Civil and environmental engineering projects include transportation systems and their components, such as bridges, highways, public transit systems, railways, harbors, airports, and seaports; large-scale structures and office buildings that provide enclosed working and living space; environmental and hydraulic systems that provide clean water and air, including filtration plants and distribution systems for municipal and industrial water supplies, wastewater treatment plants, dams, levees, and irrigation systems.

Growth areas of civil and environmental engineering include water sustainability, infrastructure development, construction management, computer-aided design, hazardous waste management, and engineered environmental systems. In the future, civil and environmental engineers will be called upon to design structures for earth, prevent erosion and sedimentation of our rivers, predict effects of global climate change on the environment, provide modern and efficient transportation systems, and ensure the quality of our air and our surface waters and groundwaters.

In planning and design, civil and environmental engineers work with other engineers, architects, landscape architects, planners, economists, financiers, sociologists, lawyers, and other specialists as members of the design team. Some civil engineers work in engineering offices; others may be called upon to construct or supervise outdoor projects they have designed. These field assignments, many of which are in remote and fascinating parts of the world, are particularly appealing to many civil and environmental engineers. There also is significant potential for entrepreneurial work by civil and environmental engineers as they start their own companies.