Civil engineering has developed along with the history of mankind, and various subdisciplines such as structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, and geospatial information engineering are harmoniously applied to create excellent civil structures. This has a significant impact on social efficiency and environmental sustainability.
Civil engineering has been going hand in hand with human history. From small structures such as prehistoric huts, huts, and dolmens, to the planned cities of Greece for administrative efficiency, to Roman roads for military mobility, to bridges that serve as landmarks in their respective cities, such as Sydney’s Harbor Bridge and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the history of civil engineering is long and grand. The earliest civil engineering structures were relatively simple, but over time, advances in technology and diverse requirements have led to more complex and sophisticated structures. These developments have contributed to greatly improving human living standards and increasing the overall efficiency of society.
The exact name of the civil engineering program is the Department of Construction and Environmental Engineering. The majors of the College of Construction and Environmental Engineering include structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, geospatial information engineering, transportation engineering, mathematical hydrology, environmental engineering, and urban planning and design. A good civil engineering structure can only be completed by harmoniously applying the detailed majors. A good civil engineering structure should be convenient for the people who use it, beneficial to humanity, aesthetically pleasing, and finally, safe. So, let’s take a look at what each of the majors in civil engineering describes.
Structural engineering is an essential discipline for the safe design of civil structures. Due to the nature of civil structures, their large size and the fact that they are used by many people, even the slightest mistake in their design or construction can be disastrous. Structural engineering aims to design structures safely by analyzing or analyzing various loading conditions, such as distributed loads represented by the self-weight of the structure, live loads caused by the movement of objects, gravity, and wind loads. For example, in the case of bridges, multiple loads such as the weight and movement of vehicles and pedestrians, wind, and earthquakes must be considered to design a safe and robust structure.
Geotechnical engineering is the first discipline to be considered when designing a structure. You can’t put a civil structure with a huge dead weight on soft ground. You need to make sure that the foundation of the structure is strong by placing piles on solid bedrock. Geotechnical engineering is a field of study that examines the dynamic behavior of soil, and focuses on the behavior of structural foundations, tunnels, slopes, dredging and landfills, retaining walls, etc. If the ground is not strong, subsidence will occur, and structures on the subsided ground are at risk of cracking or even collapsing, which greatly reduces the safety of the structure. Geotechnical engineering aims to improve the stability of the entire structure by designing a solid foundation. It is also important to study how to mitigate the impact of earthquakes on structures and maintain their stability.
Geospatial information engineering is the study of determining the location of human activities in space and interpreting the characteristics of the objects being measured. Spatial information includes information on the location and related attributes of surface objects such as terrain, roads, and transportation facilities, as well as underground utilities such as water, sewer, power, and common areas, and mobile objects such as cars, aircraft, and satellites. In recent years, the scope of spatial information to be interpreted and managed at the national level has been expanding due to the specialization and sophistication of society, and the development of GPS, which uses satellites to determine location, and remote sensing, which can create topographic maps, has dramatically diversified the scope of spatial information that humans can acquire, and the need for a spatial information system that efficiently collects, processes, and analyzes spatial information has emerged throughout society. Such spatial information plays an important role in many fields, including urban planning, environmental management, and disaster response.
Transportation engineering is a field of study that is responsible for the construction and management of efficient transportation systems and aims to solve transportation problems caused by the increase in human activities due to rapid social and economic development. Since transportation is not an end in itself but a means to an end, it studies the efficient arrangement and operation of transportation facilities for the balanced development of the country and the expansion of social and indirect capital. It encompasses land, sea, and air transportation, and its approach to transportation is based on the engineering level, which considers road characteristics, traffic characteristics, and human characteristics; the planning level, which provides facilities; and the management level, which ensures effective operation of facilities and the establishment of transportation policies. For example, students study the optimal routing of subway lines to improve the efficiency of public transportation systems and the improvement of signal systems to reduce traffic congestion.
Urban planning and design is a specialized field that predicts and solves urban problems in advance and is a social technology that explores the desirable development direction of cities, the form and function of urban spatial structures, the creation of physical environments, and various policies to realize them. In other words, urban planning is a future-oriented field that targets a wide spatial range from national space to urban areas within cities, predicts various problems and potentials of the area, and proposes reasonable solutions based on efficiency and equity. Urban design is a specialized field of urban planning that targets the physical environment to create a more pleasant, functional, and beautiful living environment, and is closely related to architecture and urban landscaping. In particular, while urban planning deals with various social indicators and utilizes quantitative techniques, urban design deals with the qualitative issues of the environment based on normative theories, and also deals with three-dimensional spatial planning, thus connecting architecture and the city. This allows human inhabited spaces to be designed more efficiently and beautifully.
The field of water engineering focuses on the study of the dynamics and quantitative behavior of fluids and water, as well as the development of technologies for the prediction and control of pollution in the environment. Subdisciplines include hydraulics, hydrology, water resources engineering, and coastal engineering. Examples include developing systems to predict and manage natural disasters such as floods and droughts, and designing structures to prevent erosion in coastal areas.
In order to provide a more comfortable living environment for humans living on Earth and to ensure the continued development of humanity in the future, a shift from the idea of separating humans and the environment to the idea of identifying humans and the environment is required. Therefore, environmental engineering is the field that contributes the most to the sustainable and environmentally friendly development of mankind. The field of environmental engineering develops and operates all the necessary technologies to provide a safer and healthier living environment for humans and to protect, manage, and purify the natural environment. It also deals with the geological environment and geological processes that are closely related to human society and life, as well as the role of geology in environmental impact assessment. Another important task of environmental engineering is to solve the problem of air and water pollution caused by industrialization and to promote the development of sustainable energy sources.
Civil engineering has played a pivotal role in South Korea’s rapid economic growth. The opening of the Gyeongbu Expressway in 1970 breathed new life into Korea’s industry through the rapid growth of logistics movement, and the company took the lead in earning foreign currency through overseas road construction orders in Iraq, Pakistan, and India under difficult economic conditions. Based on this know-how, the civil engineering industry is now helping to raise the country’s profile, including the UAE nuclear power plant and the Incheon Bridge, one of the world’s civil engineering masterpieces. In recent years, the importance of sustainable development and eco-friendly technology has been emphasized, and efforts have been made to develop green technology and renewable energy. With the trend of a longer and higher civil industry, civil engineering will continue to develop and specialize. As long as human history continues, civil engineering will be around forever.
