An Overview Civil engineering is one of the broadest of the engineering disciplines, extending across many technical specialties.
Civil engineers plan, design, and supervise the construction of facilities essential to modern life.
These facilities vary widely in nature, size, and scope and include bridges, buildings, tunnels, highways, transit systems, dams, airports, harbors, water supply and wastewater treatment plants, offshore structures, and other facilities for mitigating environmental problems. All of the forces of nature, static and dynamic, are included in this field of inquiry, as are the properties of materials including the soft and rock mantle of the earth. In addition, civil engineering is concerned with the interlocking influences of structures, systems, forces, and materials on one another and on society. Civil engineers work in many diversified areas such as structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, water resources and environmental engineering, transportation engineering, planning, and construction management. Engineering field, but even within each of those areas, they may participate in different types of work activities.