文档介绍：Civil engineers build roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, harbors, power plants, water and sewage systems, hospitals, schools, mass transit, and other public facilities essential to modern society and large population concentrations. They also build privately owned facilities such as airports, railroads, pipelines, skyscrapers, and other large structures designed for industrial, commercial, or residential use. In addition, civil engineers plan, design, and build complete cities and towns, and more recently have been planning and designing space platforms to house self-contained communities.
土木工程师们修路、建桥、打隧道，建水坝，海港，发电厂，供水排水系统，建医院，学校，公共交通设施和其他公共设施实质上就是要建设现代化社会和大量人口集中地。他们也建设私有的设施，例如：机场，铁路，管线，摩天大楼，和其他大型建筑物，它们设计用于工业，商业和居住等用途。此外，土木工程师规划，设计和建设完整的城市和乡镇，近年来，已经在规划和设计空间平台来构建自给自足型社区。
土木这个词来源于拉丁文，愿意是市民。1782年，英国人John Smeaton用这个术语将非军事工程工作从在当时占绝大多数的军事工程师所人事的工程工作中区别开来。从那以后，土木工程这个词常常用于表示建设公用设施的工程师们所人事的工作，尽管这个领域要宽广得多。
The word civil derives from the Latin for citizen. In 1782, Englishman John Smeaton used the term to differentiate his nonmilitary engineering work from that of the military engineers who predominated at the time. Since then, the term civil engineering has often been used to refer to engineers who build public facilities, although the field is much broader.
Scope. Because it is so broad, civil engineering is subdivided into a number of technical specialties. Depending on the type of project, the skills of many kinds of civil engineer specialists may be needed. When a project begins, the site is surveyed and mapped by civil engineers who locate utility placement—water, sewer, and power lines. Geotechnical specialists perform soil experiments to determine if the earth can bear the weight of the project. Environmental specialists study the project’s impact on the local area: the potential for air and groundwater(地下水) pollution, the project’s impact on local animal and plant life, and how the project can be designed to meet government requirements aimed at protecting the e