Teaching safety and sustainability issues in civil engineering master courses

The performance of the built environment and constructions are of major concern for Europe’s long term goal of sustainable development. At the same time, the quality of life of all European citizens needs to be improved and the safety of the built environment with respect to anthropic and natural hazards, such as flooding and earthquakes, needs to be ensured. Education has a central role to play in the transformation of the construction sector which is required to meet increasing demands with regard to safety and sustainability. It is well recognized that one of the factors with most impact on the levels of regional sustainability is education (Velasquez,1999). Nevertheless, the assumption that environmental issues should be addressed by environmental specialists and not by civil engineers is still a common issue, and must be overcome (Cortese, 1997). This paper presents the SASICE project, funded by the European Community in the context of the Lifelong Learning Programme (Erasmus Curriculum Development Program) and coordinated by the University of Bologna. The aim of this project is to promote the integration of safety and sustainability in civil engineering education. The universities participating to the project constitute a network of high level competence in civil engineering. Strategies to improve lifelong learning include the development of adapted teaching moduli, exchange of professors and joint curricula. This paper focuses on the central part of the project, i.e. the development of teaching moduli in 4 thematic areas selected at the beginning of the project. The main target of the SASICE project is to enable students to introduce these advanced topics in their curricula and to attain specific skills and expertise in safety and sustainability in Civil Engineering. The following sections present the content of the teaching moduli of the project and the way that students could benefit from the whole process.