A branch of engineering which deals with the design and construction of public works: buildings, bridges, tunnels, waterways, canals, streets, sewerage systems, railways, and airports. The subject includes structural, sanitary, and hydraulic engineering. Civil engineers must be familiar with the materials used in the structures and with construction equipment. They also study soils and rocks, so that they can design suitable foundations, and manufactured products such as cars, aeroplanes, and missiles. The name was first used in 1750 by the English engineer, John Smeaton (172494). Civil engineers nowadays are able to use the computer simulation technique of virtual reality to walk around the building and see how they will look before they are constructed.
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 power plants, bridges, roads, railways, structures, water supply, irrigation, environmental, sewer, flood control, transportation, telecommunications and traffic.
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, partly because it is the oldest of all engineering fields.
History
Civil engineering was defined to distinguish it from military engineering.
Sub-disciplines of civil engineering
General engineering
General civil engineering is concerned with the overall interface of human created fixed projects with the greater world.
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.
Fire protection engineering
Main article: Fire protection engineering
Fire protection engineering, also called 'fire safety engineering' is the practice of application of science and engineering principles and experience to protect people and their environments from the destructive effects of fire.
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: Transport engineering
Transportation engineering is concerned with moving people and goods efficiently, safely, and in a manner conducive to a vibrant community. It includes areas such as transportation design, transportation planning, traffic engineering, urban engineering, queueing theory, pavement engineering, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), and infrastructure management.
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.
Environmental engineering is the contemporary term for sanitary engineering. Some other terms in use are public health engineering and environmental health engineering.
Water resources engineering
Water resources engineering is concerned with the collection and management of water (as a natural resource). This area of civil engineering relates to the prediction and management of both the quality and the quantity of water in both underground (aquifers) and above ground (lakes, rivers, and streams) resources.
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. As construction firms tend to have higher business risk than other types of civil engineering firms, many construction engineers tend to take on a role that is more business-like in nature: drafting and reviewing contracts, evaluating logistical operations, and closely-monitoring prices of necessary supplies.
Materials science
Main article: Materials science
Civil engineering also includes elements of materials science.
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.
Education and Licensure
Before becoming a practicing engineer, civil engineers generally complete tertiary (college or higher) educational requirements, followed by several years of practical experience.
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. 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. 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, has the largest Civil Engineering department in the U.S. with 1,081 undergraduate students enrolled in that major alone (2006). This does not include the 125 Texas A&M undergraduates majoring in ocean engineering, which overlaps heavily with (and descended from) civil engineering.
In Australia and New Zealand, requirements are typically a four year Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree which includes 800 hours (20 weeks) of work experience.
International engineering agreements are designed to allow engineers to practice across international borders.
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