What is Civil Engineering

Look around you in any urbanized area and most of what you see is the result of 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 such as bridges, roads, canals, dams and buildings. Civil engineering is the oldest engineering discipline after military engineering, and it was defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering. It 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.
Therefore, Civil Engineering is a broad engineering discipline that incorporates many different aspects of engineering. As a CE, you generally would work in one of the following areas:

1. In Private Practice: Planning, designing, constructing and operating physical works and facilities used by the public.
2. In Public Practice: Involved in city and/or regional planning, layout and construction of highways and pipelines.
3. In Academia: Teaching students the fundamentals of civil engineering. Also involved in research in order to advance the state-of-the-art.