Multidisciplinarity and Sustainability: General Conceptual Outlines and Engineering-Related Illustrations

Armando Mammino et al.

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1.1 Multidisciplinary and sustainability: an introduction

The present chapter has an introductory role. It defines crucial terms, such as “sustainable development”; it analyzes the multidisciplinary concept in detail, as the concept playing the key role throughout the book; and it offers illustrative examples—mostly from civil engineering—to substantiate the introduced concepts. In this way, it also outlines the main criteria guiding the development of the book.

1.1.1 Basic definitions

1.1.1.1 Sustainability

The “sustainability” term is used with reference to the sustainable development concept. The more straightforward way to define it is through the terms of the definition in the Brundtland's report on sustainable development, where it was first introduced:

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The first alert about the risk that humans' actions and practices may damage the environment up to the point that it may lose its ability to support us and the other living beings was expressed in the book “Silent Spring”. The realization of the risk prompted the question about possible “limits to growth”. The debate on whether and how ecological realities (effects of pollution, endangerment of species) put limits to the extent and rate of economic growth continued through the 1970s. The question was challenging and difficult to answer. A review of the main positions in this debate is included in [5], followed by a review of the shift through which the “sustainable development” concept superseded the “limits to growth” concept by envisaging a quest for accurate management of growth options, to be tailored in a way that ensures the prevention of a large scale catastrophe.

The United Nations (U.N) Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, recognized that human development and the environment are not to be treated as separate domains, but as interconnected realities, whose interplays need to be managed toward the pursuit of mutual benefits. The U.N Conference on Environment and Development (“Earth Summit,” Rio de Janeiro, 1992) “highlighted how different social, economic and environmental factors are interdependent and evolve together, and how success in one sector requires action in other sectors to be sustained over time”. It concluded that sustainable development was “an attainable goal for all the people of the world” and “recognized that integrating and balancing economic, social and environmental concerns in meeting our needs is vital for sustaining human life on the planet”.

The Johannesburg Declaration from the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development identified three pillars for sustainability: economic, environmental, and social: sustainability is achieved when the requirements of the three sectors are satisfied adequately and simultaneously. In some works, “economics” is replaced by “human needs.”

In 2015, the U.N General Assembly created the Sustainable Development Goals (S.D.G's, Agenda 2030) and in 2017 identified specific targets for each goal. The goals and their targets emphasize the interconnectedness of the environmental, social and economic components of sustainable development.

1.1.1.2 Disciplines and their boundaries

The “discipline” concept is here taken in its commonly accepted meaning, and so are individual disciplines. Therefore, there is no need to define the meaning of chemistry, physics, linguistics, and the other areas. It is, however, worth mentioning that disciplines are not to be viewed as “boxes” with sharply defined or crisp boundaries, fully isolating them from other boxes.

Each discipline has common areas with other disciplines. Some disciplines permeate a number of other disciplines; a typical example is mathematics, which largely builds the discourse in the physical and computational sciences. An even more general example is language, as the quality of language mastery determines the mastery level of all the other branches of knowledge (Chapter 8).

It is also worth mentioning that some disciplines are by their nature what could be called “accumulation areas” of other disciplines, because they comprise components of various disciplines in such a way that their combination engenders something new – a new discipline with its own identity. This is true, for example, for architecture and for environmental sciences, but also for several others. Youngblood uses the “bridging disciplines” term with an analogous meaning, and considers anthropology and geography as representative examples. Medicine is likely an ideal illustrative example: its contents come from anatomy, physiology, biology, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, microbiology, and various other areas; the information contents from these areas coalesce and form a new science, that is, medicine. That medicine is something new with respect to the contributing sciences (is not only the sum of them) is part of common knowledge and experience: when we are sick, we go to a physician, not to a chemist or a biologist or any other specialist in one of the contributing disciplines. For instance, physiology describes the functions of each organ; chemistry and biochemistry provide information on the chemical processes on-going in a living organism and on the healthy values-ranges for the molecules present in certain parts of the body or involved in certain functions; chemical analysis verifies the actual presence and concentrations of the molecules of interest in a patient's body; pharmacy provides drugs that can treat various conditions; but it is the physician who decides the types of analyses that are relevant on the basis of a patient's symptoms, who uses the results to make a diagnosis, and who selects the treatment that is more suitable for a given patient; these abilities are the features corresponding to the "something new" in medicine with respect to the disciplines contributing to it.

Investigation methods and philosophical approaches to theorization may be shared by more than one discipline. For instance, what is considered the scientific method in its broad meaning (as inherited from Galileo Galilei's approach) is shared by all the sciences, although with differences related to the nature of each science; it is also extensively shared by historical research.

The absence of crisp boundaries extends to the two major domains of human intellectual activities – humanities and sciences. By borrowing a concept from mathematics, one could say that the definitions of the two domains would unavoidably be fuzzy, in a similar way in which mathematics speaks of “fuzzy sets”. The introduction to [13] explains that the classes of objects encountered in the real physical world do not have precisely defined criteria of membership. ... Yet, the fact remains that such imprecisely defined “classes” play an important role in human thinking, particularly in the domains of pattern recognition, communication of information, and abstraction.

This fully applies to the humanities and sciences domains, and implies that each discipline could pertain for a certain percentage to one domain and for the complementary percentage to the other, and the proportions are different for different disciplines. For instance, physics, chemistry or mathematics will have a much greater proportion for the “pertaining to the sciences” classification, and a smaller proportion for “pertaining to the humanities”; on the other hand, the importance of language, epistemology and logic for their nature and development excludes the possibility of ascribing them as pertaining to the sciences and 0% to the humanities.

1.1.2 Multidisciplinary and sustainability: a long-dated association

Multidisciplinary refers to the contributions from many areas to a certain purpose, theme or application. It is here assumed to automatically comprise interdisciplinary, that is, the ensemble of interactions or overlaps between two areas (A and B); it is also considered that, if A and B contribute to a certain target, their intersection/overlap can be expected to also contribute to that same target. These aspects are analyzed more in detail in Section 2.

The pursuit of sustainable development requires contributions from all disciplines and expertise areas: no discipline or set of skills can pursue it alone and successfully. The need for connections among different areas has been object of investigation and reflection from various perspectives in the last two decades, increasingly associating the “sustainability” and “multidisciplinary” concepts. On the other hand, its operational extent is still limited.

Sumner and Tribe provide an interesting outline of the challenges facing the implementation of extensive multidisciplinary. They start from the point of view of development studies (D.S) and focus on the importance of cross-disciplinarity and, in particular, of the social science–physical science interface. They recognize that “While many people within the D.S community are accustomed to cross-disciplinarity within the social sciences, fewer extend cross-disciplinarity to the physical sciences”.

They identify two key inter-related factors inhibiting cross-disciplinarity: lack of communication, largely due to institutional structures and research policies (e.g., incentives being mostly focused for works within individual disciplines), and a diffuse inability to reconcile differing world views. Uiterkamp and Vlek mention the main challenge as “Researchers from different backgrounds have to find each other and get acquainted”. L. Mammino expresses the concept as “learning to talk to each other”: one does not become a specialist in the other area/areas, but learns what the other area can contribute to one's own, how to explain to the specialist of the other area about the contributions that are desired, and how to integrate these contributions into one's own themes.

