Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the

design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built
environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams,
airports, sewerage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings,
and railways

Civil engineers design, construct, maintain and improve the

physical environment, including; bridges, tunnels, roads, railways, canals,
dams, buildings, flood and coastal defences, airports and other
large structures. The term ‘civil’ engineer was originally coined to distinguish
it from military engineering.

Civil engineering is a broad profession that encompasses a range of subjects

that can be developed as specialisms, such as:

 Structures.
 Transportation.
 Environmental.
 Maritime.
 Geotechnical.
 Hydraulic.
 Sanitary.
 Water.

Whilst some of these specialisms may be considered sub-disciplines of civil

engineering, subjects such as structural engineering (which focuses on
the design, assessment and inspection of structures to ensure that they are
efficient and stable) may now be considered engineering disciplines in their
own right.

In 2007, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Council adopted the

following definition of civil engineering, ‘Civil Engineering is a vital art,
working with the great sources of power in nature for the wealth and well-
being of the whole of society. Its essential feature is the exercise of
imagination to engineer the products and processes, and develop the people
needed to create and maintain a sustainable natural and built environment.

It requires a broad understanding of scientific principles,

a knowledge of materials and the art of analysis and synthesis. It also
requires research, team working, leadership and business skills. A civil
engineer is one who practises all or part of this art.'
Civil engineers will normally begin the process of qualification by taking a
three-year BSc or Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) degree or a four-year
Masters (MEng) degree in civil engineering. Alternatively, practicing
technicians can take a BTEC HNC/HND or foundation degree in civil
engineering.

This is likely to be followed by entering a company's graduate training

scheme for one or two years and joining a professional body, such as the
Institution of Civil Engineers to allow progress towards incorporated or
chartered status. Incorporated engineers will tend to work on the day-to-
day management of projects whilst chartered engineers may have a more
strategic role.

Civil engineering is traditionally broken into a number of sub-disciplines. It

is considered the second-oldest engineering discipline after military
engineering and it is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from
military engineering.[4] Civil engineering takes place in the public sector from
municipal through to national governments, and in the private sector from
individual homeowners through to international companies.

Civil engineering as a discipline

Civil engineering is the application of physical and scientific principles for
solving the problems of society, and its history is intricately linked to
advances in the understanding of physics and mathematics throughout
history. Because civil engineering is a wide-ranging profession, including
several specialized sub-disciplines, its history is linked to knowledge of
structures, materials science, geography,
geology, soils, hydrology, environment, mechanics and other fields.
Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and
construction was carried out by artisans, such
as stonemasons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder.
Knowledge was retained in guilds and seldom supplanted by advances.
Structures, roads, and infrastructure that existed were repetitive, and
increases in scale were incremental
One of the earliest examples of a scientific approach to physical and
mathematical problems applicable to civil engineering is the work
of Archimedes in the 3rd century BC, including Archimedes Principle, which
underpins our understanding of buoyancy, and practical solutions such
as Archimedes' screw. Brahmagupta, an Indian mathematician, used
arithmetic in the 7th century AD, based on Hindu-Arabic numerals, for
excavation (volume) computations.