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Environmental engineering is a professionalengineeringdiscipline related toenvironmental science. It encompasses broadscientific topics likechemistry,biology,ecology,geology,hydraulics,hydrology,microbiology, andmathematics 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 ofcivil engineering andchemical engineering. While on the part of civil engineering, the Environmental Engineering is focused mainly onSanitary Engineering.[3]
Environmental engineering applies scientific and engineering principles to improve and maintain the environment to protect human health, protect nature's beneficialecosystems, and improve environmental-related enhancement of the quality of human life.[1]Environmental engineers devise solutions forwastewater management,water andair pollution control,recycling,waste disposal, andpublic health.[2][4] They designmunicipal water supply andindustrial wastewater treatment systems,[5][6] and design plans to preventwaterborne diseases and improvesanitation 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 implementenvironmental 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 asacid rain,global warming,ozone depletion,water pollution and air pollution fromautomobile exhausts andindustrial sources.[2][7][8][9]
Mostjurisdictions impose licensing and registration requirements for qualified environmental engineers.[10][11][12]
The wordenvironmental has its root in the late 19th-century French wordenviron (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, whereEcology 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 astrebuchets,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 duringJohn Smeaton's time.
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 thequality of their environment, they built systems to improve[4] it. The ancientIndus Valley Civilization (3300 B.C.E. to 1300 B.C.E.) had advanced control over theirwater 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 canalirrigation system enabling large-scale agriculture.[16]
From 4000 to 2000 B.C.E., many civilizations had drainage systems and some had sanitation facilities, including theMesopotamian Empire,Mohenjo-Daro, Egypt, Crete, and theOrkney Islands in Scotland.[4] The Greeks also had aqueducts and sewer systems that used rain and wastewater to irrigate and fertilize fields.[4]
The firstaqueduct in Rome was constructed in 312 B.C.E., and the Romans continued to constructaqueducts 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]
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 inLondon in the mid-19th century whenJoseph Bazalgette designed the first majorsewerage system following theGreat Stink.[14] The city's sewer system conveyed raw sewage to theRiver Thames, which also supplied the majority of the city's drinking water, leading to an outbreak ofcholera.[14] The introduction of drinking water treatment and sewage treatment in industrialized countries reducedwaterborne 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 otherenvironmental 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 pesticideDDT to control agricultural pests in the years followingWorld War II. The story of DDT as vividly told inRachel Carson'sSilent Spring (1962) is considered to be the birth of the modernenvironmental movement,[19] which led to the modern field of "environmental engineering."
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Many universities offer environmental engineering programs through either the department ofcivil engineering orchemical engineering and also including electronic projects to develop and balance the environmentalconditions. Environmental engineers in a civil engineering program often focus onhydrology, 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][citation needed] Some subdivisions of environmental engineering includenatural resources engineering andagricultural engineering.
Courses for students fall into a few broad classes:
The following topics make up a typical curriculum in environmental engineering:[21]
Environmental engineers evaluate the water balance within awatershed 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 apotable water supply, water is treated to minimize the risk ofinfectious disease transmission, the risk ofnon-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, andirrigation.
There are numerouswastewater 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 anaeration basin followed byflocculation andsedimentation or anactivated sludge system and a secondary clarifier, a tertiary biologicalnitrogen removal system, and a finaldisinfection process. The aeration basin/activated sludge system 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 andphosphorus and to disinfect the water before discharge to a surface water stream or ocean outfall.[24]
Scientists have developedair pollution dispersion models to evaluate the concentration of a pollutant at a receptor or the impact on overall air quality from vehicleexhausts and industrialflue gas stack emissions. To some extent, this field overlaps the desire to decreasecarbon dioxide and othergreenhouse gas emissions from combustion processes.
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 andfauna, 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 ofwetlands 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.
In the United States, the practice of environmental assessment was formally initiated on January 1, 1970, the effective date of theNational 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]
TheU.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of the many agencies that work with environmental engineers to solve critical issues. An essential component of EPA's mission is to protect and improve air, water, and overall environmental quality to avoid or mitigate the consequences of harmful effects.
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