Civil engineering is a related field of engineering to environmental engineering, and in many ways environmental engineering grew out of civil engineering. Civil engineers serve the public interest perhaps more than any other type of engineer. Beginning at the start of the 20th century, more and more cities became acutely aware of the need to provide safe drinking water, safely dispose of sewage, and provide a better breathing space for citizens. Civil engineers working areas of water and health began to develop expertise in physical, chemical, and biological processes that govern the pollution to which people are exposed. Gradually that work led to applying engineering to many types of environmental issues, and environmental engineering became a field unto itself.
Civil engineers often learn the important aspects of many parts of public infrastructure such as structural design, roads, bridges, foundations, construction materials, and also aspects of water resources such as supply and flood management. Environmental engineers, contrastingly, must have a greater emphasis and grasp of the intersection of chemistry and biology with engineering and deal with problems of pollution, sustainability, environmental risk, and public health in ways that civil engineers traditionally do not.