Various works have associated the two concepts and highlighted that sustainability needs the contributions from several areas. On the other hand, the contribution from each area is mostly presented individually. For instance, a book edited by Cabezas and Diwekar comprises chapters dealing with ecology, economics, environmental policy, human interactions, engineering, urban growth, and other areas; a book edited by Kumar et al. comprises chapters dealing with sustainable city development, catalysis for clean and green energy, education, green management, hotel management, agriculture and rural poverty, and other areas; a book edited by Antonelli and Della Vecchia highlights contributions of selected areas to the U.S.D.G's. This approach has the merit of conveying the message that many disciplines and themes fall under the “sustainability” umbrella. and pursuit. Analogous approaches are adopted in special issues such as “Multi-disciplinary perspectives on sustainable development”.

The emergence of “sustainability science” as an incipient and expectedly fast-evolving academic discipline is also characterized by calls for multidisciplinary. Its purpose is to help build a sustainable society by developing solutions to the environmental crises that threaten the wellbeing of humankind. Multidisciplinary is part of its core: “Whereas academia has moved inexorably toward fields of in-depth specialization, sustainability science seeks comprehensive, integrated solutions to complex problems”. The complexity of the interrelationships between human activities and the natural world, within which humans exist and act, requires the contributions from many disciplines and this, in turn, requires a corresponding restructuring of education and research.

A variety of works propose concrete examples illustrating the importance and roles of the contributions of various areas to sustainability-related issues. Sumner and Tribe select the case of water and the environment to illustrate the importance of the social–physical sciences interface ^{} ; this example would actually be fully suitable to illustrate the importance of multidisciplinary for sustainability in general. Water sustainability is viewed as a typical issue needing multidisciplinary ^{} . Youngblood considers the search for options to address the acid rains problem as a typical topic requiring interdisciplinary approaches ^{} . Uiterkamp and Vlek select five projects concerning environmental issues and show that they required interdisciplinary approaches ^{} . Multidisciplinary is considered crucial for issues as various as sustainable product and process design ^{} , detecting and dealing with emerging environmental pollutants ^{} , designing ways for better management of electronic wastes ^{} , managing large engineering projects (megaprojects) ^{} , tackling challenges related to food, health, and sustainability ^{} , sustainable architecture and urbanism ^{} , water management in agriculture ^{} , local human activities and forest management ^{} . Countries sharing geographical and other characteristics may benefit from collaborative sustainability-related research; then, the design of common ways to incorporate multidisciplinary in the planned activities becomes a crucial factor ^{} . The adjective “sustainable” is often used to qualify something that is benign (or, at least, not harmful) to human health and the environment, and economically viable; for instance, ensuring good indoor air quality in school buildings is seen as part of making the school sustainable, and requires a multidisciplinary approach ^{} .

Research focusing on education for sustainability often recommends multidisciplinary or investigates viable implementation options. The first challenge is the definition of a suitable content and how to present it in a multidisciplinary way, and the establishing of viable practices. Jabareen observes that the literature on sustainable development “is fragmented and each specific discipline of knowledge analyses it and teaches it from its narrow perspective” and recommends more integrated approaches . Badurdeen et al. note that industry is increasingly requiring not only technical skills, but also the ability to work in multidisciplinary teams, from those graduating from engineering programs, and outline an approach using systems thinking to broaden the scope of engineers' preparation by incorporating suitable information from other disciplines. Rogers et al. proposed a"Multidisciplinary Sustainability Education Project" in which students are introduced to the need for multidisciplinary approaches to try and address sustainability issues. Wilson analyzes the criteria for optimal management of multidisciplinary teams for students undertaking degrees in sustainability.

Edwards recommends multidisciplinary approaches for themes concerning the environment and sustainability. Gillespie et al. report about the benefits of multidisciplinary teams working on sustainability projects within the"Engineering Projects in Community Service" program. Radonjič and Denac observe that"topics related to sustainable development are becoming an important integral part of curricula in economics and business higher education" and present 30 years of experiences in teaching sustainability topics with major emphasis on environment-related issues and incorporating interdisciplinarity in different departments.

Tejedor et al. consider transdisciplinary aspects of sustainability as"a transformational stream of sustainability science" and view them as"a competence for sustainability in technological curriculums"; they also consider the challenges for the advancement of sustainable engineering in terms of creating new platforms for engineers to recognize cross-disciplinary components in professional issues and being able to tackle them. Sood et al. investigate the applicability of multidisciplinary to distance learning. Pennell and Sabau investigate the impact of multidisciplinary program requirements on students' attitudes.

It may be interesting to note that most studies have their bases in disciplines like economics, business, social studies, and may expand to engineering because of its close links to development and economics, but they rarely include physical sciences, even when they incorporate concepts like carbon footprint calculation or the evaluation of the"greenness" of products with the application of software, databases and tools for Life Cycle Assessment, which clearly originate from within chemistry. Mousa makes explicit reference to the role of physics as the foundation of engineering. Altogether, it appears that the"interface" term with which Sumner and Tribe qualify the interactions between social sciences and physical sciences is the most suitable one for disciplines whose contents are largely distant, because it implies the ability to benefit from each other's knowledge and expertise even when a deeper merging of different expertise is not viable.

Multidisciplinary automatically includes relevant roles for the humanities in the most classical understanding of the term – linguistics, literature, arts, philosophy. Language is the most fundamental communication tool and adequate language mastery is therefore essential both for education (Chapters 5 and 8) and for the effectiveness of team work. Literature and the arts can play important roles within education, including informal education and dissemination of information to the public. Philosophy is important at various levels: basic understanding of the scientific method is vital for science learning, including the interpretation of experimental information; sufficiently deep philosophy backgrounds can play crucial roles in the development of theoretical thought; ethics has fundamental roles in guiding choices and behaviors.

It may also be suitable to recall that the year from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023 was declared by unesco the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (I.Y.B.S.S.D). As M. Spiro explains in the motivations, “Applications of technology are easy to recognize. On the other hand, contributions of basic, curiosity-based, sciences are not well appreciated”; however “Basic sciences provide the essential means to meet crucial challenges such as universal access to food, energy, health coverage and communication technologies”. The U.N General Assembly has proclaimed the 2024 to 2033 decade as the “International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (I.D.S.S.D) ”. Multidisciplinary, the idea of interdisciplinary research and practical approaches, has core roles in both initiatives.

1.2 Some reflections on multidisciplinary

1.2.1 Synergism areas between individual disciplines

We are largely used to treat the various disciplines as separate compartments and to classify them into domains such as humanities, social sciences, sciences, technical disciplines, and the like. On the other hand, no discipline is conceptually independent and self-sufficient; they blend into each other through more or less broad transition bands where several contents are shared, and various information ranges and operational, logical and methodological patterns are borrowed from one discipline into another and become part of its instruments' wealth. In other words, there is no discontinuity (in the mathematical meaning of the term) between one discipline and another. The frontier areas between two different disciplines become areas where their synergism can engender new ideas and new complex concepts.

