2019, becoming endorsed to be replicated globally. On such grounds, WCCE has published WCEO's competition guidelines to foster the competition globally and make kids become aware of the role of civil engineers worldwide.
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