What is Civil Engineering?
Civil engineering involves the research, planning, analysis, design, construction, and operation of facilities essential to modern life. Civil engineering projects include highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, railways, pipelines, dams, irrigation systems, buildings for commerce and industry, water supply and distribution networks, and waste management facilities.
Key features of civil engineering projects include:
Uniqueness: Each civil engineering project is constructed as a single entity (unlike manufactured items such as cars or computers) that receives individual planning, analysis, design, and performance monitoring.
Multidisciplinary nature: Civil engineering projects must satisfy the simultaneous consideration of technical, governmental, legal, financial, and social constraints.
Advanced technology: Increasingly, civil engineering projects rely on modern computing and information technologies such as computer-aided design (CAD), remote sensing and data acquisition, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and high performance computing.
Civil engineering is a broad field and can be divided into several subdisciplines:
Construction Engineers supervise the construction and maintenance of facilities such as roads, bridges, water and sewer lines, power plants, and dams.
Environmental Engineers address diverse problems such as drinking water supply, wastewater treatment, air pollution control, hazardous waste management, storm water management, solid waste disposal, and ecosystem management.
Geotechnical Engineers design foundations, slopes and embankments, retaining walls, dams, landfills, shoring, underpinning of structures, below-ground waste containment, landfills, and wetland drainage systems.
Structural Engineers analyze and design structural systems such as buildings, bridges, and pipelines to withstand design loads, vibrations, wind, and earthquakes.
Transportation Engineers focus on the planning, design, construction, and management of highway systems, pavement materials, airports, and rapid transit systems.
Civil engineers work in a variety of settings that include:
Private practice (consulting or industry), participating in the research, planning, design, construction, and/or maintenance of public and commercial environmental facilities and projects such as environmental cleanups.
Public practice (city, county, state, or federal agencies), participating in city/regional planning, the design and construction of public environmental facilities such as water/wastewater treatment plants, and/or in developing and implementing environmental programs and regulations.
Colleges and universities, training future engineers and conducting research to develop new and improved technologies.
Multidisciplinary settings, combining environmental and civil engineering training with geology, economics, law, software engineering, architecture, and/or information technology.
Typical annual starting salaries for environmental engineers with a B.S. degree are in the $35,000 to $45,000 range. Factors influencing salary include computer skills, experience, specialization, and grade point average. A growing number of employers require graduate degrees for entry-level engineering jobs.
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