CIVIL ENGINEERING OVERVIEW

Civil Engineering is the oldest branch of Engineering, next to Military Engineering.

It is a professional branch of Engineering that deals with the analysis, design, construction and maintenance of the infrastructure facilities such as buildings, bridges, dams, embankments, roads, railways, pipelines, etc. Civil engineering is intimately associated with the private and public sectors, including the individual homeowners and international enterprises. It is one of the oldest engineering professions, and ancient engineering achievements due to civil engineering include the pyramids of Egypt and road systems developed by the Romans.

Engineering has been an aspect of life since the beginnings of human existence. The earliest practice of civil engineering may have originated between 4000 and 2000 B.C. in ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization, and Mesopotamia when humans started to abandon a nomadic existence, creating a need for the construction of shelter. During this time, transportation became increasingly important leading to the development of the wheel and sailing.

In the 18th century, the term civil engineering was coined to incorporate all things civilian as opposed to military engineering. The first self-proclaimed civil engineer was John Smeaton, who constructed the Eddystone Lighthouse. In 1771 Smeaton and some of his colleagues formed the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, a group of leaders of the profession who met informally over dinner. Though there was evidence of some technical meetings, it was little more than a social society.

In 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in London, and in 1820 the eminent engineer Thomas Telford became its first president. The institution received a Royal Charter in 1828, formally recognizing civil engineering as a profession. Civil engineering has a significant role in the life of every human being, though one may not truly sense its importance in our daily routine.

The function of civil engineering commences with the start of the day when we take a shower, since the water is delivered through a water supply system including a well designed network of pipes, water treatment plant and other numerous associated services. The network of roads on which we drive while proceeding to school or work, the huge structural bridges we come across and the tall buildings where we work, all have been designed and constructed by civil engineers. Even the benefits of electricity we use are available to us through the contribution of civil engineers who constructed the towers for the transmission lines.

In fact, no sphere of life may be identified that does not include the contribution of civil engineering. Thus, the importance of civil engineering may be determined according to its usefulness in our daily life.

Sub-disciplines Of Civil Engineering

Civil engineering is a multiple science including numerous sub-disciplines that are closely linked with each other. The main sub-disciplines of civil engineering are mentioned below: 

Structural Engineering: Structural Engineering is concerned with the structural analysis and design of foundations, buildings, towers, bridges, tunnels and other structures. The design and analysis should initially identify the loads that acting on a structure and the forces and stresses which arise within that structure due to those loads, and then designing the structure to successfully support and resist those loads. The loads can be self-weight of the structures, other dead loads, live loads, moving loads, wind loads, earthquake loads, loads due to temperature variation etc. Design considerations will include strength, stiffness, and stability of the structure when subjected to loads which may be static, such as furniture or self-weight, or dynamic, such as wind, seismic, crowd or vehicle loads, or transitory, such as temporary construction loads or impact. Other considerations include cost, constructability, safety, aesthetics and sustainability.

Geotechnical Engineering: Geotechnical engineering deals with soils, rocks, foundations of buildings and bridges, highways, sewers and underground water systems. Knowledge from the field of soil science, materials science, mechanics, and hydraulics is applied to safely and economically design foundations, retaining walls, and other structures. Environmental efforts to protect groundwater and safely maintain landfills have spawned a new area of research called geoenvironmental engineering. Identification of soil properties presents challenges to geotechnical engineers. Furthermore, soil exhibits nonlinear (stress-dependent) strength, stiffness, and dilatancy (volume change associated with application of shear stress), making studying soil mechanics all the more difficult.

Water Resources Engineering: This discipline of civil engineering concerns the management of quantity and quality of water in the underground and above ground water resources, such as rivers, lakes and streams. Geographical areas are analyzed to forecast the amount of water that will flow into and out of a water source. Fields of hydrology, geology, and environmental science are included in this discipline of civil engineering.

Transportation 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, canals, highways, rail systems, airports, ports, and mass transit. It includes areas such as transportation design, transportation planning, traffic engineering, some aspects of urban engineering, queuing theory, pavement engineering, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), and infrastructure management.

Environmental Engineering: Environmental engineering is the contemporary term for sanitary engineering, though sanitary engineering traditionally had not included much of the hazardous waste management and environmental remediation work covered by environmental engineering. Public health engineering and environmental health engineering are other terms being used. Environmental engineering deals with treatment of chemical, biological, or thermal wastes, purification of water and air, and remediation of contaminated sites after waste disposal or accidental contamination. Among the topics covered by environmental engineering are pollutant transport, water purification, waste water treatment, air pollution, solid waste treatment, and hazardous waste management. Environmental engineers administer pollution reduction, green engineering, and industrial ecology. Environmental engineers also compile information on environmental consequences of proposed actions.