The most prominent example of how a certain discipline can not only influence another discipline, but deeply empower it, is the case of mathematics. More than 2400 years ago, Plato had already stated that all disciplines are trivial without mathematics. Since the European Renaissance, mathematics has progressively entered other disciplines, first of all physics and astronomy, prompting new conceptual developments and shifting their nature from qualitative descriptions to theoretical elaborations. Civil engineering adopted it in the design of constructions, following the progress in physics (an early adoption is testified by the Pantheon's dome in ancient Rome, which was designed on the basis of Hero's formulas, the latest achievement in the mathematics of those times). Other disciplines gradually incorporated increasing mathematical components: chemistry, some branches of natural sciences, some branches of medicine, some aspects of linguistics investigation. Informatics—initially a “child” of mathematics and above all of mathematical logic—has radically changed the ways of doing research in all areas, as well as the working practices in all professional activities, thus becoming an integral component of all the other disciplines.

Each discipline has developed several branches within its body of expertise, and they are currently so specialized that a person usually acquires deep expertise in one of them and lighter acquaintance with the others. Interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinary can be referred also to interfaces and synergies between different branches of the same discipline. The present work refers these concepts both to relevant synergies between different branches of the same discipline and to synergies between different disciplines.

1.2.2 Interactions between individual disciplines

1.2.2.1 Considering simple interaction possibilities among a certain number of disciplines

The simplest example of interdisciplinarity is the case involving two disciplines (Fig. 1.1); it represents the smallest knowledge nucleus resulting from the convergence of more than one discipline. The reasoning leading to the interdisciplinarity concept can be split into the following steps:

- Let us consider two different disciplines and denote them as D (1) and D (2).

- Let us identify a set of definitions, deductions, concepts, starting data, or other entities, which can be managed and utilized to build a new knowledge chapter, or a new practical result, simultaneously pertaining to D (1) and D (2), but also having theoretical and application autonomy up to the point of constituting a piece of original, theoretically rigorous knowledge capable of applications.

Figure 1.1 summary: A Venn diagram depicting two overlapping circles representing Discipline 1 and Discipline 2. The lens-shaped intersection area, bounded by points A, C, B, and D, represents the region of interdisciplinarity. The figure illustrates that interdisciplinarity occurs where the scopes of two separate academic or professional fields overlap.

- Then this set, resulting from the synergy and partial convergence of D (1) and D (2), constitutes an interdisciplinary area between D (1) and D (2), as new ideas or concepts have been generated from some of the ideas or concepts pertaining to D (1) and to D (2). It is represented by the A.C.B.D space in figure 1.1, and henceforth denoted as I (1, 2).

It is important to note that there is a difference between the just defined interdisciplinary concept and the mathematical “intersection” concept, because the former allows, and often entails, the generation of new items, whereas the latter entails simultaneous belonging of certain items to two sets, without anything new appearing. It is here considered acceptable—as first approximation—to use a formalism analogous to the mathematical one, while keeping in mind that the “items” pertaining to one or the other set are qualitative in nature (concepts, pieces of information, etcetera). On this basis, one can write

Equation 1 summary: This expression defines the ACBD as the intersection result of two sets labeled one and two. It computes this result by identifying the simultaneous belonging of items that are common to both set one and set two.

where intersection is the mathematical symbol for the intersection operation and I stands for “intersection result” in relation to the sets indicated in parentheses.

: Figure 1.2 summary: A diagram showing three overlapping circles, each representing a different discipline, mapped to a small triangular graph at the top. The regions where two circles overlap are labeled as intersections between two disciplines, while the central area where all three overlap represents a shared intersection. This structure illustrates the pattern of interdisciplinarity by visualizing how distinct fields can overlap in pairs or collectively to create interdisciplinary spaces.

Multidisciplinary involves three or more disciplines. Its complexity increases as the number of disciplines increases. figure 1.2 illustrates the case of three disciplines. Three areas correspond to the intersections of disciplines' pairs, namely:

Equations 2a, 2b, 2c summary: This set of expressions defines three distinct intersection areas formed by pairs of disciplines. The specific areas are determined by calculating the intersection of disciplines one and two, disciplines two and three, and disciplines one and three.

The C.D.B area corresponds to the intersection of the three disciplines simultaneously:

Equation 3a summary: This expression defines the CDB area as the intersection of three specific disciplines. It computes the final result by finding the common area shared by discipline one, discipline two, and discipline three simultaneously.

which could also be seen as a second order intersection of the intersections between pairs

Equation 3b summary: This expression defines the CDB area as the intersection of three distinct sets. It calculates this area by finding the common overlap between the three possible pair-wise intersections of those sets.

It may be noted that figure 1.2 can be utilized also to visualize the interconnections between the three pillars of sustainability, by replacing D.1, D.2, and D.3 with the economic, environmental, and social sets; then, the three intersections between two circles at a time correspond to the economic-environmental, economic-social and environmental-social overlaps, and the area common to the three of them (the C.D.B area of the figure) corresponds to the sustainability paradigm.

A generalization can be outlined in the following terms:

• Consider n disciplines, D (1), D (2),....., D (n);

- Assume that establishing interdisciplinary relationships among them is beneficial from a theoretical, practical or operational point of view;

- Then the theoretical, practical or operational product resulting from the synergies and partial convergence of D 1, D 2, through D n represents a multidisciplinary area for D 1, D 2, through D n, corresponding to a joint generation of new ideas and new knowledge/information from the ideas and knowledge/information pertaining to D 1, D 2, through D n.

Recalling that intersections between sets have the same operational properties as multiplication, one can manipulate equation (3b) to write the following equalities:

Equation 3c summary: This expression defines the CDB as the intersection of three separate sets labeled one and two, two and three, and one and three. The process demonstrates that the order and grouping of these set intersections can be rearranged without changing the final result.

This would correspond to expressing complex multidisciplinary as a combination of binary interdisciplinarities (interactions between two disciplines). It offers a simplified approach that can facilitate basic handling.

Within this simplified perspective of considering binary interdisciplinarities as units of a broader multidisciplinary picture, it is possible to build graphs to illustrate the number of possible units. Two major scenarios are possible. The first scenario considers that the theme of interest requires the contributions of n disciplines, and that these disciplines have the same relevance.

One can build a regular polygon with n sides and n vertexes; the vertexes can be numbered to facilitate readability (Fig. 1.3). Each vertex is then connected to all the others by segments. Each connecting segment represents an interdisciplinarity relationship between the two disciplines represented by the two numbers at its ends. It is also assumed that none of these relationships is empty, that is, each of them brings an actual contribution (a discipline that does not bring a contribution does not need to have a corresponding vertex in the graph). It is then possible to determine the maximum number of interdisciplinary relationships.

It is expedient to introduce two running-number sets, i equals 1 through n and j equals 1 through n, for the disciplines. Interdisciplinarities are symmetric, that is,

Equation 4 summary: This expression defines the symmetry of interdisciplinarities between two disciplines. It states that the interdisciplinarity value from the first discipline to the second is equal to the value from the second discipline back to the first.

and there is no interdisciplinarity of a discipline with itself

Equation 5 summary: This expression defines the interdisciplinarity of a discipline with itself. It states that this value is equal to an empty set, meaning no interdisciplinarity exists in this case.

Figure 1.3 summary: A diagram of a complete graph with 14 numbered nodes arranged in a circle, where every single node is connected by an edge to every other node. This structure represents a scenario where each of 14 interacting disciplines interacts with every other discipline in the set.

Keeping (4) and (5) into account, the total number (N) of segments (possible interactions, possible interdisciplinarities) is given by

Math summary: This expression calculates the total number of segments representing possible interactions and interdisciplinarities. The result is determined by subtracting the number of items from its square and then dividing that difference by two.

which can be written as

: Equation 6 summary: This expression calculates the total number of connections in a network. It multiplies the number of vertexes by that count minus one, then divides the result by two.

more explicitly recalling that each vertex is connected to n minus 1 other vertexes.

