Environmental engineering

Environmental engineering is a professional engineering discipline related to environmental science. It

encompasses broad scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology,
microbiology, and mathematics to create solutions that will protect and also improve the health of living
organisms and improve the quality of the environment.[1][2] Environmental engineering is a sub-discipline
of civil engineering and chemical engineering. While on the part of civil engineering, the Environmental
Engineering is focused mainly on Sanitary Engineering.[3]

Environmental engineering applies scientific and engineering principles to improve and maintain the
environment to protect human health, protect nature's beneficial ecosystems, and improve environmental-
related enhancement of the quality of human life.[1] Environmental engineers devise solutions for
wastewater management, water and air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, and public health.[2][4]
They design municipal water supply and industrial wastewater treatment systems,[5][6] and design plans to
prevent waterborne diseases and improve sanitation in urban, rural and recreational areas. They evaluate
hazardous-waste management systems to evaluate the severity of such hazards, advise on treatment and
containment, and develop regulations to prevent mishaps. They implement environmental engineering law,
as in assessing the environmental impact of proposed construction projects.

Environmental engineers study the effect of technological advances on the environment, addressing local
and worldwide environmental issues such as acid rain, global warming, ozone depletion, water pollution
and air pollution from automobile exhausts and industrial sources.[2][7][8][9]

Most jurisdictions impose licensing and registration requirements for qualified environmental
engineers.[10][11][12]

Etymology
The word environmental has its root in the late 19th-century French word environ (verb), meaning to
encircle or to encompass. The word environment was used by Carlyle in 1827 to refer to the aggregate of
conditions in which a person or thing lives. The meaning shifted again in 1956 when it was used in the
ecological sense, where Ecology is the branch of science dealing with the relationship of living things to
their environment.[13]
The second part of the phrase environmental engineer originates from Latin roots and was used in the 14th
century French as engignour, meaning a constructor of military engines such as trebuchets, harquebuses,
longbows, cannons, catapults, ballistas, stirrups, armour as well as other deadly or bellicose contraptions.
The word engineer was not used to reference public works until the 16th century; and it likely entered the
popular vernacular as meaning a contriver of public works during John Smeaton's time.

History

Ancient civilizations
Environmental engineering is a name for work that has been done since early civilizations, as people
learned to modify and control the environmental conditions to meet needs.[4][14] As people recognized that
their health was related to the quality of their environment, they built systems to improve[4] it. The ancient
Indus Valley Civilization (3300 B.C.E. to 1300 B.C.E.) had advanced control over their water
resources.[14] The public work structures found at various sites in the area include wells, public baths, water
storage tanks, a drinking water system, and a city-wide sewage collection system.[14][15] They also had an
early canal irrigation system enabling large-scale agriculture.[16]

From 4000 to 2000 B.C.E., many civilizations had drainage systems and some had sanitation facilities,
including the Mesopotamian Empire, Mohenjo-Daro, Egypt, Crete, and the Orkney Islands in Scotland.[4]
The Greeks also had aqueducts and sewer systems that used rain and wastewater to irrigate and fertilize
fields.[4]

The first aqueduct in Rome was constructed in 312 B.C.E., and the Romans continued to construct
aqueducts for irrigation and safe urban water supply during droughts.[4] They also built an underground
sewer system as early as the 7th century B.C.E. that fed into the Tiber River, draining marshes to create
farmland as well as removing sewage from the city.[4][14]

Modern era
Very little change was seen from the decline of the Roman Empire until the 19th century, where
improvements saw increasing efforts focused on public health.[14][17] Modern environmental engineering
began in London in the mid-19th century when Joseph Bazalgette designed the first major sewerage system
following the Great Stink.[14] The city's sewer system conveyed raw sewage to the River Thames, which
also supplied the majority of the city's drinking water, leading to an outbreak of cholera.[14] The
introduction of drinking water treatment and sewage treatment in industrialized countries reduced
waterborne diseases from leading causes of death to rarities.[18]

The field emerged as a separate academic discipline during the middle of the 20th century in response to
widespread public concern about water and air pollution and other environmental degradation. As society
and technology grew more complex, they increasingly produced unintended effects on the natural
environment. One example is the widespread application of the pesticide DDT to control agricultural pests
in the years following World War II. The story of DDT as vividly told in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
(1962) is considered to be the birth of the modern environmental movement,[19] which led to the modern
field of "environmental engineering."

