Use of CAD and GIS in Civil Engineering

GIS in Civil Engineering

There are few fields that have been untouched by modern software applications, and civil engineering is no exception. The field of civil engineering has always relied on incorporating multiple different pieces of information, from land surveys to maps showing various urban features. One of the roles of the civil engineer is to bring together various pieces of information that are relevant to a problem, so that an effective solution can be found. One example might be the design of a new subway line, which would require highly-detailed mapping of the underground environment. In the past, a civil engineer would need to consult a number of different maps -- showing underground geology, gas lines, power lines, water pipes, sewer pipes, basements, etc., in order to assist with the project. This would have been a complex task, and the information might be in a number of different places. The civil engineer would then need to overlay the different maps manually, a complex process that has a not-insignificant risk of error. The advent of modern geographic information systems (GIS) has made this task much easier, and such systems have become the norm in the profession.

What is missing in many cases, however, is education with respect to GIS at the educational level. Students in civil engineering programs may nor may not be exposed to GIS. If they are, they might only be exposed to older programs, or in a cursory way. This paper examines the role of GIS education in civil engineering courses, and in particular the literature regarding the integration of such material into civil engineering education, and the value that such material would have to the profession.

Discussion

The 1990s were really the dawn of the use of GIS in civil engineering. New applications, increased computing power and the arrival of the Internet all contributed to an environment where more information was available in digital form, and civil engineers began to incorporate GIS applications into their work as the result of this. As early as 1998, there were calls for the integration of GIS into civil engineering education (Easa, Li & Shi, 1998). These authors argued at the time that computers had advanced enough in terms of their usefulness to the field that they should be used in education. To do so would allow civil engineering schools to graduate students more capable of making an immediate contribution to the field. At the time, GIS education in schools was nascent. Some schools were beginning to offer courses, but the authors were arguing that the role of GIS was going to be increasingly important so that education in GIS should be an integral component of different programs, more than was the case at most schools at the time.

One of the interesting dimensions in the late 1990s was the idea that CAD and GIS could be used together Where the GIS data would provide the civil engineer with an overview of multiple different maps that could be layered, working with CAD as well allowed for the layered maps to be used to assist with the design (Bodamer, 1999). This was something that civil engineers had been doing manually until the 90s, but by the late 90s it was possible to integrate CAD and GIS. Bodamer (1999) noted that there were several advantages to doing this -- more sophisticated designs, better analyses, and it would be easier to overcome scheduling and design challenges. A combination of software that would do all this would be standard in the profession and of course there was the embedded assumption that such programs would only become more sophisticated, and thus more useful, over time. Bodamer (1999) specifically predicted that the compartmentalization of data so common in civil engineering was soon to be eliminated, thus making the case for the inclusion of GIS in civil engineering education, as clearly it would soon be standard in the industry and all new graduates would benefit from having an education on GIS.

Over the 2000s, GIS was increasingly incorporated into the curriculum at civil engineering schools. The students began to focus on the best ways to integrate these course into the programs. One study looked at the effectiveness of running tutorials to help students to better understand the concepts. The principle is that running this tutorial would help students get a baseline level of knowledge about GIS, learn it at their own pace, and feel more confident in their abilities. Feedback from students is important to developing better software applications and designing courses that will be more effective (Bham et al., 2011). This highlights that even though GIS courses are much more common in civil engineering education today, there is still work to be done on optimizing them. It appears that there is some variance as to how GIS has been incorporated into these programs.

One study in 2014 highlighted that the integration of GIS into civil engineering courses is anything but complete (Olsen & Arras, 2014). Students often did not really know that they were in a GIS course. In many cases, they only had a vague concept of what GIS was, or what it was used for in civil engineering. While they expressed interest in the subject by the end of the course, the relatively low level of understanding of GIS entering the course runs counter to the repeated claims in the literature that GIS needs to be a more important element of civil engineering education. While most schools today have courses as part of their programs, the courses are usually electives, and they are not promoted as essential or even highly important aspects of the program. There has not been much study as to why this is, but perhaps there is a fear among school administrators or department heads that it is difficult to keep up with technology courses where software can be rendered obsolete in a matter of months or a couple of years, and instructors themselves might have a hard time keeping up with the applications used in industry. There is a case to be made that these constraints are legitimate, but that does not invalidate by any means the central argument that because GIS is becoming increasingly important in the profession than students should have a strong grasp of its concepts and applications prior to graduating.

