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Building Equity into the
Design Process
EVALUATE ImpACT
The human built environment exists directly as a result of the decisions by those designing it. Commonly, those designers are engineers, or other folks that have specialty experience or expertise, but each of us, regardless of our background, has been a designer of something at one point or another in their life. Once the project is complete is important to expend effort to understand if what was set out to be created ended up being successful, or not, in addressing the needs intended. Accordingly during this phase you evaluate the impact of the design.
"Judges Score" by CraigOppy is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
During the Operation phase the engineer should ensure:
(1) The performance of an all encompassing Impact Evaluation
The impact evaluation provides information about the impacts produced by an intervention. This type of report needs to communicate what went right or wrong, regardless of responsibility, with the project and what that means for the community it resides in as well as other project stakeholders. The report with cover all impacts whether they are positive or negative, intended or unintended and direct or indirect.
(2) Evaluate the project based on select criteria
Political: These evaluation criteria should aim to fill specific knowledge gaps prioritized by the policy makers and development practitioners who design, execute, and fund programs pertaining to social justice. Additionally, you might identify way to link the project to policy goals (e.g. poverty alleviation) to facilitate social just improvements to current affairs.
Technical: These criteria evaluate how your project can serve as a role model, or ways in which things could have been done differently, to improve or reorient an intervention. Additionally, technical criteria provide a measurable way to understanding how specific design interventions have both been developed and the extent to which they have diffused within the built environment. This technical evaluation might range from assessments of design processes (e.g. computer software or community engagement methods) to the specific materials used in project construction (e.g. feedback from the community on the degradation of the road surface which spurs the development of new road compounds)
Operational: The operational criteria describe or measure the impacts that occur now that the project is complete. Thus, here you are seeking to understanding the role of the project design in creating those impacts. By evaluating operational impacts you are able to make informed decisions about whether to continue, discontinue, replicate, or scale up a particular design. You should also evaluate the organizational or development strategy behind the operations of the project, so that you can understand how it is impact the effectiveness of the project. Of course, it is important for the feedback to extend to those that are co-existing with, using, or benefiting from the project. The pursuit of such feedback helps ensure that the negative aspects of a project are seen and a remedy is found.
"Well, if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected — those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! — and listens to their testimony. Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person — ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."
JAMES BALDWIN
(3) They follow the steps of an Impact Evaluation
Step 1: Define the evaluation questions most relevant for your program (e.g. what is the effect of your program or intervention (X) on your final outcomes of interest (Y)?) If a target population and intended outcomes was well-defined during design development (e.g. metrics of success), identifying the most relevant evaluation questions is much easier.
Step 2: Identify the appropriate evaluation methodology and sample. Develop an appropriate and participatory approach.
Step 3: Draw up detailed plans for your impact evaluation’s implementation.
Back to Hoo City
PIEDMONT ENGINEERING SERVICES
The deep dive into the impacts of the project was fruitful. It resulted in:
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Changes to the highway infrastructure
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Improvement to the State procurement procedures
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Internal design process changes for Wahoo Engineering Group
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Material testing certification improvements for SDOT.
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The creation of new formal power structures in historically Black and Brown communities through representation in the governing body that oversees the highway operation in their neighborhoods
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Successful in attaining the desired platinum certification for sustainability through Envision.
As mentioned before, SDOT had to oversee the repavement of the roadway due to a manufacturing defect. SDOT was able to turn this headache into a positive opportunity. During the repair work SDOT was able to have additional safety measures installed into the highway during the repavement (e.g. temperature sensors, next generation lane reflectors).
After your work with Piedmont Engineering Services, you moved back to a newly opened director of engineering role at Wahoo Engineering Group. One of your first acts as the director of engineering was to incorporate the trainings you went through at Piedmont Engineering Services (e.g. courses on unconscious bias, microaggressions, respect, and leadership) and found a DEI committee. Additionally, you are setting up a similar team of experts and employees to identify how to transform to the workplace at Wahoo Engineering Group to ensure that it is barrier-free for people with disabilities - ensuring a more inclusive environment for all employees. While you know that much work needs to be done in order to make Wahoo Engineering Group center social justice in their practice, you have already seen some progress.
At the same time, you established the use of the Envision design framework as mandatory for all new engineering projects. While you had considered the Greenroads design framework, you ultimately decided to follow the Envision framework because it can be used for many different types of infrastructure projects. You took Envision’s training course and passed their comprehensive written exam, earning the ENV SP designation, joining a group of over 8,000 other professionals who hold paramount sustainable infrastructure.
"NAVFAC Hawaii Crosswalk Project at Merry Point Landing - April 12" by NAVFAC is licensed under CC BY 2.0
As a result of the highway project, a strong grass-roots movement for a more socially just built environment has been established in Hoo City. Now this is not to say that the community has not been fighting for justice for a long time, because they have, but rather that a larger, and more diverse coalition has formed. For the first time, in a long time according to the young activists’ older relatives, existing power structures are starting to listen to the voice of the people. This was seen in the reversal of the State plan for tolls on the new highway infrastructure, a regressive tax, towards a taxation plan that more equitably distributes the costs. The movement also helped ensure proper representation of communities on State, Local, and SDOT boards for highway upkeep and maintenance.
Engineering is not simply a discipline of technical challenges; it is an applied discipline that generates outputs for society. Accordingly, not all the engineering challenges of a project, garnered from an impact evaluation, will be easy to face or address. Many of them will require a reconciliation, and if possible, a reversal of historical unjust practices, like you read about in the case from Columbus, Ohio or when you read about creating a seamless mobility chain for all users of a transportation network. The resolution of other challenges will require a transformation of how engineers work, such as how we run our meetings or the tools we use to visualize in 3D, to ensure that our workplace environments are inclusive and universally designed for all people. As an engineer, you will be faced with these socially unjust histories in your work, while experiencing, or observing, present injustices. With that in mind, remember as you write the next chapter on engineering that you, in collaboration with a broad base of stakeholders, can choose to make social justice a cornerstone of your work.
All in all, an Impact Evaluation demonstrates that there is still much design and engineering work to be done long after the first implementation of a project is completed. In some cases, how a project first begins can be radically different from how it evolves over time. A great example of this is the Brooklyn bridge, which was designed prior to the invention of the automobile, opening in 1883, and only in 1901 did automobiles start crossing the bridge.
"I would like to be know as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people."
ROSA PARKS
"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth on them."
IDA B. WELLS
"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
ANGELA DAVIS
Key Takeaways from this Module
1.
Social justice implications are always there, but we have to make a conscious effort to identify and address them.
2.
Technology impacts society. Engineers, designers, and planners have a responsibility to ensure that those impacts (whether benefits or burdens) are shared equitably in society.
3.
Even if a designer believes their design was established through a process of just mechanically applying objective principles:
a.
The design will still be heavily influenced by the designer(s) experiences and observations
b.
The way users interface with, use, and/or experience the design will be distinct, which in turn may make the evaluation of the design subjective. In order to create design that objectively meets the goals of the user and to remove some of the subjective biases from the design process, the users (or non traditional designers) need a seat at the design table. Together, they can decide upon the metrics used to evaluate how well the design meets the shared vision they have created.
4.
Engineers have a unique role in society. While we are problem-solvers, we alone cannot create solutions to all problems. The mindset of the sole problem-solver has historically created inequities. To transform engineering practices, we will need to acknowledge and reconcile our history, take actions that would foster a shift in power dynamics to where all communities have an equal voice, and solidify a design process centered on social justice.