Test your basic knowledge |

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. A popular social concern of the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries aimed at improving the appearance of urban areas through better planning and the addition of formal - romanticized public spaces and gardens.






2. 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.






3. Any attempt to restore to beneficial use land that has lost its fertility and stability; most often applies to mining reclamation - such as the restoration of strip mines and quarries.






4. Downstream opening or discharge end of a pipe - culvert - or canal.






5. A sewer that receives wastewater from many tributary branches or sewers and serves a large territory and contributing population.






6. The change to an area's natural resources - including animal and plant life - resulting from use by man. Some projects may require conducting of an 'environmental impact study' before development can proceed.






7. 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.






8. The elevation of the invert (or bottom) of a pipeline - canal - culvert - or similar conduit. _ The inclination or slope of a pipeline - conduit - stream channel - or natural ground surface; usually expressed in terms of the ratio or percentage of nu






9. The protection - improvement and use of natural resources according to principles that will assure the highest economic or social benefits for people and the environment now and in the future.






10. A large - public park - often highly scenic and isolated belonging to and operated by the federal government.






11. A break in a lateral pipe somewhere between the sewer main and the building connection.






12. A groundwater table that has seasonal changes in depth or elevation.






13. Load applied along or parallel to and concentric with the primary axis






14. Installation of pumps to lift wastewater to a higher elevation in places where flat land would require excessively deep sewer trenches. Also used to raise wastewater from areas too low to drain into available collection lines. These stations may be e






15. The prepared and compacted base on which a manhole is constructed.






16. American Society for Testing and Materials






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






18. Horizontal shoring members - usually square - rough cut timber - that are used to hold solid sheeting - braces or vertical shoring members in place. Also called STRINGERS.






19. A plan for conserving or protecting various natural or manufactured resources. Such a plan is used as a management tool in making decisions regarding soil - water - vegetation - manufactured objects and other resources at a particular site.






20. A large pipe to which a series of smaller pipes are connected. Also called a HEADER.






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






22. In landscape architecture - the organization of areas of land for specific aesthetic or functional purposes. This can range from creating small backyard patios to huge urban plazas.






23. A special valve with a hinged disc or flap that opens in the direction of normal flow and is forced shut when flows attempt to go in the reverse or opposite direction of normal flows.






24. The lay of the land - particularly its slope and drainage patterns; the science of drawing maps and charts or otherwise representing the surface features of a region or site - including its natural and man-made features.






25. A multinational organization of landscape architects whose purpose is the promotion of landscape design and planning.






26. Harmonious use of the land for more than one purpose; not necessarily the combination of uses that will yield the highest economic return - e.g. - a mix of residential and commercial developments in the same area.






27. 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






28. Vertical member supporting the railing.






29. The linear or a real dimension over which a higher component transmits load to a lower component






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






31. A professional society that represents landscape architects in the United States and Canada and seeks to better the practice and understanding of landscape architecture through education - research - state registration and other programs.






32. A legal means of protecting beautiful views and associated aesthetic quality along a site by restricting change in existing features without government approval.






33. Branch or lateral sewers that collect wastewater from building sewers and service lines.






34. The force that resists the separation of two bodies in contact.






35. Not easily penetrated. The property of a material or soil that does not allow - or allows only with great difficulty - the movement or passage of water.






36. A reservoir for the storage of filtered water of sufficient capacity to prevent the need to vary the filtration rate with variations in demand. Also used to provide chlorine contact time for disinfection.






37. The taking in or soaking up of one substance into the body of another by molecular or chemical action (as tree roots absorb dissolved nutrients in the soil).






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






39. A flat board or plate - deflector - guide or similar device constructed or placed in flowing water or slurry systems to cause more uniform flow velocities - to absorb energy - and to divert - guide - or agitate liquids (water - chemical solutions - s






40. An unstable condition of a solution (water) in which the solution contains a substance at a concentration greater than the saturation concentration for the substance.






41. Movement of soil from one place to another. Generally accompanies SILTING of a sewer system. Where infiltration is taking place and silt is carried into a sewer system - such silt or soil is removed from the ground around the sewer pipe and the resul






42. The height to which something is elevated - such as the height above sea level.






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






44. A trained builder or installer of landscapes - retained to implement the plans of landscape architects.






45. One or a series of oneinch diameter holes through a manhole lid for purposes of venting dangerous gases found in sewers.






46. A water service shutoff valve located in a water service pipe near the curb and between the water main and the building. This valve is usually operated by a wrench or valve key and is used to start or stop flows in the water service line to a buildin






47. The illustration and description of problem-statements and large-scale design solutions that affect extensive areas of land; the anticipation of problems that will be encountered as human use and development of land continues.






48. The excess water running off from the surface of a drainage area during and immediately after a period of rain. See STORM RUNOFF.






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






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