Introduction to Environmental Engineering

ENVIRONMENT

▪ The environment can define:

❖ As one’s surroundings (simple definition).
❖ To the environmental engineer, it may refer to a very localized area in which a
specific problem must be addressed.
❖ In the case of contained environments, it may refer to a small volume with
materials within a treatment reactor.
▪ Environment can be defined as the surroundings of an object, or the Natural
Environment, all living and non-living things that occur naturally on the Earth.
✓ Air ✓ Flora
✓ Land ✓ Fauna
✓ Water ✓ Humans and their inter relations
✓ Natural Resources

ENVIRONMENT (BIOPHYSICAL)

 The biotic and abiotic surroundings of an organism, or population, and includes

particularly the factors that have an influence in their survival, development and
evolution.
➢ BIOTIC – living component of a community. Plants, animals, fungi, protist and
bacteria are all biotic or living factors.
➢ ABIOTIC – nonliving factors that affect living organisms. Environmental factors
such as habitat (pond, lake, ocean, desert, mountain) or weather such as
temperature, cloud cover, rain, snow, hurricanes, climate regime etc. are abiotic
factors.

ENGINEERING

 The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures.

Machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly
or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of
their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all
as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and
property.

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

 The application of science and engineering principles to improve the natural

environment (air, water, and/ or land resources), to provide healthy water, air,
and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate
polluted sites. It provides waste water treatment and air pollution control,
recycling, waste disposal, radiation protection, industrial hygiene, environmental
 sustainability, and public healthy issues as well as knowledge of environmental
engineering law. It also includes studies on the environmental impact of
proposed construction projects.

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

 Sanitary engineering emerged as a separate engineering field within civil

engineering in the mid 1800’s as the importance of drinking water treatment and
wastewater treatment became recognized. Sanitary engineering, which ha an
emphasis on water supply, water treatment, and wastewater collection and
treatment for many years, is the precursor of the present day field of
environmental engineering, public concern about environmental quality issues
like air pollution and water pollution emerged in the middle third of the 20 th
century, leading to development of environmental engineering as a separate
discipline that deals with air pollution control, hazardous waste management
and industrial hygiene as well as the traditional sanitary engineering fields of
water supply and waste water treatment.

SOME AREA OF ENVIRONMENT ENGINEERING

1) Water treatment
2) Wastewater treatment – prevent negative environmental impacts of the
discharged water and handle residuals generated, such as biosolids that can be
used as fertilizer.
3) Air quality – design processes to prevent industrial emissions or air pollutants.
4) Surface water quality – prevent degradation of the quality of water in rivers and
lakes, so that natural populations of aquatic life, and human uses can be
maintained.
5) Solid waste – landfill design, recycling, destruction processes.
6) RCRA (resource conservation and recovery act) hazardous waste – treatment of
currently generated hazardous industrial wastes.
7) CERLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability
Act) hazardous waste – clean-up of past contaminated sites
8) Industrial Waste Minimization / Treatment
9) Health and Safety
10) Permitting

COMPONENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

1. Physical Environment
a. Atmosphere b. Hydrosphere c. Lithosphere d.
Biosphere
2. Biological Environment
a. Flora b. Fauna c. Microbes
3. Cultural Environment
a. Society b. Economy c. Politics
PHYSICAL COMPONENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

1) Lithosphere – the earth’s outer layer consisting of the soil and rocks. The soil is ended
upon non-living and natural matter. There are 2 types of lithosphere namely oceanic
lithosphere and continental lithosphere. It is the soil that wraps the core of the earth.
2) Hydrosphere – this comprises all water possessions both surface and ground water.
Only less than 1% of water resources are obtainable for human exploitation. Water is
considered to be a widespread compound with unusual property. It consists of the
oceans, the lakes and the streams and the shallow groundwater bodies that
interflow with the surface water.
3) Atmosphere – it is the state of layer adjoining the earth and extends up to 500 kms
above the earth’s shell. Atmosphere is also called as layer of gases. The heat
balance of the earth by gripping the re-emitted radiation from the earth. It is mixture
of gases extending outward from the surface of the earth.
4) Biosphere – the biosphere is a shell encompassing the earth’s surface where all the
living things subsist. This segment extends from 10,000 m underneath sea level to 6,000
m above sea level. Biosphere is the total computation of all ecosystems.

BIOLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

1) Flora – refers to the plant life occurring in particular region, generally the naturally
occurring or indigenous – native plant life.
2) Fauna – refers to the animal life in a particular region.
3) Microbes – are single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a
needle.

CULTURAL COMPONENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

1) Society – is group of people involved in persistent interpersonal relationship, or large

social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to
the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
2) Economy – or economic system consists of the production, distribution or trade, and
consumption of limited goods and services by different agents in a given
geographical location.
3) Politics – the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area.

THE BIOSPHERE

 Is a thin shell that encapsulates the earth, it is made up of the atmosphere and
lithosphere adjacent to the surface of the earth together with the hydrosphere.
 It is within the biosphere that the life forms of earth, humans, live.
 Life is also into the biosphere that waste products in the form of gases, liquids and
solids are discharged.
 From the beginning of time, the biosphere has received and assimilated the
wastes generated by plants and animals.
  For every natural act of pollution, undesirable alteration in the physical, chemical,
or biological characteristics of the environment.
 Through the years, it has begun to show signs of stress, primarily because of the
impact of humans upon the environment.
 Therefore, man has to design ways and means to help the nature clean pollution
that he himself produce.

ROLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERS

1) Collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians,

engineers, and other specialists, and experts in law and business to address
environmental problems.
2) Provide technical-level support for environmental remediation and litigation projects,
including remediation system design and determination of regulatory applicability.
3) Inspect industrial and municipal facilities and programs in order to evaluate
operational effectiveness and ensure compliance with environmental regulations.
4) Assess the existing or potential
5) Develop site-specific health and safety protocols, such as spill contingency plans
and methods for loading and transporting waste.

6) Design systems, processes, and equipment for control, management, and

remediation of water, air, and soil quality
7) Develop and present environmental compliance training or orientation sessions
8) Serve on teams conducting multimedia inspections at complex facilities, providing
assistance with planning, quality assurance, safety inspection protocols, and
sampling.
9) Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs.
10) Provide administrative support for projects by collecting data, providing project
documentation, training staff, and performing other general administrative duties.

ECOSYSTEM

 a community of organisms interacting with each other and with their

environment such that
energy is exchanged and system-level processes, such as the cycling of
elements, emerge.
• Ecosystems include living organisms, the dead organic matter produced by
them, the abiotic
environment within which the organisms live and exchange elements (soil,
water, atmosphere),
and the interactions between these components.
• Ecosystems embody the concept that living organisms continually interact with
each other and
 with the environment to produce complex systems with emergent properties,
such that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" and "everything is
connected.”

ECOSYSTEM TERMS

1) Habitat - the natural environment in which an organism lives.

2) Species - consists of a group of organisms that look alike and have similar
characteristics, share the same ecological niche and are capable of interbreeding.
3) Population - consists of organisms living in the same habitat at the same time.
4) Community - a natural collection of plant and animal species living within a defined
area or
habitat in an ecosystem.
5) Ecological niche - the function of an organism or the role it plays in an ecosystem.

FUNCTIONS OF ECOSYSTEM

1) Production - creation of new, organic matter. The synthesis and storage of organic
molecules
during the growth and reproduction of photosynthetic organisms
• Photosynthesis reaction:
CO2 + H2O ----> CH2O + O2 (light and enzymes)
- done by phototrophs
• Chemosynthesis - inorganic substances are converted to organic substances in
the absence
of sunlight
- done by chemotrophs which are specialized bacteria

2) Respiration - process of unleashing bound energy for utilization

CH2O + O2 ---> CO2 + H2O + released energy

3) Consumption - process in which a substance is completely destroyed, used up, or

incorporated
or transformed into something else. It acts as a regulator for production and
decomposition.

