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Civil
engineering is a broad field of engineering dealing
with the planning, design, construction, maintenance
and management of physical infrastructure networks.
This includes fixed structures, or public works, as
they are related to earth, water, or civilization
and their processes. Most civil engineering today
deals with power plants, bridges, roads, railways,
structures, water supply, irrigation, the natural
environment, sewer, flood control, transportation
and traffic.
Engineering has developed
from observations of the ways natural and constructed
systems react and from the development of empirical
equations that provide bases for design. Civil engineering
is the broadest of the engineering fields, partly
because it is the oldest of all engineering fields.
In fact, engineering was once divided into only two
fields - military and civil. Civil engineering was
defined to distinguish it from military engineering.
Within the US, some federal government funding and
organization is still part of the United States Army
as the Corps of Engineers. Civil engineering is still
an umbrella term, comprised of many related specialties. |