Metaheuristic optimization methods inspired by natural phenomena have rapidly grown significantly for solving optimization problems in various scientific fields, including civil engineering. One of the strengths of this metaheuristic approach is that it can solve problems in a wide space without the need for a continuous or differentiable objective function. Metaheuristic approaches are strategies that guide the process of searching for optimal answers in problems so that the search space for answers becomes efficient and appropriate answers are obtained in the problems. For this purpose, this approach has also been used significantly in civil engineering problems and has reported a clear perspective. The goal of multi-objective optimization in civil engineering problems has been to find acceptable answers and present them to the decision maker for the management and planning of construction projects with the approach of evaluating financial and time savings. Today, with the advancement of optimization algorithms and computers with high speed and processing power, serious challenges in civil engineering topics, including project scheduling, equipping and locating construction sites, and civil engineering approaches in crisis management, have been studied by researchers and scholars. In this study, a more detailed study of meta-heuristic algorithms was conducted by reviewing previous studies in this regard, and their mechanism and characteristics in civil engineering topics were evaluated.