Education
Many universities offer environmental engineering programs through either the department of civil
engineering or chemical engineering and also including electronic projects to develop and balance the
environmental conditions. Environmental engineers in a civil engineering program often focus on
hydrology, water resources management, bioremediation, and water and wastewater treatment plant design.
Environmental engineers in a chemical engineering program tend to focus on environmental chemistry,
advanced air and water treatment technologies, and separation processes.[20] Some subdivisions of
environmental engineering include natural resources engineering and agricultural engineering.

Courses for students fall into a few broad classes:

Mechanical engineering courses oriented towards designing machines and mechanical

systems for environmental use such as water and wastewater treatment facilities, pumping
stations, garbage segregation plants, and other mechanical facilities.
Environmental engineering or environmental systems courses oriented towards a civil
engineering approach in which structures and the landscape are constructed to blend with or
protect the environment.
Environmental chemistry, sustainable chemistry or environmental chemical engineering
courses oriented towards understanding the effects of chemicals in the environment,
including any mining processes, pollutants, and also biochemical processes.
Environmental technology courses oriented towards producing electronic or electrical
graduates capable of developing devices and artifacts able to monitor, measure, model and
control environmental impact, including monitoring and managing energy generation from
renewable sources.

Curriculum
The following topics make up a typical curriculum in environmental engineering:[21]

1. Mass and Energy transfer

2. Environmental chemistry
1. Inorganic chemistry
2. Organic Chemistry
3. Nuclear Chemistry
3. Growth models
1. Resource consumption
2. Population growth
3. Economic growth
4. Risk assessment
1. Hazard identification
2. Dose-response Assessment
 3. Exposure assessment
4. Risk characterization
5. Comparative risk analysis
5. Water pollution
1. Water resources and pollutants
2. Oxygen demand
3. Pollutant transport
4. Water and waste water treatment
6. Air pollution
1. Industry, transportation, commercial and residential emissions
2. Criteria and toxic air pollutants
3. Pollution modelling (e.g. Atmospheric dispersion modeling)
4. Pollution control
5. Air pollution and meteorology
7. Global change
1. Greenhouse effect and global temperature
2. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycle
3. IPCC emissions scenarios
4. Oceanic changes (ocean acidification, other effects of global warming on oceans) and
changes in the stratosphere (see Physical impacts of climate change)
8. Solid waste management and resource recovery
1. Life cycle assessment
2. Source reduction
3. Collection and transfer operations
4. Recycling
5. Waste-to-energy conversion
6. Landfill

Applications

Water supply and treatment

Environmental engineers evaluate the water balance within a watershed and determine the available water
supply, the water needed for various needs in that watershed, the seasonal cycles of water movement
through the watershed and they develop systems to store, treat, and convey water for various uses.
Water is treated to achieve water quality objectives for the end uses. In the case of a potable water supply,
water is treated to minimize the risk of infectious disease transmission, the risk of non-infectious illness, and
to create a palatable water flavor. Water distribution systems[22][23] are designed and built to provide
adequate water pressure and flow rates to meet various end-user needs such as domestic use, fire
suppression, and irrigation.

Wastewater treatment
There are numerous wastewater treatment technologies. A
wastewater treatment train can consist of a primary clarifier system
to remove solid and floating materials, a secondary treatment system
consisting of an aeration basin followed by flocculation and
sedimentation or an activated sludge system and a secondary
clarifier, a tertiary biological nitrogen removal system, and a final
disinfection process. The aeration basin/activated sludge system
Sewage treatment plant, Australia removes organic material by growing bacteria (activated sludge).
The secondary clarifier removes the activated sludge from the
water. The tertiary system, although not always included due to
costs, is becoming more prevalent to remove nitrogen and phosphorus and to disinfect the water before
discharge to a surface water stream or ocean outfall.[24]

Air pollution management

Scientists have developed air pollution dispersion models to evaluate the concentration of a pollutant at a
receptor or the impact on overall air quality from vehicle exhausts and industrial flue gas stack emissions.
To some extent, this field overlaps the desire to decrease carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas
emissions from combustion processes.

