This blog post explores what civil engineering is as a field of study, what its specialized areas encompass, and what future challenges it prepares students for.

What does the Department of Construction and Environmental Engineering teach?

The Department of Construction and Environmental Engineering is a faculty that covers essential disciplines for designing and maintaining our society’s infrastructure. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach centered on civil engineering, combined with environmental engineering, urban engineering, and transportation engineering, enabling students to learn diverse fields. This department does not merely teach construction technology; it comprehensively integrates various academic knowledge to achieve harmony between nature and humanity. Civil engineering alone encompasses structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, hydraulics, port engineering, surveying, and water and wastewater engineering. As these subfields each demand distinct expertise, the department covers an exceptionally broad field. Through this, students develop the ability to design and manage complex social infrastructure. Civil engineering, known as Civil Engineering in English, signifies the engineering necessary to build civilization and sustain society. This highlights its crucial role as a discipline that lays the foundation for human civilization.

How did civil engineering begin?

It is no exaggeration to say the history of civil engineering runs parallel to the history of human civilization. From ancient civilizations to modern society, humanity has developed various civil engineering techniques to control and utilize nature, thereby improving living environments. The advent of agriculture led to civil engineering projects like flood control, which in turn fostered power structures within societies and marked the dawn of civilization. For instance, the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and Mesopotamian irrigation systems stand as prime examples of early civil engineering, making significant contributions to human civilization’s development. The history of civil engineering spans thousands of years. While it only began to be established as a concrete discipline through scientific methodology in modern times, the arch-shaped piers used in ancient Roman aqueducts demonstrate that civil engineering had already been established and developed through experience. Thus, civil engineering is a discipline that has continuously evolved to enhance the quality of human life.

What fields does civil engineering encompass?

During the Renaissance, when humanity began to pursue human-centered rational thought, people started to conceptualize science through understanding nature. The Renaissance signified not merely a revival of art and culture, but the dawn of a new era where humans understood and harnessed nature through scientific inquiry and innovative thinking. Subsequently, classical mechanics was established during the Galileo-Newton era. Civil engineering also became an academic discipline early on, with materials mechanics and structural mechanics being the first to be theorized. These theories form the foundation of civil engineering and continue to play a vital role today. Fluid mechanics developed through discoveries by geniuses like Bernoulli, followed by the formation of geotechnical engineering, which explains the behavior of the earth’s surface. These theories are applied in actual construction sites, contributing to enhancing the safety and efficiency of infrastructure. Furthermore, surveying developed as a necessity for calculating distances, areas, and other measurements for construction projects, becoming a branch of civil engineering. Disciplines like water supply and sewerage engineering, urban engineering, and transportation engineering, which were closer to administrative sciences, took longer to be incorporated into civil engineering. By the mid-20th century, civil engineering had established itself as a systematic field comprising six major areas: structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, hydraulics, water supply and sewerage engineering, surveying, and port engineering. This framework provides the foundation necessary for civil engineering to perform its vital role across various aspects of society today.

Subfields of Civil Engineering – Structural Engineering

When subjected to force, all objects undergo a change in shape, experience movement, or both simultaneously. Statics, as the term ‘static’ implies, is the discipline that deals with deformations caused by forces. Materials science and structural mechanics exist upon the foundation of statics. Materials science explains the deformation, deflection, and failure of materials under force, considering not only force and deformation but also the properties of the material itself. This understanding forms the basis for the safe and economical design of structures. Structural mechanics is the discipline that explains the deformation that occurs when components such as columns and beams are connected and behave as a single entity. The difference between materials mechanics and structural mechanics is that materials mechanics explains the deformation occurring in a single member, while structural mechanics explains the overall behavior when multiple members act together. Dynamics, in contrast to statics, is the discipline that explains the motion of objects caused by forces. In civil engineering, where structures are primarily stationary, the application of dynamics is relatively recent. However, with the growing importance of designing for dynamic loads, dynamics is increasingly being applied. It was only in the early 20th century that it began to be used in conjunction with structural mechanics to explain vibrations in bridges caused by moving loads, wind, or earthquakes.

Subfields of Civil Engineering – Hydraulics, Port Engineering, Water and Wastewater Engineering

Fluid mechanics is a branch of mechanics that describes the behavior of continuously moving, minute, and numerous fluid particles. Explaining the interactions of countless particles, each tens of nanometers in size, through simple fundamental principles and theoretical equations is nearly impossible. Therefore, fluid mechanics relies on repeating countless experiments. Based on these results, it derives and uses the simplest possible equations that best reflect the experimental findings. Using these derived equations, it predicts how fluids will behave as they flow through pipes or channels. This knowledge finds applications in diverse fields such as flood prevention, water management, and energy production. Based on fluid mechanics, disciplines like hydraulics (explaining flow in rivers, streams, and waterways), port engineering (describing ocean currents, wave behavior, and interactions with structures), and water supply and sewer engineering (analyzing fluid flow within pipes) have developed. These fields play an essential role in sustainable water management and marine development in modern society.

Subfields of Civil Engineering – Geotechnical Engineering

Soil behavior varies greatly depending on its composition (sand, clay, etc.) and the presence of water (groundwater). Geotechnical engineering, which explains soil behavior, is based on soil mechanics (dealing with soil behavior) and fluid mechanics (dealing with groundwater flow). Geotechnical engineering plays a crucial role, especially in the early stages of construction projects, and is a core discipline for ensuring the safety of structures. Since soil characteristics vary significantly depending on each site’s specific conditions, numerous site-specific experiments and field investigations are essential. Failure to adequately consider soil properties can lead to accidents such as soil subsidence or structural tilting. For example, when constructing a tall building, failure to ensure ground stability risks the structure leaning or collapsing. Geotechnical engineering is essential for properly understanding ground behavior and reinforcing the ground or installing foundations to safely support structures. This process is a critical factor determining the success of construction projects.

Subfields of Civil Engineering – Surveying, Environmental Engineering

Surveying is a discipline developed to calculate distances, angles, and areas for precise construction execution. Combined with modern GPS technology, surveying has become more precise and efficient. Advances in surveying have enabled more accurate and reliable construction, significantly contributing to the development of civil engineering. Environmental Engineering is the discipline that devises various methods to minimize the environmental impact of construction projects and other developments. Environmental Engineering aims for sustainable development, focusing on minimizing the effects of human activities on the natural environment. It develops and applies diverse technologies to protect the environment during construction and improve the living environment for humanity. For example, environmental engineering plays a crucial role in fields such as water pollution prevention, waste treatment, and air pollution management.

The Future and Challenges of Civil Engineering

Civil engineering is not merely a collection of construction techniques; it is a comprehensive discipline encompassing all elements necessary to create and maintain environments where humans and nature coexist. It is evolving in more efficient and sustainable ways by integrating cutting-edge technologies with traditional civil engineering practices. Representative examples include drone-based surveying technology at construction sites, structural condition monitoring using artificial intelligence, and eco-friendly designs utilizing renewable energy. These technologies brighten the future of civil engineering and enable more innovative approaches. However, many challenges remain to be addressed. Key challenges facing modern civil engineers include designing new infrastructure to respond to climate change, solving traffic problems arising from urbanization, and managing resources sustainably. Therefore, future civil engineering must continuously pursue research and development to solve these problems.