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 power plants, bridges, roads, railways, structures, water supply, irrigation, environmental, sewer, flood control, transportation, telecommunications 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, partly because it is the oldest of all engineering fields. In fact, engineering was once divided into only two fields - military and civil. Civil engineering is still an umbrella term, comprised of many related specialities.
History
Civil engineering was defined to distinguish it from military engineering. Within the US, some federal government funding and organization is still part of the United States Army as the Corps of Engineers.
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. 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), pavement, 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 structures resistant to wind and seismic forces and seismically retrofitting existing 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. The underlying branches of science are fire science, fire dynamics and chemistry. Fire protection engineers, often civil engineers by training, typically design safeguards that aid in fighting fires, such as alarm, sprinkler, and smoke control systems. They are also involved at the design stage where structural design work is being done, and they provide expert advice on materials choices and in the protection of structural members. They are also employed as fire investigators, including such very large-scale cases as the analysis of the mechanism of the collapse of the World Trade Centre. NASA uses fire protection engineers on its space program to ensure safety.
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. 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 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. Among the topics covered by environmental engineering are pollutant transport, water purification, sewage treatment, and hazardous waste management. Environmental engineers can be involved with 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.
Water resources engineering
Water resources engineering is concerned with the collection and management of water (as a natural resource). As a discipline it therefore combines hydrology, environmental science, meteorology, geology, conservation, and resource management. 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. Water resource engineers analyze and model very small to very large areas of the earth to predict the amount and content of water as it flows into, through, or out of a facility. Although the actual design of the facility may be left to other engineers.
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. Construction materials with broad applications in civil engineering include ceramics such as Portland cement concrete (PCC) and hot mix asphalt concrete, metals such as aluminum and steel, and polymers such as polymethylaccrylate (PMMA) and carbon fibers. Current research in these areas focus around increased strength, durability, workability, and reduced cost.
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. Civil engineers are trained in the methods of surveying and may seek Professional Land Surveyor status.
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. 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, 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 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 800 hours (20 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.