What is Civil Engineering?
Civil engineering is the broadest of the engineering professions and is the stem from which most other branches of engineering have developed. Civil engineering involves the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation of facilities and systems to control and improve the environment for modern civilizations. This includes projects of major importance such as bridges, transportation systems, buildings, ports and water distribution systems.
Civil engineers are responsible for improving the living standards of the nation’s
and world’s population, and they serve communities in which we live. They deal with
many of the nation’s challenges, including overcrowded roads and highways, functionally
obsolete bridges that are unable to carry today’s heavier traffic loads, crowded urban
areas and communities, construction of waste disposal sites (landfills) and clean-up
of hazardous waste facilities, contaminated surface water and ground water aquifers,
and air pollution. Civil engineers are leaders in addressing our nation’s need to
protect both our natural and constructed environment, and they seek ways to solve
these problems more effectively, efficiently and economically.