GIS Integration in Civil Engineering Education

Introduction

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 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, and more — in order to assist with the project. This would have been a complex task, and the information might be scattered across a number of different sources. The civil engineer would then need to overlay the different maps manually, a complex process carrying 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 adequate GIS education at the university level. Students in civil engineering programs may or may not be exposed to GIS, and if they are, they might encounter only older programs or receive only cursory instruction. This paper examines the role of GIS education in civil engineering courses — in particular, the literature regarding the integration of such material into civil engineering curricula and the value that this material offers to the profession.

The Origins of GIS in Civil Engineering Education

The 1990s were the dawn of GIS use in civil engineering. New applications, increased computing power, and the arrival of the Internet all contributed to an environment in which more information became available in digital form, and civil engineers began to incorporate GIS applications into their work as a result. As early as 1998, there were calls for the integration of GIS into civil engineering education (Easa, Li & Shi, 1998). These authors argued that computers had advanced sufficiently in their usefulness to the field that they should be incorporated into education. Doing so would allow civil engineering programs 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 argued that GIS would become increasingly important and should therefore be an integral component of engineering programs — more so than was the case at most schools at the time.

One of the interesting developments in the late 1990s was the idea that CAD and GIS could be used together. Where GIS data provided the civil engineer with an overview of multiple layered maps, working with CAD as well allowed those layered maps to assist directly with design work (Bodamer, 1999). Civil engineers had been performing this overlay process manually until the 1990s, but by the late 1990s it had become possible to integrate CAD and GIS digitally. Bodamer (1999) noted several advantages to doing so: more sophisticated designs, better analyses, and greater ease in overcoming scheduling and design challenges. He also predicted that the compartmentalization of data so common in civil engineering was soon to be eliminated — a development that made the case for including GIS in civil engineering education all the more compelling, since it was clearly on its way to becoming standard practice in the industry.

Curriculum Integration and Student Experience

Over the 2000s, GIS was increasingly incorporated into the curriculum at civil engineering schools, and educators began to focus on the best ways to integrate these courses into their programs. One study examined the effectiveness of running structured tutorials to help students better understand GIS concepts. The principle was that guided tutorials would give students a baseline level of knowledge, allow them to learn at their own pace, and build their confidence. Feedback from students proved important to developing better software applications and designing more effective courses (Bham et al., 2011). This highlights that even though GIS courses are far more common in civil engineering education today, there is still meaningful work to be done in optimizing them.

A 2014 study reinforced that the integration of GIS into civil engineering courses was far from complete (Olsen & Arras, 2014). Students often did not clearly understand that they were enrolled in a GIS course, and in many cases they had only a vague concept of what GIS was or how it was used in civil engineering. While they expressed interest in the subject by the end of the course, the relatively low level of GIS awareness entering the course ran counter to the repeated assertions in the literature that GIS needed to be a more prominent element of civil engineering education. Although most schools today include some GIS offerings, these courses are usually electives and are not promoted as essential components of the program. There has not been much study into why this is the case, but one possible explanation is that administrators and department heads may fear the difficulty of keeping pace with technology courses in which software can become obsolete within months or a few years, and instructors themselves may struggle to remain current with the applications used in industry. While these constraints may be legitimate, they do not invalidate the central argument that because GIS is becoming increasingly important to the profession, students should have a strong grasp of its concepts and applications before graduating.

Ivey, Best, and Camp (2012) advocated strongly for a prominent role of GIS in civil engineering education, arguing that GIS had become a critical component of professional practice and should therefore be emphasized at the educational level. They contended that even programs offering one or two GIS courses were not truly aligned with the needs of the industry. Such courses needed to be modernized — the authors used the term "transformed" — with GIS playing a more prominent role as a mandatory, central element of civil engineering study rather than a peripheral elective (Ivey, Best & Camp, 2012).

References

Bham, G., Cemusca, D., Luna, R., & Manepalli, U. (2011). Longitudinal evaluation of a GIS laboratory in a transportation engineering course. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice.

Bodamer, D. (1999). Easy interface. Civil Engineering, 69(11), 44.

Easa, S., Li, S., & Shi, Y. (1998). GIS technology for civil engineering education. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 124(2), 40–47.

Ibraheem, A., Hassan, H., & Al-Husain, M. (2012). Integrating ACAD with GIS for civil engineering applications. Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 5(2012), 138–146.

Ivey, S., Best, M., & Camp, C. (2012). Transforming civil engineering curriculum through GIS integration. American Society for Engineering Education.

Olsen, M., & Arras, T. (2014). Insight on initial perceptions of geomatics by engineering students in their first GIS course. Surveying and Land Information Science, 73(2), 71–79.