🏗️ Engineering the PERFECT Roman city

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Hello Fellow Engineers!

Welcome to Real Civil Newsletter - the only newsletter where Roman bridges get inspected mid-war, robot farmers pass their site inductions, and architects still find a way to take credit for a city’s drainage plan.

In this week’s edition, we’ve got robot farmers doing a better job than most site contractors, cities that literally soak up their own rain, and one very damp Roman bridge holding on for dear life. There’s also a giveaway, gaming chaos, and a showdown in Paddy’s Corner, because apparently no one is safe from quality assurance, not even my dog.

Let’s dive into it 👇

This week, we’re giving away ONE copy of The Farmer Was Replaced! 🤖🌾

In this one, robots have taken over the farm, which, let’s be honest, finally means someone competent is handling the irrigation system. You’ll automate, optimise, and out-engineer the countryside (while architects are still trying to design “a more emotional barn”).

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for… 🥁

🏆 samueljgolden🏆

Check your email for your game key and prepare to harvest efficiency itself! ⚙️🌽

Missed out? Don’t worry,more giveaways are coming!

Want a shot at the next one? Vote for a bridge in the poll in this email! 🌉🔥

👷‍♂️ The Sponge Cities of China

Ah, architects, forever sketching new ways to make rain fall picturesquely through an atrium while engineers are outside, knee-deep in mud, trying to stop the entire district from becoming Venice 2.0.

Enter China’s Sponge Cities Project, an urban engineering masterclass that turns whole cities into living, breathing hydrological machines. The goal? Make at least 70% of rainfall absorbed, stored, and reused, not washed away like last year’s design competition entries.

Now, this isn’t your average slap some grass on the roof and call it green kind of thing. No, these cities are engineered from the ground up (literally) with layers of permeable pavement, bio-swales, detention basins, and underground storage chambers.

• Permeable pavements are designed with multiple layers of aggregate and geotextiles so rainwater seeps down instead of pooling, like nature’s version of a Brita filter, but for an entire boulevard.

• Sunken parks (a.k.a. eco-basins) double as flood retention areas, looking like tranquil gardens 90% of the time and emergency bathtubs the other 10%.

• Green roofs and vegetated channels not only capture runoff but cool urban heat islands, something your friendly neighborhood architect will later take credit for in a TED Talk.

• And underneath it all, massive subsurface reservoirs and modular tanks store millions of liters of filtered rainwater for reuse in irrigation and public cleaning, a self-contained aquifer built by sheer structural wizardry.

One standout is Wuhan, where engineers turned 38 pilot zones into a showcase of stormwater management. Roads, courtyards, and parks are all part of a massive hydraulic circuit. When a deluge hits, the system channels excess water through permeable layers into reservoirs, no pumps, no drama, just pure water logic.

It’s sustainable, resilient, and quietly brilliant behind the scenes. While architects debate whether buildings should look breathable, engineers have made entire cities breathe water.

🔧 Engineering & Infrastructure

⚙️ Water, meet your (digital) twin, Virtual replicas of ageing water networks are now being used in South Africa to monitor real-time data, predict failures, optimise maintenance and reduce energy use.

🏗️ Smart dams and digital twins: re-imagining water infrastructure in the age of AI, Civil engineers combining AI + DAMS for safer, smarter infrastructure. (Yes, we still build the big stuff.)

🤖 AI is poised to transform infrastructure: Bentley Systems opens the Year in Infrastructure 2025, A major event highlighting how AI, geospatial and data-driven workflows are entering mainstream infrastructure engineering.

🔍 Bentley Systems’ Going Digital Awards 2025: real-world impact from infrastructure teams, Celebrating project teams who are actually delivering, not just sketching facades. Infrastructure engineers win.

🎮 Gaming & Indie Update

🎮 Here are the 7 best indie games of 2025 so far, Indie games are roaring this year: from platformers to narrative gems, plenty worth noting.

🕹️ 10 games from the October 2025 Steam Next Fest you should check out, Strategy, roguelikes, chanelling building-sim energy… perfect for when you need a break from civil drawings.

📦 The PC game releases we’re most excited about in October 2025, Big hits + hidden gems dropping this month. (Engineers build bridges, gamers build escapism.)

🎉 10 indie turn-based RPG deals to grab right now – October 2025, If you like your gaming sessions when the site’s quiet and calculators silent… here’s your list.

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🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

There can be only one winner...

Man vs. Beast.

Engineer vs. Apprentice.

Who’ll win? 👇️ 

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

This week’s indie gem had me channeling my inner Roman civil engineer, straight roads, questionable bridges, and a healthy disrespect for architects. In Anno 117: Pax Romana, I built an empire, burned my economy, and reviewed a bridge mid-war (priorities). Watch me prove that even ancient Rome needed better project management.

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

Behold: a wooden truss bridge spanning a suspiciously soggy Roman stream. Structurally? Acceptable.

Half the supports are soaking in water like they’re training for a rot competition, and the deck already looks like it’s lost a fight with time itself. But hey, two-way traffic and solid guardrails earn it some dignity.

Final score: V·IX / X