Here, I am going to discuss about the brief

introduction to civil engg. This lecture includes some

curious question which arises in your ignited mind like
what is engg? What about civil engg? So, let’s start
with this que it self.
What is engg?
Engineering is defined as the application of scientific
principle and use of natural resources (air, water, land,
etc.) for the benefit of the world community.
Engineering field has three basic conventional branches
namely civil, mechanical and electrical. The other
branches like chemical, metallurgy, electronics, computer,
instrumentation and control, information technology and
mechatronics etc have been added in the recent past.
Out of all above branches, the basic human needs like
clean (unpolluted) air, fresh and potable water, shelter,
food and clothing are created by civil engineering.
Therefore, basic knowledge of civil engineering is
required by all.
Now come to point what is civil engg?
Civil engineering is a technology that includes numerous
other disciplines that produce useful facilities for the
human beings, including roads, dams, waste disposal and
other facilities that are used in our daily life.
You know student Civil engineering has a significant role
in the life of every human being, though we may not truly
sense its importance in our daily routine. The function of
civil engineering commences with the start of the day
when we take a shower, since the water is delivered
through a water supply system including a well designed
network of pipes, water treatment plant and other
numerous associated services we came across in daily life
is made up by civil engg.
The network of roads on which we drive while
proceeding to school or work, the huge structural bridges
we come across and the tall buildings where we work, all
have been designed and constructed by civil engineers
only.
We require electricity which is available to us through the
contribution of civil engineers only because who
constructed the towers for the transmission lines civil
enggs.
In fact, no sphere of life may be identified that does not
include the contribution of civil engineering. Thus, the
importance of civil engineering may be determined
according to its usefulness in our daily life.
I think now u has got some idea regarding what is engg.
What is civil engg? and its imp in our Daily routine life.
I will tell you some history of civil engg to give you
interesting knowledge regarding civil engg.
You know who is 1st civil engg john smeaton (1724-
1792)
He design bridges, canals, harbors and lighthouses at that
time
You know 1st institute of civil engg  in 1818 the
institution of civil engineers was founded in London and
after formally recognizing civil engineering as a
profession.
You know 1st degree of civil engg was awarded by
Rensselaer polytechnic Institue in 1835.
You know 1st degree of civil engg was awarded to a
woman is Nora Blatch and granted by Cornell university
in 1905.
Any one have arise que that Why we need civil engg? ok
lets see why we need?
 As the technology revolution expands, as the world’s
population increases, and as environment concerns mount,
Civil Engineering skills will be needed.
ASCE (American society of civil engg) estimates that $
2.2 trillion is needed over a five year period to bring the
nation’s infrastructure to a good condition. Its in US.
You know any thing about India! Ok let me tell you some
true fact about India.
The Indian infrastructural scenario at present is fairly
dismal. There is an actual shortage of electrical power in
most of the part in india.
Though we have a large network of roads, (about 2.3
million kms), but less than 50% of them are surfaced or
paved.
The Indian railway network is the fourth largest in
the world. However, it is over stressed, crowded and
unable to meet the growing requirements of the economy.
Form the above Indian infrastructural scenario, it can
be concluded that our country needed massive investment
in infrastructural sector.
• Lots of enggs like you required to develop our nation.
 • If you want to know more about currant
infrastructure development you can refer this site.
• http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
• http://www.asce.org/

Scope of Civil Engineering

Civil engineering has direct relation to the fulfillment of
basic human needs: lyk air, water, food, clothing and
shelter. To fulfill any basic human needs, a system of
activities is required and corresponding space is required
for that activity. Civil engineering plans, designs,
constructs and maintain this space for such activities.
Ok let me tell you some example regarding it.
Fresh air and water every budy want its falls in the area of
environmental engg.
food products and clothing are not possible without
movement of raw material from the source to the factory.
The movements of persons are also required from their
homes to factories. These movements of persons and
material fall in the area of transportation engg.
For carrying out any activity, we require electrical power
generated by hydro or thermal power plant. Hydro power
plant uses energy of flowing water in a river.
Moreover, water is required for the growing of the crops
when the rainfall water is not adequate. So, Water
management and water power falls under water resource
engineering.
All the above branches of civil engineering required
measurement in horizontal and vertical planes. These
measurements fall under surveying and leveling
Let me tell you,
Civil engineering is a multiple science encompassing
numerous sub-disciplines that are closely linked with each
other. The various sub-disciplines of civil engineering are
mentioned below:
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Design and Construction of building
• Water Resources Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Transportation Engineering
• Surveying and Leveling
Some of the other disciplines included in civil engineering
are coastal engineering, earthquake engineering, materials
science, Irrigation engg.
Let’s take each one subject in detail and give you brief
idea regarding the subject.
Geotechnical Engineering:
• Almost all of the facilities that make up our
infrastructure are in, on, or with earth materials and
geotechnical engineering is the discipline that deals
with applications of technology to solve these
problems.
• Examples of facilities in the earth are tunnels, deep
foundations, and pipelines, highway pavements and
many buildings are supported on the earth.
Geotechnical engineering deals with soils, rocks,
foundations of buildings and bridges, highways, sewers
and underground water systems. Technical information
obtained from the sciences of geology, material testing,
and hydraulics is applied in the design of foundations and
structures to ensure safety and economy of construction.
Design and Construction of Building
A building is an assemblage that is firmly attached to the
ground and that provides total or nearly total shelter for
machines, processing equipment, performance of human
activities, storage of human possessions or any
combination of these.
There can be variety of building according to the function
it performs:
 1. Residential buildings (like Bunglow, row houses or
apartments)
2. Public buildings (railway station)
3. Commercial buildings (Bank)
4. Industrial buildings
5. Recreation buildings (theatres, town-hall, auditorium
etc)
6. Educational buildings (schools, colleges and
universities)
7. Hospital buildings

The design of building involves functional design and

structural design. The functional design is related with
planning of different units of building to provide suitable
environment for activities, various codes and bye-laws are
available to ensure the quality of materials and
construction.
The orientation of various rooms of a building with
respect to sun and wind is vital for minimum energy
consumption.
• As a structural engineer, you will face the challenge
of analyzing and designing structures to ensure that
they safely perform their purpose.
 • They much support their own weight and resist
dynamic environmental loads such as earthquakes
and floods.

