This article is based on a report written in early 1985 for the Secretary of City Planning Housing and Transportation (MULT) who had requested assistance in defining the possible functions and staffing requirements of a high quality center for urban engineering. A look at the history of the different professions concerned with the urban environment reveals the strong links that existed between the urban hygiene movement and the emerging city planning movement at the turn of the century. In France during the last decade, these links have been renewed by the National Center of Scientific Research (C.N.R.S.) and by a number of organizations including the "City engineers of France". Based on his own practical experience reading and reflection, C. MARTINAND suggests a new definition of urban engineering: "the art of conceiving, developing and operating the urban technical networks that physically and socially link together the individual elements of the urban system". Using this definition as a starting point, the author proposes some directions for research and reading concerned with the consequences of urban systems.