4) Decomposition - responsible for the breakdown of complex structures.

*Abiotic decomposition - degradation of a substance by chemical or physical
processes.
* Biotic decomposition (biodegradation) - the metabolic breakdown of materials
into
simpler components by living organisms.
NAMES AND WORD DEFINITIONS

1) Producers - organisms, such as plants, that produce their own food are called
autotrophs. The
autotrophs convert inorganic compounds into organic compounds. They are called
producers
because all of the species of the ecosystem depend on them.

2) Consumers - all the organisms that cannot make their own food (and need
producers) are
called heterotrophs. In an ecosystem heterotroph are called consumers because they
depend on
others. They obtain food by eating other organisms. There are different levels of
consumers. Those
that feed directly from producers, i.e., organisms that eat plant or plant products are
called primary
consumers. Organisms that feed on primary consumers are called secondary
consumers. Those
who feed on secondary consumers are tertiary consumers.
Consumers are also classified depending on what they eat.

 Herbivores are those that eat only plants or plant products. Example are
grasshoppers,
mice, rabbits, deer, beavers, moose, cows, sheep, goats and groundhogs.
 Carnivores, on the other hand, are those that eat only other animals. Examples of
carnivores are foxes, frogs, snakes, hawks, and spiders.
 Omnivores are the last type and eat both plants (acting a primary consumers) and
meat
(acting as secondary or tertiary consumers).
 Trophic level - corresponds to the different levels or steps in the food chain. In other
words, the producers, the consumers, and the decomposers are the main trophic
levels.

FEEDING RELATIONSHIPS

1) Food Chain – transfer of food energy from the source through a series of organisms in
a process of repeated / sequential eating or being eaten pattern.

Classification:
a) Grazing food chain – starts form plants to grazing herbivores to carnivores
b) Detritus food chain – starts from dead organic matter to microorganisms such as
bacteria, fungi, etc.
2) Food Web – refers to the interconnected or interlocking relationships among food
chains in an ecosystem.
3) Food Pyramid – constitute the over – all structure of dependency among the living
elements.

OTHER BASIC ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

1) Diversity – variety of habitats. Living communities, and ecological processes in the

living world. It also refers to the extent that an ecosystem possesses different species.
2) Distribution – the frequency of occurrence or the natural geographic range or place
where species occur.
❖ Immigration – used to describe the process by which a person moves into a
country for the purpose od establishing residency. In such a case, the individual is
not a native of the country which he immigrates to.
❖ Emigration – process by which a person leaves his place or country of residency,
to relocate elsewhere. In this case, the individual moving is referred to as an
emigrant.
(Immigration is movement to a country; Emigration is movement from a country)
❖ Migration – parent term of the aforementioned terms.
3) Population Density – the number of individuals of a population per unit of living space
(say, number of trees per hectare of land)
4) Dominance – the degree to which a specie is more numerous than its competitors in
an ecological community, or makes up more of the biomass. Most ecological
communities are defined by their dominant species.
❖ Keystone species – species that have a disproportionately large effect on its
environment relative to its abundance. Such species play a critical role in
maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other
organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of
various other species in the community. The most important specie.
5) Limiting factors – environmental factors, chemical and physical factors etc.

