INTRODUCTION TO

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

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 Have two connected themes: material balances &
environmental ethics => regarding sustainability

 Three Parts:
1. The role of environmental engineer in society &
the humans interacts with their environment

2. A review of and introduction to basic concepts of

chemistry to understand environmental problems

3. Applies the fundamental concepts covered in (2) to

major areas of environmental engineering & to
solve environmental problems e.g., waste water,
water pollution, analyse water properties, solid
waste management, practises in sustainable
development

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Definition of Environmental
Engineering

• Watch Videos

• Cleaning & maintain the world we are living in with

different knowledge background e.g., Chemistry,
biology, physics, maths etc.

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What Is Happening To The World?

What Will Happen To Us?

 Population
- 7 Billions

 Weather
 Food
 Shelter

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Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

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PNG Millennium Development Goals

http://www.pg.undp.org/

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 The Critical Role of Engineering

“As population and economic growth place increasing

pressures on our social and biophysical environment,
engineers must accept increased responsibilities to develop
sustainable solutions to meet community needs, overcome
extreme poverty and prevent segregation of people. The
education of engineers needs to inculcate an understanding
of sustainability and cultural and social sensitivities as well.
The engineering code of ethics must reflect a strong
commitment to principles of sustainable development”

World Federation of Engineering Organisations, 2001, Model Code of Ethics.

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What Environmental Engineers Do

use the principles of engineering, soil science,

biology, and chemistry to develop solutions to
environmental problems

are involved in efforts to improve recycling, waste

disposal, public health, and water and air pollution
control

Address global issues, such as unsafe drinking

water, climate change, and environmental
sustainability

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Duties:
Prepare, review, and update environmental investigation reports
Design projects leading to environmental protection, such as water reclamation
facilities, air pollution control systems, and operations that convert waste to
energy
Obtain, update, and maintain plans, permits, and standard operating procedures
Provide technical support for environmental remediation projects and for legal
actions
Analyze scientific data and do quality-control checks
Monitor the progress of environmental improvement programs
Inspect industrial and municipal facilities and programs to ensure compliance
with environmental regulations
Advise corporations and government agencies about procedures for cleaning up
contaminated sites
conduct hazardous-waste management studies
study ways to minimize the effects of acid rain, global warming, automobile
emissions, and ozone depletion
collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians,
engineers, and other specialists, such as experts in law and business, to address
environmental problems and environmental sustainability
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Environmental Engineering

Responsibilities also include:

disposing hazardous materials
waste management and treatment
biological processes in pollution control
water and waste
water quality
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 Environment Definition
 Surroundings of an organism living in its natural habitat

 Surroundings : physical, mental and spiritual conditions

 Physical or abiotic environment

• consists of physical factors: Land (minerals, toxic elements,
nutrients)
Sky (sink of various things, noise)
Air (useful and other gases)
 Living or biotic environment
• consists of plants, animals (including human beings) and micro-
organisms

 All these constituents of environment are referred to as the

environmental
factors:

 directly or indirectly affects the life of an organism

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Environment Segment
 Consists of 4 segments:
Atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere
1. Atmosphere:

 Protective blanket of gases surrounding the earth

 Sustains life of the earth

 Maintaining heat balance off the earth through absorption of IR

emitted

 Major components: Nitrogen & oxygen

2. Hydrosphere:

 Includes all types of water resources : Oceans, seas,

rivers, lakes,
streams, reservoirs, glaciers, ground water
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Environment Segment (Cont)
3. Lithosphere:

 Is mantle of the solid earth

 Consisting of minerals occurring in the earth’s crust & soil

4. Biospheres:

 Is the real of living organisms & their interaction with the

environment: atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere.

 Are influenced by each other

 O2 & CO2 levels of atmosphere depend on the plant kingdom

 Biological world is intimately related with energy flows in the

environment & water chemistry
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Biosphere
 Is very large & complex

 Divided into smaller units:

 Ecosystem:
- Consists of plants, animals, micro-organism

- Live in a definite zone along with physical factors

e.g., soil, water, air

- There are dynamic interrelationship between living

forms (biotic) and physical environment (abiotic)

- Manifest as natural cycles which provide a continuous

circulation of essential constituents necessary for life

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Environment Segment (Cont)

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Ecology & Ecosystem
 Ecology

 Introduced by German biologist in 1869

 Greek – Means “house”
 Branch of science deals with study of interaction between
biotic organism and abiotic environment

 Ecosystem

 Is a functional unit in ecology

 Consists of both biotic community & abiotic environmet
 Have close interaction, essential for maintenance life

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Anthrosphere
 Man-made part of the environment (modified by human activities

 Human made little impact on environment

 Industrialisation, Industrial revolution (1780) became more impact on

environment

Consist of several parts:

• Structures/ houses used for living

• Structures used for commerce, manufacturing, education,

other activities

• Infrastructure: water, fuel electricity distribution system

and waste disposal systems such as sewers

• Infrastructure: roads, railways, airports, and waterways.

