Civil engineering is a professional engineering
discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings. Civil engineering is the second-oldest engineering discipline after military engineering
, and it is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering. It is traditionally broken into several sub-disciplines including architectural engineering
, environmental engineering
,geotechnical engineering
, geophysics
, geodesy
, control engineering
, structural engineering
, transportation engineering
, earth science
, atmospheric sciences
, forensic engineering
, municipal or urban engineering
, water resources engineering
, materials engineering
, offshore engineering
, quantity surveying
, coastal engineering
surveying
, and construction engineering
. Civil engineering takes place in the public sector from municipal through to national governments, and in the private sector from individual homeowners through to international companies.