Design civil structures or systems.

Design civil structures or systems. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 3 occupations and seen in 8 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Design structures or facilities. in Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 8 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 7 (88%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

The Anthropic Economic Index observes real AI use on 4 of these tasks, with a mean mapped-usage share of 0.003% per task.

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Design, promote, or administer government plans or policies affecting land use, zoning, public utilities, community facilities, housing, or transportation. · Urban and Regional Planners · importance 4.7 · exposure with tools
• Design or prepare plans for new transportation systems or parts of systems, such as airports, commuter trains, highways, streets, bridges, drainage structures, or roadway lighting. · Transportation Engineers · importance 4.5 · exposure with tools
• Design domestic or industrial water or wastewater treatment plants, including advanced facilities with sequencing batch reactors (SBR), membranes, lift stations, headworks, surge overflow basins, ultraviolet disinfection systems, aerobic digesters, sludge lagoons, or control buildings. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Design or select equipment for use in wastewater processing to ensure compliance with government standards. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 4.0 · exposure with tools
• Design water runoff collection networks, water supply channels, or water supply system networks. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 3.8 · exposure with tools
• Design water or wastewater lift stations, including water wells. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 3.8 · exposure with tools
• Design sludge treatment plants. · Water/Wastewater Engineers · importance 3.5 · exposure with tools
• Design new or improved transport infrastructure, such as junction improvements, pedestrian projects, bus facilities, or car parking areas. · Transportation Planners · importance 3.4 · exposure with tools

Occupations that perform this

• Urban and Regional Planners
• Transportation Engineers
• Transportation Planners

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-design-civil-structures-or-systems,
  title  = {Design civil structures or systems.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/design-civil-structures-or-systems}
}