Civil engineering is the professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the built environment. Put simply, civil engineers build bridges, roads, canals, dams and other large objects.

Civil engineering is about creating, improving and protecting the environment in which we live. It provides the facilities for day-to-day life and for transport and industry to go about its work.

Civil engineering was originally defined simply to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering but now it actually represents much more. Without civil engineers we wouldn’t have a constant supply of clean water, roads or trains to get to work in the morning, or sustainable energy to help us save our planet. Civil engineering can be seen as a wider discipline of which structural engineering is a more specialised part.