Engineering in a Crisis: Observing Students' Perceptions of Macroethical Responsibilities during Pandemics and Natural Disasters

When the ethical responsibilities of engineers are discussed in classrooms, the focus is usually on microethics, which concentrates on individual decision-making, rather than macroethics, that addresses broad societal concerns. Pandemics (e.g., COVID-19) and natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, derechos) have presented unique opportunities to observe engineering macroethical responsibilities, because unjust social, economic, and environmental systems have been brought to the forefront amidst the responses (e.g., inequitable transportation access). In this paper, we consider pandemics and natural disasters through the lens of engineering macroethics, aiming to understand students' perceptions about the macroethical responsibilities of engineers. In the fall of 2020, we deployed a survey to undergraduate engineering students at two universities (n=424). Students were asked to discuss what they perceived to be the role of engineering professionals in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters. We used a qualitative content analysis to explore the macroethical responsibilities mentioned in students' responses. Many of these responses include considerations of infrastructure resilience, resource distribution, and community equity. Logit models were used to identify which sociodemographic factors were associated with responses that included macroethical responsibilities, revealing engineering major (specifically, civil engineering), employment status, gender identity, and family size, among others as significant factors. The implications from this study include recommendations on curricular content, and identifying which student sociodemographic groups would especially benefit from macroethical content in coursework. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Small Drinking Water Utilities? Resilience: The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Extreme events can significantly disrupt the operation and maintenance (O&M) of drinking water utilities (DWUs), compromising community access to water in critical times. However, we posit that utility size can influence DWUs' resilience, as large DWUs may have a greater capacity to handle extreme and sudden changes characteristic of emergencies. Here, we explore the resilience of small DWUs by understanding how a global crisis (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic) affected small DWUs and how these impacts statistically differ from those of large DWUs using statistical inferencing. We used two data sets that reflect the perspectives of 28 large and 26 small DWUs from 14 states. We found that small DWUs experienced issues involving supply chain, finances, and personnel management that pre-existing issues may have magnified. Additionally, small and large DWUs experienced statistically significant differences in personnel management, revenue change, increase in delinquent accounts, and emergency response plan activation. For example, large DWUs experienced more revenue loss than small DWUs due to economies of scale and larger changes from status quo operations. This study reveals areas of concern (and opportunities) regarding the resiliency of small DWUs in the face of emergencies that can allow policymakers to assist small DWUs.

A framework for determining energy use in rural food delivery services: capturing system interdependencies through an agent-based discrete-event approach

Food e-commerce has seen significant growth over the past decade that accelerated after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last-mile transportation and logistics are widely considered the most expensive and least efficient portion of the supply chain and have multiple important energy trade-offs such as cargo capacity and consumer density. Last-mile transportation energy use in rural areas is underrepresented in the literature. This study proposes a hybrid agent-based and discrete event model framework for evaluating the last-mile transportation energy use of van- and car-based food delivery services in a rural community, based on meal-kit and grocery delivery operations, respectively. This framework quantifies last-mile energy use in rural areas, and is demonstrated here using a neighborhood outside of Austin, TX as an analytical testbed. The study focuses on the effects of consumer density, cargo limitations, and vehicle speed. For the conditions examined with this framework, diesel delivery vans use more total energy than passenger cars for the same trip, though a van delivering four orders uses less energy per-order than a car delivering one order. However, there are trade-offs between vehicle type and mileage, cargo capacity, route density, and speed that are particularly important for delivery services operating in rural areas. This framework can be used by service providers to assess route-specific trade-offs for each vehicle and gauge which is preferable for given operating conditions or to evaluate the energy, and thus also cost, impact of expanding their services to rural areas.

Small Drinking Water Utilities' Resilience: The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Extreme events can significantly disrupt the operation and maintenance (O&M) of drinking water utilities (DWUs), compromising community access to water in critical times. However, we posit that utility size can influence DWUs' resilience, as large DWUs may have a greater capacity to handle extreme and sudden changes characteristic of emergencies. Here, we explore the resilience of small DWUs by understanding how a global crisis (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic) affected small DWUs and how these impacts statistically differ from those of large DWUs using statistical inferencing. We used two data sets that reflect the perspectives of 28 large and 26 small DWUs from 14 states. We found that small DWUs experienced issues involving supply chain, finances, and personnel management that pre-existing issues may have magnified. Additionally, small and large DWUs experienced statistically significant differences in personnel management, revenue change, increase in delinquent accounts, and emergency response plan activation. For example, large DWUs experienced more revenue loss than small DWUs due to economies of scale and larger changes from status quo operations. This study reveals areas of concern (and opportunities) regarding the resiliency of small DWUs in the face of emergencies that can allow policymakers to assist small DWUs. © 2023 American Chemical Society.

Water Demand and Human Behavior during Compounding Disasters: The Case of Winter Storm Uri and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Engineered systems are designed for a specific operating context based on assumptions about the population served. In turn, management of these systems can be stressed during population shifts (and corresponding demand shifts), such as those seen during both discrete (e.g., hurricanes) and protracted (e.g., pandemics) events. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic changes in society, consequentially changing spatial and temporal water use as people worked from home. In another example, Winter Storm Uri led to utility service disruptions throughout Texas, causing people without power and water to seek shelter, leading to spatial changes in water use in conjunction with physical damage. This sheltering occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased uncertainty in demand and challenges to shelter while ensuring social distancing. Researchers have studied disaster scenarios independently, but there is a gap surrounding compounding disasters as human-infrastructure interactions are likely altered. Here, we assess water demand changes during Winter Storm Uri (which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic) at the building level. We performed k-means clustering on demand data from four buildings at the University of Texas, Austin. Three buildings showed different daily demand profiles during the storm compared to the spring semester. Interestingly, there were demand increases in buildings not being used as warming centers, perhaps indicating increased occupancy. This trend reveals that people do not necessarily choose to shelter in places that are formally organized. In a museum, water use decreased compared to the already reduced demand during the pandemic, possibly leading to water stagnation and quality concerns. © ASCE.

