Civil Engineering, The First Engineering Branch - Steemkidss Engineering Course Introduction, Season 1: Tutorial 2 by @cryptogecko

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Namaste Steem Family, and my greetings to all my students who attend my lessons.

In our last lesson, we learned about the introduction of Engineering field. We learned that the Engineering field has many branches that specializes in different areas and how they help in making our lives easy. In today's lesson, we are going to focus on Civil Engineering, an earliest branch of Engineering.

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Civil engineers are responsible for everything that we see every day around us - from the buildings in which we were born to the buildings where we work, from the roads we have traveled on to the bridges we have crossed - all of them are the works of civil engineers.

An engineer specializing in civil engineering, designs all kinds of structures and buildings. The field of civil engineering is one of the oldest branches of engineering. Our modern world is indeed a living testimony to the achievements of civil engineering, as it has enabled us to build the world that we live in today.

In a nutshell. It is impossible to imagine a society without civil engineers in them.

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Let's imagine that one day, you discover an island. It's an island nobody else has ever seen or ever set foot on before. Putting yourself in the shoes of a civil engineer, the following scenario would make for an ideal opportunity to start from scratch.

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In your quest to discover what this mysterious island has in store as well as how it might be lacking, as any good explorer would, you choose to take a tour around it. Could there be food on this island? In case there is, where can it be found exactly?

What about the water supply? Will there be enough water to go around? Do the weather conditions look favorable? Will the terrain make it difficult to travel from one place to another?

Assume that you have answered the questions above in a way that indicates the island can be inhabited. Do you think that building a city on the island would be possible? In the event that it was possible for you to build an entire city, what kind of buildings would you need?

What kind of construction would you recommend for the island? And does the order in which they should be constructed matter? When planning an entire city, what considerations should be taken into account?

Well, before you jump into creating something from nothing, you might want to take a few minutes to learn from the civil engineers that came before us.

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Throughout most of our history, we have relied on some sort of civil engineering to get things done. To protect ourselves from the weather we have built shelters, and to cross rivers we have made bridges from tree trunks in order to protect ourselves from the currents. While our early ancestors are not likely to have done much calculation, they may have used engineering to find solutions to their problems.

The earliest known civil engineer in history may have come from Egypt, approximately 5,000 years ago. Here we catch a glimpse of Imhotep, the man responsible for building the first pyramid of Egypt. Throughout his life, he served the government, served as a sage, and later was known as the Egyptian deity of medicine.

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The impressive qualifications of Imhotep do not end there, and we can add the title "chief of works" or, as we might call it today "engineer" to his name. He was heavily involved in overseeing and supervising the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser, or as most people know it as Step Pyramid of Saqqara, which was constructed in the 27th century BCE. In terms of height, the limestone-based pyramid stood at approximately 60 meters, or roughly 200 feet, about the same as a modern 18-story building or skyscraper. It is a result of its design and construction that other engineering marvels, such as the Great Pyramid of Giza, were inspired by it.

Construction engineering and structural engineering, two of the earliest branches of civil engineering, began to intersect here. While structural engineering and construction engineering share some similarities, structural engineering primarily involves the design of structures, whereas construction engineering focuses on the actual construction of structures. We will need to apply both of these disciplines in order to develop a city on our island.

Now, let's talk about something that will certainly be needed down the road: a public water supply. We can find inspiration from Mesopotamia around the year 690 BCE to help us accomplish this goal.

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During the early period of the development of public water supplies, the first of its kind was constructed by Assyrian engineers, the Aqueduct of Jerwan. Nineveh's water channel was built using millions of stones to bring the water from the mountains to the city.

It is crucial for a city's growth and development to be able to provide water for its citizens. For this purpose, we will need to create a system of water supply as well as a more advanced system of canals and pipelines through which we can transport water from the source to buildings and homes.

It is also important to think ahead when making decisions. The Hippodamus of Miletus is the ideal person to learn from about how to plan out your future community. Around 460 BCE, he lived in Greece and has been referred to as the father of urban planning in Europe.

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A great deal of modern urban planning is credited to him, including rectangular city blocks and straight streets, which are joined by avenues at right angles. This type of layout is called the Hippodamian plan, which divides cities into different segments according to their purpose. He did something different from the typical designs of the time, which involved curves, twists, and dead ends.