Improving the courses is an important element in this study, because while it has been accepted now that most schools have built GIS into the civil engineering programs, the degree to which they have done so has varied. Some have embraced it, but others seem to simply offer the courses. The degree of integration, both with just GIS and with the combination of GIS/CAD, appears to be limited in many cases. What Olsen & Arras (2014) provide is some helpful insight that can assist schools in better integrating GIS into their curricula. At the very least, schools should promote GIS courses more, because they are important to the profession and students, once exposed, find the courses both valuable and enjoyable.

Ivey, Bert and Camp (2012) advocated strongly for a prominent role of GIS in civil engineering education. The point that they were making is that GIS is now a critical component of civil engineering work, so it should be emphasized at the educational level. Even education that only has a course or two on GIS is not really in line with the needs of the industry, and such courses should be modernized -- the authors termed this 'transformed' -- with GIS courses playing a more prominent role as key mandatory courses in civil engineering study (Ivey, Bert & Camp, 2012).

Following up on the idea of integrating CAD with GIS, Ibrahim and al-Husain (2012) proposed that CAD tools should be used with GIS data. This is a foundational principle of the integration of the two forms of software. GIS data is typically hard, existing data, and it is important to build this data into CAD designs, where are generally future-oriented. Civil engineers work with data-rich maps, and arguably it is important not just to understand these maps, but to understand how they can be created, and then how they can be used with CAD applications. The authors make a good point about the need for the integration of these two types of software from the outset in civil engineering education, so that when students graduate and enter the field, they will have some fluency in working with these applications together. This supports other literature that advocates for more computer learning in civil engineering courses because that is how the job is performed in the real world today.

What the literature makes clear is that the pace of integration of GIS into civil engineering education has been slow. The initial calls to include GIS were heeded, in the late 90s, but the progress of building out GIS education and incorporating it as an essential component of civil engineering studies has been lacking. One possible reason for this is that the field is moving more quickly that education administrators are used to. This is reality, however. Computer applications are progressing quickly, and so is their adoption by the profession. Schools may not be used to working so quickly to keep up with the latest software trends, and finding new instructors can be challenging, but the reality is that this means the schools are falling behind. If in the late 1990s and early 2000s there were many schools that had built GIS into the curricula and this put at the cutting edge, few schools have been able to remain at the cutting edge. This is an important lesson for the administrators -- students need to learn this, it is important, and it is thus equally important that the schools keep up-to-date with the latest advancements in GIS. When GIS and CAD are used together, for example, that is something worthy of a course, or a major component of a course.

There is, however, some room for future study as well. For example, studies have no examined too much whether the quality of GIS education is sufficient. It would appear that techniques for teaching GIS are being refined. For example, the Ivey (2012) study highlights that the University of Memphis has a three-year plan for bringing its GIS programs up to speed. By that point, the software might have changed, so there is imperative to move more quickly. But there is also a need to establish best practices for GIS education. The Bham (2011) study about the use of tutorials to improve the retention of information by students sheds light on some practices that might make for better GIS education. If students enter their studies with little to no knowledge of the subject, it might seem intimidating. However, it is an essential part of the job, so anything that helps to break down the barriers to learning GIS will be helpful. There is definitely room to build on the tutorial concept, or other concepts that seek to improve the quality of GIS education in civil engineering programs.

One of the things that comes out of the literature review is that it is not always elaborated clearly why GIS is important in civil engineering. The earlier papers shed more light on this, because they were trying to make the case for the inclusion of GIS in programs. But with advancements in GIS technology, there might be even more reasons to study it. Simply, it makes the gathering and processing of specific types of information easier. This reduces the time required to perform this task, streamlining the work of the civil engineer and arguably removing some of the more tedious data gathering processes.