A
civil engineer is a person who practices
civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while
protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.
Originally, a civil
engineer worked on public works projects and was contrasted with the
military engineer,
[citation needed] who worked on armaments and defenses. Over time, various branches of engineering have become recognized as distinct from civil engineering, including
chemical engineering,
mechanical engineering, and
electrical engineering, while much of military engineering has been absorbed by civil engineering.
In some places, a civil engineer may perform
land surveying; in others, surveying is limited to construction surveying, unless an additional qualification is obtained.
In most countries, a civil engineer will have graduated from a post-secondary school with a
degree in civil engineering, which requires a strong background in
mathematics and the
physical sciences; this degree is typically a
bachelor's degree, though many civil engineers study further to obtain
master's,
engineer,
doctoral and
post doctoral degrees. In many countries, civil engineers are subject to
licensure. In some jurisdictions with mandatory licensing, people who do not obtain a license may not call themselves "civil engineers."
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