The second scenario entails n+1 disciplines, one of which is a central discipline to which all the other ones contribute. It could, for instance, be one of the accumulation-area disciplines introduced in Section 1.1.1. A graph (Fig. 1.4) would put this discipline—denoted as O—at the center, and the other n disciplines at the vertexes of a polygon. The interactions between pairs of the other disciplines remain the same as in the previous scenario (Fig. 1.3); one must add the n interactions from each discipline to the central one, represented by the red segments in figure 1.4; therefore, the total number of interactions becomes

Math summary: This expression calculates the total number of interactions for a system with a central discipline and additional surrounding disciplines. It adds the number of disciplines to the result of subtracting the number of disciplines from its square and dividing that difference by two.

which can be written as

Equation 7 summary: This expression calculates a total value denoted as N. The process multiplies an input value n by the sum of itself plus one and then divides the result by two.

Figure 1.4 summary: A diagram of a graph showing 14 numbered peripheral disciplines connected to each other by black segments and to a central discipline O by red segments. The structure illustrates a network where disciplines interact in pairs while simultaneously contributing to a shared central focal point.

The assumption that none of the interactions is empty is useful for the general picture. In concrete cases, it may happen that one or more of the vertexes connect with some of the other vertexes, but not all of them. Then, the number of possible interactions is smaller than those predicted by Eqs. (6) and (7).

1.2.2.2 Explicit expression of the generation of new knowledge-items from the interactions of two or more disciplines

As already mentioned, the analogy with the intersections of sets, developed in the previous subsection, entails an inherent oversimplification, because the intersection of two disciplines often generates new “items,” which did not belong to either of the individual sets. One may wish to recall this explicitly by adding terms corresponding to the new items into the previous equations. For instance, if one denotes the collection of new items generated by the interaction of D.1 and D.2 as Theta 12 , then equation (1) becomes

Equation 8 summary: This expression calculates the active cross-boundary domain for two disciplines. The result is the sum of the intersection of the two discipline domains and the new items generated by their interaction.

Similarly, Eqs. (2a), (2b) and (2c) respectively become

Equations 9a, 9b, and 9c summary: These expressions calculate three distinct interaction values denoted as I for pairs one and two, two and three, and one and three. Each result is computed by adding a specific theta offset to the intersection of two corresponding D domains.

and equation (3a) becomes

Equation 10 summary: This expression defines the CDB as the intersection of three sets labeled one, two, and three. The result is calculated by finding the common elements among these three sets and adding the collection of new items generated by their interaction, denoted as theta one twenty three.

where Theta 123 denotes the collection of new items generated by the interaction of D.1, D.2 and D.3.

In this way, the analogy with the intersections of sets serves the purpose of identifying the possible convergence patterns, while full appreciation of the multidisciplinary outcomes is emphasized by the presence of terms (the Theta terms) qualitatively identifying the newly generated “items,” their characteristics, and the additions that they bring to the overall conceptual, practical and operational knowledge.

1.3 Illustrative scenarios from engineering

Engineering is here selected as an example to illustrate the operational aspects of multidisciplinary, because Section 1 has already clearly established that its importance for sustainability is widely recognized, as well as its interfaces with other disciplines. The recognition relates to the importance of engineering for the functioning of essential societal components and the ensuing impacts on the quality of life. In addition, it is apt to offer a high variety of examples both for synergies between its different branches and for synergies with other disciplines, and the examples can be described in qualitative, easily understandable ways. Finally, the most ancient extant European systematic treatise of what we now call civil engineering outlines the need of multidisciplinary in a way that makes it clearly understandable; it is worth recalling it, as it stresses how the recognition of the need for multidisciplinary is as old as the birth of engineering as an applied science. The concepts it expresses about the nature of multidisciplinary are fully valid even today.

1.3.1 Vitruvius: multidisciplinary character of the construction expertise

The first of the ten books constituting Vitruvius' De Architectura describes the expertise of what he calls "architect" – a term that combined what we would now call "architect," "engineer," and "urban planner," and is here translated as "engineer." The book lists the types of knowledge that the engineer needs to learn from other specialists, in order to be able to design construction works that meet the needs of those who will use them. Although it would be fascinating to report a word-to-word translation of the original text, space reasons prevent it. Therefore, the recommendations are here summarized, and modern terms are used to indicate the various areas, for the sake of greater clarity.

Two types of activities are necessary for construction works – the practical one, which enables the obtainment of a desired construction, and the theoretical one, which explains the reasons why a certain construction is made in a certain way. If only the former is present, the engineer will not reach high levels; if only the latter is present, he ends up pursuing only the shadow, not the actual thing; when both are present, the engineer soon attains recognized authority in his field.

The engineer needs to have sufficient knowledge in the following areas: writing mastery, to be able to explain the details of his projects and their reasons; geometry knowledge and drawing abilities, to be able to design and illustrate the details of his projects; optics, to determine the distribution of light within the buildings, on the basis of their orientation toward one or the other part of the sky; arithmetic, to calculate the cost of a building; the history and traditions of a place, to design suitable ornamental components; philosophy, to be honest and maintain his integrity (ethics being part of philosophy); natural philosophy, to be able to understand phenomena like the motion of water in nature, and in channels and pipes; music and the mathematics associated with it, to design the acoustics of building interiors, and also the ratios producing more effective catapults and other war-machines; medicine, to build healthy buildings considering the characteristics of the air and the management of water; law, to know the regulations concerning buildings in a given place; astronomy, to be able to build sun-dials.

Vitruvius adds that this is not a forbidding task if one considers that “all disciplines are in mutual contact and intercommunicate.” In addition, the engineer does not need to know each of the listed areas at the same level as the specialists in that area, but he needs to know them to the extent that needs to be employed in the design of buildings and the management of their construction.

1.3.2 The branches of modern engineering

As a first approximation, taking into account both the academic world (e.g., departments or faculties) and the specificities of practical and industrial applications, the branches of engineering can be listed as follows: civil engineering, with hydraulic engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, construction engineering, and transport engineering being its major areas; chemical engineering; computer engineering; electrical engineering; electronic engineering; forensic engineering; management engineering; materials engineering; mechanical engineering; mechatronic engineering; mining engineering; and military engineering (with land, naval, and aeronautical areas). Each of these branches could be considered a vertex in a graph like that of figure 1.3, and all the interactions with the other branches can be identified and analyzed.

Besides interacting with the other engineering branches, each branch can interact with other disciplines. Several such interactions are often necessary for the accurate design of a viable project. Interactions between structural engineering and various other disciplines are outlined in Section 1.3.4 with the role of illustrative examples.

1.3.3 Engineering and sustainability: basic considerations

The branches of engineering listed in the previous section automatically indicate the enormous presence of engineering and its products in production and in everyday life. This also implies huge potentialities to enhance sustainability, parallel to the extent to which sustainability criteria are incorporated into engineering research and practice. The references considered in Section 1.2. show that engineering is often included in analyses on multidisciplinary and sustainability, as a discipline having fundamental roles to make development sustainable.

