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Introducing Practical County and City Management to Undergraduate Students through the Course “Public Works Engineering and Management Practices”

Dr. Fazil T. Najafi and Hammad S. Chaudhry

Professor, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, University of Florida/ Ph.D. Student, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, University of Florida

In every country, healthy infrastructure is essential to economic and social development of communities, regions, and nations. A public works department focuses on all critical issues related to city and county infrastructure management and operations. A public works engineering and management course has been developed within the civil engineering curriculum at the University of Florida that introduces students to a general picture of how cities and counties function within the United States.

As a senior level, 3-credit-hour elective course, it introduces civil engineering seniors to management and operational aspects of city and county government. Management topics include public works organization, managing people, communication management, contract management, legal issues, budgeting, as well as finance, zoning, planning and purchasing. The public works operations topics in the course cover transportation, equipment management, fleet management, traffic management in urban areas, waste management, emergency management, code administration, water resource management, buildings management, grounds and parks administration and air quality control. A description of the material covered is briefly given in this paper. In addition, guest speakers from various officiating departments, such as public works, transportation, county commissions, code administration, as well as a city attorney and a city mayor, are invited on a regular basis to give students a taste of practical, real-life problems and solutions. This course teaches real-life problem-solving skills and knowledge of infrastructure issues and concerns that students can utilize in their careers and will help students to better understand government functions in serving society needs.

Introduction

The public works department is responsible for infrastructure management including the management and operations of road, highway, subway, and bridges for moving traffic safely; providing storm drains and potable water; transporting liquid wastes to treatment facilities; collecting and disposing of solid wastes; designing and installing traffic-control facilities; and performing the multitude of other tasks that will allow an urban complex to function properly. Furthermore, it is the duty of public works officials to make certain that urban infrastructure is able to respond quickly and effectively to catastrophic

“Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Najafi, F. (2005, June), Introducing County And City Management To Undergraduate Students Through A Course “Public Works Engineering And Management Practices” Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14194