Civil Engineering as seen in Everyday Life
I think we can all agree it is hard to imagine a world without Civil Engineers. Yet we do not quite understand the value they have. Unless you’ve done an electrical engineering internship, you would probably be unsure of what they actually do. They are crucial to our society, as we are so obsessed with growth and infrastructure. Civil engineers are responsible for the designing, planning and constructing the smallest places to the biggest structures that we use every day. Be it highways, buildings or airports, there are very few public structures that are not under the umbrella of civil engineers for their construction. Despite the advanced knowledge you need, you can actually find available engineering internships in most cities, and help design huge structures.
If you are wondering how these engineers specifically affect the daily life, here it is:
- Transport Infrastructure
One of the major applications of the skills learnt during civil engineering is the construction of roads, highways, freeways, airport runways, bridges etc for the easy movement of traffic. The civil engineers will have to be creative during planning the design because the structures have to be strong enough to hold the extreme amounts of traffic while taking up minimum required space and consuming lesser resources. They are also required to work in teams with other disciplines of engineers, such as the structural and geo – technical engineers.
- Supply of Utilities
Building proper utility services are essential to run the lives of millions that depend on it. It typically involves the construction of water lines, gas lines or any other form of underground pipelines responsible for the transport and supply of certain utilities. The engineers are responsible for the proper operation of these utilities in normal and adverse conditions influenced by external agencies such as weather and time. They must also account their construction for future changes in the environment such as increase or decrease in population, future technologies and innovation.
- Building Construction
Civil Engineers tasked with the construction of buildings face a variety of issues to solve and it would not be wrong to say that this line is one of the most business – geared amongst all the other industries. Each building has to be constructed within the specific boundaries set by the government, the public services, municipalities etc. Whether it is a skyscraper or a post – office, structural engineers are required to get the structure off the ground.
- Management of Urban Spaces
It is a sub – set of civil engineering where the responsibility is to handle the non – transportation urban services such as maintaining and building of side – walks, sewer systems, construction of public parks etc. The task is not only to construct these services, but they have to optimize the same for adverse conditions such as weather, capacity and even containment, etc.
- Studying of Soil
A few of the Civil Engineers also help in the study of soil and they can correctly analyse the value of the plot of land itself by estimating the strength, the growth potential of the soil. There are certain factors in soil erosion and mechanics which can drastically affect the best use of the property and it can also deem the land unusable for the use of certain types of projects.
So, these are the different applications of the skills of civil engineers in daily life. A civil engineer is expected to be a team player, they must be well – equipped with the current trends, and must be creative enough to chalk out solutions from tough urban or rural environments and needs.
