ABSTRACT

New problems are continuously posed to civil engineers by the evolution of Society. For instance, environmental problems were not included in the engineering curricula when I was a student (admittedly, very long ago), in spite of them being described at the best as early as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave overhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours” says Hamlet entering the scene at the beginning of the second act.