Scribd
Upload
43 views

Intro To Environmental Engineering 2019 - I

This document provides an overview of environmental engineering and the interactions between humans and their environment. It discusses the key components of the environment including water, air, soil, energy and materials. It notes that human activities have exceeded sustainability thresholds and that civil engineers have an important role to play in more sustainable practices. The document outlines how environmental engineering is multi-disciplinary and interacts with other fields like chemistry, geology, biology and more. It also discusses different work environments for environmental engineers including industry, the field, oceans, and academia.

Uploaded by

tester
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
43 views

Intro To Environmental Engineering 2019 - I

This document provides an overview of environmental engineering and the interactions between humans and their environment. It discusses the key components of the environment including water, air, soil, energy and materials. It notes that human activities have exceeded sustainability thresholds and that civil engineers have an important role to play in more sustainable practices. The document outlines how environmental engineering is multi-disciplinary and interacts with other fields like chemistry, geology, biology and more. It also discusses different work environments for environmental engineers including industry, the field, oceans, and academia.

Uploaded by

tester
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 18

Introduction to Environmental

Engineering
Indumathi M N
[email protected]
Panchabootham and Human Interactions

Air

Materials Soil

Humans

Water Energy
Water
• Surface water – Rivers, Lakes, Ponds
• Ground water – Shallow, deep , fossil
• Glaciers –
• Sea Water
• Grey Water
• Black water
• New Water
Air
• Atmosphere – Troposhere Stratosphere
• Ozone hole
Ozone Hole and CFCs

Good News!!
Soil- GeoSciences
• Agriculture
• Foundations
• Groundwater
• Disposal/Burial
Soil

Ground
Humans
water
Energy

Energy source also comes with carbon and water foot prints
Materials
• Building materials – sand cement, stone,
wood, steel,
• Transport- metals, plastic, wood, alloys,
asphalt
• Clothing – Polyester, Cotton, silk, rayon
• Food- growing, processing, cooking, etc
• Education – Books, computers,
• Luxury- Electronics, phone, TV, computers
Material dependence

Where we were Where we are


The materials timeline

Total dependence
On non renewables

• It is clear that current


human activities exceed t
threshold threatening the
well-being of future
generations.

Total dependence • Materials consumption i


on renewables the United States now
exceeds 10 tonnes per
person per year.
Resource consumption

Carbon Foot print


Water foot print
Of each material need to be
considered for selection

• A pie chart of materials usage (tonnes) by family. Ceramics dominate because of the enormous annual
consumption of concrete. Ceramics come with a large carbon foot print and water foot print

•Materials. Speaking globally, we consume roughly 10 billion (10 10) tonnes of engineering materials per
year.

• An average of 1.5 tonnes per person, though it is not distributed like that.
What Future holds?
Population Resource

Other Consequences:
• Resource utilisation comes with waste generation
and environment degradation
• Energy consumption comes with Carbon emissions
Threat of Climate Change – IS real!!!
• Carbon foot print
• Water footprint
• Ecological foot print
What is your role ?
• Civil Engineers have a key role in multiple arenas
– Choice of materials and processes with low carbon
and water footprint
– Design of Green buildings
– Removing air, soil and water pollutants
– Circular economy is waste management
– Sustainable practices
– 6R Reinvent/rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse,
Refurbish/repair, Recycle, Replace/Rebuy
Multi Disciplinary – Science

Chemistry

Medical/
Geology
veterinary

Environmental
Engineering

Statistics Biology

Physics
Interactions with other engineering
Chemical
Engineering

Water Mechanical
resources /Combustion

Environmental
Engineering

Electrical
Biotechnology
/Electronics

Material
Science
Work Environment
Industry

Field –, Rivers,
Ocean
Forest, Lake

Environmental
Engineering

Arctic/
Computational Antartic/
Space

Academic
More to Come:

Environmental Engineering
Projects@IITM

You might also like