Orange County Branch Newsletter

September 2022

President's Column

Shaping Our Future World

By Remi Candaele, PE | ASCE OC Branch President

Shaping Our Future World

Civil engineers reimagine the world and shape the future of our civilizations.  Recent conversations with several Orange County Branch members reminded me of the inspiring initiative led by ASCE, known as Future World Vision.  The effects of climate change, increasing population, and rapid deployment of new technologies drive civil engineers and the infrastructure industry to be at the forefront of changing trends and to constantly adapt.  ASCE performed an in-depth analysis of future macrotrends to generate a projected evolution of our industry's infrastructure through the Year 2070. 

A desktop application of the Year 2070 Mega City was released earlier this year.  I invite you to download the application and review the projected evolution of technologies in your field of civil engineering expertise.  I did and sincerely enjoyed assessing the content.  As a stormwater and public works expert for Q3 Consulting, I paid particular attention to the forecasted stormwater infrastructure and thought I would share a couple of my worth-noting takeaways. 

Green Space in Mega Cities – By 2070, green spaces in urban environments would be augmented by nearly 6-fold using vertical implementation in multiple floors of high-rise buildings, as well as through riverfront restoration.  Vertical implementation in buildings could entail lobbies with resembling forests, mature trees, damp soil, and possibly wildlife.  Integrating working ecosystems into buildings would provide air filtration, water purification, and other services.  Outdoors and interconnected greenways would provide not only pedestrian pathways, but also mitigate the urban heat island effect, provide fire breaks and floodwater retention, and a burgeoning ecosystem. 

Pheromone Projectors – Pesticides are commonly used in agriculture, resulting in the impairment of downstream waterbodies and subterranean aquifers.  Scientists are currently developing synthetically-derived pheromones to manage insects.  Ultimately, genetically modified plants could release pheromones as part of their seeding cycles and minimize maintenance activities.

What are your takeaways?

This brief column concludes my year as President of the Orange County Branch.  Serving our members and the local community has truly been an honor.  Given the initial unknowns of the pandemic, our year-long achievements have largely exceeded our expectations.  For that, I sincerely thank all of our volunteers, committee chairs, technical institutes and executive board chairs, and younger members for their contributions and spiritedness over the years.  A special mention goes to both our outgoing Past-President, Clint Isa, PE, and outgoing Younger Member Forum President, Ashlyn Alexander, EIT, for their invaluable mentorship. 

The future of the Orange County Branch is bright and full of exciting endeavors.  The future starts immediately with my successor, Jennifer Marks, who will spearhead our organization into its 70th Anniversary.  Our 2,100 local members will be given the unique opportunity to participate in the ASCE 2022 Convention in Anaheim, the 2023 ASCE Western Regional Younger Member Council, and many more events.  

That’s a final wrap.  Take care of yourselves, and please reach out with any questions or suggestions. 

Remi

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About the Author:

Remi Candaele, P.E., M.S., QSD/QSP, M.ASCE, is a Stormwater Professional at Q3 Consulting and the 2021-2022 President of ASCE Orange County Branch. Remi can be contacted at President@ymf-oc.org.

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