All you need to know about Civil Engineering

Civil engineering is one of the main disciplines of professional engineering that mainly deals with design, building and maintenance of both natural and physical built environment that includes works like buildings, roads, canals, bridges and dams. After military engineering, the civil engineering is considered as the oldest engineering discipline. In the past it was mainly used to differentiate non military engineering services.

Traditionally the civil engineering is divided into various sub disciplines like environmental engineering, transportation engineering, construction engineering, survey, water resources engineering, coastal engineering, urban or municipal engineering, structural engineering and geotechnical engineering. It takes place at all levels from municipal to national governments both in public sector and private sector. Today different international companies are found offering various civil engineering services thus by effectively meeting the requirements at the highest level possible.

Engineering has become an important part of life since from the existence of human beings. The history of civil engineering dates back to 2000 BC at the time of ancient Egyptians where they started constructing shelters and roads for transportation. According to history reports, John Smeaton, the chief architect of Eddystone Lighthouse is the first self declared civil engineer.

Education and licenses

Any civil engineer will have a university degree with civil engineering as his major. The duration of this course is about three to five years depending on the university and is generally selected as Bachelor of Engineering. Some universities are also found designated it as Bachelor of Science. Project management, design, mathematics and physics are some of the common subjects you study in civil engineering. You can also undertake postgraduate programs related to civil engineering like Msc or MEng. Before being certified as civil engineer, the candidate needs to complete set of requirements and exams stated by the university.

Careers

There is no definite career course for civil engineers. Normally those who passed out as graduate civil engineers accept less responsibility and gradually increase it with the boost in experience. Within civil engineering career paths may vary depending on the specialization, consultation and management. These days coastal engineering, construction engineering, environmental engineering and geotechnical engineering are found to be in high demand and paid high salaries when compared to other disciplines of engineering. Experienced civil engineers are always in demand because they accept more complex design work and routine tasks. After all civil engineering helps to build the infrastructure of the world thus by contributing to its progression.