What are the civil engineering related GIS topics?

Answer 1

There are several different fields within Civil Engineering such as Structures, Transportation, Drainage, Water Resources. If you are a Water Resources Engineer you will be working in ArcGIS most of the time because you would be creating H&H (hydrologic and hydraulic) models. The database management and model schematic is created in ArcGIS (which is the umbrella term for ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcAdministrator etc)

While I worked as a Water Resources engineer I had barely used AutoCAD, Civil3D, or MicroStation. I had also worked as a Drainage Engineer and most of my design work was using MicroStation GEOPAK and other Hydraulic modeling softwares. If you are working in Transportation you use more of those softwares with some GIS work but as a Water Resources Engineer you work in GIS most of the time and you don't need much CAD software knowledge. Also, the data analysis methods and processing tools used in Water Resources are far more advanced than what Roadway, Drainage, or Transportation engineers may use in GIS. Their GIS work is very light compared to what Water Resources Engineers do.

Some of the Civil Engineering related GIS topics are:

Floodplain modeling

FEMA LOMRs

Analysis of Fluvial Systems

1D and 2D H&H Modeling

Genetic Algorithms in Water Modeling

Answer 2

Not sure if you're asking about job advice but that's what my answer is tailored to. I work at a small transportation engineering firm and about half the employees have a Civil Engineering BA. Depending on what they're doing (roadway design, drainage, water resources, etc) they're either using Microstation or ArcMap. There's a lot of overlap between the software, and having an understanding of GIS helps, but Microstation is more in line with civil engineering needs.