The structural design involves the design of foundations,

wall and slab thickness, beam, column sections and roof
design. This discipline involves the design of structures
that should be safe for the users, be economical, and
accomplish the desired functions. The design and analysis
should initially identify the loads that act on the
structures, stresses that are created due to loads, and then
design the structure to withstand these loads. It includes
steel structures, buildings, tunnels, highways, dams, and
bridges
Some more example like Stadiums, arenas, skyscrapers,
offshore oil structures, bridge, office buildings and off
course homes are which structural engineers are involved
Building construction is the process of assembling
materials (like brick, concrete, steel, plastics, etc) to form
a building. The construction activity should be managed
in such a way that best quality construction is achieved in
the most economic way by organizing labour, material,
method and time.
 • These can be achieve using your technical and
managements skills, you will help turn designs into
reality- on time and within budget.

• You will apply your knowledge of construction

methods and equipment, along with principles of
financing, planning and managing to turn the designs
of other engineers into successful facilities.

Environmental Engineering:
Environment engineering has mainly three branches
namely water supply engineering, waste-water treatment
and pollution control. It is concerned with the health of
the general public.
Water supply engineering takes care of adequate quantity
and good quality of water to be distributed to variety of
users domestic and industrial etc.
Utilised water in homes or industries is contaminated and
this water, which we call sewage, needs treatment before
disposal to land or water body (river or sea). Depending
on the quality of sewage, primary, secondary treatment is
given to waste water before it is re-cycled or dispose to
land or water body.
 Pollution control is the newest branch of environmental
engineering. Air and water pollution have increased in
proportion to industrialization. Moreover, land also gets
polluted due to untreated disposal of solid waste and
sewage. Industrial area and urban area (like Delhi,
Calcutta, Hyderabad, and Bombay) suffer from air
pollution and noise pollution. The tremendous growth of
vehicles in urban area (due to lake of good public
transport system) has polluted the air which has
detrimental effect on the health.
Transportation Engineering:
Transportation engineering involves movements of
person and goods from one place to other place.
Economic and cultural progress of the country is
dependent on safe and speedy transport. Transportation
system of the nation consists of many sub-systems like
highway, railways, waterways, and airways. Moreover,
miscellaneous systems of transportation are pipeline (to
carry the liquid and gas), belt conveyors (in industry) etc.
Transportation system is a life line of economy and
encourages the feeling of one world by allowing the
movement of persons of the world.
 Transportation engineering has mainly three branches
namely
1. Transportation way (highway, railway etc) with its
geometrical and structural design.
2. Traffic engineering which takes care of the operation
and control of vehicles including human factors; and
3. Transportation planning in which a number of broad
is there but important questions and issues are
addressed by transportation professional on an urban,
regional or statewide basis, before specific decisions
relating to layout and design of transportation
facilities, can be made.

Water Resources Engineering:

Water resources engineering has broadly divide into
two areas
1. Water management in which planning and design of
water collection and distribution system for the crops
are done in an economical way.
2. Water- power engineering in which energy of flowing
water in a river is utilized to generate electric power.

As the rainfall is highly non uniformly distributed in

space and is confined to about 3 to 4 months in monsoon,
the agricultural country like india requires additional
water apart from rain water. The water is stored in
reservoir by constructing a dam across the river on its
upstream side. Water is distributed to cultivated field by
canals. Canal headworks and regulation works are
constructed on canal to regulate water distribution.
The methods of applying water to the crops are basically
three types. They are surface irrigation, sub surface
irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. In the surface irrigation,
water is applied on the ground surface which infiltrates
and then it is absorbed by plants. In sub surface irrigation,
water is supplied directly to the root zone of the crops. In
the sprinkler irrigation, water is applied in the form of
spray (its like rainfall).
Surveying and Leveling
Surveying is an art and science by which the relative
positions of different objects on the surface of the earth
are determined. After taking measurements in horizontal
plane and noting them in field book, we prepare plan or
map on drawing sheet to suitable scale.
Measurement in horizontal plane and vertical plane
are basic to any branch of engineering. The relative
positions of different objects on the surface of the earth
are measured on the ground and reproduce on the paper to
certain scale. Surveying deals with linear and angular
measurements along horizontal plane.
In leveling, we determine the relative vertical
distance of different points on the surface of the earth.
Thus the measurements are taken in the vertical plane.
The purpose of surveying is to prepare a
topographical map which shows natural features such as
mountains, lakes, rivers etc and also artificial feature like
school, roads, railways, building etc.
A map or plan is the horizontal projection of the area
surveyed. It indicates horizontal distances. A map is a
drawing where scale is small (ex. map of india). A plan is
a drawing where scale is large (ex. Plan of building).
The purpose of leveling is to find relative heights of
various points on the surface of the earth. The vertical
distances are measured above some horizontal plane
called datum. Thus, leveling helps to prepare vertical
sections of features of ground.
This is all about the civil engg and its discipline, I think
you all enjoy this lecture and u got ample amount of
knowledge regarding civil engg and its discipline.