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Civil Engineering Vocab

Subject : engineering
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Branch or lateral sewers that collect wastewater from building sewers and service lines.






2. The science and management of land - especially rural - agricultural land.






3. A wastewater treatment process used to convert dissolved or suspended materials into a form more readily separated from the water being treated. Usually the process follows primary treatment by sedimentation. The process commonly is a type of biologi






4. A railing composed of balusters capped by a handrail.






5. A type of wastewater or service connection pipe made of a low grade of cast iron. _ In plumbing - a pipe that carries the discharge of toilets or similar fixtures - with or without the discharges from other fixtures.






6. Pertaining to groundwater - a well - or underground basin where the water is under a pressure greater than atmospheric and will rise above the level of its upper confining surface if given an opportunity to do so.






7. A professional who designs - plans - and manages outdoor spaces ranging from entire ecosystems to residential sites and whose media include natural and built elements; also referred to as a designer - planner - consultant. Not to be confused with lan






8. Shoring members placed across a trench to hold other horizontal and vertical shoring members in place.






9. Material used to provide a bedding or foundation for pipes or other underground structures. This material is of specified quality for desirable bedding or other characteristics and is often imported from a different location.






10. A network of pipes - manholes - cleanouts - traps - siphons - lift stations and other structures used to collect all wastewater and wastewatercarried wastes of an area and transport them to a treatment plant or disposal system. The collection system






11. A preliminary plan showing proposed ultimate site development. Master plans often comprise site work that must be executed in phases over a long time and are thus subject to drastic modification.






12. A layer - usually of concrete or mortar - for providing continuous support to such items as bricks - slabs - pipes.






13. A branch of biology dealing with the relationship between living things and their environment.






14. A manhole which fills and allows raw wastewater to flow out onto the street or ground.






15. A sewer designed to carry both sanitary wastewaters and storm or surface water runoff.






16. A system of major sewers serving as transporting lines and not as local or lateral sewers.






17. Legal right to use the property of others for a specific purpose. For example - a utility company may have a fivefoot easement along the property line of a home. This gives the utility the legal right to install and maintain a sewer line within the e






18. The lowest point of the channel inside a pipe - conduit - or canal.






19. A pipe or conduit that carries wastewater or drainage water. The term 'collection line' is often used also.






20. An agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture - primarily responsible for planning and overseeing the use of national forest lands by private - commercial and government users.






21. A wall that resist horizontal forces applied in the plane of the wall.






22. The conversion of large solid particles of sludge into very fine particles which either dissolve or remain suspended in wastewater.






23. The dropping or lowering of the ground surface as a result of removing excess water (overdraft or overpumping) from an aquifer. After excess water has been removed - the soil will settle - become compacted and the ground surface will drop and can cau






24. Precipitation which has been rendered (made) acidic by airborne pollutants.






25. A type of easement granting permission to a constructor or developer to build over a street or structure.






26. The man-made creation of or alterations to a specific area - including its natural resources. This is in contrast to the 'natural environment.'






27. A receptacle designed to collect and retain grease and fatty substances usually found in kitchens or from similar wastes. It is installed in the drainage system between the kitchen or other point of production of the waste and the building wastewater






28. Sewers are surcharged when the supply of water to be carried is greater than the capacity of the pipes to carry the flow. The surface of the wastewater in manholes rises above the top of the sewer pipe - and the sewer is under pressure or a head - ra






29. Record of an area's natural and man-made resources - including vegetation - animal life - geological characteristics and mankind's presence in such forms as housing - highways and even hazardous wastes.






30. The creative illustration - planning and specification of space for the greatest possible amount of harmony - utility - value and beauty.






31. A small tank (usually covered) or a storage facility used to store water for a home or farm. Often used to store rainwater.






32. That part of rain or other precipitation that runs off the surface of a drainage area and does not enter the soil or the sewer system as inflow.






33. The pipeline extending from the water main to the building served or to the consumer's system.






34. A U.S. government agency charged with administering vast areas of public land.






35. The form of the land. Contour lines are map lines connecting points of the same ground elevation and are used to depict and measure slope and drainage. Spot elevations are points of a specific elevation.






36. Clarifier - Settling Tank. A tank or basin in which wastewater is held for a period of time during which the heavier solids settle to the bottom and the lighter materials float to the water surface.






37. A material - other than aggregate - cementitious material or water - added in small quantities to the mix in order to produce some (desired) modifications - either to the properties of the mix or of the hardened product.






38. A sewer designed to carry both sanitary wastewaters and storm or surface water runoff.






39. A water treatment process in which solid particles settle out of the water being treated in a large clarifier or sedimentation basin.






40. A wastewater pumping station that lifts the wastewater to a higher elevation when continuing the sewer at reasonable slopes would involve excessive depths of trench. Also - an installation of pumps that raise wastewater from areas too low to drain in






41. A system used where wastewater collection systems and treatment plants are not available. The system is a settling tank in which settled sludge is in intimate contact with the wastewater flowing through the tank and the organic solids are decomposed






42. The science and art of design - planning - management and stewardship of the land. Landscape architecture involves natural and built elements - cultural and scientific knowledge - and concern for resource conservation to the end that the resulting en






43. A chamber or well used with storm or combined sewers as a means of removing grit which might otherwise enter and be deposited in sewers. Also see STORM WATER INLET and CURB INLET.






44. Downward movement of the soil or of a structure which it supports






45. The movement of water through very small spaces due to molecular forces.






46. A holding basin in which variations in flow and composition of a liquid are averaged. Such basins are used to provide a flow of reasonably uniform volume and composition to a treatment unit. Also called a balancing reservoir.






47. Narrowly defined - an extended view or prospect from a site which - many times - is as important as or more important than the site itself.






48. A device that admits surface waters to the storm water drainage system. Also see CURB INLET and CATCH BASIN.






49. Soil that cannot absorb any more liquid. The interstices or void spaces in the soil are filled with water to the point at which runoff occurs.






50. A tank used to store a chemical solution of known concentration for feed to a chemical feeder. A day tank usually stores sufficient chemical solution to properly treat the water being treated for at least one day. Also called an AGE TANK.