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Defining competencies for geo-engineering: Implications for education and training
Abstract
The competency-oriented approach for evaluating education and training issues defines professionalism and establishes international standards. Over the past decade, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) have assessed professional competency for civil engineering by utilizing recognized terminology used by education professionals to quantify 24 "outcomes" and 6 "levels of achievement" (or "competencies") required for professional recognition. The ASCE process can be readily adapted to represent the geo-engineering field. A geo-engineering competency matrix can be developed to reflect principles and professional standards of the geo-engineering community. Competency profiles can define the relative roles of different specializations and show how competency can be achieved through education or by training/experience. Individuals can use them to evaluate their competencies, develop life-long-learning plans, or evaluate specialist training courses at the post-Masters level. They may also help promote appropriate international professional recognition of geo-engineering.
Engineering geology has a long and rich heritage and the UK has been in the vanguard of the development of the subject as a distinct discipline, with the first book on the subject being published in London in 1880. Since then, engineering geology has been applied to projects around the world and engineering geologists have become core members of planning, investigation, design and construction teams in the civil engineering and mining industries. However, in the past few decades we have seen numerical analyses increasingly being accepted as the answer to all geotechnical design questions, although as engineering geologists we are used to dealing with natural materials and processes and recognize that their inherent variability cannot always be reduced to a simple numerical value. Consequently, how do we ensure that any proposed construction works in civil engineering or mining take full account of this variability and the uncertainties that result? To enable engineering geologists to understand and describe these uncertainties are there fundamental skills that define an engineering geologist and, if so, how can these skills be taught or acquired? Also, in a world dominated by readily accessible data that can be downloaded and analysed for so many planned development sites, how important are the field techniques of observation and mapping that an older generation of engineering geologists, including the author, considered their defining skill? Concentrating on the role of engineering geology in relation to civil engineering, these are amongst the questions explored in this paper, leading to observations as to how the profession might develop in the future in order to meet the needs of society.
Our profession operates in a state of identity confusion because we engineering geologists have never engaged as a community in a thorough and profound examination of our profession, to discover and define its core attributes. This paper is a call for such engagement. Acknowledging recent and welcome progress, the theme of this paper nonetheless is that our exploration must be both broader in social context and deeper in introspection if we are to establish a raison d'être for engineering geology that we can all accept and use to nurture its growth in a meaningful way.
Engineering geologists understand the interaction between the built environment and the natural geologic environment. That understanding must be communicated to politicians, business leaders, employers, and clients if our profession is to reach its potential for serving the public good. We must become pro-active active in the political environment. To explain the worth of engineering geology to others, we must come to agreement amongst ourselves as to its core attributes and core worth (value) to humankind.
The core attributes of Engineering Geology suggested here are: Core Societal Worth (Core Contribution to Humankind; Core Value to Humankind); Core Knowledge; Core Competencies; Core Working Methods; Core Activity (or Core Function); Core Work Products; Core Practice Areas; Core Practice Settings; Core Values (core beliefs or tenets as to the place of engineering geology in society)
This paper suggest a raison d'être for engineering geology, its core value to humankind: Engineering geologists benefit humanity by discovering, defining, and analyzing geologically based risks or conditions that affect, or might affect, humans as they utilize and interact with their built and natural environments. This paper further suggests that the core activity of engineering geologists, resulting in a core work product of the same name, is the Engineering Geology Site Characterization.