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Understanding the history of the construction engineering and management discipline in Canada can perhaps shed light on where the future of the discipline may lay and on external perceptions of the discipline. In its current state, the discipline in Canada is a unique model. Examining its positive and negative attributes will help inform strategic planning for construction research and education programs in Canada and in other countries as they adapt to rapid changes in their environments. The objective of this paper is to present sufficient information to make that examination possible. Its scope is limited to the last 200 years. Early pioneers in the discipline are described. Their careers are reflected in the developments that are summarized in the following discussion of the emergence of professional societies, and the educational and research infrastructure of the discipline in Canada. Recent developments in education and research are examined in more detail. Some final observations are then made based on this brief history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern infrastructure systems are highly developed, with considerable capital funding invested in them. While capital is spent on new infrastructure initiatives, the maintenance of the present infrastructure must not be neglected. Increasingly, public agencies are being urged to develop improved systematic methodology for allotting their period budgets more appropriately so that the capacity of the installed infrastructure is more fully utilized and sustained. When planning the allocation of investment funds, multiple objectives may exist that are dependent on the constraints, resources available for construction, and the interrelationships and dependencies among all of the alternatives. This makes the task of planning, prioritizing, and allocating funds a complex exercise. This paper presents a financial outlay model called PRISM, Proactive Rehabilitative Sewer Infrastructure Management, which uses linear programming to optimize allocation of funding for the local sewer network maintained by the City of Edmonton, Canada. By grouping sewer pipes into categories based on parameters of age, diameter, material type, waste types, and average depth of cover, the model provides a mechanism for determining the most appropriate allocation or appropriation of funding given a planning horizon and budgetary constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk maturity evaluation is an efficient tool which can assist construction organizations in the identification of their strengths and weaknesses in risk management processes and in taking necessary actions for the improvement of these processes. The accuracy of its results relies heavily on the quality of responses provided by participants specialized in these processes across the organization. Risk maturity models reported in the literature gave equal importance to participants' responses during the model development, neglecting their level of authority in the organization as well as their level of expertise in risk management processes. Unlike the existing models, this paper presents a new risk maturity model that considers the relative importance of the responses provided by the participants in the model development. It considered their authority in the organization and their level of involvement in the risk management processes for calculating the relative weights associated with the risk maturity attributes. It employed an analytic network process (ANP) to model the interdependencies among the risk maturity attributes and utilizes the fuzzy set theory to incorporate the uncertainty associated with the ambiguity of the responses used in the model development. The developed model allows the construction organizations to have a more accurate and realistic view of their current performance in risk management processes. The application of the developed model was investigated by measuring the risk maturity level of an industrial partner working on civil infrastructure projects in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]