Municipal or urban
engineering applies the
tools of science, art and engineering in an urban environment.
Summary
Municipal engineering is concerned with municipal infrastructure. This
involves specifying, designing, constructing, and maintaining streets, sidewalks, water supply networks, sewers, street lighting, municipal solid waste management
and disposal, storage depots for various bulk materials used for maintenance
and public works (salt, sand, etc.), public parks and cycling infrastructure. In the
case of underground utility networks, it may also include the
civil portion (conduits and access chambers) of the local distribution networks
of electrical and telecommunications services. It can also include the
optimizing of garbage collection
and bus service networks.
Some of these disciplines overlap with other civil engineering specialties,
however municipal engineering focuses on the coordination of these
infrastructure networks and services, as they are often built simultaneously
(for a given street or development project), and managed by the same municipal
authority.