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Interdependence of biotic
and abiotic environment

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The Impact of Humans Upon The
Environment
See the video “An Inconvenient Truth”

1. Satisfying Natural Needs (NN)

Humans used natural resources to satisfy their

needs air, water, food, shelter
Resources were readily available in the biosphere.
Early civilization drank and bath from same water,
deposited their waste
Impact was relatively slight

When people began to gather in larger => their impact upon

their local environments begin to be significant
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The Impact of Humans Upon The
Environment (Cont)
2. Satisfying Acquired Needs (AN)

 19th – 20th centuries, automobiles, appliances, processed

foods and beverages had become popular

 Acquired needs’ items must be processed, manufactured,

refined, production distribution => more complex residuals & not
compatible with or readily assimilated by environment e.g. Toaster

 Meeting AN needs generates more residuals than NN needs

 Impact of MODERN human populations upon the

environment is a major concern to the environmental
engineering
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The Impact of Environment Upon The
Environment
1. Health Concern
•Air, water, land may host harmful biologicall, chemical

agents impact health of humans

•Widespread use chemicals in agriculture, industry introduced many
new compounds into the environment
•Thesechemicals spread through air, water, and soil, food chain
=> Pose a potential threat to all humans

•Pesticide DDT / malaria

•DDT is a cumulative toxin has adversely affected many nontarget
species
•Dioxin (Tetrachloro- dibenzoparadioxin): Unintentional by-product of
a manufacturing process used with herbicides, wood-preserving
compounds, disinfectants and industrial cleaning compounds.
•Extremely toxic substance. 1ppb = 1 drop of water in a swimming
pool (15 ft wide, 30 ft long, and 6 ft deep) become cause of concern.
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Toxic Chemicals –Uses &Hazards

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The Impact of Environment Upon The
Environment (Cont)
2. Other Concern
•Clean air, water

•Smell of clean air, clear, sparkling lakes, rivers, and streams are
becomming increasingly rare

•Litteredstreets, uncontrolled dumps of rubbish, wastes, solid-

wastes disposal.

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Population & Environment
 Is intimately relate to environment
 Human population has grown faster in 20th century
 Double in 1950-1990
 Developing countries have higher population than
developed countries
 World population grows 92 Million / Year

 GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

Old habits + old technologies = predictable consequences

 
Old habits + new technology = dramatically altered
consequences.

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 ENGINEERS & ETHICS
 What is meant by ethics?

 An ethical person is a good person with high standards

 Morals are the values people choose to guide the way they
ought to treat each other

 People will agree that it is much better to live in a society where

people do not lie, cheat, or steal
 Societies where people lie, cheat, and steal certainly exist
 People would choose to live in societies where everyone shares
moral values that provide mutual benefit

 It is fairly straightforward to agree that it is not acceptable to lie, cheat,

or steal, and most people will not do so

 When conflicts arise between values.

 What are we going to do?
Example: How are we to decide which project to undertake with limited
resources? Or How then can we make a decision when moral
values conflict? 08/26/2020 27
Ethics provide a systematized framework for
making decisions where values conflict

 Ethics in Bussiness, Education and Project

 Ethics is a system for decision making

 An ethical person is one who makes decisions based on

some ethical system. Any System !

Traditional ethical thinking represents a valuable source

of insight in one’s search for a personal and
professional lifestyle

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Environmental Ethics and Instrumental Value

 Classical ethical systems:

 moral community = provide guidance as to how human
beings ought to treat each other
 moral agent = each person agrees to treat one another in a
mutually acceptable mannerEnvironmental

Ethics and Instrumental Value

 We are not the only inhabitants on Earth

 Is it not also important how we treat nonhuman

animals? plants? places?
 Should the moral community be extended to include
those things?
 Should we also extend the moral community to our
progeny? 08/26/2020 29
Environmental Ethics and Intrinsic Value
 A basis for our attitudes toward the environment, including
nonhuman animals, plants, and even things within our sphere
of ethical concern

 Extend the moral community to include other creatures

 Incorporate all life within the folds of the moral community

7.4 Environmental Ethics and Spirituality

 A third approach to environmental ethics –Religions

 Many older religions, including the Native American

religions, are animistic, recognizing the existence of spirits
within nature e.g., plants

 Need to protect our environment

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References
1. Principle of Practice and Sustainable Hargroves, K. And
Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business
Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century,
Earthscan, London

2. Ruth F. Weiner, Robin A. Matthews, Environmental

Engineering, Butterworth- Heinemann, 2003

3. H.S. Peavy, D. R. Rowe. G. Tchobanoglous “Environmental

Engineering”, 1985, McGraw-Hill, Inc

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Review Questions
Problem 1:
You are working as a recruiter for your consulting engineering firm, and
an applicant asks you the following question:
“ If I work with your firm and I find that I object, on ethical grounds,
to a project the firm has been hired to do, can I request not to work on that
project, without penalizing my future career with the firm?”

Give 3 responses you might make to such a question, and then respond to
these statements according to what you believe the student interviewee
would think. Would he/she believe you? Why or why not?

Problem 2:
You have been given the responsibility of designing a large trunk sewer.
The sewer alignment is to follow a creek that is widely used as a
recreational facility. It is a popular place for picnics, nature walks have
been constructed by volunteers along its banks, and the local community
wants to eventually make it a part of the state park system. The trunk
sewer will badly disrupt the creek, destroy its ecosystem,
and make it unattractive for recreation. What thoughts would you have on
this assignment? 08/26/2020 32