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. 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.
Permeable paving surfaces are made of either a porous material that enables stormwater to flow through it or nonporous blocks spaced so that water can flow between the gaps. Permeable paving can also include a variety of surfacing techniques for roads,parking lots,and pedestrian walkways. Permeable pavement surfaces may be composed of;pervious concrete,porous asphalt,paving stones,or interlocking pavers. Unlike traditional impervious paving materials such as concrete and asphalt,permeable paving systems allow stormwater to percolate and infiltrate through the pavement and into the aggregate layers and/or soil below. In addition to reducing surface runoff,permeable paving systems can trap suspended solids,thereby filtering pollutants from stormwater.
Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater and converts this into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle,the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environment or is reused for various purposes. The treatment process takes place in a wastewater treatment plant. There are several kinds of wastewater which are treated at the appropriate type of wastewater treatment plant. For domestic wastewater,the treatment plant is called a Sewage Treatment. For industrial wastewater,treatment either takes place in a separate Industrial wastewater treatment,or in a sewage treatment plant. Further types of wastewater treatment plants include Agricultural wastewater treatment and leachate treatment plants.
A constructed wetland is an artificial wetland to treat sewage,greywater,stormwater runoff or industrial wastewater. It may also be designed for land reclamation after mining,or as a mitigation step for natural areas lost to land development. Constructed wetlands are engineered systems that use the natural functions of vegetation,soil,and organisms to provide secondary treatment to wastewater. The design of the constructed wetland has to be adjusted according to the type of wastewater to be treated. Constructed wetlands have been used in both centralized and decentralized wastewater systems. Primary treatment is recommended when there is a large amount of suspended solids or soluble organic matter.
Waste stabilization ponds are ponds designed and built for wastewater treatment to reduce the organic content and remove pathogens from wastewater. They are man-made depressions confined by earthen structures. Wastewater or "influent" enters on one side of the waste stabilization pond and exits on the other side as "effluent",after spending several days in the pond,during which treatment processes take place.
A retention basin, sometimes called a retention pond,wet detention basin,or storm water management pond (SWMP),is an artificial pond with vegetation around the perimeter and a permanent pool of water in its design. It is used to manage stormwater runoff,for protection against flooding,for erosion control,and to serve as an artificial wetland and improve the water quality in adjacent bodies of water.
Rain gardens,also called bioretention facilities,are one of a variety of practices designed to increase rain runoff reabsorption by the soil. They can also be used to treat polluted stormwater runoff. Rain gardens are designed landscape sites that reduce the flow rate,total quantity,and pollutant load of runoff from impervious urban areas like roofs,driveways,walkways,parking lots,and compacted lawn areas. Rain gardens rely on plants and natural or engineered soil medium to retain stormwater and increase the lag time of infiltration,while remediating and filtering pollutants carried by urban runoff. Rain gardens provide a method to reuse and optimize any rain that falls,reducing or avoiding the need for additional irrigation. A benefit of planting rain gardens is the consequential decrease in ambient air and water temperature,a mitigation that is especially effective in urban areas containing an abundance of impervious surfaces that absorb heat in a phenomenon known as the heat-island effect.
Robert A. (Bob) Gearheart is an emeritus professor of environmental engineering at Humboldt State University,in Arcata,California.
Sustainable drainage systems are a collection of water management practices that aim to align modern drainage systems with natural water processes and are part of a larger green infrastructure strategy. SuDS efforts make urban drainage systems more compatible with components of the natural water cycle such as storm surge overflows,soil percolation,and bio-filtration. These efforts hope to mitigate the effect human development has had or may have on the natural water cycle,particularly surface runoff and water pollution trends.
