What are the key differences between civil and environmental engineering?

[moondawg]

What is the difference between civil and environmental engineering?

 

[Dr Lots-o'watts]

I see environmental as a subcategory of civil. Civil is more general.

 

[moondawg]

So if I go into environmental I will be learning the building of structures and all of that just in more depth concerning an environmental friendly way?

 

[russ_watters]

I think you misunderstand what civil engineering is. Civil engineering deals with our interaction with the environment, such as sloping a yard for proper drainage. It does not deal directly with the building of structures themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_engineering

[edit] That said, the wiki includes structural engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering. I'm not sure I agree with that.

 

[moondawg]

Oh okay thankyou :)

 

[Studiot]

Civil engineering is one of the two oldest branches of engineering.

The Romans distinguished between engineering for military non military purposes. The term civil comes from the Latin for civilian or citizen (cives).

Civil Engineering has always contained a component concerned with the environment.
This component has grown as the discipline has progressed.
When I studied Civil Engineering the environmental engineering aspect was concerned with achieving a design that created a satisfactory environment for humnans. For example the spacing of street lights so that neither excessive illumination nor dark zones are created.

More recently the term Environmental Engineering has focused on the effect human action has on the natural surroundings, rather than the other way round.

I believe there are large and fundamental gaps in the understanding of basic science and engineering in current environemental eng courses as compared to civil eng ones.I think it will be easier in the future to apply the grounding from a civil course to whatever criteria are required than that from an environmental one, many of which are politically driven and can and do change with prevailing fashion.

 

[jefswat]

Civil engineering is a very broad topic. If it doesn't move or use electricity, it probably was designed in large part by a civil engineer. There are sure exceptions, but civil engineering is one of the broadest fields in engineering. One professor described civil engineers as protectors of the general public. Every thing they design is done with the public safety first in mind. In fact, the only civil engineers you know are probably the ones that screwed up and killed someone. The official definition of a civil engineer (from the American Society of Civil Engineers) :

Civil engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and physical sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the progressive well-being of humanity in creating, improving, and protecting the environment, in providing facilities for community living, industry and transportation, and in providing structures for the use of humanity.

That being said, environmental engineering is just one of the things you cover in a civil engineering degree(the other 4 are transportation, structures, water resources, and geotechnical engineering). Environmental engineers do things like designing land fills and other waste storage, water treatment plants, waste water treatment plants and do things with air pollution as well. Those are the big topics we hit in my Intro to Environmental Engineering class. Water resources is another discipline that also focuses on the environment. They can work to ensure valuable animal habitat is not destroyed by river modifications and many other topics. Certainly don't neglect the other 4 though. You may decide later on that one of the other disciplines is more interesting to you, and if you do decide to stick with environmental, the other knowledge you gained will be invaluable. I'm focusing on bridges which can include an awful lot of geotechnical,water resources, and environmental engineering as well as the obvious structural engineering.

 

[Bob Engineer]

What is the difference between civil and environmental engineering?

They're really very different. I know a lot of universities clump the two departments together into one, but the disciplines are pretty distinct.

Civil engineers deal more with building things... steel, concrete, buildings, bridges, utilities, land development, construction, soil mechanics, and how to get water from one place to another. It's more physics-ish.

Environmental engineers deal more with avoiding contaminating our water/soil/air... industrial runoff, landfills, soil contaminants, smoke plumes, underground water supplies, superfund sites, and how to keep our water clean, rather than just moving it around like civs do... Erin Brockovich sorts of things. It's more chemistry-ish and biology-ish.

That's sort of the nutshell version. Wikipedia actually gives a pretty good overview of the two disciplines, if you want a not-so-nutshell version.
aibarr is offline

 

[jefswat]

They're really very different. I know a lot of universities clump the two departments together into one, but the disciplines are pretty distinct.

Civil engineers deal more with building things... steel, concrete, buildings, bridges, utilities, land development, construction, soil mechanics, and how to get water from one place to another. It's more physics-ish.

Environmental engineers deal more with avoiding contaminating our water/soil/air... industrial runoff, landfills, soil contaminants, smoke plumes, underground water supplies, superfund sites, and how to keep our water clean, rather than just moving it around like civs do... Erin Brockovich sorts of things. It's more chemistry-ish and biology-ish.

That's sort of the nutshell version. Wikipedia actually gives a pretty good overview of the two disciplines, if you want a not-so-nutshell version.
aibarr is offline

Nearly every example you gave for what an environmental engineer does requires at least one other discipline. To say all, or even most environmental engineering jobs are more sciencey is either an over statement or just plain wrong. Every environmental engineer (except my professor studying meth in our drinking water) either deals first hand with design or construction, or manages a preexisting plant.

The 5 disciplines should be in one program (traffic is still a waste or time for most). An environmental engineer with no knowledge of water resources, geotechnical engineering, or structural engineering is pretty much useless. They have environmental scientists for that stuff. The true value in a Civil engineer is that they are jacks of all trades. Knowledge of water flow is especially important for Environmental Engineers. It would be very rare for an environmental engineer to NOT need structural or geotechnical engineering at some point in their career as well. You do not need to be an expert in all fields by any means, but the familiarity and understanding of the processes, terminology, and concepts is essential.

One CANNOT stress the importance of the other disciplines enough.