We hope this lesson will serve as an example to your island community: if you're going to build a city, you have to have a plan. The construction of a civil engineering project requires a lot of moving parts, and if you don't plan ahead, it could result in you being left with a pile of stuff lying around. Typically, it is a bad idea to have farms and crops near sewage treatment plants, or schools close to airports that generate a lot of noise.

Now it is time to also draw inspiration from the Ancient Romans. With roads, tunnels, bridges, as well as plenty of aqueducts and water supplies throughout their territory, they were among the most accomplished engineers in history. Specifically, their transportation engineering works represent one of the greatest achievements in the history of civil engineering. So, after the structural and construction engineering, transportation engineering is going to be the third most important branch of civil engineering for your island city.

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You can take advantage of the infrastructure that will allow you to make your way across hills and valleys, bridges that cross lakes and rivers, and other infrastructure pieces, all of which will allow you to get the most out of the island as possible. Rome's success in architectural design was partially attributed to their ability to use their environment to their advantage. With the help of small rocks/pebbles, limestones, and volcanic ash, they were able to produce a unique type of concrete that helped build many impressive structures, such as the Pantheion and the Colosseum, the most famous amphitheater in the world.

Since our island is not home to many volcanoes, it might be better to opt for a more modern type of concrete such as the type patented by Joseph Aspdin in the early 19th century in England. By using finely ground stone and clay materials he created Portland cement, which was named after the limestone found in Portland, England, due to the cement's similarity to this limestone.

Regarding our island city, I feel we have made a relatively good start, and I believe we are doing quite well going forward with our mission. As a planned community, the city has a variety of buildings, roads, and bridges as well as public water supplies. In spite of this, however, there is one important component of the development project that's being left out: sanitation.

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The use of some type of sanitation can be traced all the way back to ancient times, even though there were no such modern facilities back then like we have now. A Victorian architect named Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, who designed a system of sewers for central London, introduced a more modern form of environmental engineering when designing London's sewer network. With the help of this network of sewers, he attempted to eradicate the cholera epidemic in the city by treating the water and cleaning the polluted River Thames, a project that took him nearly twenty years to complete. For his efforts, he received knighthood.

Keeping our island's public health in good order will depend on the continued treatment of drinking water and sewage.

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The field of civil engineering offers much more than just designing and building infrastructure for the city. The field of civil engineering can also create canals and dams, which falls under the category of hydraulic engineering, which is one of the most valuable things civil engineers can provide for a city.

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On the other hand, geotechnical engineers are responsible for working with the rock and soil of the Earth to ensure that our structures are built on solid foundations, giving them a chance to work hand-in-hand with the Earth.

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As you can see from this explanation of the idea of creating a city from an empty piece of wilderness, you can see how many issues could be encountered, and how different kinds of civil engineering can be utilized to solve them. Because of civil engineering, we have created civilizations that have lasted for long periods of time.

But what I have written so far – if I may say so – is just enough to give you a solid foundation from which to build on. It was very interesting to learn all about the many facets of civil engineering today. Many things were discussed, including architectural planning of the entire city, usage of structural engineering and construction engineering to design and construct infrastructure in our city, transportation engineering helped us build roads and bridges to reduce our time when we move from one place to another, the environmental engineering helped us with the clean water problem, which also helped us to tackle diseases that spread from water, the hydraulic engineering helped build us the dams we need to generate electricity, and the geotechnical engineering helped us ensure that the infrastructure that we just built is built on a strong foundation.

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During next week's class, we will discuss the mechanical side of engineering, as well as its history, as well as what you might be able to do if you become a mechanical engineer.

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Homework:

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1. How would you describe Civil Engineering to your peers?

2. What different branches of Civil Engineering did we talk about in this lesson? And, what each of them are used for?

3. How would you plan YOUR island city, from start to finish.

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Rules:

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• You must be a verified kid (adults are also allowed)
• You must at least write 300 words.
• The post must not be plagiarized.
• Use the tags; #learnwithsteem #assignment #steemexclusive #engineering #country #clubstatus in your tags

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I hope you liked this tutorial and please tell me in the comments, what you liked in this tutorial.

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