Using Wastewater Flow to Understand Water System's Demand Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic in an Urban Metropolitan City in Texas

Social distancing policies (SDPs) implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to spatiotemporal variations in water demand. In contexts with limited availability of smart meter infrastructure, the lack of high-granular water demand data challenges utilities' understanding of such demand variations that are needed to respond to potential operational and water quality issues. Founded on the water and wastewater infrastructure's interdependencies, this study proposes the use of high-granular wastewater flow data as a proxy to understand the water demand variations during active SDPs. Enabled by a random-effects model of wastewater flow in an urban metropolitan city in Texas, we explore the impacts of various SDPs (e.g., stay homework safe, reopening phases) using daily flow data gathered between March 19, 2019, and December 31, 2020. Results indicate an increase in residential flow that offset a decrease in nonresidential flow during the stay home-work safe period. Our results also show that the three reopening phases have statistically significant relationships to wastewater flow, although yielding marginal net effects at the system scale. These findings in regard to residential-nonresidential variations-explored through the wastewater flow-underscore behavioral changes in water demand at sub-system spatial scales. Our assessment can inform emergency response plans for pandemics in regard to water infrastructure planning, management, and operations, considering spatiotemporal changes in water demand.

Water Utilities and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Pandemic-Related Research

To reduce the spread of the COVID-19 disease, government mandated social distancing policies (SDPs) halted the operations of non-essential businesses and changed operations at essential businesses, including water utilities. This change was difficult for some utilities to adapt to as the SDPs impacted supply chain and altered workforce management, among other operational aspects. Here, we posit that SDPs have implications for water infrastructure resiliency and technical performance, and may impact the future design, construction, and operation of water infrastructure. However, there is a dearth of literature on this topic. Therefore, we complete a literature review of sources from gray and scholarly literature to understand the impact of pandemics on water infrastructure. We found that the literature focuses on contextualizing COVID-19 within water infrastructure, direct impacts to utilities, and recommendations for immediate and future mitigation. Our research points out a gap in the literature that examines pandemic impacts on specific types of water utilities (e.g., small, rural) and identifies future research opportunities (e.g., relating water utility pandemic impacts to population dynamics). Here, we point out potential water infrastructure resiliency problems that, without intervention, could negatively impact technical system operations and public health.

What Role do Civil Engineering Students See for their Profession in the COVID-19 Response?

Engineering education typically focuses on technical knowledge rather than ethical development. When ethics are incorporated into curriculum, the focus is usually on microethics concerning issues that arise in particular contexts and interactions between individuals, rather than macroethics that address broad societal concerns. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique opportunity to assess macroethical understanding because unjust social, economic, and environmental systems have been brought to the forefront of the response. In this study, we aim to understand students' awareness of unjust systems and the ethical responsibilities of engineers. At the beginning of the pandemic in the United States, in April 2020, we deployed a survey to undergraduate engineering students at two universities. We asked students to explain what they perceived to be the role of the engineering profession in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This paper focuses on 84 responses of undergraduate civil engineering students across two universities. We used qualitative analyses (deductive and inductive coding) to explore responses in which macroethics are present and those responses that they are not. We then use inferential statistics to test whether the presence of macroethics in responses is associated with sociodemographic factors. We show that there are statistically significant differences across student responses given certain sociodemographic factors. Responses from women focused more on macroethics as compared to responses from men. There was also a difference in responses between the universities surveyed, potentially capturing that institutional differences may impact students' macroethical development. Implications from this study include recommendations on curricular content and identifying which student demographic groups would benefit most from intentional macroethical content in coursework. Further it is worth exploring in the future if increasing diversity and representation of women in engineering may impact the engineering industry's focus on macroethics based on these findings. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Implications of Social Distancing Policies on Drinking Water Infrastructure: An Overview of the Challenges to and Responses of U.S. Utilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social distancing policies (SDPs) implemented throughout the United States in response to COVID-19 have led to spatial and temporal shifts in drinking water demand and, for water utilities, created sociotechnical challenges. During this unique period, many water utilities have been forced to operate outside of design conditions with reduced workforce and financial capacities. Few studies have examined how water utilities respond to a pandemic;such methods are even absent from many emergency response plans. Here, we documented how utilities have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a qualitative analysis of 30 interviews with 53 practitioners spanning 28 U.S. water utilities. Our aim was to, first, understand the challenges experienced by utilities and changes to operations (e.g., demand and deficit accounts) and, second, to document utilities' responses. Results showed that to maintain service continuity and implement SDPs, utilities had to overcome various challenges. These include supply chain issues, spatiotemporal changes in demand, and financial losses, and these challenges were largely dependent on the type of customers served (e.g., commercial or residential). Examples of utilities' responses include proactively ordering extra supplies and postponing capital projects. Although utilities' adaptations ensured the immediate provision of water services, their responses might have negative repercussions in the future (e.g., delayed projects contributing to aging infrastructure).

Water and Wastewater Systems and Utilities: Challenges and Opportunities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.