Civil Engineering: finally explained in layman’s terms!

Heyyy!! Thanks for clicking on my page out of the infinite pages out there. It will hopefully give you the clarity you’re looking for and will certainly give you cat pics.

🌟 Breaking the Ice

Before we get down to business, let’s eliminate the stranger danger. How about a classic? Two truths and one lie: 

• I’m a Part II Civil Engineering Student
• I have a cat
• I don’t know what a blog is

Oh, that’s too easy? Someone’s onto it…round 2:

• I’ve been to the Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand
• I have a pile of soft plastics in the left corner of my room
• I have two cats

The lie is…drum roll please…. I have two cats. My cat, Ellie, is too much of a drama queen to share the attention with a fellow feline. She also demands her own two truths and one lie. Spot which two cats are Ellie and which one is the imposter cat, Huihui (this is your Mechatronics Part II Blogger Phyllis’s cat):

I’ll let you ponder that one.

🌟Getting Down to Business

Enough dilly-dallying, let’s chat about what you are here for, not for me or for my cat 🥲, but for Civil Engineering- finally explained in layman’s terms. 

Just a quick disclaimer: the definition of civil engineering is not a destination. It’s a journey. What does that even mean? Well, my own definition of this broad engineering discipline has changed so much over the years, and yours will probably, too, as you do your research, chat with other civil engineers, and, of course, read my blogs. The following will be my current understanding of civil engineering, but this will almost certainly change in the future. What I’m trying to say is that the following is not the definitive explanation to base everything on, but rather a good starting point for your understanding.

Let’s start with the basics: What degree are we actually talking about?

This may seem too basic, but hear me out. Most people will call themselves civil engineering students, but some will call themselves civil and environmental engineering students. On further inspection, the UoA engineering specialisations website refers to civil and environmental engineering, but in my specialisation selection email, it said: “Welcome to civil engineering”. The plot thickens. From what I can tell, our specialisation is run by the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, and that’s why our degree is often called Civil and Environmental Engineering, not just civil engineering. However, which electives you choose in your third and second years determines how “environmental” or how “civil” your degree actually is. It’s a scale.

🌟 The Main Specialisation

🟡 Civil Engineering

Civil engineering is one of the oldest and largest engineering disciplines out there. It involves maintaining and constructing the natural and built environments. Think roads, bridges, water supplies, railways, airports and pipelines here. As a Civil engineer you would be ensuring these structures are and remain safe and functional. Since civil engineering is so broad, it acts as an umbrella term encompassing a multitude of sub-specialisations such as environmental engineering, coastal engineering, geotechnical engineering, transportation engineering, and the list goes on. Let’s explore some of these…

🌟 The Sub-Specialisations

🟡 Environmental Engineering

Through civil engineering, you can further specialise in environmental engineering. I’m going to stop you right there- environmental engineering is not the engineering of all things environmentally friendly, sustainable and anti-climate-change. However, it does have a lot to do with sustainability. My understanding is that this specialisation involves keeping us safe from the environment while dually keeping the environment safe from us. What is the environment, you may ask? Soil, water and air. Despite being a sub-specialisation, environmental engineering is still very broad. It could include finding solutions to contamination and pollution problems, helping reduce emissions, managing waste systems and even water treatment.

🟡 Transportation Engineering

How do you get to uni every day? Whether you walk, bus, drive or cycle- you can blame transport engineers for how challenging or easy your journey is (and probably the government funding they were working with too). Transportation engineering involves the design, maintenance and operation of transportation systems. Essentially any system that can move people from point A to point B involves transportation engineering. It doesn’t just have to be five-lane highways, it could be public transport and cycle lanes too.

🟡 Geotechnical Engineering:

Almost all structures are built on soil and rock. That’s why we need geotechnical engineers to apply their knowledge of geology, soil mechanics and more to determine how the soil and rock of a particular site will behave. Geotechnical engineering is crucial for analysing, planning and constructing the foundations of structures.

🟡 Structural Engineering:

Jokes!! Structural engineering is actually its own discipline. Check out your Structural Part II Blogger Sonia’s posts to learn more about this (awesome) specialisation – truss me, you won’t regret it (sorry, this blog was overdue for a good pun, but genuinely check it out!)

🟡 Miscellaneous Engineering:

You are going to be shocked to learn there isn’t actually a miscellaneous engineering discipline. I’ve just put this section in as a placeholder for the many other sub-specialisations of civil engineering that I haven’t explored in this blog. This includes coastal engineering, hydraulic engineering, earthquake engineering and more.

🌟 So Why Choose Civil?

There are so many reasons justifying the study of this incredible specialisation. Civil engineering is super broad, there are a LOT of work opportunities for civil engineers out there, and work typically involves site visits. Civil engineering often involves elements of sustainability and is a useful degree to have for humanitarian engineering. The list goes on, however, you have to find your own reason for taking Civil Engineering (or for not taking it ;).

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

If you have read this far- thank you! And with that, it is time for “the end”.

See you in the next post!

Ankia :))