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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. 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






2. 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.






3. Elements added to a natural landscape - such as paving stones - gravel - walkways - irrigation systems - roads - retaining walls - sculpture - street amenities - fountains - and other mechanical features.






4. A sewer that discharges into a branch or other sewer and has no other common sewer tributary to it. Sometimes called a 'street sewer' because it collects wastewater from individual homes.






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






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






7. 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.






8. 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






9. In landscape architecture - a study of the potential cost of site purchase - demolition and improvement in comparison to the income or other benefit to be derived from site development.






10. Any designated use or activity on a piece of land.






11. A collection pipe to which building laterals are connected.






12. 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






13. Sand - silt - gravel and rocks carried or washed into a collection system by infiltration water flows.






14. 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.






15. The condition of water or soil which contains a sufficient amount of acid substances to lower the pH below 7.0.






16. 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.






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






18. The pipes - conduits - structures - equipment - and processes required to collect - convey - and treat domestic and industrial wastes - and dispose of the effluent and sludge.






19. This landscape architecture specialization has evolved to encompass maintenance of a site in its present condition; conservation of a site as part of a larger area of historic importance; restoration of a site to a given date or quality; renovation o






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






21. Narrowly defined - the amount of countryside and/or city that can be taken in at a glance. Also - an area of land or water taken in the aggregate.






22. A record of each person involved in the handling and possession of a sample from the person who collected the sample to the person who analyzed the sample in the laboratory and to the person who witnessed disposal of the sample.






23. A groundwater table that is changed by artificial means. Examples of activities that artificially raise the level of a groundwater table include agricultural irrigation - dams and excessive sewer line exfiltration. A groundwater table can be artifici






24. 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.






25. A sewer line that receives wastewater from many tributary branches and sewer lines and serves as an outlet for a large territory or is used to feed an intercepting sewer.






26. The slope of a plot of land. Grading is the mechanical process of moving earth changing the degree of rise or descent of the land in order to establish good drainage and otherwise suit the intent of a landscape design.






27. Vertical member supporting the railing.






28. Post at which the railing terminates at each floor level.






29. A coordinating agency formed in 1961 for state boards that administer licensing exams and maintain records for landscape architects to practice.






30. Water or wastewater flowing from a higher elevation to a lower elevation due to the force of gravity. The water does not flow due to energy provided by a pump. Wherever possible - wastewater collection systems are designed to use the force of gravity






31. 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






32. A sewer pipe to which building laterals are connected. Also called a COLLECTION MAIN.






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






34. 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.






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






36. 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.






37. Broken stones - boulders - or other materials placed compactly or irregularly on levees or dikes for the protection of earth surfaces against the erosive action of waves.






38. 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






39. The running off of water from a land surface or subsurface - such as through sewers or natural means.






40. Material used to fill in a trench or excavation






41. 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.






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






43. 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






44. 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.






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






46. Material used for backfilling a trench or excavation which was not the original material removed during excavation. This is a common practice where tests on the original material show it to have poor compactability or load capacity. Also called BORRO






47. Most plumbing codes require a vent pipe connection of adequate size and located downstream of a trap in a building wastewater system. This vent prevents the accumulation of gases or odors and is usually piped through the roof and out of doors.






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






49. Masonry composed of roughly shaped stones - well bonded and brought at irregular intervals vertically to discontinuous but approximately level beds or courses.






50. A sewer installed to connect two separate sewers. If one sewer becomes blocked - wastewater can back up and flow through the interconnector to the other sewer.