Infrastructure in Service to Well-Being

By Henry Petroski

A constant in the history of public health has always been engineering.

Engineering History Of Civilization Human Ecology

This Article From Issue

July-August 2022

Volume 110, Number 4

Page 218

DOI: 10.1511/2022.110.4.218

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Throughout history, engineering has been essential to the advancement of civilizations and improvements in the quality of life of their people. When humans evolved from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settlers in fixed locations that became towns and cities, the primitive engineering activity of making basic tools, weapons, and forms of shelter evolved into one of conceiving, designing, building, operating, and maintaining systems of benefit to the larger society, either by providing sustenance or by supporting institutions.

Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct bridge in France built in the first century CE, carried 40,000 cubic meters of water per day over 50 kilometers and was part of a large Roman aqueduct and water management system.

**Wikipedia/Benh LIEU SONG/CC SA 3.0**

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