Advancing of environmental civil projects

Sunday, November 1st, 2015

Advancements in Civil Engineering 

When I say civil engineering in the title, I really mean to say the environmental side of civil engineering, but either way they both go hand in hand since both affect each other. Also with some of these projects and works that have been improved on environmentally over the years, you will be thankful civil/environmental engineers around.

Sewers have been around since the ancient Greeks in 2000-4000 B.C.E. and they had a very similar system of what we have today, but they environmentally wise almost destroyed the Tiber river from having underground drainage systems feed into it. But throughout the years leading up to recent sewer systems of today, there have been problems with drainage outlets being close to drinking water. Sewers of today are far more complex than the sewers back then though, they go through treatment plants for filtration of the water and disinfecting with chemicals before the water is returned to nature.

Another advancement that has been somewhat recently created and is kind of related to sewers is the process of Biofiltration. Biofiltration can be summed up as the filtration of microorganisms, odors, and contaminants in water through a porous, moist material. This process is beyond important with environment because of the fact that there are bacteria strains in water that could give disease people through drinking it or through airborne odors as well, but it could also quite possibly harm an ecosystem. The big difference between this process and regular filtration is the fact that Biofiltration destroys the toxic emissions and only targets biodegradable contaminants like fuel generated hydrocarbons.


A big advancement that relates entirely to structural engineers is that so many building are "turning green" or being more power and energy efficient, and since buildings have a significant impact on us and the environment it makes total sense why there are so many organizations purely created to improve the effectiveness of buildings. These organizations goals all have one thing in common and that's pretty much just to bring environmentally friendly construction and operational practices into the mainstream because buildings account for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions, but otherwise they all have some smaller details that make them differ from each other.

So there are plenty more advancements of civil and environmental engineering that are out there, but these seemed to be some of the biggest improvements on what civil engineers have done over the years. These are also the projects that contribute the most to environmental safety and frankly affect us a lot more than any other project I could possibly think of.

Historically significant Civil Enigineering projects

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Significant Civil Engineering Landmarks

There are many different structures that are significant in multiple ways, but not many get labelled as landmarks, which cannot be demolished. I will notify you on some of the more historic civil engineering landmarks that have made big impacts, but in their own unique history-related ways.For example, such landmarks in the New York area that are well known include the Croton Water Supply System, Statue of Liberty, Manhattan bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, and many more in the link below. If you would like to learn about their significance to the area, they go into great detail on their significance.


http://www.ascemetsection.org/content/view/286/815/


I am gonna broaden the spectrum outside of the United States, and talk about the most historic civil engineered structures on earth. To the right is a picture you should easily recognize, the Taj Mahal was originally created to house the tomb of the emperor Shah Mahal's third, and favorite, wife Mumtaz Mahal. It was built 1643 and is still in amazing shape today, but the reason it is so historic is because it is one of the seven wonders of the world.

Another historical civil engineered landmark to the left is the Eiffel Tower Paris, France. It was built/completed in the 1889 by Gustav Eiffel in an unanimous decision on the design plan and was meant to symbolize the french revolution. Up until 1930, this building was the tallest building in the world and something very unique about it is that its elevators go up the legs of the tower at a 54 degree ascent and descent. The amount of pieces it took to put this metal tower together is astounding as well, it took 18,038 individual segments of cast iron and it has roughly 2,500,000 rivets.

Some people may not be totally familiar with Emperor Constantine, but to simplify who he is, he was the emperor of a declining Roman Empire that had expanded to the now today Istanbul, Turkey and has a very significant church dedicated to him. The church named the Hagia Sophia which translates to "holy wisdom", and was built in 360 A.D. The thing is, it was destroyed by the Nika Revolt and was rebuilt in 565 A.D. and dedicated to another emperor named Theodosius II. The two who are said to have designed this structure are Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Miletos, and they both used the mathematical theories of Archimedes to do the arch supports and vaults. It is a great architectural phenom of the Byzantine empire era because all orthodox churches descend from its design.

So all of these have historical significance, which is why they cannot be destroyed or demolished. Most of these structures definitely get refurbished and renovated so they can last as long as possible because these are not very new buildings and are like any other structure that needs consistent maintenance done.

Civil engineers are better than you!

Wednesday, October 20, 2015

Civil Engineering

Engineering is the key to all of what we have invented and created today. There isn't one thing that you could show me that doesn't have some sort of application of engineering to it. That banana your eating while reading this was more than likely genetically engineered to make it not rot as fast, physically be bigger, and taste better. But to be more specific on what kind of engineering that I will talk about is civil engineering. I am a third year, junior, North Dakota State University civil engineering student specifying in structural or transportation engineering. Civil engineering can be explained simply by saying it is the design, maintenance, and construction of environments such as bridges, dams, canals, buildings, roads, etc.

You know all that summer time road construction that backs up traffic for miles and gets you beyond frustrated to the point of going on a pure road rage fiasco, you can thank civil engineers for all that. This is apart of the maintenance civil engineers have to consistently fix roads from getting deformed and also improve them so they can be much more safer in less favorable conditions.

Civil engineers should know a little bit about each kind of civil engineering, but they can be separated into 12 different categories each having a unique expertise. They are construction, structural, geotechnical, transportation, surveying, water resource, environmental, municipal, coastal, earthquake, and material. All of these are pretty self explanatory on what their expertise are and pretty much relate to one another in multiple ways, but I will go into detail with a few of the more interesting ones.

One that is more interesting and rather not self explanatory is the geotechnical engineering. Geotechnical is the dealing with analysis, design, and construction of the foundations, retaining structures, and slopes made from the earth. In other words they are mainly concerned with rock mechanics and soil mechanics on a site where you would like to construct your project. So any sort of geology background would be very useful in this subdivision of civil engineering, it just requires a bit more math than what an actual geologist would be use to.

My personal favorite is structural engineering because if you look at the picture to the side, this is the Palm Jebel Ali in United Arab Emirates and this is what a structural engineer would get an opportunity to design and create as a project for a public/private company. That is obviously a very creative and expensive project that has a few problems with it, which why it is not completely built yet, but is very close to completion.

Another great perk for being a civil engineer is the fact that you will be travelling quite a bit for your job and be outside helping out with the construction of the projects in the summer and being inside in the winter designing future projects on autocad. That's how it is at least in the Midwest, the two seasons of winter and construction. So when it comes to civil engineering, all you really need to do is look around outside and you will see something like a road, a building, sewer, ditch, small dam, anything, but it was designed by a civil engineer.