Future of Civil Engineering
Trends, Inventions,
Innovations
By
Ravi Shaarad
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
works like bridges, roads, canals, dams, and buildings.
Civil engineering is traditionally broken into several sub-
disciplines including environmental engineering,
geotechnical engineering, structural engineering,
transportation engineering, municipal or urban
engineering, water resources engineering, materials
engineering, coastal engineering, surveying, and
construction engineering.
Civil engineering takes place on all levels: in the public
sector from municipal through to national governments,
and in the private sector from individual homeowners
through to international companies.
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil
engineering; the application of planning, designing,
constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures
while protecting the public and environmental health,
as well as improving existing infrastructures that have
been neglected.
Originally, a civil engineer worked on:
sectors : design and management of structures,
transportation systems, and infrastructure Description
Competencies: technical knowledge, management skills,
mathematical analysis
Specialization
In general, civil engineering is concerned with the overall interface of
human created fixed projects.
General civil engineers work closely with surveyors and specialized
civil engineers to fit and serve fixed projects within their given site,
community and terrain by designing grading, drainage, water
supply, sewer service, electric and communications supply, and
land divisions.
General engineers spend much of their time visiting project sites,
developing community consensus, and preparing construction
plans.
General civil engineering is also referred to as site engineering, a
branch of civil engineering that primarily focuses on converting a
tract of land from one usage to another.
Specialization
Construction engineering
Construction engineering involves planning and
execution of the designs from transportation, site
development, hydraulic, environmental, structural and
geotechnical engineers.
Coastal engineering
Coastal engineering is concerned with managing coastal
areas. Coastal management has become more popular as
the field has expanded to include techniques that allow
erosion to claim land
Specialization
Structural engineering
Structural engineering is concerned with the structural design and
structural analysis of buildings, bridges, towers, flyovers, tunnels, off
shore structures like oil and gas fields in the sea, and other structures.
This involves identifying the loads which act upon 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 structural engineer must design structures to be safe for their
users and to successfully fulfill the function they are designed for .
Due to the nature of some loading conditions, sub-disciplines within
structural engineering have emerged, including wind engineering and
earthquake engineering.
Specialization
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.
Specialization
Earthquake engineering
Earthquake engineering covers ability of various structures to
withstand hazardous earthquake exposures at the sites of their
particular location.
Earthquake engineering is a sub discipline of the broader category
of Structural engineering. The main objectives of earthquake
engineering are:
Snapshot from shake-table video of testing base-isolated and regular
building model.
Understand interaction of structures with the shaky ground.
Foresee the consequences of possible earthquakes.
Design, construct and maintain structures to perform at earthquake
exposure up to the expectations and in compliance with building codes.
Specialization
Geotechnical engineering
Geotechnical engineering is an area of civil engineering
concerned with the rock and soil that civil engineering systems
are supported by. Knowledge from the fields of geology,
material science and testing, mechanics, and hydraulics are
applied by geotechnical engineers to safely and economically
design foundations, retaining walls, and similar structures.
Environmental concerns in relation to groundwater and waste
disposal have spawned a new area of study called
geoenvironmental engineering where biology and chemistry
are important.
Specialization
Materials engineering
Another aspect of Civil engineering is materials science.
Material engineering deals with ceramics such as
concrete, mix asphalt concrete, metals Focus around
increased strength, metals such as aluminum and steel,
and polymers such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)
and carbon fibers.
Materials engineering also consists of protection and
prevention like paints and finishes. Alloying is another
aspect of material engineering, combining two
different types of metals to produce a stronger metal.
Specialization
Water resources engineering
Water resources engineering is concerned with the collection and management
of water (as a natural resource). As a discipline it therefore combines hydrology,
environmental science, meteorology, geology, conservation, and resource
management.
Water resource engineers analyze and model very small to very large areas of
the earth to predict the amount and content of water as it flows into, through,
or out of a facility. Although the actual design of the facility may be left to other
engineers. Hydraulic engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of
fluids, principally water.
This area of civil engineering is intimately related to the design of pipelines,
water supply network, drainage facilities (including bridges, dams, channels,
culverts, levees, storm sewers), and canals. Hydraulic engineers design these
facilities using the concepts of fluid pressure, fluid statics, fluid dynamics, and
hydraulics, among others.
Specialization
Environmental engineering
Environmental engineering deals with the treatment of chemical,
biological, and/or thermal waste, the purification of water and air, and
the remediation of contaminated sites, due to prior 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.
Specialization
Municipal or urban engineering
Municipal engineering is concerned with municipal
infrastructure. This 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.
Specialization
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, queueing
theory, pavement engineering, Intelligent Transportation
System (ITS), and infrastructure management.
Specialization
Surveying
Surveying is the process by which a surveyor measures certain dimensions that
generally occur on the surface of the Earth. Surveying equipment, such as levels
and theodolites, are used for accurate measurement of angular deviation,
horizontal, vertical and slope distances. With computerisation, electronic
distance measurement (EDM), total stations, GPS surveying and laser scanning
have supplemented (and to a large extent supplanted) the traditional optical
instruments. Although surveying is a distinct profession with separate
qualifications and licensing arrangements, civil engineers are trained in the
basics of surveying and mapping, as well as geographic information systems.
Surveyors may also lay out the routes of railways, tramway tracks, highways,
roads, pipelines and streets as well as position other infrastructures, such as
harbors, before construction.
Land Surveying
Construction Surveying
?
Ravi Shaarad
