Today’s highly capitalized societies require maximum benefit with minimum cost. In order to find a low cost design in practice, experienced engineers have traditionally used trial-and-error methods based on their intuitive engineering sense. However, their approaches have not guaranteed optimal or near-optimal designs, which is why researchers have been interested in optimization methods. Mathematically speaking, optimization refers to finding the best vector from a set of feasible alternative vectors. Zong Woo Geem’s Optimization in Civil & Environmental Engineering shows how optimization techniques can be applied to various civil engineering problems in construction and project management, structural engineering, water and environmental engineering, and transportation engineering.