Expertise: Environmental

The science of engineering is the backbone of the environment we construct around us, and many people perceive engineering in its most common ways. For example, both civil and structural applications are when engineers are most in the spotlight and is arguably the first thing people think about when considering what “engineering” means. These practice areas are often the most visible because they are physical and affect our daily lives as both participators in the built environment and also as members of society.

“I love being able to see a project come to life. It is quite a spectacular feeling to know I have helped bring someone’s idea into reality.”

Hailey Sibert – Otak Civil Designer

However, engineering can be much more varied than meets the eye, and the practice area is defined by the broader applications that a multidisciplinary approach can have on not only the built environment, but also on the communities that call that environment home.

In this post, we’ll explore the ways in which engineering affects multiple facets of society, and show just how important the intersectional practice is to fully functioning communities.

Getting People Around, In Multiple Ways

Transportation engineering immediately comes to mind when thinking about the lesser thought applications of the profession. Options for transportation in the built environment don’t just spring up out of nowhere, and the impact that high functioning transportation infrastructure on communities is hard to overstate.

Quality transportation engineering improves how community members get from place to place and serves as a great socioeconomic equalizer. By increasing access to jobs, opportunities, and services through breaking down transportation barriers, engineering directly uplifts disadvantaged groups within municipalities by ensuring everyone gets an equal shot at getting there.

Multi-modal transportation also plays a role here. Communities don’t solely consist of cars, trains, and busses. Designing pedestrian-friendly areas allow neighborhoods to flourish and encourages healthier, more walkable lifestyles among citizens. Greater still, access between point A to point B is improved for those who do opt for public transport, which decreases reliance on cars. This means everything from sustainability perspective, and it’s all made possible through quality engineering that’s designed to move people, not just vehicles.

Using The Natural Flow of Things

The environmental intersections of engineering with purpose are also huge components of quality design. When we envision communities, we design with natural surroundings and not despite them. By doing this, we place an emphasis on low impact development (LID) which gives way to developing green stormwater infrastructure.

The best part about being a civil engineer is building connections. We building infrastructures and improve transportation networks that connect people and communities.

Eva Ho – Otak Civil Engineer

Without a multidisciplinary approach to this type of engineering, the greener aspects of project work may go unnoticed, or natural systems in place may be harmed or interrupted. Instead, engineers can design around habitats by understanding water flow and hydraulics of the site. In this way , water and natural resources engineers play a critical role in making communities not only sustainable for humans, but also more habitable for other forms of wildlife that may exist alongside something out of the built environment.

Helping the Rain Go Away

Quality water resources engineering also helps us answer unique questions about planning and design, including ones in relation to stormwater and surface water management. One might ask themselves, “When the rain falls, where does it go?”

The answer? It’s been engineered to flow through the community in helpful ways. For one, understanding water detention and retention prevents flooding for neighborhoods already in place. Second, it ensures quality of water for communities and natural habitats impacted by the local watershed and stormwater runoff — engineering for the community of life, not just for people.

“My [engineering] work has given me the opportunity to wear many different (hard) hats. I’ve designed cable stay bridges, a variety of buildings, sculptures… every day is an adventure!”

Greg Mines – Otak Structures Engineer

This ultimately helps prevent more vulnerable communities and areas from experiencing the effects of increased or harmful precipitation by injecting climate resiliency into the existing system, something a traditionally structural engineer might not consider. When multifaceted engineers are tasked with a project, they come up with a multi-pronged way of looking at a project that does more than just house, shelter, or get people to work on time.

Finding the Perfect Place for a Project

Engineering helps us answer even more pertinent questions about the built environment and our relationship with it, even before construction begins. So, just what happens on a site before we start building on it? Choosing the right spot to begin work involves a lot more than one would think.

Scrupulous engineering considers all the possibilities in order to find the right place for a project based on a goals and initial design, giving way to the practice of site development. Coming up with creative, practical, buildable, and permittable solutions is the work of engineers as well, and good ones are context sensitive (to cultural and natural resources that exist around a site) before building starts. Design efficiency has everything to do with pre-construction, from choice of materials to making sure things go smoothly from both a budget and site complications perspective. Engineering opens doors to deeper understanding of a project, not just the calculus to get it done, to ensure timely project delivery.

Enjoying Outdoor Spaces

As much impact as good engineering can have, sometimes the work is about leaving that impact with a minimal footprint. This can not only benefit clients, but members of the community that the project might impact. So much of engineering is about enhancing our open spaces and natural landscapes with low-profile infrastructure that allows for greater access and enjoyment from the populace, which can be as simple as a well-placed jungle gym or as complex as designing administrative facilities for parks and natural attractions.

Bike paths, multi-use paths, all of these are often not thought of as a crucial bit of engineering, however they double down on active transportation of the area while continuing to encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Trails and trailheads play a similar role — allowing people to access and connect with nature while preserving the spaces in which they exist and generating interest in the natural environment while in an effort to preserve it.

The thing I like most about working at Otak is the awesome, interdisciplinary team that I get to work with.

Chris Romeyn – Otak Sr. Water Resources Engineeer

And again, even before construction or the start of a project, feasibility studies in these environments also fall into the wheelhouse of engineering, ensuring the safety, sustainability, and resiliency of the site so people can enjoy it, catching problems in advance that might hinder project completion.

Multiple Engineering Disciplines, One Team

The work of engineers at Otak is multi-faceted and interdisciplinary, and we’re proud that our work goes toward the betterment of the communities we serve. The voices, experience and expertise of the engineering teams within our ranks reflects what their work means to them. Take a closer look at the depth and breadth of project work from one of our most esteemed and recognizable practice areas.