Secondary treatment is the removal of biodegradable organic matter from sewage or similar kinds of wastewater. The aim is to achieve a certain degree of effluent quality in a sewage treatment plant suitable for the intended disposal or reuse option. A "primary treatment" step often precedes secondary treatment,whereby physical phase separation is used to remove settleable solids. During secondary treatment,biological processes are used to remove dissolved and suspended organic matter measured as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). These processes are performed by microorganisms in a managed aerobic or anaerobic process depending on the treatment technology. Bacteria and protozoa consume biodegradable soluble organic contaminants while reproducing to form cells of biological solids. Secondary treatment is widely used in sewage treatment and is also applicable to many agricultural and industrial wastewaters.
Best management practices (BMPs) is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe a type of water pollution control. Historically the term has referred to auxiliary pollution controls in the fields of industrial wastewater control and municipal sewage control,while in stormwater management and wetland management,BMPs may refer to a principal control or treatment technique as well.
Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application,thereby preventing water pollution from raw sewage discharges. Sewage contains wastewater from households and businesses and possibly pre-treated industrial wastewater. There are a high number of sewage treatment processes to choose from. These can range from decentralized systems to large centralized systems involving a network of pipes and pump stations which convey the sewage to a treatment plant. For cities that have a combined sewer,the sewers will also carry urban runoff (stormwater) to the sewage treatment plant. Sewage treatment often involves two main stages,called primary and secondary treatment,while advanced treatment also incorporates a tertiary treatment stage with polishing processes and nutrient removal. Secondary treatment can reduce organic matter from sewage, using aerobic or anaerobic biological processes.
Water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) is a land planning and engineering design approach which integrates the urban water cycle,including stormwater,groundwater,and wastewater management and water supply,into urban design to minimise environmental degradation and improve aesthetic and recreational appeal. WSUD is a term used in the Middle East and Australia and is similar to low-impact development (LID),a term used in the United States;and Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS),a term used in the United Kingdom.
George Tchobanoglous is an American civil and environmental engineer,writer and professor.
Kartik Chandran is an American environmental engineer at Columbia University,where he is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering. He primarily works on the interface between environmental molecular and microbiology,environmental biotechnology and environmental engineering. The focus of his research is on elucidating the molecular microbial ecology and metabolic pathways of the microbial nitrogen cycle. Applications of his work have ranged from energy and resource efficient treatment of nitrogen containing wastewater streams,development and implementation of sustainable approaches to sanitation to novel models for resource recovery. Under his stewardship,the directions of biological wastewater treatment and biological nutrient removal were established for the first ever time in the history of Columbia University.
A vermifilter is an aerobic treatment system,consisting of a biological reactor containing media that filters organic material from wastewater. The media also provides a habitat for aerobic bacteria and composting earthworms that purify the wastewater by removing pathogens and oxygen demand. The "trickling action" of the wastewater through the media dissolves oxygen into the wastewater,ensuring the treatment environment is aerobic for rapid decomposition of organic substances.
Moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) is a type of wastewater treatment process that was first invented by Professor Hallvard Ødegaard at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the late 1980s. The process takes place in an aeration tank with activated sludge and uses floating,recycled plastic carriers that a biofilm can grow on. The compact size and cheap wastewater treatment costs offers many advantages for the system. The main objective of using MBBR being water reuse and nutrient removal or recovery. In theory,wastewater will be no longer considered waste,it can be considered a resource.
Rosa Galvez is a Canadian Senator from Quebec. At the time of her appointment,she was a professor at Laval University and head of the university's Department of Civil Engineering and Water Engineering. Her appointment to the Senate was announced on November 2,2016.
Decentralized wastewater systems convey,treat and dispose or reuse wastewater from small and low-density communities,buildings and dwellings in remote areas,individual public or private properties. Wastewater flow is generated when appropriate water supply is available within the buildings or close to them.
William Joseph Oswald was an American educator,scientist,and engineer who spent his entire academic career at the University of California,Berkeley in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public Health. He made foundational contributions to the fields of wastewater treatment and applied phycology,or as he called it,"algology". Throughout a career spanning more than five decades,Oswald was the primary academic advisor to more than two dozen doctoral students,sat on more than 100 additional masters and doctoral thesis committees,and taught seminal courses in applied algology.
