Civil Engineering Orientation

Lesson 3
Current fields/Careers of Civil Engineering

TOPICS
1. Branches of Civil Engineering
2. Trends in the sub-discipline of Civil engineering
3. Relevance of Civil Engineering in the overall infrastructural development of the country
4. Roles of civil engineer in Sustainable Development

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
 Differentiate majors and specialization areas of civil engineering
 Determine and discuss the newest trends in the practice of civil engineering profession
 Analyse the important roles the civil engineers perform in the infrastructural development of
the country
 Discuss the roles of civil engineer in the sustainable development

TOPIC 1: Branches of Civil Engineering

As discussed earlier, Civil Engineering possess huge scope and contains wide spectrum of
sub-disciplines. Each sub-disciplines focuses on area of specialization. Civil Engineering is a wide
field and includes many types of structures such as residential buildings, public buildings, industrial
buildings, roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, dams, canal and canal structures, airports, harbours,
and ports, water treatment plants, waste water treatment plant, water supply networks, and
drainage networks. The branches of civil engineering is classified based on the type of structures
and activities carried out.

The branches of Civil Engineering includes:

1. Materials Science and Engineering
2. Coastal Engineering
3. Construction Engineering
4. Earthquake Engineering
5. Environmental Engineering
6. Geotechnical Engineering
7. Water Resources Engineering
8. Structural Engineering
9. Transportation Engineering
10. Surveying

I. Materials Science and Engineering

Materials science is closely related to civil engineering.

Material engineering studies fundamental characteristics of
materials, and deals with ceramics such as concrete and mix
asphalt concrete, strong metals such as aluminum and steel,
and polymers including
polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and carbon fibers.

Materials engineering also involves protection and prevention (paints and finishes).
Alloying combines two types of metals to produce another metal with desired properties. It
incorporates elements of applied physics and chemistry. With recent media attention on
nanoscience and nanotechnology, materials science has been at the forefront of academic
research. It is also an important part of forensic engineering and failure analysis.

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Civil Engineering Orientation

I. Coastal Engineering
Coastal engineering is concerned with
managing coastal areas. This branch of civil
engineering deals with coastal and marine
structures. These structures include groynes and
embankments. These engineers not only ensure
that the structures being erected correctly but
they are also concerned with not disturbing the
coastal regions.

II. Construction Engineering

Construction Engineering deals with the

planning, construction and maintenance of
structures focusing on the planning and execution
of designs from site development, environmental,
structural, transportation and structural engineers.
Construction engineers ensure that the plans are
executed based on the plans and specifications.

Construction engineers supervise field work

during the entire project; and sometimes act as
the project manager that oversee the project from
start to finish and handle any problems that come
up throughout the duration of the project.

III. Earthquake Engineering

Earthquake engineering involves designing
structures to withstand hazardous earthquake
exposures. It is a sub-discipline of structural
engineering that tries to understand interaction of
structures on the shaky ground; foresee the
consequences of possible earthquakes; and design,
construct and maintain structures to perform at
earthquake in compliance with building codes.

Earthquake engineers study the seismic forces

and earthquake resistant structures. In regions that are
known for seismic activities, engineers must design
and construct structures based on how well they will
react within an earthquake situation.

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Civil Engineering Orientation

IV. Environmental Engineering

This branch deals with the study of

environment friendly designs, pollution and their
resolutions and sewage management. Many engineers
focus solely upon the crisis of pollution and coming up
with solutions as well as determining new and inventive
ways for sewage management and other
environmental entities.

Major specialties:
 Ecological engineering, the design, monitoring and construction of ecosystems.

 Fire protection engineering, the application of engineering to protect people and

environments from fire and smoke.

 Sanitary engineering, the application of engineering methods to improve sanitation of

human communities.

 Wastewater engineering, is a type of engineering that comes from civil engineering and
environmental engineering.
 A wastewater engineer determines the best way to transport or collect rainwater
for human populations. Wastewater engineering also deals with the transportation
and cleaning of blackwater, greywater, and irrigation water. Wastewater treatment
and water reclamation are areas of concern in this field.

 Wastewater engineers map out topographical and geographical features of Earth

to determine the best means of collection through the use of sonar scanning in
wells to determine volumes of water that can be used for human consumption.
Using these types of data they are able to provide a means of collecting water.
After collecting the water, it is their job to transport it to where it can be made
available for use.

 Municipal or urban engineering, civil engineering applied to municipal issues such as

water and waste management, transportation networks, subdivisions, communications,
hydrology, hydraulics, etc.

V. Geotechnical Engineering

In geotechnical engineering, the engineer

studies soil, foundations, and bearing capacities.
The engineer study the behaviour of the earth
materials and how they affect a structure to be
constructed; evaluate pre-existing structures that
are showing signs of problems with the earth
materials under or near the structure.

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Civil Engineering Orientation

Major specialties:
 Mining engineering, the exploration, extraction and processing of raw materials from the
Earth

 Foundation engineering, the engineering of below ground foundations that support

superstructures

VI. Water Resources Engineering

Water resources engineers deal with

the design and construction of hydraulic
structures such as dams, canals and water
distribution system. The engineer is responsible
for the design of the structure as well as the
implementation and safety precautions that
must be closely adhered to when dealing with
hydraulic structures.

