Civil engineering

In modern usage, civil engineering is a broad field of engineering that deals with the planning, construction, and maintenance of fixed structures, or public works, as they are related to earth, water, or civilization and their processes. Most civil engineering today deals with roads, railways, structures, water supply, sewer, flood control and traffic. In essence, civil engineering may be regarded as the profession that makes the world a more agreeable place in which to live.

Engineering has developed from observations of the ways natural and constructed systems react and from the development of empirical equations that provide bases for design. Civil engineering is the broadest of the engineering fields. In fact, engineering was once divided into only two fields--military and civil. Civil engineering is still an umbrella field comprised of many related specialities.

History

Civil engineering was defined to distinguish it from military engineering. Within the US, the government funding and organisation is still part of the Army.

Sub-disciplines of civil engineering

General engineering

General civil engineering is concerned with the overall interface of fixed projects with the greater world. General civil engineers work closely with surveyors and specialized civil engineers to fit and serve fixed projects within their given site, community and terrain by designing grading, drainage (flood control), paving, water supply, sewer service, electric and communications supply and land (real property) divisions. General engineers spend much of their time visiting project sites, developing community/neighborhood consensus, and preparing construction plans.

General civil engineers can also be referred to as Municipal Engineers, though this term is usually reserved for engineers employed by a municipality.

Structural engineering

Main article: Structural engineering

In the field of civil engineering, structural engineering is concerned with structural design and structural analysis of structural components of buildings and nonbuilding structures. This involves calculating the stresses and forces that affect or arise within a structure. Major design concerns are building seismic resistant structures and seismically retrofitting existing structures.

Geotechnical engineering

Main article: Geotechnical engineering

The main subject of the field of geotechnical engineering is concerned with foundations, soil properties, soil mechanics, compression and swelling of soils, seepage, slopes, embankments, retaining walls, ground and rock anchors, use of synthetic tensile materials in soil structures, soil-structure interaction and soil dynamics.

Transportation engineering

Main article: Transportation engineering

Transportation engineering is concerned with moving people and goods efficiently and safely. This involves specifying, designing, constructing, and maintaining transportation infrastructure which includes streets, highways, rail systems, airports, ports, and mass transit. It includes areas such as queueing theory, traffic engineering, pavement engineering, and infrastructure management. For example, in traffic engineering, driver behavior patterns are analyzed and simulated through the use of trip generation and traffic assignment algorithms which can be highly complex computational problems. Since the passage of the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act there has been a large focus on intermodal transportation in an attempt to improve efficiency, safety, and productivity with the existing infrastructure. Such a transportation system is called an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

Environmental engineering

Main article: Environmental engineering

Environmental engineering deals with the treatment of chemical, biological, and/or thermal waste, the purification of water and air, and the remediation of contaminated sites, due to prior waste disposal or accidental contamination. Among the topics covered by environmental engineering are water purification, sewage treatment, and hazardous waste management. Environmental engineering is related to the fields of hydrology, geohydrology and meteorology insofar as knowledge of water and groundwater flows is required to understand pollutant transport. Environmental engineers are also involved in pollution reduction, green engineering, and industrial ecology. Environmental engineering also deals with the gathering of information on the environmental consequences of proposed actions and the assessment of effects of proposed actions for the purpose of assisting society and policy makers in the decision making process.

Environmental engineering is the contemporary term for sanitary engineering. Some other terms in use are public health engineering and environmental health engineering.

Planning engineering

Planning engineering is concerned with schedule planning, budget planning’s and project cash flows, controlled cost, dealt with the employer’s and subcontractor’s agreements and progress payments, prepared unit price analysis.

Hydraulic engineering

Main article: Hydraulic engineering

Hydraulic engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water. This area of engineering is intimately related to the design of pipelines, water distribution systems, drainage facilities (including bridges, dams, channels, culverts, levees, and storm sewers), canals, and to environmental engineering. Hydraulic engineers design these facilities using the concepts of fluid pressure, fluid statics, fluid dynamics, and hydraulics, among others.

Related Branches

Hydrology

Hydraulic modelling

Flood Mapping

Catchment Flood Management Plan

Shoreline Management Plans

Esturine Strategies

Coastal Protection

Flood Alleviation (one can rarely prevent it)

Construction engineering

Main article: Construction engineering

Construction engineering involves planning and execution of the designs from transportation, site development, hydraulic, environmental, structural and geotechnical engineers.

Materials science

Main article: Materials science

Civil engineering also includes materials science. Engineering materials with broad application in civil engineering include concrete, aluminum and steel. The study of materials also includes polymers and ceramics with potential engineering application.

Surveying

Main article: Surveying

Elements of a building or structure must be correctly sized and positioned in relation to each other and to site boundaries and adjacent structures. This is accomplished using various surveying techniques. Civil engineers are trained in the methods of surveying and may seek Professional Land Surveyor status.

Urban engineering

Main article: Urban engineering

Urban engineering is a subset of the general practice of urban planning. It is limited to civil engineering in an urban setting and does not include designing buildings or their functions.

Careers

A popular misconception is that civil engineering is far from the exciting frontiers in mathematics and computer science. In actuality, much of what is now computer science was driven by work in civil engineering, where structural and network analysis problems required parallel computations and development of advanced algorithms.

There are also civil engineers who work in the area of safety engineering and forensics engineering, applying probabilistic methods to structural design, safety analysis and even estimates of insurance losses due to natural and man-made hazards.

Education and Licensure

Prior to becoming a practicing engineer, civil engineers generally complete tertiary (college or higher) educational requirements, followed by several years of practical experience. Each country, state, or province individually regulates civil engineering practice:

In the U.S., one must become a licensed Professional Engineer to do any civil engineering work affecting the public or to legally represent oneself as a civil engineer. Licensure requirements vary slightly by state, but in all cases entail passing two licensure exams, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam and the Principles and Practice exam (commonly called the PE), and completing a state-mandated number of years of work under the supervision of a licensed Professional Engineer. In addition, an educational requirement must often be met. All states accept a four year Bachelor of Science (BS) or Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) degree in Civil Engineering, from an ABET-accredited program, for their educational requirement. The acceptability of degrees in other fields varies by state; some states allow a person to substitute additional years of supervised work experience for the degree requirement. Although the American Society of Civil Engineers encourages states to raise the educational requirement to a graduate degree, advanced degrees are currently optional for civil engineers in the United States. Graduate study may lead either to a Master of Engineering, which is a Professional Master's degree, or to a Master of Science degree followed by a PhD in civil engineering or a sub-discipline.

Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, had the largest civil engineering department in the United States (2006) with 1,081 undergraduate students.

In the United Kingdom current graduates require a MSc, MEng or BEng (Hons) in order to become chartered through the Institution of Civil Engineers. The Institution also allows entrants with substantial experience to apply without this level of formal academic achievement. In practice, most civil engineers in the United Kingdom work without chartered status. Unlike in many other European countries, the term 'Engineer' is not legally protected within the United Kingdom.

In Australia and New Zealand, requirements are typically a four year Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree which includes 12 weeks of work experience.

International engineering agreements are designed to allow engineers to practice across international borders. In general, these agreements require both educational competencies and professional experiential competencies.

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