A 2003 definition of sustainability for engineers states that “A sustainable product or process is one that constrains resource consumption and waste generation to an acceptable level, makes a positive contribution to the satisfaction of human needs, and provides enduring economic value to the business enterprise”. A 2013 survey, mostly involving mechanical engineers from U.S.A, identifies the sustainable technology priorities as “using less energy and natural resources, reducing emissions and material wastes, and utilizing renewable, recyclable and recycled materials”, and the main challenge as that of addressing economic aspects to increase the incorporation of sustainability into engineering.

Civil engineering constitutes an optimal example to outline integration pathways between engineering and sustainability criteria, because its products occupy massive spaces on the land and are directly surrounded by components of the environment. The first definition of sustainable construction was proposed in 1994: “Sustainable construction is the creation and responsible management of a healthy built environment based on resource efficient and ecological principles”. The search for strategies to balance cost effectiveness and sustainability criteria has become increasingly active. Engineers must make decisions with immediate relevance, as they decide how a certain item has to be built. Zavadskas et al. provide a review of publications focusing on the use of multiple-criteria decision-making (M.C.D.M) theories for the selection of sustainable options in civil engineering, and in construction and building technology.

Asif provides an insight into the policies and practices pursuing sustainable buildings in developed countries, and derives suggestions for sustainable building in the Gulf-region countries. Utsev et al. provide a review of articles presenting approaches and benefits of sustainable constructions, and conclude with recommendations such as designing structures for reuse, or selecting materials keeping recycling possibilities in mind.

All these criteria and objectives require working interfaces between the various branches of civil engineering, as well as with other disciplines. Structural engineering is here selected for the purpose of offering concrete illustrations of multidisciplinary, and a sufficient number of major interactions are considered in some detail.

1.3.4 Synergies between structural engineering and other disciplines

1.3.4.1 The nature of structural engineering

As a branch of civil engineering, structural engineering focuses on the design of the backbones of buildings and other works (bridges, tunnels, etcetera) and must ensure their stability both under standard circumstances and under circumstances peculiar to specific regions (e.g., resistance to earthquakes, or to very strong winds). Its body of expertise is based on physics.

In a graph analogous to that of figure 1.3, structural engineering could be one of the vertexes and the other disciplines with which it can interface could be located at the other vertexes. By taking structural engineering as the reference vertex, one would consider the segments connecting this vertex to all the others. Since it is chosen as the reference area, the analysis of relevant or possible interactions outlines the interface requirements and benefits from the point of view of structural engineering.

The next subsections provide quick outlines of the importance of the contributions of other areas for structural engineering and of structural engineering for the sustainability objectives of other areas. The descriptions are largely qualitative, as this should be sufficient to highlight the importance of the contributions. Many considerations can be expanded to other areas of civil engineering.

1.3.4.2 Structural engineering and architecture

Both disciplines refer to constructions. Structural engineering deals with the load-bearing skeleton of a construction, that is, the structure meant to support all its components and ensure its stability and safety. Architecture takes care of the shape and the spatial distribution of the components (e.g., the rooms, passageways, stairwells etcetera in a building), of the functionality for those who will live or work there, of the harmonization with the context and the environment. The structural calculations respond to the shape and spatial distribution proposed by the architect.

Historically, architecture was the first form of the “art of building” and, for many centuries, it comprised also all the tasks that are currently part of engineering. The identification of engineering as a separate field started at the beginning of the XIX century, following the theoretical development of applied mathematical physics, up to becoming able to predict the laws governing the behaviors of constructions and, therefore, being able to predict their stability. It might be said that engineering was born when architecture and physics met each other. Engineering was also able to respond to economic criteria in a new way, by minimizing materials consumption (and associated costs) while guaranteeing safety.

In modern times, three categories of experts are needed for each building: the architect, the structural engineer, and the systems (electrical, plumbing, heating, etc) engineers. They need to work simultaneously until all the details are finalized and the construction works can start. These are also the components which can, both individually and synergically, aim at increasing the sustainability of buildings through careful selection of the shapes and space distribution, the construction materials, the orientation of rooms with respect to the sun (to minimize energy consumption for heating or cooling), and a variety of other options.

1.3.4.3 Structural engineering and history

Knowing the history of engineering, both in one's own context and in other contexts, is important to make the best decisions at design level. For instance, German engineering has traditionally preferred steel rather than concrete for certain types of structures, such as stays for large span bridges, whereas Italian engineering has preferred concrete as building material up to rather recent times. An Italian engineer—Riccardo Morandi—had developed an entire technology for the realization of stays for large span bridges using prestressed reinforced concrete. On the other hand, such bridges require regular massive maintenance, to control the metallurgical deterioration of prestressed cables with time. One such bridge—the Polcevera viaduct in Genoa—collapsed on 14 August 2018, killing 43 persons, because the needed maintenance had not been adequate. The Raphael Urdaneta bridge across Maracaibo Bay (Venezuela) has a specific configuration very similar to that of the Polcevera viaduct; its design, also by Riccardo Morandi, had envisaged the use of prestressed reinforced concrete for the stays; however, the German construction company that built it decided to use steel, considering it safer, and the option has actually proved safer.

This example shows that the analysis of the history of specific types of construction in different engineering traditions may provide precious guidelines to enhance safety. An example illustrating the possibility of useful information from the history of a place is outlined in Section 3.4.8.

1.3.4.4 Structural engineering and geology

Geology has a determining role in the design of the foundations of any construction. The knowledge of the geological characteristics of the ground where a certain work will be built, and of its surroundings, is essential to ensure its safety and, correspondingly, an effective utilization of available resources.

All the forces acting on a structure converge on the ground on which it is built. It is therefore necessary to know whether the mechanical and physical properties of the ground enable it to support the structure and resist those forces. The engineer and the geologist need to be able to communicate on all the relevant details. In particular, the engineer needs to know the types of geological information that are necessary for the safe design of the structure, and to know how to utilize them in the design; this also entails the awareness of the uncertainty range of the geological information and the consequent precautionary selection of a design for which the structure is capable of “surviving” the worst possible scenario.

Deep knowledge of the geological characteristics of the ground enables the engineer to choose the options corresponding to best possible cost-saving without compromising safety. The overall interplay becomes multidisciplinary, involving structural engineering, geology, and economy.

It can also be added that the increasing number of underground works (tunnels, underground parking lots, and various others) demands increasing attention to geological information because, in such cases, the geological formation interacting with the work surrounds it completely, thus becoming the primary factor for the quantitative evaluation of the lithostatic and hydrogeological “external actions” on the work itself.

1.3.4.5 Structural engineering and economy

The interdisciplinarity between structural engineering and economy has been largely developed in the last two centuries. Its more basic forms have been present since antiquity, wherever the building of constructions started being undertaken by bodies different from the owner, and even more so when societies were sufficiently advanced to build public works. In his 10-volume book on architecture, Vitruvius describes the management of public works contracts in ancient Greece and in the Roman empire; he also considers that the concept that he calls “utilitas” (which could be translated as a combination of usefulness and benefits) should be associated with any construction of any type, entailing a comparison between the benefits attained when the work is functioning and the expenses to build it (the other two qualities that he considered essential were “firmitas,” that is, stability, and “venustas,” that is, beauty).