POPULATION PRINCIPLES AND ISSUES

Characteristics;

1) Natality – the birthrate, which is the ratio of the total live births to total population in a
particular area over a specifies period of time; expressed as childbirths per 1000
people (or population) per year. It may also refer to the inherent ability of a
population to increase.
2) Mortality – the ratio of deaths in an area to the population of that area; expressed
per 1000 per year.
❖ Morbidity – an incidence of ill health. It is measured in various ways; often by
the probability that a randomly selected individual in a population at some
date and location would become seriously ill in some period of time.
3) Sex ratio – the ratio of males to females in a population. The sex ratio varies
according to the age profile of the population. It is generally divided into four:
❖ Primary sex ratio – ratio at fertilization
 ❖ Secondary sex ratio – ratio at birth
❖ Tertiary sex ratio – ratio in sexually active organisms
❖ Quaternary sex ratio – ratio in post-reproductive organisms
4) Age Distribution – the proportionate numbers of persons in successive age categories
in a given population.

POPULATION ISSUES

1) New characteristics because of immigration

2) Spread of diseases
3) Poverty
4) Environmental stress
5) Security issues
6) Health and nutrition (and others)

KINDS OF ORGANISM INTERACTIONS

1) Competition – two species share a requirement for limited resources – reduces fitness
of one or both species
2) Predation – one species feeds on another – enhances fitness of predator but reduces
fitness of prey
3) Symbiosis – close long-lasting relationship of 2 different species

3 Categories:
a) Parasitism – one species feeds on another – enhances fitness of parasite but
reduces fitness of host
2 Kinds of Parasites
I. Ectoparasites – live on the bodies of the host (ex. Molds, flies, lice)
II. Endoparasites – live inside the bodies of the host (ex. Tapeworms,
bacteria, fungi)
III. Commensalism – one species receives a benefit from another species –
enhances fitness of one species; no effect on fitness of the other species
IV. Mutualism – two species provide resources or services to each other –
enhances fitness of both species

SUCCESSION

▪ The orderly process of community development that involves changes in species,

structure, and community.
▪ Its results from the modification of the physical environment by the community.
1) Primary Succession occurs in essentially lifeless areas – regions in which the soil is
incapable of sustaining life as a result of such factors as lava flows, newly formed
sand dunes, or rocks left from a retreating glacier.
➢ Lichens – pioneering specie in primary succession, aids in pedogenesis (the formation
of soil)
2) Secondary Succession occurs in areas where a community that previously existed
has been removed; it is typified by smaller-scale disturbances that do not eliminate
all life and nutrients from the environment.
➢ Climax Community – a community in a final stage of succession. Self – perpetuating
and in equilibrium with the physical habitat.

MATERIAL CYCLES

 Sometimes called nutrient cycles, material cycles describe the flow of matter from
the nonliving to the living world and back again. As this happens, matter can be
stored, transformed into different molecules, transferred from organism to
organism, and returned to its initial configuration. The implications of material
cycles are profound. There is essentially a finite amount of matter on earth (with
some input from meteors and other astronomical objects).
 Examples include the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, oxygen cycle, phosphorus
cycle, sulfur cycle etc.

CARBON CYCLE

▪ Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants.

 In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas called
carbon dioxide (CO2). With the help of the Sun, through the process of
photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air to make plant food
from carbon.
▪ Carbon moves from plants to animals.
 Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals
that eat them. Animals that eat other animals gets the carbon from
their food too.
▪ Carbon moves from plants and animals to the ground.
 When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and leaves decay
bringing the carbon into the ground. Some becomes buried miles
underground and will become fossil fuels in millions and millions of years.
▪ Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere.
 Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into
the atmosphere. Animals and plants get rid of carbon dioxide gas
through a process called respiration.
▪ Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels are burned.
 When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars
and trucks, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as
carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is
released by burning fossil fuels. That’s the weight of 100 million adult
African elephants! Of the huge amount of carbon that is released from
fuels, 3.3 billion tons enters the atmosphere and most of the rest
becomes dissolved in seawater.
 ▪ Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans.
 The oceans, and the other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from
the atmosphere.
OXYGEN CYCLE

➢ Photosynthesis – the process by which light energy is converted to chemical energy.