Major specialties:
 Hydraulic engineering, concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally
water; intimately related to the design of pipelines, water supply network, drainage facilities
(including bridges, dams, levees, channels, culverts, storm sewers), and canals.

 River engineering is the process of planned human intervention in the course,

characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit—to
manage the water resources, to protect against flooding, or to make passage along or
across rivers easier.

 Coastal engineering, the study of the processes ongoing at the shoreline and
construction within the coastal zone, often directed at combating erosion of coasts or
providing navigational access.

 Groundwater engineering involves the analysis, monitoring and often modelling of

groundwater source to better understand how much remains and if the water can be used
for e.g. recharging reservoirs and irrigation.

VII. Structural Engineering

This branch of civil engineering
encompasses the structural analysis and
design of structures. It is the responsibility of
the structural engineer to analyze and design a
structure that will safely bear or resist the
stresses, forces and loads. The design must
satisfy the project specifications while meeting
all safety regulations. The structure must
endure massive loads as well as natural
disasters and climate changes.

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Civil Engineering Orientation

Major specialties:
 Earthquake engineering, the behavior of structures subject to seismic loading;

 Wind engineering, the analysis of wind and its effects on the built environment;

 Architectural engineering, application of engineering principles to building design and

construction;

 Ocean engineering, the design of offshore structures;

VIII. Transportation Engineering

Civil engineers that specialize in

transportation engineering work with the
planning, construction and management of
transportation facilities. Transportation
engineers design and implement the
infrastructures that deal with transportation in
order to provide a safe, comfortable,
convenient, economical and environmentally
compatible mode of transport.
Major specialties:
 Traffic engineering, a branch of
transportation engineering focusing on the
infrastructure necessary for transportation

 Highway engineering, a branch of engineering that deals with major roadways and
transportation systems involving automobiles. Highway engineering usually involves the
construction and design of highways

 Railway systems engineering

IX. Surveying

This type of civil engineering branch handles

the surveying and leveling of land by using different
instruments to map and contour the terrain. This is
done to locate and measure property lines, lay out
buildings, bridges, channels, highways, and pipelines
for constructions. Surveyors are can be classified as
plane and geodetic surveyors.

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Civil Engineering Orientation

TOPIC 2: Trends in the sub-discipline of Civil Engineering

Since development and technology is fast changing in today’s world, trends in many
disciplines has already been introduced. In civil engineering, the use of software-based technology
has become popular that application ranges from a simple monitoring to prediction and estimation.

The use of computers and software widened the application and impacts of civil
engineering. Remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) in the monitoring,
prediction and estimation of natural phenomena like earthquake, floods, winds and earthquake
becomes possible. While control system engineering applies the control theory to various design
system through the use of mathematical modelling.

Remote sensing is the science of obtaining

information about objects or areas from a distance,
typically from aircraft or satellites. While Geographical
Information system (GIS) is a system designed to
capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and
present all types of spatial or geographical data.

Control engineering (or control systems

engineering) is the branch of civil engineering
discipline that applies control theory to design
systems with desired behaviors. The practice uses
sensors to measure the output performance of the
device being controlled (often a vehicle) and those
measurements can be used to give feedback to the
input actuators that can make corrections toward
desired performance. Multidisciplinary in nature,
control systems engineering activities focus on
implementation of control systems mainly derived
by mathematical modeling of systems of a diverse
range.

Further, areas of specialization provided another trends in civil engineering sub-disciplines

focuses on the development of a municipality or urban areas. This gave birth to the municipal or
urban engineering focusing on all aspects of development of a certain area, town or municipality.

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Civil Engineering Orientation

Municipal engineering is concerned with

municipal infrastructure that involves specifying,
designing, constructing, and maintaining streets,
sidewalks, water supply networks, sewers, street
lighting, municipal solid waste management and
disposal, storage depots for various bulk
materials used for maintenance and public works
(salt, sand, etc.), public parks and bicycle paths.
In the case of underground utility networks, it
may also include the civil portion (conduits and
access chambers) of the local distribution
networks of electrical and telecommunications
services.

This branch of civil engineering include the optimizing of waste collection and bus service
networks. Municipal engineering focuses on the coordination of these infrastructure networks and
services, as they are often built simultaneously, and managed by the same municipal authority.
Municipal engineers may also design the site civil works for large buildings, industrial plants or
campuses (i.e. access roads, parking lots, potable water supply, treatment or pre-treatment of
waste water, site drainage, etc.)

TOPIC 3: Relevance of Civil Engineering in the overall infrastructural

development of the country

It has already been discussed that civil engineering plays an important role in the
development of an area, municipality and the whole country as well. In terms of the infrastructural
development, civil engineers are builders of built-environment.
Infrastructure are defined as facilities which form the base or framework for the economic
and social welfare of a country. Infrastructure includes but not limited to roads, airports, bridges,
buildings, parks and other amenities for the comfort of mankind. The higher the infrastructure
facilities the higher will be the growth prospects. That is why most of all developed countries have
noticeable and state of the art facilities providing comfortable and technology based services to
community.
More importantly, infrastructural development provided:
1. Increase in food production
2. Protection from drought, flood
3. Healthy and comfortable housing facility
4. Safe domestic and industrial water supply
5. Safe and scientific waste disposal
6. Improvement in communication and transportation
7. Generation of electricity from, nuclear, hydel, thermal, solar or wind energy
8. Improved, wealth, prosperity, standard of living
9. Overall growth of a nation

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