With reference to constructions, the discipline of valuation is an inherently interdisciplinary area between engineering and economy, as it is meant to ascribe an economic value to the outcome of the construction work, including possible monetary revenues from its utilization. Other interdisciplinarity areas in which economy is involved are the following:

- The management of contracts for public works, which also involves considerable legislation components;

- The theory and practice of estimating metric calculations to be utilized for progress reporting, and the comparison between contract predictions and attained results;

- The theory and practice of general and special contract specifications, defining the technical instructions and ensuing implications, which the construction process must adhere to;

- The theory and practice of works' management, which comprise technical contents like the implementation of the project components, or the ability to cope with unexpected situations, and economic contents such as works' accounting, keeping a diary for the works' progress, and the like;

- The possibility of defining “mixed” algorithms, mutually relating the technical parameters (tension, deformation, displacement, and stress fields) and the economical parameters (the cost of the various materials and the various works), to enable the selection of the most economic design options (above all, the structural ones) among those with equal safety levels for the users.

1.3.4.6 Structural engineering and politics

The construction industry largely depends on political management – the factors and persons which determine priorities for public works (which are generally the “biggest” works) and also determine regulations for private constructions. The quality and efficacy of maintenance of existing public-work structures also depend on political decisions.

It may also be recalled that, through history, different political and associated economical set-ups have influenced the style of constructions up to the point that certain styles immediately recall certain historical periods. Furthermore, in periods when a country needed to build fast to provide housing to a high number of persons, or to realize infrastructures necessary for development, the style tended to be essential, giving priority to the function and functionality over other components.

1.3.4.7 Structural engineering and law

The interdisciplinary between engineering and law has in recent decades brought about a new autonomous discipline – legal engineering (or forensic engineering). It is a typical frontier area, currently engendering novel pedagogical approaches at university level and novel expertise areas for professional activities. Its presence is needed in those court cases where the nature of the issue requires the availability of extensive and detailed technical information for a judge or a jury to reach a balanced, facts-based decision.

All the key persons involved in court cases of this type may need forensic engineers' reports to substantiate their positions. Accidents involving buildings (e.g., something collapsing, or a fire) require investigation, and forensic engineers are expected to provide technical expertise.

Few examples, expressed in terms of questions that require investigations along forensic engineering patterns, can help illustrate the concept: (i) “Who is responsible for the collapse of the Viadotto Polcevera, and which phenomena prompted it?”; (2) “Why did the actual cost of a certain pedestrian flyover exceed the predicted cost by a huge amount?”; (3) “Why did an old industrial building, formerly a glassblowing workshop, collapse during the preparation of the building site for its restoration, killing one worker and wounding another?”.

Tracing the causes of events that have caused damages to persons or to properties is fundamental. It is not always easy, and there might be more than one cause. For instance, the Viadotto Polcevera was structurally state-of-the-art when it was built and opened to traffic in 1967. It collapsed in 2018 for lack of adequate maintenance in a considerable portion (about 2/3) of its length. This caused degradation of the inner steel cables in those parts, as they had been exposed for more than 50 years to the aggressive action of the salt contained in the aerosols from the nearby Tirrenian sea, which could reach the cables through fissures in the concrete.

Therefore, the primary technical cause of the collapse was the continuous decrease of the ability of the structure to resist stress; the primary cause associated with human behavior was the poor management of the structure, as verified by the absence of specific maintenance of critical components, although the need for such maintenance was well known. It may also be added that its design responded to the minimum safety requirements, whereas it is advisable to endow a structure with some additional resilience and stability resources with respect to the minimum requirements, to increase safety in case circumstances should require those extra resources. Aspects of this type become challenging for forensic engineering because, on the one hand, if minimum regulations requirements are satisfied, the law is satisfied; on the other hand, the identification of the margins for additional resources, which would relate to precautionary criteria, may be an important component of technical decision-making.

1.3.4.8 Structural engineering and the humanities

Multidisciplinary with humanities-pertaining disciplines is crucial in many projects and it may take many forms, depending on the nature of the project. The importance of areas such as law or politics has been outlined in previous subsections of this section. The importance of language mastery for all the other areas of knowledge and expertise is analyzed extensively in Chapter 8. This subsection considers the importance that interfaces with history and literature may have for specific projects.

Section 3.4.3 has highlighted the importance of the history of engineering traditions in different contexts. It may also happen that the history of a place provides information relevant to structural engineering design. For instance, a project from A. Mammino's professional experience benefited from the interfaces with history, literature, and also the legends and traditions of a location.

The project concerned the restoration of an ancient and now dismissed mine in the Dolomites mountains (the Fursill mine in Colle Santa Lucia, Belluno Province, Italy) to convert it into an underground museum of mining history. Besides the technical disciplines like structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, geology and geomechanics, also the history of the mine and the surrounding area, the literature and the legends contributed information relevant to the structural design. History highlighted the suitability for that specific mine to become a museum, because of its antiquity, as the first mention of the mine in official documents dates back to 1177. Historical documentation was the basis for the design of structural forms as close as possible to those that were used in this specific mine across centuries.

Literature had collected some of the legends related to the mine; this influenced the architectural choices for the museum, suggesting the opportunity to include a study-center devoted to the writer (Karl Felix Wolf) who had collected the legends of the Dolomites. One of the legends provided detailed descriptions of the interior of the mine, its many extraction levels and outlets into the external ground, the maze of tunnels, and the wells (even many tens of meters deep) that connected the various levels. In turn, these descriptions provided guidance in the search for other underground spaces (halls, tunnels, wells) surrounding the ones that had already been discovered, and which can be interesting to explore and possibly to add to the current museum space; in addition, their knowledge was important for the selection of the best safety options both for the final structure and during its construction. A detailed analysis of the role of each discipline, and of the interdisciplinary pathways involved, is offered in [64].

1.3.4.9 Structural engineering and education

Education is fundamental for the training of new specialists, that is, to ensure the existence of a given expertise and profession in the next generations. It implies teaching and learning. This, first of all, requires efficient communication, thus giving an essential role to language (Chapters 5 and 8).

The efficacy of teaching and learning is vital for all the technical disciplines, as they have a practical and implementation character and, simultaneously, are based on physical sciences, and both practical and theoretical components are essential for quality professional activities. Education and training are first realized within formal education, at university level, and then on the work place, ideally through some form of appendiceship or mentorship.

The current tendency—in a number of contexts—to a general lowering of the education standards (lowering of the level of knowledge and understanding required from students at the various levels of instruction) is particularly worrying for disciplines like engineering (and also chemistry and medicine), where inadequate competency may result in loss of lives. Because of its importance, education in all its aspects is devoted an entire chapter (Chapter 5).

1.3.4.10 Structural engineering, sociology and anthropology

The objective of structural engineering is building objects; it can be viewed as the basis of the “art of building.” Any item that gets built needs to respond to the previously mentioned (Section 3.4.5) “utilitas” concept: its being built entails a cost for an individual or for a community (depending on the nature of the object); therefore, it must have an adequate degree of usefulness (function potentialities) to justify its cost.

In the case of public works, the definition of their usefulness entails deep preliminary studies to identify the costs, the benefits, and the communities for which positive impacts are expected. Decisions about which works a community needs, and how they should be configured and positioned to better respond to the needs of the citizens, need to be based on adequate knowledge of the habits, traditions, and social and political characteristics of the community involved, as well as its economic situation. In addition, it is important to take into account aspects such as the envisaged demographics of the area concerned, and the envisaged enhancement of the quality of life, for the period in which the work is expected to be useful, to ensure that the planned work actually remains useful for a sufficiently long period of time, or for its entire technical life.