NITROGEN CYCLE

▪ The nitrogen cycle is the process by which nitrogen is converted between its
various chemical forms.
▪ Important processes in the nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification,
nitrification, and denitrification.
a) Nitrogen Fixation
✓ Atmospheric nitrogen must be processed, or “fixed” to be used by plants.
✓ There are four ways to convert N2 (atmospheric nitrogen gas) into more
chemically reactive forms:
1) Biological Fixation: Some symbiotic bacteria and some free-living bacteria are
able to fix nitrogen as organic nitrogen.
2) Industrial N-Fixation: Under great pressure, at a temperature of 600 C, and with
the use of an iron catalyst, hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen can be combined
to form ammonia.
3) Combustion of fossil fuels: Automobile engines and thermal power plants, which
release various nitrogen oxides (NOx).
4) Other Processes: In addition, the formation of NO from N2 and O2 due to photons
and especially lighting, can fix nitrogen.
b) Ammonification
✓ When a plant or animal dies, or an animal expels waste, the initial form of
nitrogen is organic.
Bacteria, or fungi in some cases, convert the organic nitrogen within the remains
back into ammonium, a process called ammonification or mineralization.
c) Nitrification
✓ This is the biological oxidation of ammonium. This is done in two steps, first from
the nitrite form then to the nitrate form. Two specific chemoautotrophic bacterial
genera are involved, using inorganic carbon as their source for cellular carbon.
Nitrosomonas Nitrobacter
NH4+ + O2 →NO2 + O2 → NO3
Ammonium Nitrite Nitrate
d) Denitrification
✓ This is the biological reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas. This can proceed
through several steps in the biochemical pathway, with the ultimate production
of nitrogen gas. A fairly broad range of heterotrophic bacteria are involved in
the process, requiring an organic carbon source for energy.

NO3- + Organic carbon → NO2- + Organic carbon → N2 + CO2 + H2O

PHOSPHORUS CYCLE

▪ Most of the world’s phosphorus is “locked up” in rocks-it can only be released by
weathering.
▪ Weathering – refers to a group of processes by which surface rock disintegrates
into smaller particles or dissolve into water due to the impact of the atmosphere
and hydrosphere. The weathering processes often are slow (hundred to
thousands of years).
▪ Weathering processes are divided into three categories:
1) Physical Weathering – abrasion, thermal expansion and contraction, wetting and
drying etc.
2) Chemical Weathering – hydrolysis, oxidation – reduction
3) Biological Weathering – lichen
▪ A lot of the phosphorus that runs off into the ocean also gets “buried” into the
ocean floor because it precipitates into solid form and settles to the bottom as
sediment. Only the occasional upwellings in the ocean can recycle phosphorus
back to the top of the ocean. ** Note that birds are one of the few manners of
carrying phosphorus back to land because they eat fish (that eat phosphorus-
rich phytoplankton) and then excrete the phosphorus back onto land.
▪ The top 4 reservoirs for Phosphorus are:
1) Sediment (Lithosphere)
2) Soil (Lithosphere)
3) Oceans
4) Mineable Rock (Lithosphere)

SULFUR CYCLE

▪ Sulfur – is produced naturally as a result of volcanic eruptions and through

emissions from hot springs. It enters the atmosphere primarily in the form of sulfur
dioxide, then remains in the atmosphere in that form or, after reacting with
water, in the form of sulfuric acid.
▪ Sulfur is carried back to Earth’s surface as acid deposition when it rains or snows
▪ On Earth’s surface, sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid react with metals to form
sulfates and sulfides, the element is also incorporated by plants in a form known
as organic sulfur, certain amino acids, the compounds from which proteins are
made, contain sulfur. Organic sulfur from plants is eventually passed on to
animals that eat those plants. It is, in turn, converted from plant proteins to
animal proteins.
▪ When plants and animals die, sulfur is returned to the soil where it is converted by
microorganisms into hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide gas is then returned to
the atmosphere, where it is oxidized to sulfuric acid.