Environmental impact assessment and mitigation

Environmental engineers apply scientific and engineering principles to
evaluate if there are likely to be any adverse impacts to water quality,
air quality, habitat quality, flora and fauna, agricultural capacity, traffic,
ecology, and noise. If impacts are expected, they then develop
mitigation measures to limit or prevent such impacts. An example of a
mitigation measure would be the creation of wetlands in a nearby
location to mitigate the filling in of wetlands necessary for a road
development if it is not possible to reroute the road.

Water pollution
In the United States, the practice of environmental assessment was formally initiated on January 1, 1970,
the effective date of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Since that time, more than 100
developing and developed nations either have planned specific analogous laws or have adopted procedure
used elsewhere. NEPA is applicable to all federal agencies in the United States.[25]

Regulatory agencies

Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of the many agencies that work with
environmental engineers to solve key issues. An important component of EPA's mission is to protect and
improve air, water, and overall environmental quality in order to avoid or mitigate the consequences of
harmful effects.

See also
Environment
portal
Ecology portal
Engineering
portal

Atmospheric dispersion modeling

Biofiltration
Civil engineering
Ecological sanitation
Ecological engineering
Engineering geology
Environmental design
Environmental engineering law
Environmental engineering science
Environmental health
Environmental impact assessment
Environmental management
Environmental restoration
Environmental science
Environmental studies
Geological Engineering
Geoprofessions
Hydraulic engineering
Hydrology
List of environmental degrees
List of environmental engineers
Sanitary engineering
 Water purification
Water quality modeling

Associations
American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists
Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors
Association of Environmental Professionals
Atmospheric dispersion modeling
Confederation of European Environmental Engineering Societies
Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment
Society of Environmental Engineers

References
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5. Beychok, Milton R. (1967). Aqueous Wastes from Petroleum and Petrochemical Plants
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9. Career Information Center. Agribusiness, Environment, and Natural Resources (https://archiv
e.org/details/careerinformatio00_2) (9th ed.). Macmillan Reference. 2007.
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118112537/https://www.aaees.org/becomeboardcertified/environmentalengineers.php).
American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists. Archived from the original (htt
p://www.aaees.org/becomeboardcertified/environmentalengineers.php) on 2021-01-18.
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11. "NCEES PE Environmental exam information" (https://ncees.org/engineering/pe/environmen
tal/). NCEES. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
12. "Professional Engineering Institutions" (https://www.engc.org.uk/about-us/our-partners/profes
sional-engineering-institutions/). Engineering Council. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
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ron). www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
14. Mason, Matthew. "Environmental Engineering: Why It's Vital for Our Future" (https://www.env
ironmentalscience.org/environmental-engineering). Environmental Science. Retrieved
2019-03-23.
15. Jansen, M. (October 1989). "Water Supply and Sewage Disposal at Mohenjo-Daro". World
Archaeology. 21 (2): 177–192. doi:10.1080/00438243.1989.9980100 (https://doi.org/10.108
0%2F00438243.1989.9980100). JSTOR 124907 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/124907).
PMID 16470995 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16470995).
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technologies in Harappa/Indus valley civilization (ca. 2600-1900 BC)". Evolution of
Sanitation and Wastewater Technologies through the Centuries. IWA Publishing. pp. 25–40.
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d=501029). US National Science Foundation. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
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19. Radniecki, Tyler. "What is Environmental Engineering?" (http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~ra
dniect/whatisenvironmentalengineering.php). College of Engineering. Oregon State
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environmental-engineering/what-environmental-engineering). Civil and Environmental
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21. Masters, Gilbert (2008). Introduction to environmental engineering and science. Upper
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d/11728/chapter/2). National Academies Press. 2006. doi:10.17226/11728 (https://doi.org/10.
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Petroleum and Minerals. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
24. Sims, J. (2003). Activated sludge, Environmental Encyclopedia. Detroit.
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Further reading
Davis, M. L. and D. A. Cornwell, (2006) Introduction to environmental engineering (4th ed.)
McGraw-Hill ISBN 978-0072424119
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2019). Environmental
Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges (Report). Washington, DC:
The National Academies Press. doi:10.17226/25121 (https://doi.org/10.17226%2F25121).
ISBN 978-0-309-47652-2.

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