1.3.4.11 Structural engineering and anthropization management

Theoretical and practical analyses of the anthropization of territory where a certain work is planned, and of the physical and environmental limitations to this same anthropization, are important. The works that are being constructed for people to live or work within, to travel, or for economic activities (industrial production, retail and service industry, etcetera), occupy considerable space; examples of public works are roads, airports, apartment complexes with subsidized rents, port areas near the sea, railway networks and their stations, aqueducts to provide water to citizens, dams, and various others.

The tendency to improve the quality of living and general wellbeing entails the expansion of anthropized areas. The continuous population increase entails continuous increase in the demands for agricultural products (food). The combination of these factors leads to increasing invasion of pristine areas (woods, forests, wetlands) to use them for agriculture. On the other hand, excessive loss of pristine areas may lead to undesirable consequences for life on the planet, including human life and wellbeing.

Sustainability requires careful management of land utilization, to prevent the depletion of space availability. The planet surface cannot increase. If A a denotes the total anthropized space, A g denotes the total space devoted to agriculture, A p denotes the total space occupied by pristine areas, A r denotes the total space not responding to the previous definitions, and A denotes the total land surface of the planet, then

Equation 11 summary: This expression calculates the total land surface of the planet. It performs this by summing the total anthropized space, the total space devoted to agriculture, the total space occupied by pristine areas, and the total space that does not fit those definitions.

where A is a constant and A a , A g , A p , and A r are variables. A r is likely not large. A p should ideally not be further decreased from its current situation. Therefore, the main challenge is the optimization of the use of A a and A g . For instance, structures and infrastructures occupying large surfaces should be built in areas that are not valuable for agriculture. Re-valorization options, such as recovering abandoned or degraded areas, like those of abandoned industrial complexes, and utilizing them for new infrastructures, should be preferred to building new infrastructures on land that would be subtracted to A g . New structures that do not require continuous presence of human beings to fulfill their task should be located underground whenever viable; these may include: parking lots; spaces to store fluid or granular materials, or items of various types; road, railroad and water-pipe tunnels; water reservoirs; plants, or suitable parts of plants, for energy production; and various others. Although the cost of underground structures is currently greater than for equivalent above-ground ones, progress in engineering and technology is expected to decrease the gap.

Pursuing these goals requires new advances in structural engineering, including the development of unavoidably more complex approaches, to face the complexities inherent in the sustainability issues that it has to address.

1.3.4.12 Structural engineering, natural sciences and environmental sciences

Natural sciences are broad disciplines studying all the living beings (animals and plants, Chapter 3) and environmental sciences study the characteristics of the environment in which they and we (humans) live, and monitor its quality and liveability. The environment is characterized by the chemico-physical status of the atmosphere, soil, and water bodies.

“Biosphere” is the ensemble of components of the planet (humus, water and air) which, all together, enable life, including human life (viewing humans as part of the animals, without considering their activities) together with the ensemble of all beings (flora and fauna) living in it. “Anthroposphere” is the anthropized territory, that is, the land utilized by humans and densely equipped with items that ensure their existence and the level of comfort enabled by the context; its expansion is prompted both by the demographic increment and by the increasing demands for wellbeing enhancement by individuals and communities.

The awareness of the invariance of the Earth surface area has prompted important recognitions:

- the recognition that—without adequate measures—the anthroposphere expands to the detriment of the biosphere, both in terms of space availability and because of the ensuing increasing pollution entering the biosphere;

- the ensuing recognition that such a trend, if unchecked, would lead to a non-return situation, in which the biosphere would become unlivable, above all for the living beings that are more sensitive to environmental conditions, including Homo say-pee-enz (our species).

This prompted the question about the “limits to growth” and the subsequent birth of the “sustainable development” concept, as outlined in Section 1.1.

Biological sciences and environmental sciences (including their ecology branch) provide the information about the damages to the environment that have already happened, the mechanisms through which they happen, their undesirable impacts on living beings (plants, animals, microorganisms, and their mutual equilibria), and the impacts on human health and wellbeing (for instance, a considerable proportion of cancers are caused by environmental pollutants, [66 to 68]). All the branches of engineering are involved in the search for options that minimize the damages. Chemical engineering is particularly responsible for the minimization of pollutants' emissions from production processes (Chapter 4). Structural engineering can improve the sustainability of buildings and find options that maximize sustainability aspects (such as energy efficiency) while maintaining human health as first priority (the issue of human health as first priority is outlined more in detail in Chapter 5).

1.3.4.13 Structural engineering and the art of building

Any engineering project contains the seeds from which all the features of the work will be developed. In other words, a viable project defines also the building criteria and all the work-site procedures, including the guidelines for special or non-standard works that might be required. It cannot describe only the final product: it must include all the details that need to be taken care of during the construction process, from the materials to be used to the sequence of individual operations. Thus, a good project is the outcome of an interdisciplinary route between structural engineering (which is based on mathematical models) and the art of building, which entails practical, work-site-related knowledge. Information from the latter is important for the former, in terms of knowledge of how a designed project is realized on the work site and which work components need to be specified in detail.

It may be added that the provision of highly detailed guidelines, expressed both through sentences and through drawings, is particularly important in the currently frequent cases in which the workers are immigrants, with only approximate understanding of the language of the host country. Even young local workers may often need it. Construction workers have for centuries constituted a group with high expertise and their own guilds (mason). In Italian, they were referred to as “maestranze”, a word having the same root as “magister” and automatically implying expertise.

Now-a-days, that expertise might not be available on the field, or not at the same level as in previous instances, and the structural engineer must make up for the gap through the completeness and clarity of the instructions in the project files. This requires adequate communication and—one would say—even pedagogical skills.

1.3.4.14 Structural engineering and forecasting theory

Each engineering work has a useful life – the minimum duration for which the work can be expected to be functioning. It may be recalled that structural engineering may design practically the whole work (as in the case of a bridge or a tunnel) or a crucial part of the work (as is the case of buildings, where also electrical and water systems, and various other components, play roles); in any case, it is responsible for the work stability.

Regulations define the functioning time spans that need to be guaranteed at design level, according to the type of work. The work should not degrade during its predicted technical life, nor should there appear multunctionings caused by wear over time. As far as the structure is concerned, its durability is part of the technical aspects of the design. It may be noted that it does not only need to be resistant to the loads specified at the moment when it was designed; it also needs to be resistant to possible exceptional events, which can be anticipated as possibilities from adequate knowledge of the physical context in which the work is located; for instance, it should not collapse in the case of an earthquake. The overall potential-for-use of the work requires also extrapolations on the possible subsequent social and technological development—trends during its predicted useful time.

All this entails interdisciplinarity between engineering and forecast theory, and also with systems analysis, to be applied to the study of the characteristics of the location and human environment of the given work. This, in turn, entails interactions with sociology and anthropology, resulting in an expanded multidisciplinary outlook. The outcome leads to extrapolations for the envisaged duration time of the work, both in terms of technical stability and in terms of full suitability for the community that has financed it.

