Ans

The environment is the hebetate we living. The resource of the environment we have
received by nature in scientific analysis environment is classified to physical environment,
chemical environment, biological environment, geological environment, cultural & religious
environment and finally the man made environment (socio-economic environment.

Socio-economic environment is the man made environment. People in the world have
changed the natural resources of the earth as their convenient and easy lifestyle. Therefore
they have constructed highways, buildings, reservoirs, water supply schemes, agricultural
land, irrigation systems etc… This manmade environment is called as Socio-economic
environment.

It is the human activities that bring in hazards towards the environment. Humans to cater for
the rapid increase in the population change the natural habitat by developing infrastructure,
power generation, water supply and housing estates. In the economic sector development of
agricultural lands and industry has become necessary to satisfy the needs of the ever
growing population. Therefore roads built, power plants are established, water supply
projects are undertaken and housing estates are constructed. These human activities forced
hazards towards the environment. These activities change the formation of the earth surface
industries, discharge effluent, obnoxious gases which are harmful to the natural
environment. CO2 emissions pollute the atmosphere, hydro-carbon emission, destroyed the
ozone layer that prevent infrared, ultra violet radiation falling on the earth. Chemical
effluents emanating from the industry and pollute our water resources.

In order to mitigate impacts of the hazards legislations are enacted by the member countries
of the UN having held conference on the environment. Rio 20 was the last UN habitat
protection conference held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

As mentioned above with the development if the world hazards to the natural environment
is incensing rapidly. Engineers are acting a major role of sustainable development of socio
economic environment various engineering institution all over the word has added special
clauses related to environment protection to their codes of ethics for engineers. The
Institution of engineers in Sri Lanka is also recently added a new clause as clause no 8. This
clause described that the need for management of the planets resources and seek to minimize
adverse environmental impacts of engineers in their works, applications of technologies so as
to protect both present and future generations.

Since the engineers are important body of the society especially in the development process
they have responsibilities and obligations to protect the environment. To make the
environmental sustainable, basic comportment like air, water, lands etc… of the environment
need to be kept safe and secured. That can be done by proper engineering planning.
Therefore engineers have to carefully evaluate adverse environment impacts and remedial
measures to minimize them and also they should consider theoretical, legislative, regularly
and policy aspects of environmental protection. Hence engineers are responsible to make the
environment sustainable development.

Sustainable development is the challenge to obtain human needs from limited natural
resources, industrial products, food & energy, transportation, waste management etc…while
conserving and enhancing earth’s environmental quality.

Therefore engineers should critically analyze how the proposed projects or the application of
technology relates sustainability considerations and identify and assess options for material
recovery and disposal.

As all we know resources of the earth are very limited and compared to rapid growing of
population consumption of the recourses are getting high. Hence engineers have
responsibility to analysis opportunities for resources and energy conservation and design
optimized systems to conserve the resources.

Engineers have responsibility to maintain the development process by mitigating hazards to

environment or reducing environment pollution has very high than earlier. Basically we can
identify environment pollution due to engineering activities as air pollution, water pollution
and land pollution.

Disposal of chemical waste directly into the air, water, and soil results pollution of air and
rivers, industrial and automotive smog. Housing and urban development has many
environmental consequences; house building consumes raw material and energy and the
resulting development affects the environment. Energy requirements of housing are
significant contributor to global warming. Generation of harmful gases and other waste is
resulting in global warming. Releases of radioactive materials are from the various stages of
nuclear fuel cycles. Energy use is probably one of the key factors influencing environmental
impacts.
Engineers shall improve their knowledge and experience to implement the engineering
solution towards sustainably, environmental friendly, minimizing the hazards to
environment etc…for examples
Rates of extraction of renewable resources should not exceed regeneration rates, rates of
waste emission should not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment, rates of
extraction of nonrenewable resources should not exceed the rates at which substitutes are
found and developed. Based on defined ecological constraints, engineers can develop
designs or management plans.
The burning of various fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, for generating electricity
will release greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the environment and will impose the
harmful impacts to the Earth. Renewable energy can be defined as energy which is derived
from natural process. Many countries are already switching to renewable energy. Apart from
looking for clean energy sources from the environmental point of view, the search for new
energy sources as substitutes for fossil fuels. In this regard engineers can play an important
role to develop new ideas for sustainable development. Typical renewable energy sources
include sun, water, wood, wind, biomass, geothermal, ocean tides and waste material

Construction engineers to be careful to design buildings, industries, roads and highway

sufficiently considering greening technology. The concept of sustainability to build and
construct any structure must focus not only to the limited resources but also to the energy
and on the procedure to reduce the impacts on the environment and technical issues,
materials, building components, construction technologies and design concepts related to the
energy but also ethics, values and humanity of the occupants of buildings.

Engineers should be knowledgeable about the principles of sustainable development and be

continuously trained on the current technologies on sustainable development. Engineers
must incorporate long-term environmental impacts and costs into the analysis of alternative
solutions being considered. Engineering responsibilities must be readdressed by
incorporating sustainable development principles into the engineering codes of ethics and
organizations through all over the world. Finally, education system needs to be modified to
accommodate the inclusion of environmental education and education for sustainable
development.