1.3.4.15 Structural engineering and materials chemistry

For more than half-a-century, most engineering branches have been introducing laboratory practices for the design of materials with characteristics that better respond to the requirements of the uses to which they are destined. This has engendered a new discipline, materials engineering, which is interdisciplinary between engineering and chemistry. It investigates the molecular bases of the properties and behaviors of existing materials and may try to optimize them through some modifications; it can also try to design new materials with better properties. The fast development of computational chemistry approaches in the last decades provides an important tool for the analysis of the causes of relevant properties of existing materials, as well as for the prediction of the properties of new, not-yet-synthesized materials (Chapter 4).

Materials play a relevant role in a building's environmental footprint. The selection of sustainable materials thus becomes one of the main strategies to make constructions sustainable. Kanniyapan et al. define sustainable materials as “materials that are drawn from renewable sources that do not adversely affect the natural environment, in terms of both material itself and its immediate surrounding”.

They recommend the optimization of maintainability as a crucial criterion in the selection of building materials, and show that maintainability and sustainability are often “allies”. Recycling also plays important roles for sustainability evaluation; for instance, sustainable concrete may be created from recycling, for example, from recycled waste water and from construction and demolition concrete waste.

The selection of appropriate and sustainable materials is important in all engineering branches. When selecting the materials for a certain project, engineers need to take into account a variety of important criteria simultaneously, such as “material cost, mechanical properties, physical properties, environmental performance, manufacturing properties, market trends, cultural aspects, and safety”; sustainability is increasingly being added to this list. These criteria may not be all in the same direction; some of them may be mutually opposing; the greatest challenge is that of finding optimal balance among needs that may be contradictory.

Zhou et al. propose an approach integrating artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms methods to optimize multiobjectives material selection, to facilitate the selection of suitable materials to develop sustainable products. Liu et al. analyze these challenges and propose “a general framework for evaluating and selecting the best material for a given application”.

1.3.5 An operational example: controlling landslides

Landslides entail motion of land masses. They can be viewed as disturbances of the land, which can be “treated” through technological options. An effective intervention-project needs to start from the topological and kinematic characters of the specific landslide.

Landslides can be grouped into four main categories:

1) the unstable rocky mass overhangs an inhabited area and risks falling on it. For instance, an entire village in Val Ferret (Val d'Aosta, Italy) was canceled in the 17 century by a huge mass which fell from Mount Blanc. A rocky mass overhanging the small town of Zambana Vecchia was stabilized in the '90s (Photo 1.1; more information in the caption).

2) the unstable mass is close or under a town located at high altitude, so that the town itself is the one that risks coming down as a landslide. A typical example is the case of the ancient city of Orvieto, in Central Italy. The first landslide of this type to be stabilized was in the small town of Candide (Belluno Province, Italy; Photo 1.2);

3) the unstable mass may fall into a deep and broad water body, causing the water to overflow. If the falling mass is huge and falls fast, a huge amount of water is ejected at high speed with disastrous consequences; it was the case of the Vajont disaster in Italy;

4) the unstable mass may fall from a mountain slope into a mountain stream or river forming a barrier which would cause the water to overflow flooding the nearby areas, with enormous damages to houses and agriculture. An event of this type occurred in 1823 in Perarolo di Cadore (Belluno province, Italy), where the landslide blocked the Boite stream; a new analogous risk appeared in recent years and the landslide has been stabilized.

Figure 1.1 summary: A photograph of a massive, sheer rock face in the Adige Valley of Italy. It depicts a large, dihedral rocky mass that overhung the town of Zambana Vecchia for decades before being stabilized in the 1990s. The image serves to illustrate the scale and precarious nature of the geological feature.

Figure 1.2 summary: Two photos showing the stabilization of a long-term landslide in Candide, Italy. The top photo shows construction in progress, with a reinforced concrete basement curb and tie rods installed beside buildings; the bottom photo shows a completed section of the concrete curbs used to coordinate the micropiles and spring steel tie rods. The point is to demonstrate the structural engineering used to halt the progression of a century-old landslide.

Landslides need to be stabilized if they threaten areas that are significant for the inhabitants and their activities (e.g., agriculture). The decision and action to stabilize them requires contributions from economics, politics, and structural and geomechanical engineering. From a purely technical point of view, it is currently possible to stabilize any landslide.

Economics shows that a landslide stabilization is by far less costly than options such as relocating the population of an entire village or town. For instance, a huge dihedral rock mass (300 m high, 60 m long, 20 to 40 m deep, photo 1.1) had been overhanging the small town of Zambana Vecchia (Trento province, Adige Valley, Italy) since 1955, when a twin mass had fallen down causing considerable damages. It risked falling as well, as it was already largely separated from the intact rock behind it. It was stabilized using spring steel tie rods to anchor it to the intact rock, micropiles' systems to reinforce it, drainages to prevent the generation of water pressure, and grouting at the bottom of the mass. The stabilization took from 1988 to 1997 and cost 5 billion old Italian liras (about 2,500,000 euro); the cost of relocating the inhabitants and abandoning the area to its fate would have been much greater; the stabilization intervention saved the small town, its historical and artistic heritage (including a XVI century church), and highly productive agricultural land.

Figure 1.3 summary: A photograph of a large, eroded mountain slope in Perarolo di Cadore, Italy, showing a landslide area with exposed rock and debris. The image depicts the unstable terrain prior to the 2018 stabilization project, which used steel tie rods and micropiles to prevent further slope damage and protect the nearby Boite stream.

Politics showed a tendency (above all up to few decades ago) to opt for the relocation of villages and towns, despite the much greater costs and the inhabitants' opposition. A possible reason might be traced to the frequent lack of technical knowledge among politicians, and the ensuing anxiety that the intervention might not work, with consequent disasters. This further stresses the need for interdisciplinarity between technical knowledge and politics: politicians do not need to understand all the details of a technical project, but need to be able to understand the underpinning reasoning, to be in a position to make informed decisions.

This is particularly important as the stabilization of landslides can be envisaged as a component of sustainability. Its relevance largely depends on the nature of the territory. For instance, in a geologically “young” and mostly mountainous country like Italy, preventing the utilization of all the areas that may be threatened by landslides would rapidly lead to a significant proportion of forbidden territory. This would increase the challenges for a sustainable use of the available land, also in view of the fact that the country is densely populated. Therefore, the exclusion-from-use of areas threatened by landslides is always to be avoided. After being “saved” from a landslide threat, an area can be utilized according to its history and potentialities: continuation of being inhabited for towns and villages, agriculture, industry, tourism, reforestation, and so on.

1.4 Discussion and conclusions

Because of its introductory role for the whole book, the present chapter has provided an overview of the importance of multidisciplinary for sustainability and a conceptual outline of the meaning of multidisciplinary. To prevent the risk that these concepts remain abstract, civil engineering (mostly, structural engineering) has been selected as an area capable of offering a wealth of illustrating examples, with easily understandable interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary patterns.

Multidisciplinary is increasingly becoming an inherent character of any project meant to maximize sustainability features and to pursue sustainability objectives. It is therefore crucial not only to increase the alertness to the importance of multidisciplinary, but also to enhance the awareness of how it works in practice, so that all the concerned parties in an initiative or project have the ability to identify interactions routes and make them function in the best possible way.

The next chapters are devoted to selected individual disciplines. For each discipline, they outline its main contributions to sustainability and the cross-branches and cross-disciplinary synergies that are relevant for sustainability; the resulting picture corresponds to a broad ensemble of multidisciplinary routes. The selected disciplines are considered in alphabetical order, to prevent any perception of personal preferences in their sequence.

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